Tough break with the JJ > AA there.

I’m not sure about the AJs blind vs blind. If you 3bet, I think you’re priced in to call vs a ship…. But it might be a little light against what’s presumably a strong range.

BTN vs SB I don't think it's terrible given they started around 30 bb. As long as 'DogFace' isn't a 70 year old OMC that looks as confused as Joe Biden (unlikely), then I assume 'ToughPlayer' might find some jams here with worse (A4s/A5s? KQs?) and/or enough flips.

I would have made it way more than 5000 over a 2000 open for what it's worth, but I'll admit I am not really used to tournament sizings and generally go a bit bigger than what I have seen others do.

I've had a few borderline blind vs. btn spots with AJ over the years.

#1 - 2019 Colossus, nearing the bubble. I open AJo from the BTN. Euro in the SB 3-bets. I opt to 4-bet jam for about 25 BB. He tank-calls AQ and wins.

#2 - Final 12 @ Venetian $600 in 2023. I open AJ from the BTN. Strong reg in SB rips for >20BB. I tank-fold.

#3 - Calling it off yesterday with AJs vs. the BTN 4-bet.

All the spots felt borderline and it's possible that I made the wrong decision in every single case. AJ is right on the cusp where you feel like you have a good hand, but you're also in a world of trouble against the elite hands. That makes it hard to play against strong action. I lean towards the call off last night being an objective mistake, but I had the suited AJ and there was a decent chunk of dead money in the pot. I understand why I called, but probably just needed to save the chips and lay it down. I would've had plenty of chips to keep fighting if I had folded. What spot #1 and spot #3 have in common is assuming that your opponent could be wide because of the blind vs. button dynamic, when maybe the ranges here for 3-bets and 4-bets are tighter than we might expect. A good rule of thumb is that if you don't know that a player has a tendency to get out of line, maybe don't give them credit for having bluffs that most people don't have. Often times they simply have the goods.

Don’t beat yourself up over it. You’re flipping plenty of times, and you’re moderately ahead vs Kx or worse A’s plenty of other times.

A few assorted loose ends before today's action kicks off at noon:

- I don't focus much on the food side of Vegas in my TRs, but I'll give you a quick rundown of yesterday's choices. I mentioned Urth Cafe and did eventually make it over there, except it's actually called Urth Caffe with two Fs. The extra F is how you know they're premium quality. That's Vegas for you. We don't have shops here. We have shoppes. After a moderate wait in line at Urth, I ordered the breakfast sandwich: an egg and bread monstrosity with avocado and some veggies. I was hoping it would be the best egg sandwich I've ever had, maybe even worthy of a third F. Ultimately, it was solid, but not up to an Urth Cafffe standard.

- Dinner last night was a veggie slice at Mulberry Street Pizza in Resorts World. I've never been super impressed with the pizza options I've tried in Vegas, but this slice actually hit the spot and was the perfect blend of spicy, greasy, and fresh. Maybe I just got a good runout.

- Shortly after taking the bad beat at the tables, I took a second bad beat on the basketball court. The Timberwolves dumped another winnable home game to the Mavs, putting themselves in a likely insurmountable 0-2 hole for the series. I was not quite counting my winnings yet when they came back to eliminate Denver, but that $760 would've been a nice boost to the summer trip budget. Now it's looking like we need a 4-outer on the river to survive. If only Dallas played their home games at the Wynn.

- I don't know which genius designed the showers at Harrah's, but having open glass frames with no sliding door that you can actually close means half the bathroom is exposed to the elements, inviting water to splash anywhere and everywhere nearby. My bathroom floor has been a swamp and I am the Swamp Thing. I've already run through my full towel allotment trying to clean up the messes. A cynical theory would be that they make their showers intentionally uncomfortable to minimize your time (aka water use). Alternatively, maybe it's just style-over-function gone bad.

- Sleep remains elusive. I'm a coffee in the morning guy. When I'm making a decent run in a tourney, I'll typically have a second coffee around 5 PM to keep me at max alert through the rest of the session. The second coffee probably affected my sleep last night, though I still cobbled together 6-7 hours.

- I didn't spend too much time talking about my overall experience in the Wynn event yesterday. Given that it's early in the summer schedule, ahead of most of the WSOP stuff, I expected a somewhat tough field with a lower concentration of pure dead money. My starting table certainly conformed to that expectation. Most people were pretty good. Nobody was out there just giving it away. If you want to test yourself and improve your game, these multi-days at Wynn are a good option.

- The Wynn event is up over 700 entries after two days and will surely exceed 1000 players when all is said and done, perhaps landing closer to 1200. There were lots of strong players about yesterday and lots of them didn't bag, so we're likely looking at tough sledding again today. The goal is obviously to bag so that we can play day two tomorrow. If I brick out again, I'll have to decide whether to play Wynn $500 single-day Sunday or perhaps explore the Venetian multi-day $1100, a deep/slow event that should be extremely tough. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now the plan is to play goot in this $600, get lucky, and bag piles tonight.

See you again with another bad beat story in 10 hours.

Dogface: "...this slice actually hit the spot and was the perfect blend of spicy, greasy, and fresh."

Me: That is exactly my wheelhouse of what I want in a piece of pizza. Especially the greasy part. I am not a healthy eater.

Dogface: "See you again with another bad beat story in 10 hours."

Me: I have to disagree. I am feeling some major rungood on the horizon for you.

Good luck today!

SPOILER ALERT



Will file a full report at a later time. Now we rest up for day two tomorrow.

“Harrahs Showers”

Not sure which genius did this design, it sucks, I am pretty sure minimizing water usage is not on their mind while designing it.

I even went and complained about it and asked if they have any other options in a different room. Front desk said sorry, all the showers have the same design.

If you are staying here longer a cheap shower curtain (with sticky plastic hooks) might be helpful to minimize the after shower clean up.

Lets forget about the bad shower design and focus on the showers of tournament chips on Day 2. Good Luck for Day 2.

Over 165k ish?

Great job on the bag. A modest victory in and of itself.

Nice job!!

That is a beautiful sight to behold!

Go go go!

DAY THREE - 5/25

Listen, here's the thing. Poker is an easy game. You just run really good and Wynn.



When I was in the process of planning this trip, I deliberately targeted deep/slow events with a modest price point. This Wynn tournament certainly fits the bill. It's a slow event. The dinner break comes after level 9, after six hours of play. It's easy to think you're close to the bubble at this stage of the event, but you're not. That will take another 4-5 hours of play. Overall, when you factor in break time, you're looking at a 12-13 hour shift to bag this thing. You'll be there in the early afternoon when the Beach Club crowd is traipsing around in their bikinis, and you'll be there after midnight when the nightclub crowd is packing the halls in their priciest outfits. It's a long, long day. Surviving this gauntlet requires some skill, patience, and discipline; but mostly a whole lot of rungood.

We've all heard the saying, "Luck, be a lady." I hit numerous big hands today and smashed boards with a variety of holdings, but above all it was the ladies that were lucky for me. Several of my huge spots involved QQ. I'll give you a brief rundown:

HAND #1

At the 200/300 blind level, I open QhQd to 800. 3 callers. Flop comes 8s7s6c. Not the worst flop for our hand, but full of dangerous possibilities. We could be up against sets or any number of draws. No slow-playing here. I lead for 2k. The player two seats behind me raises to 6k. It folds back around. I don't love being raised here on such a scary board, but folding a strong overpair here to a single raise seems way too nitty. Raising seems too spewy. We're strictly in the call-and-reevaluate business. Luckily the turn solves most of our problems by delivering the beautiful Qc, giving us top set. I check to the raiser, who blasts again. With top set on a draw-heavy board, it's time to channel our inner Bob Marley. "All right, we're jamming." Opponent snap-calls and tables a very sneaky KK. That's not one of the hands I put him on, given the lack of a pre-flop 3-bet. I knew I might be in trouble on that flop, but had no idea just how fortunate the turn was. A pure 2-outer. The river bricks out and the trapper has officially been trapped. His misfortune is our gain. We vault up over 53k from 30k starting. A solid start to the day.

HAND #2

After getting up as high as 70k, some slow orbits have knocked me back down to 50k when the following spot comes up (at what I believe was 1k/2k blind level). I open QhQd from early position and pick up two callers, MP and BTN. The board comes QsTs9c. You're never angry to hit top set, but this isn't what we'd call a safe flop either. KJ has already made a straight. Flush draws are out there. Any Jx is open-ended. In short, we have a monster, but there are a lot of turn cards that we don't want to see. That seems to dictate a chunky sizing, so I make it almost full pot. MP (who covers us) rips. BTN folds. This is slightly scary, but we can't assume he has KJ and KJ only here. Many combo draws can take this line, as could JJ, TT, and 99. At these stack depths with top set, we're simply never folding. I slide in the call and see the gross news. Sure enough, he flopped the joint with KJo. We're in rough shape, but can pull back ahead if the board pairs. Turn is a brick. I'm ready to pack my bags, another long night at the Wynn destined to end in failure. Then the unthinkable happens: the case queen spikes the river. Is quads a good hand? I think so. We're up over 100k.

HAND #3

This is not as exciting as the other two, but it's a notable QQ spot that also demonstrates what NOT to do in tournaments. We're very close to the bubble now. 2.5k/5k blind level. Squeaky bum time. I'm new-ish to the table and haven't been playing crazy or opening too wide. I haven't shown any bluffs or given any indication that I'm getting out of line. I pick up QQ yet again in early position. I open 2x to 10k. Player to my immediate left rips for about 50k. It folds back around to me, and I of course call. He tables a mystifying K8o, a dusty holding to be 3-bet jamming a stack that has almost zero fold equity. Although I've run great in this tournament, I haven't had anyone just give away their chips until now. Sometimes pressure and frustration get to people in these tense moments, leading to baffling punts. You never want to be ripping K8o there. It's just too weak of a hand, and you're up against a presumably strong EP opening range from a random. However, there's still a sweat. He could still hit the K or otherwise suck out. Luckily for me, there's no gore this time. The board runs out clean. After that donation, we're in great shape to bag chips, which is ultimately what happens.


These aren't the only notable hands I played. I had one or two cool bluffs early in the day. I won a huge pot towards the end of the night with AK in a spot that would've been very tricky to navigate if I hadn't spiked the ace immediately. An hour or two later, I opened Ad3d in EP, got called two ways, flopped a dream 833, and was able to extract a lot of chips by trapping an aggressive opponent who had previously been punking me.

You can't play for 12 hours and not have some big hands and some big decisions, but I'm not going to list every notable spot. I've given enough of the broad strokes. The CliffsNotes is that I played pretty well, but also ran amazingly well, steadily making enough good hands to keep accumulating. Some of that gruesome Wynn runbad from years past finally came back to me in reverse, just as I'd hoped it might. Now we go into day 2 with a playable stack and a world of possibilities.

Looking ahead, whether I min-cash or make the final table, this was an important result for me. It guarantees that I'll be back in a net poker profit for the trip. It also creates new possibilities for the next few days. As previously stated, I have been eyeballing the Venetian $1100 MSPT, which is running day ones from Saturday-Monday. To some extent, my early Wynn events were meant to function as satellites for the MSPT. Now that I've locked up a cash at Wynn, I can fire a bullet at Venetian without having to worry about the budget for this trip spiraling out of control.

That's the working plan now. Play out day two at the Wynn. Whether I bust early or late, take the rest of the day for pure R&R (I'm still running bad on sleep). Then come back on Monday and fire flight 1C of the Venetian, another quality event that offers the possibility of the mega-bink.

It was a strange feeling last night, walking out of the Wynn with a positive result in the bag. I could maybe get used to it.

That's all I've got before day two starts. Payouts for this thing are going to be insanely flat, so now that we're in the money, it's all about running DEEP.

One last note, if anyone is keeping track on their "poker is dying!" scorecard:

Wynn multi-day $600 generated 801 entries last summer from two starting flights.

The three starting flights this year generated 1320 entries, including over 600 from yesterday alone.

If poker is dying, somebody forgot to tell poker.

Expect huge turnouts this summer. Expect packed rooms, big crowds, and more 10-handed poker than you ever dreamed of.

Thank you for manifesting the good vibes!

I had tried Mulberry Street once before and wasn't blown away, but the slice on Friday was a 10/10.

My general go-to spot in Resorts World is the Geylang Claypot Rice in the Famous Foods Street Eats area, where I usually get the chicken bowl, which has chicken, rice, sausage, and some other good stuff. If you ever want an absolute bomb of food for not crazy prices, it's a pretty good choice. Even after a couple days of light eating, I was barely able to finish the portion last night. Usually in Vegas I'll have the opposite complaint, that the portions aren't big enough. Not there.

Next stop: FINAL TABLE!!

OUT of the Wynn event inside the top 100, but well away from the big payouts.

You live by the QQ, you die by the QQ. Here's the bustout hand. It was a doozy.

After a few yo-yo levels that saw me eclipse 400k, I had dropped back down to about 220k. We're at 6k/12k blinds. Erratic player limps UTG. I look down at QQ in late position. Normally at this stage of a tournament I would min-raise here to 2x. With the limper in front of me, I make it exactly 3x to 36k. Everyone folds except UTG, who calls.

Flop comes 567 with two hearts and one diamond. Not terrible for QQ, as we dodge the overcards. UTG checks. I bet 40k. He calls. This tells me he probably has something, but I can't be too worried yet. Turn is an innocuous 5. I have about 140k behind, which is roughly a pot-sized stack. I could bet something like 50 or 60k, but I think the play here is simply to jam. It's possible that he limp-called a small pocket pair and hit a set, but we can't play scared on <20BB with a big overpair. Instead we want to make our hand look like a spazzy AK to pick up calls from all the single-pair type hands that might get overly curious. Therefore shoving feels like the best way to get max value from villain's most probable holdings. If we fold out Ax and Kx with the shove, that's also fine. We're happy to win this pot at its current size. However, this is not what happens.

UTG snap calls the shove and turns over the...

wait for it...

52o.

So he limp-called 52o UTG to play out of position, called flop drawing very thin, and turned the miracle trips.

River was a brick. UTG won my stack and I won a short walk to the cage.

I wasn't especially mad about the hand because I don't think there's much I could've done differently. I could've raised more pre-flop, but QQ is a monster. We don't fear action. We want it. In this case my opponent simply played crazy and got there. I'm wondering what his plan was for 52o when he doesn't hit trips. I guess I'll never know.

All in all, I finished around the top 5% of the field and won about 2.5x buy-ins. Considering how difficult it is to run deep in these things, the payout is a little underwhelming, but making money is still better than losing money. I don't feel motivated to go blast off in another tournament right this minute, so this might be a calm night to regroup and perhaps do some more conventional tourist things. Then I'll probably play the aforementioned Venetian $1100 tomorrow.

“52o.

So he limp-called 52o UTG to play out of position, called flop drawing very thin, and turned the miracle trips.”

This is a $1100 BI event, you are on day 2 and 100 left, I don’t understand how these players survive Day 1 with a plays like this!

Limping UTG with 52os itself is bad, calling a raise and a pot sized bet on the turn is terrible. Lo and behold he even hits his two outter!

Brutal

It's a $600, but definitely still a respectable level with a pretty strong field overall. Some tough names were out there.

I'm not sure what UTG was thinking in that hand, honestly. It's one of the more baffling plays I've seen in a while.

He had lost some pots earlier to other players, so maybe he was just in full "f*** it" mode.

I'm choosing not to be mad about it. In poker, you want people in there playing like fools against you, trying to give it away.

Sounds like somebody from my local game made a trip to Vegas and stumbled into the Wynn.

Condolences my friend.

The only explanation I can come up with is in villain's home game 2s and 5s are wild card.

In all seriousness, sorry you ran into a lunatic who hit a miracle card. No way you can see that coming.

For a glass is half full perspective, you are still playing with house money after your nice cash.