Sigh.



47th place, for $624.

Got into two spots where I was genuinely unsure of the correct play. I open AhTh 45k from UTG+1, shorts stack calls in the big blind. It comes down K-K-J, one heart, and she has 90k back. Should I be shoving here? I don’t think she’s folding any pair. Anyway I check, turn is the 7d, and she shoves. I guess I fold? I dunno.

Then a guy shoves 65k into my 20k big blind, I call with KTo. He was making a loose play with AA…. I did hit a king, but he held.

Next spot I’m unsure of, I’m in the 10k small blind with 110k behind it, the HJ shoves and the CO calls in front of me, and I look down at 55.

On the one hand, is it ever getting better than a pair already with 6 bigs? On the other hand, there’s a ship/call in front of me. I’d have to fade at least 3, maybe 4 overcards, if I’m fortunate enough not to already be 4.5:1 behind. If I was heads up, I’d snap… but I folded.

Not that results matter, but HJ had KTo, CO had ATo, neither of them made a pair, and the 5 came on the turn

I got my last 5.5 bigs in open shoving from the HJ with Ad7d. A monster stack, over 600k, called fairly quickly in the BB with KQo. Happy to get it in good, not happy to see the K in the window, and that’s a wrap.

So that’s 3 cashes on 5 donkament bullets.

Maybe I should stop punting thousands and thousands of dollars off at 2/5, and play the daily deepstack again tomorrow!!

The way I look at it is I still have chips the night of Day 3 of a 4 day tournament, I'll just buy another airline ticket the next day.

I had to backload my work schedule for this week to get these 17 straight days off, four straight 12’s Wed-Sat.

It was nice of them to let me have all this time, so I thought I ought to show up Wednesday morning, to let them know I appreciate it.

“Next spot I’m unsure of, I’m in the 10k small blind with 110k behind it, the HJ shoves and the CO calls in front of me, and I look down at 55. ”

Ship n pray and dream of “A cat playing poker with huge stacks in front!”.

Not basing my decision on hindsight, but, a pair in this spot is better than non pair hands. As seen sometimes they might be drawing to each others cards.

Nice run TJ in DDS.

If you still have chips at the end of day 3, this is a good problem to have, you can always put in an extra work day in the weekend or extended hours during the week to show your appreciation.

Then there are always flight delays and cancellations in Vegas.

People with poker tattoos suck at poker.

Nice run. Takes an absurd amount of luck to get down to the FT in these big fields. Wasn't your time, but that's still a strong finish.

Not sure about the AT or 55 spots, but I don't think folding is super terrible in either case. Hard to feel good about going multi-way with just 55. I'd generally prefer to open shove in a different spot instead of calling off and hoping to be in a flip. People fold so much in the late stages of these MTTs that you can often get a lot of jams through uncontested rather than willingly take a thin gamble for your life.

Nice run!

I am probably folding both of those hands as well, especially the 55 with 2 jams in front that cover. I agree with DogFace, 110K looks a lot bigger live and you can get jams through a lot more in those types of tournaments.

i'm folding 55 (would open rip obviously) and ripping a10 on the flop. and i say that as someone who has played 1 hold em tournament since black friday so I am clearly an expert!
Nice reports glad you enjoyed your trip!

Nice TR, arriving on the 21st for a week from the UK and will likely do a TR but probably when I get back so I can pace it and make it more measured! Plan on playing the seniors, the Milly if the seniors does not to too well and the heroes thing on the Sunday if the Milly craps out.

Yeah, sorry, I keep thinking of my own circumstance. I would be driving, and I could make it back by driving all night to get home, or catch the first flight of the morning. I've done it before.

Showered, at a good breakfast, and got to the Horseshoe in time to play the 1 pm daily deepstack. Unfortunately, the turnout from Flight B of the Monster Stack was so big that they locked registration at 15 tables. I could wait til more tables opened, maybe getting in around level 4 or 5, or go do something else.

So I decided to buy in to 2/5 at Paris, despite saying no more 2/5 this trip. Brand new game, starting 7-handed.

First hand, AA and UTG opens. I 3bet, and my cbet gets through.

Second hand, open 77, flop K-7-3, I bet and get called. Turn T, and I decide to get tricky and checkraise his float…. He calls and folds to my $325 barrel on the 6 river.

Third hand, AKo in BB. I elect to flat an open rather than 3bet, donk out on the A high flop, and call a raise. Turn goes check/check, and he calls my 225 on the river with AJ.

So just like that, I’m up 700. I pick my rack back up and joke, “welp guys, great playing with you…” everyone laughs and I put the rack away and keep playing.

Lost a bit when I 3bet with QQ, decided to cbet the J-J-9 flop, and folded when the turn was the third diamond Ace, and he woke up and led out.

Played awhile more, then the big hand is when the CO opened, I flatted from the button with red tens, deciding not to 3bet this time, then the SB 3bets. We both call, the flop is 8h-7h-2s, and he leads out 135. My hand is sooooo under-repped here, so I call. Turn 3c, and he shoves for $720 total, and I go into the tank.

I take about three literal minutes, deciding. I thought if he had a better overpair, he’d put me on the payment plan and bet smaller to set up the river shove. It could be two overs and hearts, or he could have squeezed with a suited connector type of hand, that is all the rage at 2/5 games around town. I return to the idea that my hand is sooooo under-repped, and this could be a punt in progress, so I think some more…

And call.

As I call he says “I have no idea what you could have here…” and shows KK.

…

River ten.

He takes it like a card player, says gg and quickly walks away.

I guess I can never complain about running bad again, after that.

I let him get out of sight, then I racked up…. Feeling like I’ve lost the mandate from heaven to be playing this high after dishing out a beat like that.

Finished +1360.

Boom! Sometimes you just need something unlikely to go your way to break a bad run.

Nice one!

Hell yeah! Nice to see the good guys winning again!

"Kings never good there bro. Bad shove"

Who needs tournaments when you can do that?

Nice cash session and good decision on not waiting for the Deep Stack!

Sometimes we are the givers and sometimes we are the takers of the bad beats!

Nice to be on the winning side of variance.

Happy Father’s Day All!

Wish everyone that their pots are bigger and they are on the right side of winnings pots!

Nice hit on the river! I believe that is a fold on the turn against the average joe in Vegas 2/5 games though. It doesent always make sense,but they still often got it.

See? 24-36 hours of run good unlocked.

I was too tired to post about it last night, but after that sick beat I put on someone, I decided to play some 1/2/5 PLO at Paris.

It seems like every hold’em player goes through the same progression as they branch out into other games: from “Wow, live PLO is SOFT!” …to: “Wow, live PLO is RIGGED!”

So yeah, I don’t know much about PLO, just some observations I’ve made playing online. Position is extremely important, AAxx isn’t really that good a hand unless you make a set, two pair is a trap, and small pocket pairs are a trap.

I assumed other, experienced live PLO players would have made the same observations, but no. There was a Polish guy juicing it to $140 preflop from SB with A-A-9-4 with no suits, a guy getting $700 in with threes full like it couldn’t be beaten, when he’s only getting action from better boats, stuff like that.

Some hands. A short stack raises pot preflop, I call in the blinds with 8c9cThJs. Could 3bet, but I want to see the flop first. It comes down Td-9d-3s, I check to the raiser, he pots it again for half his stack, I move in for the rest of it. He calls with A-A-nothing-nothing, turn brick, river ace and I lose.

Another hand, I make a set of 6’s on 7-6-5 two clubs, and a weaker, tilting player pots flop. I flat, turn is a brick, and he pots it again to basically be all in. I just don’t want to fold, so I call the rest off, hoping the board will pair. The river is an offsuit Jack, I turn it over and say 8-9 is good, but he mucks to my unimproved set.

Another hand, I’m on the button with Q-J-5-5 with one suit, the multi-way raised flop comes T-7-5r, and the SB leads pot. I flat, turn is an offsuit K giving me back door open ended to the nuts both ways, and he pots it again. I should have raised here, but maybe I was being a bit MUBS-y, worried about a higher set. Anyway, the river just misses, an 8, he checks, and I check back and win vs KT and nothing else.

We were doing double board bomb pots every dealer change, and I scooped one, so that was cool. I wake up to AcQcTd4d, the top board was something like 7d-5d-2h, and the bottom board was Kc-9c-8s… so I’ve got nut clubs and a nut belly buster gutshot on the bottom, and T high diamonds draw on the top. First to act comes out with a pot bet, I call, one other call. The turn on top was a brick, but on the bottom I caught the 5c for nut clubs. He pots it again, I shove to get all in, the 3rd player folds. He had a set of kings on the bottom, and not much up top, so my diamonds were live. I caught the ace of diamonds on the top, and the Qs brick on the bottom gave me the scoop with both flushes.

I was +1100 at my high water mark, but I did give some back. I straddle button with AcAdQc9s, and raise pot over 6 limpers, two calls. Flop Jc-9h-3c, so nut clubs and a 9 to go with my aces, I pot and SB calls. Turn is an offsuit Q, giving me two pair to go with my nut clubs, now SB donks out pot to basically be all in. I call, thinking I’m up against KT with 4 boat outs and 9 flush outs…. But he actually caught the case Q for top set. River is the 7h and he holds.

I picked up not long after that, finishing +555. I had been playing all day at that point, and was feeling unfocused.

So yeah, if you’re an experienced Omaha player and avoid the traps that most hold’em players fall into, it can be a great game.

I played strictly NL for many years, before most of my main games switched to half/half games 3-4 years ago. Like all of the big pots for the most part gets played in the PLO rounds, so i had to learn a thing or two to keep playing regurarly in these games. Also all the fun players/action players prefers PLO these days, so it was just a no brainer to make the switch really.

Not gonna do a big writeup here about the transition and difference between NL and PLO, but i will say its not as difficult as you may think to get at least pretty decent at live PLO. Just because your opponents is making such huge mistakes regarding the fundamental stuff,even so called experienced Omahaplayers that is. Just because the urge to gamble without the proper odds or without the needed equity get to so so many. The most important aspect is that you need to be able to switch your mindset in several parts of how the game is played. For example can a big "drawing hand" be a fav against the nutz a flopped top set in PLO,its all about robust equities.

A quick tip: small pocket pairs is a huge trap in PLO,and especially in deep cashgames. Mainly because you always flops bottom or middle set at best, and basically never gets it in as a big equity fav if money gets piled in on the flop. Just fold all pocket pairs below 99 preflop, and you will have gained a solid edge just from that preflopplay alone.

I had this weird spidey-sense feeling that TJ was gonna try his hand at PLO last night.

Good job buddy!

At the Venetian food court again!

This time I thought I’d try the Brazilian place: Fire of Brazil, Churrascaria Express. It’s got various marinated meats cooking on a skewer, with sides.

I decided on the 3 meat plate, so I got the beef, pork, and chicken. You also get two sides…. And since I’ve been eating restaurant food for two weeks and veggies have been few and far between, I leapt at the chance to get some steamed broccoli, to go with black beans.



All that, plus a Mountain Dew, was $28.

I’m on the interest list for 1/2/5 PLO, let’s gooooo!

Doin' the Dew

Feelin' the Flow

It's Circular.