Nice update. Thanks

Hello Spike.

Listened to both your new podcasts, and thought they were really good. I especially enjoyed the nerdy niché stuff about daily tournaments, even though I live far from Vegas and won't get to play them often. I also think you have a very clear and well-suited voice for doing podcasts.

Maybe you should make a post in the general LVL-thread, so that more people can become aware of them ? As of now, they are a bit hidden for people that view your thread only.

I am curious about your inside scoop on daily tourneys, your thoughts on structures and potential hourlies. IIRC I've only ever played one in LV.

Spikey the Vegas Poker Network (VPN) name is an interesting one. Not sure you where involved with All Vegas Poker (AVP). They use to run a site not too long ago that listed daily tournaments, cash game offerings, comps, rake etc. on Vegas poker rooms. They also had a forum. Towards the end a couple of regulars from there started a competing site called VPN. Eventually VPN was bought by a new owner of AVP and AVP was bought out or joined with Poker Atlas. I don't think it would matter but I suppose there's a chance someone from Poker Atlas might say they own the rights to the name VPN.

I just binge read this entire thread. I've never heard someone say, "I ran the 10pm at TI" to mean "I played the 10pm at TI." Where does that come from? Is that something you just started saying on your own or is it part of some dialect somewhere?

Yeah I've been meaning to do that. I/we (me and Bike) honestly picked about the worst possible time to start doing these. Aside from the fact that we missed essentially the entire WSOP, thus rendering our information moot, my summer went from "Yeah things are a little busy at work" to "Oh god I have a project that will just never end plus I'm taking a class for some stupid reason plus I have my comprehensive exams on August 11th and I need at least 2 weeks to study why did I take on two podcasts?!?!??!"

I've got my next Poker School Dropout cast mapped out. Once it's recorded and uploaded, I'll start another thread.

For serious poker players, daily tournaments should be an occasional distraction, not a way of life. The rake at nearly every one is just too high to beat, plus variance is super swingy. If you're going to play one and you want a good, player-friendly, deep structure, the minimum you'll spend is $125. At that price point, most grinders are better off in cash games, since their edge will be so much higher. You can't find a good structure under $100. You just can't. The TI and Stratosphere come close, but even they get donkish after just a few hours of play.

If you're going to be a serious tournament player (like Boski) and make your living on these things, stick with the deeper weekend tournaments at the Wynn and Venetian. The Wynn dailies (Mon-Thurs) are $140 with a rake hovering around 11%, which is probably the best rake + structure + starting stack to big blind ratio you'll find anywhere. But those tournaments are at noon. What kind of self-respecting poker player is up at ****ing noon?

I've played enough of these things that I consider myself to have at least a slight edge. Even if people are regular tournament players, the faster dailies (not the turbos, but the regular <$100 tournaments) can trip them up at later levels, and that's exploitable. Sometimes. Until variance smacks you in the face. I don't know if anyone's been reading Bike's thread, but he satellited into the $560 Golden Nugget $500k guaranteed, hit top set on the flop as a 98.2% favorite to win a 150bb pot, and lost. Variance, man. It's a killer.

I used to follow AVP for tournament information but never got involved with their forums or whatever else so I didn't know about that history. I checked the two places that matter when it comes to ownership of names - Google, and the US Patent and Trademark Office. Both came up empty. If someone from AVP/PokerAtlas wants to challenge me on the name, it'll be interesting as to how that all works out. They might own the name in the vast internet world of "I came up with it first so I'm squatting on it even though legally I never protected myself" but this seems like a matter far above my pay grade. I'm not monetizing any videos yet (if ever) so if they get really ****ty about it and want me to move my 20 subscribers over to another channel, we'll figure something out.

I... actually I'm not sure now that you mention it. I've heard tournament players called "runners" for a while. But I don't read enough poker "stuff" (like any magazines, sites outside of 2p2, etc) to know if that's popular nomenclature or just something I've said with friends. But if there are "runners" in a tournament, then as a participant, I would have "run" in the tournament. Because let's face it, that's the only running my fat ass is going to do.

Speaking of that TI tournament... for as bad as I played and ran during the series, I've run like a GOD the last two times I played it. Had three really favorable spots in one LEVEL:

Blinds at 100/200. Folds to a MP player who attempts to limp, but instead of grabbing two black 100 chips, grabs a black and a purple to make it 600 and just tosses it out there. I can see he tried to pull back the purple, then stopped himself, realized what he did, and tried to keep a straight face. Three people called. I'm on the SB and I see AA, so I make it 2500 to go. The BB calls. Everyone else folds. Flop comes 9 high, I bet, and take it down. I show the aces. The woman next to me made some comment about the hand, and I explained what I had saw, that I was raising that no matter what, and the fact that I had a hand was pure coincidence.

Two hands later, a middle aged woman min-raises to 400. One other player calls, and I have JTcc so I call from the CO. All other players fold. Flop comes KQcc and some rag. Original raiser bets 600, MP calls, I call. Turn is the 3c, giving me the flush. I can't tell if this is a good card for me. If there are no other clubs out there, I'm done getting value. If someone has like Axcc, I'm crushed. I basically have to hope someone has the Ac and paired their kicker on the board. It checks around. River is the 9c. PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE LET SOMEONE HAVE THE ACE OH GOD. Unfortunately no. It checks to me, I bet small, both players snap-fold. I have to show a straight flush, right? I think it's required.

The very next hand. The woman from two hands ago pulls the same "Accidentally raises but really meant to limp" trick. Only this time, instead of grabbing a purple and making it 600, she grabs a black (100) and a white (5000) and makes it 5100 to go. I have KK. ****. I have to jam this, right? A flat call looks weird and some sticky old ****er at the end of the table might think he's priced in with A4 sooooooted. A min-raise means any caller is putting in 70%+ of their stack, so they may as well shove. But I shove, it folds back to the accidental raiser, who says "Well I'm locked in" and shows A7. My KK holds, and I take down the pot.

There were 620,000 chips in play. By the time we were 5 handed, I had about 250,000. We agreed to a chop, and I got the seat in the freeroll they're running August 6th - the day after my birthday. And now I'm not sure if I can make it. With my comps on August 11th, I'm going to need the time to study. **** this ****.

I really think your're fine with VPN name. It was more that I found it interesting that you came up with the same name. GL I need to listen to some of these podcasts.

Love this thread, read it in one go.
If you get back to Ann Arbor, make sure you go to Zingermanns. There's a lot of good food in MI, but that place is amazeballs. One of the last places I ate at before my dad died but I've been going there for 20 years at least.
Loving the thread and you're a good husband💕

I have just returned from my Third annual Vegas trip, mostly playing low limit tournaments.

Have you ever played the 80$ PH dailies? If so, what is your take on these?

We ended up playing a bunch of them, they were quite poorly organized to be honest, the structure seemed similar to the TI 10PM, but the value of these were really great! They are all 1500$ guaranteed, with at least 3 spots paid and a number of these had overlays (between 20-25 people) during our time.

They start at 100-100 blinds, meaning now 25 chips, and no bets of 225, 375, 525, 1025 which in my mind is a time killer as dealer has to change up chips at almost each hand..

What we liked most though was the competition. The level of play in these were absolutely awful, even after Vegas Daily standards! I cashed 5 times in 12 starts, including a sunday special with a 7,5K guarantee and a 15 spots paid guarantee. They got 57 runners for it, I regged 30 mins late, still drunk from last night, played one big hand all tournament and sailed into the money.

Interested in hearing a Vegas grinders take on these,

Thanks! I appreciate the kind words. I don't have a reason to go back to Ann Arbor just yet but if I ever do make it back, I'll check out Zingermanns.

I'm not a huge fan of the PH dailies. Yes, they're good for a laugh and the players are typically bad, but I've gone there a few times and the tournaments are canceled for lack of tables. It's a nice problem for them to have, but I prefer knowing the tournament is going to run. Plus, PH kind of annoys me. The garage is utter ****, especially on weekends when they have the stupid ropes and gates up.

Between PH and TI, PH has a better rake (27% to 30%), but I think from a value perspective it falls short in a lot of other ways. Opening stack size is 120 big blinds, compared to 340 at TI. Yes, the 25 chips can be annoying, but they can add a lot of play and help with value. And as long as there are no antes (which are the stupidest things in daily tournaments), that value is important since these structures skip a ton of levels - by about level 4 at PH and level 6 at TI, it's a shove-fest anyway. So you're only getting about 40 minutes more of play at TI than you would at PH.

TI also has the guarantee on their 10pm tournament. Overlay is a bit of a rarity but it does happen.

I mean, if you're having fun at one or the other, good. It's not like playing one is "wrong". But for value or bang for the buck, the TI is better.

Love your adventurous and I appreciate you talking the time to keep 2+2 updated....it's almost like I'm there.

Thanks for the detailed reply

I played the TI 10PM once on this trip, earlier trips that was the Go to evening donkament because we lived there. This year we stayed at Polo Towers and then it was simply easier to walk to PH.

I do agree with you that the 10PM TI is better than the 10PM PH.. But PH also has 4 other dailies, all with a 1500$ guarantee and they constantly drew 20-25 players, while the other TI dailies has a lower guarantee and in my experience either becomes a 1 table tournament or doesnt go off at all. So except the 10PM I do honestly think PH is better.

Also I liked the PH experience where the Poker Room is just an open section of the casino instead of a completely secluded area, loved the noise and buzz and distractions there..But thats obviously not for everyone. That I completely understand

So if already posted but what recording/editing software do you use for the podcasts.

Keep up the TRs

IME PHo tourneys usually go like this:

"I bet 375" (throws out a T500 chip)
"What?"
"He said 425"
"What?"
"He said 'It's great to be alive'"
"What?"

Amazing ^

Excellent


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I wish I had been doing a better job keeping it updated more frequently, but I'm glad you've enjoyed it thus far.

TI just made an interesting change and I'm curious to see how it plays out. They used to run four tournaments a day: 11am, 2pm, 7pm, and 10pm. All with the same $77 buy-in, all with the same structure. But now they've scrapped the 11am and 2pm, and instituted a 12:30pm. Again, it's the same buy-in and structure, but now there's a $10 add-on for 8k more in chips, only available at the start of the first break (after level 4), which is about 13 more blinds for level 5+. I ran it once on a Friday and it had 27 players. I'm planning on trying again this weekend too.

You're right about the PH room being a completely different atmosphere. A few other rooms have this right in the middle of the floor mantra for their poker rooms. I prefer secluded, though I don't much care as long as that obnoxious Dragon Spin slot isn't anywhere near it. Loudest goddamn machine ever.

I don't think I posted about it yet. I'm using Audacity. It's a free program but really works well and has every feature I could want or need. And it's intuitive to use.

That's pretty dang close.

So once again I hit a quagmire. I mentioned in another post that my summer went bat**** crazy with the amount of work I had to do at my actual job, plus the class I took this summer (which should have been a slam-dunk; instead we had to write up an entire survey/focus group proposal for an actual client which meant we had to do real work). And the comps. Oh, the ****ing comps.

I'm going to assume most people here don't have a PhD. There are basically four components to completing one of these stupid things:

1. Classwork
2. Comprehensive Exams
3. Prospectus
4. Dissertation

The comprehensive exams are essentially open-ended essay questions from the core classes in the program. It used to be that you'd get the questions early to prepare, then come on to campus on a Saturday with no books, no notes, no nothing, they'd sit you down in front of a computer, and give you 8 hours to type them all out. Our program decided to do something a little different: no questions ahead of time, have them emailed out on a Friday afternoon, due the following Monday. And you could type them up from anywhere.

So on the one hand, we had more time, more sources, more research, and could come up with better ideas, especially after sleeping on them. On the other, it meant a wasted weekend, more questions (four instead of two), more anxiety, but the chance to bounce ideas off of and share notes with classmates. It was an interesting dynamic. I wrote this up for /r/GradSchool on Reddit, but I wanted to share a bit from two people who also took the comps:

First is Molly. We were talking via text during the comps period, and after submission, we started talking about more specifics of the questions. She told me one of her answers, and it's completely wrong. She used a framework instead of a theory, and used a book author instead of a theorist. But the way our questions were framed, you could tell that one question was specially about frameworks, and the other was specifically about theories and theorists. She answered the clearly theory question with a framework. I've been debating whether I should tell her this or not. Still not entirely sure which way to go.

Then there's Dan. Dan's kind of an odd duck. He has a BA, MA, MLS, JD, and LLM. He's getting his PhD because "I don't want to work. I want to teach classes online so I can spend all day in the sports book." Living in Vegas has its perks, I guess. Dan doesn't have a computer at home, so he relies on the library whenever he has to type up an assignment. So he wrote some notes on paper, then went to the library on Sunday, only to find that all libraries on campus were closed. He wrote to the professor asking for more time, and was basically told to screw. As of 9pm the night they were due (by 5pm), he still had one more answer to write, and finally completed just before midnight. Oh, and Dan doesn't use APA style. He doesn't know it and doesn't like it. He's a trained legal writer, so he prefers whatever footnote-filled style that is (Chicago? MLA? I don't know). When we got the email Monday morning with our extension (from 1pm to 5pm), we were told to only use APA, and absolutely no footnotes.

As for an actual poker update - fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu u

I'm not sure what it is, but my session last night probably is the best metaphor for how I've been running. Went to the Excalibur at 8pm to try and run over their tournament. Then, sat in their 1-2 cash game. Between both the tournament and cash game, including all hands I folded, I:

- Had one pocket pair (22) and lost to JJ on a Q94Q6 board.
- Flopped top pair once.
- Turned top pair once, which led to my best hand of the night - two pair.
- Managed to get one bluff through

... and somehow only lost $80 in 4 hours. But that's been how I've run. Managed to snag a seat in a freeroll. Top 5 paid, down to 8, BTN jams all in. I have AA in the SB and call for about .5 big blinds less. BTN shows 88 and hits an 8 on the flop. Other tournaments have gone just as poorly. Just blah. Not that I've had a ton of time to play, but when I do get a chance to go it's worked out sub-optimally.

I have two Seat Open in Sin City podcasts recorded, waiting to be edited. Actually I might scrap one. It's a preview of the WSOP Main Event final table and a preview of the vlogger's game, and not much else worth posting at this late date. The other episode has Bikeking talking about the vlogger game including that infamous hand against Boski, plus we have a VERY SPECIAL GUEST and probably the most respected vlogger in Vegas talking about poker, dating as a poker pro, and some other ****. I still haven't recorded a Poker School Dropout episode yet. I just think it's rude to put out solo stuff before putting out the group stuff, especially when the group stuff is recorded and just needs some editing.

Still delivering! Sorry about the tough summer. Molly will likely think you are wrong, not listen, then hate you for not convincing her...

Sent from my RS988 using Tapatalk

spike, you good?

This.

Was hoping to see some photos from the VGK's game last night..didn't Spike say he bought season tickets?

Oh don't worry. Pics are coming. My free time is essentially nil these days. Between work, school, preparing for the move, and my wife's work schedule (which has been roughly 7am to midnight every day, including weekends), I've really not been playing a ton of poker or getting out of the house. I was at the first few VGK games, sold my tickets for the Blues and Hawks knowing that my wife wouldn't be there (what a giant ****ing mistake that was...), and now I just have this black cloud of PACKING hanging over my head. Not fun.

But - the case my wife is working on is over on Friday, I'm taking next week off of work to focus on packing and getting **** ready, and the Knights are on a road trip so hopefully that cuts down on the distractions. I should be able to post a massive update next week sometime. In the meantime, enjoy a blast from my past - my favorite song in high school, by my favorite band in high school:

What is name of the podcast? I started reading the thread last night and find spikes story telling fascinating. I'm driving for next 4 hours and wanted something to listen to, Thanks!

Glad to see all is well.

Not to sound morbid, but not a peep for awhile, along with the Mandalay Bay tragedy..glad things are good..

Glad to see all is well.

Not to sound morbid, but no posts to this thread for 2 1/2 months, coupled with the Mandalay Bay tragedy..glad things are ok..

Yeah the 1 October thing was such a mind****. That night, I tried talking my buddy into trying a 10pm tournament either at Mandalay Bay or MGM, but we defaulted back to TI. The TI tournament didn't run, so we were standing on the roof of the TI parking garage chatting it up. I heard a bunch of sirens but had no idea what was going on. And some jackass was doing doughnuts in a Mustang so even the siren sounds were drowned out.

The wife and I officially moved into the new house on Friday. Unfortunately, something got ****ed up in the building process (still not sure what happened, exactly) which has rendered us unable to get any kind of internet connection. I have the electrician looking at it today. Hopefully it gets fixed and we can get connected by the weekend. The long update I have planned won't really work typing via phone, and I don't have the time to write it all out at work. But, I can give a couple of highlights in the meantime -

From opening night at the Knights:



Me and Bikeking19 tried to do a poker weekend in Laughlin. The road was washed out and we almost died. I have a couple of videos for it, so I'll post the YouTube links later:



(Speaking of - make sure you pay attention to Bike's next Vlog and/or post here - it's going to be a ****ing doozy)

There's still more unpacking to be done, but here's the kitchen of the new house:



Cheers.