Though I could write a whole page's worth of content about this particular tournament experience, I've decided not to go too crazy with my update regarding the $1500 NL Six Max Event and try to keep it confined to one post.

$1500 NL Six Max, Day 1

When I woke up on June 3, I did't feel that great mentally, continuing to feel a bit drained from the long hours and excitement of the PLO tournament I had chopped. However, skipping the tournament I'd most been looking forward to playing this summer, the $1500 NL Six Max WSOP even, wasn't an option. Last summer, bubbling that tournament (possibly literally) was the most painful experience I had in a very painful summer. Not only did I have a score to settle, but I knew I had a lot of fun to look forward to, as the most exhilarating poker experiences for me tend to be short-handed cash games or tournaments where I get to play a lot of hands and play a lot of postflop poker.

My table draw seemed decent for the event. Other than the dude to my left, who seemed to be in his late thirties, I was the oldest player at the table; I knew at least three others at the table were pros, having played a little with two of them before, but I didn't feel threatened by anyone. Pretty much immediately, I established a maniac image, playing probably 10 of the first 12 hands and being quite aggro postflop, though mostly because I kept getting dealt hands I had to play. An annoying spot occurred when I raised the CO with 910dd and one of the pros defended his BB. Flop K93ssh. He checks, I check. Turn 9c, he bets 175 (pot 325), I raise to 625, he calls. River Qs. He leads 800. I decide I'll give him credit this time and fold.

I entered the first break with my lowest stack of the day, 6900 from 7500 starting. A couple hands post-break, I'm dealt KK on the BB at 75-150. Much to my dismay, the entire table folds to the SB, one of the young pros. Please no walk. Please no walk. The SB limps. Sweet. I raise to 450. He calls. Flop 778hh. He checks, I bet 475, he calls. Turn 4x. He checks, I bet 875, he calls. River 2x. He checks. I bet 1900. He calls and mucks. Sweet. Thin value.

The very next hand, as the dealer is pitching the cards he accidentally deals the Ad face up to the BTN (villain from the last had), and it becomes an exposed card. I peel my cards and, what do you know, I have KK again, this time in the SB. It gets folded to the BTN, who minraises to 300. I 3bet to 825. At this point, I had made several 3bets and one 4bet and had been by far the most active 3better/4better preflop at the table, with a player at the table speculating my 4bet had been light (he was right); I expected to get action. The BB folds, BTN calls quickly. Flop AT2r. Not sure how to best exploit the "exposed ace" dynamic, I check, Villain checks behind. Turn Tx. I check again. Villain bets 850, I call. River 2x, board now AT2T2. I check, Villain bets 2800. I tank for a minute then toss in a calling chip. Villain turns over 46cc, a total bluff. My passive, inducer line had worked nicely.

Suddenly, I'm the table CL. I start playing even more aggro and land in a couple thorny spots, 3bet/folding 610dd on the button one hand and attempting a BVB post flop steal against the tight-passive player to my left that doesn't work because he's at the top of his range, in addition to going for a c/c flop then lead turn line on a dry board w/ air that doesn't work. Meanwhile, the villain from the above hands busts, quickly followed by the young pro who had been to his right. They're replaced by, respectively, an older guy with heaps and a German who perfectly meets the physical stereotype of a psycho LAG and who I think I recognize as a super wizard but can't place his name.

The German and older gentleman get tangled in a big pot together quickly. I miss most of the action, but I'm paying attention by the river when the older player bets 1/3 pot on a Q9639 type board. The German player check-raises to twice the pot, only to get beaten to putting chips in the pot by the older player. The German shakes his head and turns over 44 for air, and the older player turns over KQ. Pretty impressive snap call!

An orbit or two later, my stack is 10k, about average. Since that last hand, the German has been annihilating the table, getting one of the young pros, who had been playing solid, to spew out of frustration drawing to two outs against his tptk, and firing several river overbets that are met with folds. Suddenly, he's turned the 6500 he was left with after the failed river check-raise bluff into 22k.

The German raises UTG to 700 at 150-300-25. I flat in the CO with 88. Folded around. Flop 974ss. German bets 850, I call. Turn 5x. German bets 1800, I call. River 9x. The German places his entire stack in front of him, committing me all-in. My mind is racing. It's very likely this guy knows my range includes a lot of hands of similar strength to what I have, but he also knows I've seen him go for a failed river overbet bluff earlier. He seems good enough to do this with an overpair, and I think he's capable of having a 9 or boat as well. He also seems very capable of doing this with air, something like JT, or maybe even worse. I tank for as long as I ever tank, about two minutes, before finally folding. The German breaks into a huge grin. "You want to see?" he asks. Uhoh. He then turns over the Q6hh.

I realize I have no disappointment or embarrassment over getting owned in the hand, smiling instead; I'm amused and impressed by the German, if anything. A couple years ago, I probably would have tilted a bit after this kind of hand or been angry at myself for missing the spot to double up. I've grown enough as a poker player that I decide to just quickly shrug it off, make a note of the spot for the next time, and keep playing good and building my reads on the German.

Bustouts have been flying, and suddenly we're down to almost 1/3 of the field. My table breaks, and I get moved to a new one right before the dinner break. I recognize a couple of the players, but only know one by name, Mukul Pahuja, who's to my direct right. I win a couple of small pots, one semi bluffing donk leading the turn after the flop got checked and one getting thin value with two pair on a scary board, and I've gotten my stack up to a more healthy amount but less than average entering the dinner break.

I arrive back from the dinner break with a 10k stack at 200-400-50. I have AQdd on the BB. It gets folded to the BTN, who opens big to 1100. I 3bet to 3200. He calls. Flop 972r. I shove my remaining stack, he calls. He has 88. Bleh, he's shown up near the top of his range. Turn 3x. I prepare to leave. River Qx. Bingo. I double up.

For the next couple hours, my stack oscillates between 25k and 9k several times, as the bustouts continue to fly and the average stack continues to get higher and higher above my stack. I make a couple of hero-y river calls that are wrong, one especially annoying as villain rivered a tiny set and had been bluffing on the previous streets. I feel perpetually short-stacked, though I'm never below 9bb, and there's a strange dynamic as the bustouts are flying at such a rate that the average stack is very healthy given the blind levels. At one point, Mukul and I are both pretty short-stacked, and he probably has 15bb to my 11bb. It gets folded to him in the SB and he shoves. I have A7o in the BB. Knowing his range is wide here, and thinking this is the kind of tournament I can't be afraid to embrace marginal spots given the tough field, I call and am delighted when he turns over 45dd. I hold. He too doubles up shortly thereafter.

With ~15% of the field left, Mukul open ships the CO with 11bb and I have A10cc and 13bb on the BTN. I rip and the blinds fold quickly. He has J9o and I hold again and bust him from the tournament. The next hour sees me get in a BVB battle where I c/r allin on a Q1099 board with A8o against by far the most conservative player left in the tourney, whose tendencies I've observed closely enough I'm 99% sure he doesn't have a hand that can call and who I don't expect to think much about my range. He snap folds and I win a decent pot. Soon thereafter, I defend J8ss on the BB against the big stack at the table at 500-1000-100. Flop 875cch. I check, he bets 2800, I call. Turn 4h. I decide to turn my hand into a bluff, at this point confident I have the image to look like I have the straight, thinking I can get him to fold the majority of his range, as I can represent a hand that does well on this board better than he can. I lead 6000. He tanks for a good two minutes then folds, and then repeatedly asks what I had before finally saying he had JJ. The aforementioned older guy immediately pipes in "Whatever you had, it was a good fold. 100% the young man had a 6." Postflop warfare, fun times.

I end up bagging just under 30k for my near peak stack of the tournament with ~12% of the field left entering 600-1200-200. Other than being dealt KK twice in a row in Level 3, I wasn't dealt QQ+ at all, was dealt AK once and whiffed, and never made a a set, straight, or three card flush, but I had run good in other ways, winning all of my allins, once decently behind (AQ > 88 with two cards to come), and taking advantage of some good runouts to bluff successfully at the pot. Several of my shoves with hands like Q8s and A5s were also fortunate to have gotten through when I was short-stacked.

I was delighted to be bagging, having played what felt like a huge amount of hands, successfully bluffing in a number of those hands, and feeling like I had a decent-sized edge in the toughest field $1500 nl event of the WSOP.

Day 2

To my pleasant surprise given my historical struggles sleeping the night before a Day 2, I slept very well despite Day 1 ending past 2 AM and a Day 2 restart at 1 PM. I got 7 quality hours of sleep and felt extremely good and confident heading to the Rio.

I wasn't pleased when I took a look at my table draw. Four of the players had very respectable hendon mobs, all better than mine. With 206 entering the day and 180 getting paid, I expected the bubble to take awhile, but the bustouts occurred at a frenetic pace. To my pleasant surprise, by the time the first level of the day was halfway through, we were on the verge of being ITM. With around 183 players left, a tough player opened the BTN and the SB, another tough player, defended; I decided to make a bubble fold and folded QJss on the BB with my 17bbish stack. I was seemingly rewarded for this fold, as the flop came AsKs3x and I would have whiffed had I gotten my stack in, with the SB's AJ winning the pot. Suddenly, without ever even having played hand-for-hand the TD announces over the loudspeaker that we are all ITM. Having been very card dead, I had basically folded my way into the $, a relatively stress-free way to fling the monkey off my back.

Unfortunately, despite getting a double when TT > KQ, a deep run wasn't meant to be as I ran QQ into AA and then busted shoving my 3bb stack with A3o UTG the next hand and running into AK. Fortunately, I was able to survive a couple small pay jumps and outlast a few dozen people post-ITM. I left with only a small amount of disappointment, and a lot of pride and relief cashing in such a talent-heavy tournament and notching my first bracelet event cash after having made a WSOP Day 2 several times.

Very nice. I'm especially appreciative of you being able to shake off the German's bluff on day 1 and be able to smile about it. Sounds like your head is in a really good place to keep up this run.

Well done again. Like how you took some calculated risks (e.g. the J8 hand on day 1). Like nwolfe says, the quick recovery from the German's bluff on day 1 was impressive!

congrats on the nice run!

Thank you, everyone; I really appreciate your reading the thread and all of the encouragement.


So, other than my two deep tournament runs, I haven't had too much else exciting to report. As far as other tournaments, I played the $600 O8/Stud8 at Venetian the day after the PLO tourney and busted about halfway through, being pretty satisfied with my play after not having played O8 in forever and having played only a little bit of Stud8 recently, although I did make a couple clear mistakes. For the most part, I think I ran pretty poorly. I also played the Millionaire Maker on Friday and ended up at, for that event, a pretty bad table, with James Dempsey, Andy Black, and Blake Purvis all there from the beginning as well as a couple other decent players. To my dismay, I didn't play well at all and ended up busting on a 3bet stuff with 79dd halfway through Level 4 that probably wasn't necessary. Tbh, I don't think I really wanted to play this tourney, but I couldn't pass up the value. That's no excuse to play at less than my best, however.

As far as cash games, I started strong and won my first few sessions, as I wrote about previously in here. On Saturday, I decided to finally give PLO cash games at the Rio a try and sat down to play 5-10-25 PLO (three blind game). Despite being pretty card dead, I pulled off a couple bluffs to win medium-sized pots and was +$300 when the following hand occurred. Competent, good young player raises CO to $75, I 3bet BTN to $250 with KsKd9s8d ($2800 stack), older decent player flats in SB ($3k stack), young kid folds. Flop 10c7c6s. Perfect; he's not likely to put me on the nuts given I don't think I've 3bet yet and he likely thinks two of my cards are AA. SB checks, I bet $600, SB pots it, I repot it, he calls and we agree to RIT. I ended up getting scooped by his 10998cc, as he hits a flush both times. Pretty brutal, as this was by far the largest pot I had played on the trip. My friend had just said shortly before the hand he wanted to grab dinner, so I picked up pretty soon after the big pot.

I came back later that night and won $600 at 5-5 PLO in an hour, then got called for a 50-100 stud8 seat, which I couldn't help myself in wanting to play. Despite feeling pretty rusty and noticing most of the table seemed pretty solid, I was being able to recover from being stuck $1300 at one point and, then +$700 at one point, and then stuck $1300 again, to ultimately book a small profit, +$52 over 2.5 hours. I have to admit, booking a winner felt extremely good, as I am especially proud of my ability (or at least perceived ability) to play multiple games at a high level. It was a nice change of pace, too.

On Sunday, I woke up a bit bummed, as the big PLO pot had reduced my profits for cash games on the trip to almost zero. I decided to get a massage at a cheap Chinatown place that I've had great experiences at and it ended up being the best massage I've ever had. I came back to the Rio to play some more 5-10-25 PLO and the game ended up being a total cluster****, with half the table away from their seats and the other half all leaving to go to better games. I don't think I ever played a hand where more than 5 people were dealt cards. After half an hour, I finally left out of frustration, +$300, and realized I didn't feel too great, deciding to take the rest of the night off. In my experience, cash games at the Rio have been very tilting. Lots of angle shooting, lots of scummy players, the worst dealers of any room and the worst atmosphere, long cage lines, lack of drink service, etc., just a total nightmare that's only palatable because the games tend to be especially good. Nevertheless, I'm not sure I'll go back.

Today's gone so well so far. Played 5-10 nl at the Aria while waiting for a PLO seat. Session started horribly when JJ < KK aipf against a guy who sat down with only $1k (possibly avoidable, but the table had just started so I didn't have much info to go off of), but I ended up making back almost all of that to claw back to a $100 deficit before I got called for PLO. The PLO game wasn't great, but I played well and made ~$1500 in a little under 3 hours.

As far as non-poker life, things have been good. I've been spending a lot of time with friends from home (of which there a bunch here), got the awesome massage, have been keeping up on GoT and Silicon Valley, have been chilling at Starbucks a lot and enjoying some off-strip restaurants with friends, etc. I've also done a pretty good job of exercising, meditating, and eating well, though I've lapsed a bit in each over the last couple of days. I do feel a bit homesick/depressed, but I'm going to tough it out for as long as I'm here and try to keep grinding hard while the 24/7 games continue to be available.

Gonna go for a run now and then play some more tonight.

Just extended my trip for an additional week and a half. I may even stay longer if I decide to play the Main.

I'm pretty excited about the next few days with the $1k PLO and Monster Stack both coming up, probably my highest two +EV tournaments (other than the Main Event). Hoping to ship dat bracelet. A FT would also do.

Glad to hear you are enjoying yourself enough to extend the trip--keeping the dream alive! If you do decide to play the main, are you planning on selling any action?

Thanks, Dody, I enjoyed reading your recent update btw. Yes, I would most likely sell action, probably around 50%, and only wouldn't sell any in the event I am fortunate enough to earn some kind of huge score in the next couple weeks.

This is getting pretty creepy. I'm a 0L playing plo in Vegas and my two favorite shows are silicon valley and GOT. Enjoying the thread a bunch man looking forward to more updates.

Played the $1k PLO today and it was one of the most frustrating tournament experiences I've ever had.

Quick summary of the meaningful pots I played (feel free to ignore this if you want to avoid indulging what's essentially one large bad beat story):
1) my A3ccJJ on a J72cc flop meets the runout from hell and I do not win the hand after I'm thrilled to get action from two weak players on my flop bet,
2) I get flatted when I bet into four players on a 973r board by a guy with K1043 (a vpip'd EP hand, no less) who has three people yet to act behind him; I have 9987 and end up losing to his runner runner flush and paying off a pot-sized bet after turn 6x gets checked down,
3) after being crippled down to 3350, I limp AKK9cchh utg at 100-200, four people flat behind me, fish on tilt down to a 2100 stack and ready to leave pots it in the SB, I reshove and everyone else folds, he has AAxx and covers one of my suits and holds,
4) down to my last 950 I get it in three ways aipf with QJTTsshh against 9875hh and AKJ8 no suits and lose to the 9875's rivered straight to bust w/ roughly half the field remaining.

Basically, I ran about as poorly as possible. Very disappointing as the field was extremely soft and this tourney really seemed to be my best shot at a bracelet.

Unfortunately, the day continued to be frustrating as I played 2-5 PLO at the Aria and was insanely card dead, ultimately profiting $8 over 4 hours. Fun times.

Oh well, it's simply part of poker that sometimes you don't run well on the days you most want to run well. I apologize for the complaining, especially given my belief that any complaining about luck is counter-productive, but I admit that most of my thoughts today have revolved around my disbelief as to how cruel the deck was to me all day and I want to be honest in this thread about how I feel. Hopefully, I will eventually stop caring altogether about anything luck-related and care exclusively about the quality of my decision-making, which I think was solid today (if I could replay hands #2 and #3 with the same information available, I would play them the exact same FWIW, as #2 the guy had been caught bluffing on the river earlier in a similar spot and his sizing was suspect in a polarized spot and #3 I have an ace blocker to block AAxx and the 3better was on tilt and I think ready to get it in with a wide range especially given the amount of dead $ in the pot via the flatters; even with him having an AAxx hand, the sick thing is I am pretty sure I would still have close to the right pot odds with the others folding to make a reshove profitable).

While I didn't sleep well last night and managed to get only 4-5 hours of subpar sleep, mainly due to excitement over playing the $1k PLO, I don't think it affected my play adversely at all. Though I plan on playing the Monster Stack tomorrow, I'm not feeling that same amount of pre-tournament excitement, and I'm more tired than I was last night, so I'm hoping to get a long, solid slumber in and come back refreshed and ready to go tomorrow in another event I feel I am very +EV in.

Ha, thank you.

I would definitely be interested in buying some of your main action. Pm me if you put up something in the mp

Loving the session reports. Glgl!

WSOP Halfway Update

So far, I've been pretty satisfied with my WSOP, although I think there's room for improvement. I set some goals in this thread shortly before I left in late May: meditate every day, exercise regularly, eat healthy, game select wisely, maintain balance, etc.

I'd give myself a B+ for my meditation practice, as I've done it every day with the exception of one but haven't put as much time or effort into it as I'd like. Nevertheless, I feel like I've put in enough effort for it to have been beneficial to me out here. As for exercising, I did a really good job the first ten days or so, running every other day, and since then have tailed off a bit, running every third day or so. Part of this is I don't like running right after I've woken up, and if I can't do it at that time then it's difficult to find the time during the day to do it, especially when I'm playing in a tournament. Still, I'm pleased to have exercised so much more than I did last summer, and I can definitely feel the results.

As for eating healthy, I had done a pretty good job my first week or two out here eating light and healthy, but have slipped a bit over the last week, having eaten several huge meals and eating portions greater than I'd like. Basically, I've been eating too many heavy meals and not enough healthy snacks, but the silver lining is for the most part I've avoided eating heavily before playing and have mostly played on a light stomach, the benefit of which I think is underrated.

As for game selection and balance, I think I've done a very good job, especially compared to previous summers. I haven't over-extended myself in tournaments, having played only 7, all of which I think I was strongly +EV in, and I've been disciplined in sitting in only cash games at stakes I'm comfortable at, having moved down slightly here to accommodate my lack of familiarity with opponents and game dynamics. So far, I've played 46 hours of cash and 62 hours of tournaments since arriving on May 28. For the sake of comparison, last year at this point I had played 50 hours of cash games and 67 hours of tournaments, without having meditated or exercised at all. Meanwhile, this summer I've also seen a couple movies, gone out eating countless times with friends, spent a ton of my time at my friend's suite at the Palms talking strategy or just chilling, and have been keeping up with TV shows during my down time. I've also spent a few hours watching videos (WSOP replays or RIO vids w/ my friend). I definitely feel much more "at home" in Vegas than I have any previous summer. I don't feel anywhere close to burned out, nor do I feel ready to leave.

As for the last few days, here's what happened in the Monster Stack: The first half a dozen levels were pretty uneventful, with me oscillating between 5k +/- the starting stack of 15k. A couple fun hands from those first few hours: I open BTN to 600 w/ A4dd at 150-300-25, some dude I later learned has made a bunch of WSOP FTs makes it 1500 in the SB, BB folds, I make it 3100, he snap folds. Another one, I open BTN with JTo to 250-500-50, loose wild card type BB defends, flop 55Ts, he checks, I bet 900, he raises to 2000, I reraise to 3100 (the magic #, it seems), he snap folds.

Eventually, I gained some momentum and built my stack to over 30k when the following hand occurred. I raise KQss UTG to 1500 at 300-600-75, loose player who's shown a tendency to bluff postflop flats in the SB, we see a flop headsup with nearly identical stacks. Flop Q109r. He checks, I bet 2200, he raises to 6500, I call. Turn 9d adding dd draw. He immediately shoves allin for 25k. Right away, I smelled BS. If he has a straight or Q10, I don't expect him to immediately shove for over the pot when a scare card rolls off. Nor do I expect him to take this kind of line with a hand like 910 or 1010 that most likely has me drawing dead. When he check-raised, I immediately thought he was the kind of player who would do this with a pair + oesd type hand, and the timing and size of his turn bet convinced me that this initial inclination was probably right. I call. He turns over JT. I hold. Suddenly, I've got close to 70k and at level 9 I'm probably among the top 3% of stacks in the tournament. Half the table tells me it was a sick call and I'm feeling good.

The next level, I lose some chips raising with 99 and having the BB defend. Flop J86. Check check. Turn Kx. He checks, I bet slightly under half pot, BB calls. River Ax. He checks, I check. BB has A6. I'm a bit annoyed.

Beginning with that hand, everything unraveled quickly. To give some context to my mindset at this time, two of the three players to my right were opening way too wide from every position and then folding to 3bets or calling the 3bets and then folding to a flop bet; I had taken advantage of this many times and never had a premium hand, nor had I been dealt KK+ at all during the tournament, and the one time I was dealt JJ I mucked preflop based on a flurry of action before I could act. Long story short, I thought these players I had position on were probably getting annoyed and I eagerly awaited getting a big hand in case they wanted to try to make a play at me.

It's my button at 400-800-100, level 10, and I'm dealt two black QQ and immediately feel adrenaline kicking in because of the above described dynamic (these guys were entering almost every pot). Somewhat new player to table, older Asian gentleman who had been caught bluffraising postflop a few hands ago, raises to 1800 UTG +1. Very quickly, another new player to table, mid-forties white gentleman next to act, raises to 5100 with a stack of 24k total. Immediately, I felt sick to my stomach; I didn't know this guy, but as I looked at him I felt powerfully he had KK or AA. It gets folded to me; the dynamic described above is now irrelevant, but I still feel a certain level of emotional investment in the hand. I had cold folded the JJ earlier, was I going to have to do it now with QQ? I don't know anything about this guy; all I know is he looks tight and as I look at him I have a bad feeling as to where I'm at, but folding QQ here against a 30bb stack can't be standard, can it? Combinatorically, he's most likely to have AK; maybe even he has JJ and will get it in, I tell myself. I reraise to 10k. UTG+1 folds. Guy immediately goes all-in for the 24k. *@#%#@%2.

I call. He turns over AA. #%@^@$Q&. Window card is a Q, followed by a 5 and an 8. Holy schnikes. I've had this happen to me late in tournaments with AA against JJ-KK countless times; karma is finally catching up, now I'm the one who's gotten lucky. I'm going to suck out on this guy and become a top 15 stack in the Monster Stack with only an hour and a half left in Day 1. Wow, maybe this is the one. Turn Jx. Still safe, just gotta fade one more card.

River.....Ax. #!%@^@$^$@#^$@%$#^. The table lets out a collective gasp. I've been Greensteined after hitting my miracle on the flop. My stack has dwindled all the way down to 23k. Within 20 minutes later, it's gone.

I left that tournament almost as angry as I left any tournament, mostly upset with myself for not going with my instincts of just folding QQ even with pretty limited information apart from this guy's early position of 3betting and my physical stereotype and "sixth sense" he's super strong (I think folding > flatting, FWIW). The more I think about it, the more I think folding simply couldn't have been that bad.

Fortunately, that pain has since totally subsided, and it hasn't made me any less interested in tournaments. Rather, I feel more intellectual interest in tournaments than ever, and I've been absorbing a ton of strategy lately through talks with my tourney genius friend, watching vids, etc. I have a certain bloodlust for a big tournament score now that's exciting but also kind of puzzling given I have absolutely crushed PLO cash games over the last few days, shipping a couple of big pots that have helped make me strongly in the black for the summer.

I intended to type more, but I gotta run to play a tournament.

Thanks very much! I'll be making a decision as to the Main Event soon and will post about it in here as soon as that happens.

I really don't think you should make folds based on a "sixth sense." The play with QQ is perfectly good.

Combinatorically.... You never fail to impress.

I respectfully disagree with the first sentence. IMO, this is one of the especially neat aspects of live poker, that we can have such a plethora of information available to allow us to take actions that might seem absurd on the virtual felt. That being said, neither 1) being able to collect all of the information available to us, or 2) making the right conclusion based on all of the information, is easy. In this instance, maybe it was just a standard cooler, but I'm not convinced that it was; even though I didn't have much info this particular hand, I feel like my subconscious did and I didn't follow what it was telling me. FWIW, my "sixth sense" has been wrong before in these kinds of spots, but I think it's been right far more often than not.

Haha, thank you.


QUICK UPDATE: Didn't have a very good day. Busted the Venetian PLO tournament halfway through at a pretty amazing table where several players were very loose-spewy, especially pre flop, which tbh wasn't ideal as I thrive more in dynamics that let me play smallball poker. I ran very poorly. That being said, I also made a couple minor mistakes that I regret and will take note of for the $1500 PLO coming up on Wednesday; I care more about those than the fact that luck didn't go my way at all today.

Also, I'm not proud to say it but I was not respectful to someone at the table today after having done a very good job maintaining a respectful and nice presence at the table this summer thus far, which is an important priority to me. My irritation with this particular person started when he went out of his way to try to make me pay time at 5-5 PLO cash even though I was new to the table, had not played a hand before the new dealer sat down (I sat down as the new dealer was starting), and the unambiguous policy is I don't have to pay. After this, a hand occurs where I limp AAJ8ss in the SB on a $10 button straddle, this guy makes it $50 in the BB, five people flat, I pot it for $350, he calls and has a $1k stack (which I cover) behind w/ everyone else folding, flop comes 558r I go ahead and bet the pot to put him in, he calls and shows AKQ5ss and to add further insult makes quads by the river. I should have said "nice hand" or remained silent, but I basically told the guy "wtf" as I thought the preflop call was atrocious in his spot (I didn't spell it out, but it should have been obvious I had an AAxx hand that dominates him and he's sticking in a big % of his stack with a bunch of people behind him). Obviously, though, in a theoretical vacuum I absolutely want this guy to call with such a hand, and I have no right to complain if he happens to land a rare dream flop; I want him to play poorly and shouldn't discourage him to continue to do so. But, more importantly, he's a human being and I need to treat him with respect, regardless of whether I like him (few things piss me off more than someone trying to make me pay unnecessary rake!). Anyways, I apologized quickly and he said it wasn't a problem, but I wanted to "confess" on here to provide negative reinforcement to me in case I'm tempted to be a sore loser again; I take being good to people very seriously and few things bother me more than when I fail to treat someone with respect.

Except, you admit you really didn't have much on this guy. It sounds more like you are trying to make a cooler out to be more than it is. I think that if you have strong reads on someone, you could be right, but this wasn't one of those cases. So if we figure he is never bluffing and has a standard enough value range of TT+ and AK then we are ahead and shouldn't be sad about QQ ever. I think the math should be much more important in situations like this (not all, but this particular one.)

I greatly appreciate this "confession". The quick apology is generally effective in these situations (although I'm sure your opponent wasn't too concerned, either way, since he was raking in a sizeable pot). Aside from the theoretical reasons for being respectful, there are many non-poker reasons that are perhaps just as important!

The last 48 hours have been pretty meh.

Yesterday, I played one of the tournaments I most looked forward to playing this summer, the $1500 PLO. My starting table was great, although not ridiculously soft like my starting tables were every other PLO event I played this summer. The average pot at my table was absurdly high and we probably led the field with first two level bustouts with a whopping 7 players getting eliminated. I was quite card dead and not one of the beneficiaries of these bustouts. During these levels, I watched a pro with massive hendon mob earnings totally punt a stack in an indefensible manner, just as I had seen another big name pro do during another PLO event this summer (not going to name names). It just goes to show that even some of these perceived crushers are capable of playing quite poorly on a bad day, and/or that people who are very talented at some games can struggle to play other games at the same level of competence.

The last hand before the dinner break, after clawing and scraping all day without having had much of anything to work with, I have 10.8k at 200-400 and flat UTG+1's raise to 1k in the CO with 8875ccss. BB also flats. Flop 69Thh. Let's go. Checked to me, I bet 3k into 3200, a large bet but I think necessarily large on this wet a board where I am not going to like most turns and there's a lot of value to winning the 3k pot right now. BB check-shoves for ~11k, just barely covering me; UTG+1 folds, I call, he has KKJ3hh for the combo draw. We can't fade the draw and bust with ~35% of the field remaining. Sigh.

I ended up hanging out with my buddy for a long stretch after that and having a really good time discussing some existential musings. It helped get my mind off the disappointment of these last few tourneys and put things in perspective. Valar morghulis, I have bigger things to worry about; at the end of the day, these are poker tournaments whose non-radical outcomes matter very little in my life, and it's foolish to treat them differently, especially when I'm relying almost exclusively on cash game earnings for my livelihood right now.

Today, I woke up without much of a plan. Around 4 pm, a bit of mania hit me and I suddenly became obsessed with the idea of playing the $1500 Ten Game Mix event (4 pm event), which I never had any intention of playing this summer (never having played badugi or nl 2-7 draw). Maybe because I couldn't play the $1500 HORSE, maybe because I wanted to play the $1500 8 Game event this year and it got cancelled, maybe because I've been looking for some kind of change of pace, for whatever reason, it seemed like it would be a blast, and I reasoned to myself that even if I am neutral or minusEV for the event it could be +EV gaining the experience for the longterm. I also told myself I didn't have to perceive this as something I was doing as a professional poker player but rather as something I could do for a fun experience where a small % of the time I might make some $ and a tinier % of the time I might make a lot of $ and have a hell of a story. I went to the Rio and found myself in the registration line, yet all the while I kept finding myself thinking of this post from just a few weeks ago:

After waiting in line for a couple minutes and being just a few people away, I ultimately made what I think was the right decision and stepped out, deciding I'd stick to my plan announced in this thread and avoid mistakes I know I've made in the past, even in the face of this very powerful, immediate allure of a tournament where anything could happen. I have no regrets whatsoever about not playing, and am relieved that I didn't.

Instead, I ended up playing a Venetian $400 bounty tournament w/ my friend for a low-stress bit of fun and went in with the intention of mixing it up and trying a super aggressive approach for the sake of experimentation. The experiment met with mixed results, as my stack went all over the place, before finally I went out in a funny spot shoving AK cold on the BB when not one but two short stacks had already shoved (bounties!) over the table chipleader's open and another player's flat; the opener had QQ and we don't get there. Sigh. Winning flips again would be appreciated.

I ended up playing PLO cash after that and losing some at Aria and winning some at Venetian.

My plan for Friday and Saturday is to play exclusively cash games and hope they're especially juicy given the two seniors events this weekend.

Well, this sucks. I just typed up a long post that got lost in the ether b/c my hotel wireless went down as I was submitting the post.

Cliff notes:
-Had a fun, profitable day playing my three favorite variants of cash: PLO (5-5, Rio, +$800, 2.5 hours), NL (5-10, Rio, +$250 before game broke, 1 hour), and Stud8 (50-100, Rio, +$400, 2.75 hours).
-Played Stud8 with SamENole and Bill Chen, both of whom seemed like cool dudes. Talked a decent amount with SamENole and he piqued my interest a bit in 2-7 nl single draw of which he recently FT'd the $1500 event.
-Also played with Men the Master, who coolered me in one of the more annoying Stud8 hands I've ever played:

With only one low card showing other than Men's 5s bringin card and my 6x, and only one diamond showing, I make somewhat of a loose utg open and complete to $50 with (Ad8d)6x. Folds to Men, who defends.

4th street:
Me: (Ad8d)6xQd
Men: (XX)5sKs

Men bets, I call.

5th street:
Me: (Ad8d)6xQd7d
Men: (XX)5sKsTx

Men checks, I bet, he calls.

6th street:
Me: (Ad8d)6xQd7dAx
Men: (XX)5sKsTxKx

Men checks, I bet, he calls.

7th street:
Me: (Ad8d)6xQd7dAx(Ax)
Men: (XX)5sKsTxKx(X)

Men checks, I bet, he raises, I sigh call. He has 555KK. Ugh. Brutal runout. I probably could have folded seventh street, but I haven't played enough Stud8 recently to make such hero folds.

Obviously not one of the first people I'd pick to cooler me in a decent-sized pot. #wasitreallyacooler (kidding, he actually seemed like a nice guy and I didn't see anything to make me suspicious)

I'm thrilled to feel like I've been able to hold my own at 50-100 stud8. I take a lot of pride in my ability to play multiple variants of poker at a high level and hope to continue to improve at stud8 and the other games in the 8 game mix.

Playing more cash tomorrow.

When he check calls on 5th doesn't he almost always have a pair and only occasionally a flush draw? Making 6th a check back. Just asking I really don't know

Really enjoying your detailed updates. I don't post often but I've also experienced the frustration of losing forum posts before, so if you know you will be writing a lengthy post, I suggest drafting it in notepad, wordpad, etc.

You mentioned you've extended your trip. Are you playing the 3k PLO 6max or the 10k PLO and if so, would you sell any action?

I'm interested in this as well.

Love this thread. Just took an hour to read!