More likely a pair rather than a flush draw on fifth, yes, but even plugging in two pair for him on sixth (3c5h)5sKsThKc, we still have 61.26% equity with our pair of aces, flush draw, and low draw.

hapaboii, re: the notepad suggestion, you're definitely right and I actually do usually do something like that (copy and paste to a separate notepad as I'm drafting), but I didn't think to do it this time. The negative reinforcement of losing a long post will help me remember in the future.

Thanks very much for the love and interest in buying pieces. I haven't decided about the $3k PLO 6 Max yet but will try to make a decision by tomorrow. I would be looking to sell some action if I played. I'll let you two know if I do decide to play as well as others who have expressed interest. Thanks again.

Thank you and thanks for your PM!

I'll let you two know if I do decide to play as well as others who have expressed interest.



I have been a silent observer of this thread for awhile but reading your old thread today I realized that we have probably played hundreds of heads up matches against each other on Tilt back in the day. A creative opponent that you had trouble against very well could have been me.

I would definitely consider backing you, you've come a long way. While your PLO developed my online tourney skill has ballooned.

I just finished what was ultimately one of my most frustrating sessions out here. Sat down this afternoon at what appeared to be a mediocre 5-5 PLO game that quickly turned into the best cash game I've played in all summer. Unfortunately, the deck did not cooperate with this seeming gift of game selection and I ended up running as poorly this session as I have in any session this trip and booking a big loser.

The primary catalyst for all the action early on was a crazy, fun middle aged player who was intent on bloating every other pot preflop and who was playing pretty wildly postflop as well. It wasn't long into the session when the following hand occurred:

Younger European player I've stereotyped as a fairly laggy player button straddles for $10, five people limp to me in the HJ and I have AdAxKd9x ($2k stack), I limp expecting either the CO or BTN to raise a huge % of time and a bunch of people to flat that raise lending me the perfect spot to limp-raise huge, CO limps, BTN obliges my plan and raises to $75 ($1500 stack), two players call, the crazy action player pots it ($1400 stack), folded to me, I raise the pot to ~$1400, CO folds, BTN shrugs and goes allin, one of the $75 players ($550 stack) shrugs and calls allin, action player calls allin, and suddenly we have a four-way aipf $5k+ pot where I'm confident I'm the only player with AA.

Board runs out K5579. I announce AA immediately, the BTN and short stack muck, wild player waits a few moments then turns over 10754ds for a boat and a borderline slowroll. Pretty brutal; it's these kinds of hands that can have a huge impact on your results and be a particularly obnoxious source of negative variance.

A couple hours later, I've been moved to the main PLO game and have played pretty tight-solid for my first hour and a half at the table, not really doing anything out of line, and almost having gotten unstuck despite losing over $1k in the crazy AA aipf hand. Someone button straddles, a bunch of people flat, I raise to $60 in the CO with AhQcJcTx, four people call. Flop Q53hh. Checked to older Asian player who I had stereotyped as loose-passive bad and who had closed the action pre flop while joking he was certain he had the worst hand, he bets $175, I tank contemplating a fold but decide he probably has a small set at best, more likely two pair or some kind of combo draw, and call with the intention of stealing if a heart comes, and then the player behind me surprises me by calling as well. Turn 4h. My plan is coming together; time to represent the nuts. Older Asian player checks, I bet $800, the other player folds, Asian player tanks forever, seems on the verge of mucking, then shoves allin for $1100 total and announces "if you have the nuts you have the nuts." Sigh.

After that, the game stayed quite good for hours but I was totally card dead yet managed to do a good job staying patient and not letting my frustration over not being dealt any hands at this amazing table boil over into my play. Finally, right when I have told myself I'm leaving once the next dealer sits down and will book a moderate loss if it comes to it, I lose heaps in a hand with the second nut straight against the nut straight when the nut straight seemed very unlikely to be in villain's range.

Before today, I think I had been running pretty much exactly at expectation during this wsop. Whether one is running good or bad is difficult to quantify, of course, but that's my best guess. Today tipped the scales to the point where I feel I can confidently say I've ran below expectation here, with one easy thing to point to being that the two biggest pots I've played out here I lost getting it in at 5-10-25 with the nuts and getting scooped for a $6k pot and playing the $5200 pot today with AAxx aipf and getting $0 back, and also of course the fact that the best game I played in ended up being the game where I ran the worst.

Given that I lost a pretty sizable amount today, I don't plan on playing the $3k PLO 6 Max; that's the kind of tournament I think I'd only feel comfortable entering if I felt like momentum was on my side. Stated differently, I'm too worried about what my mindset would be if I busted the tourney, as I already feel pretty frustrated and don't want to deal with the psychological blow of busting another larger buy-in tournament. Thanks again to all who have expressed interest in buying pieces.

If you think so, then that probably is the case. From 2010 to early 2011, I played as many $33/$55/$110 turbo husngs as just about anyone. Thanks for stopping in and for the kind words, and keep crushing MTTs!

That's cool that you played with SamENole. He was a regular in a couple of amazingly good private 10/20 OE games I play in-- actually, he played in them long before I did and he's the one who got me into the games, for which I am eternally grateful. Good guy, very good player. (If only he could run better in those DFS tourneys though...)

Anyway, good to hear about your tourney success. Hopefully the cash results swing back into your favor quickly. BTW, have you played any Big O? They were great games when I was there a couple series ago.

I'm new here and immediately loved your thread. Sorry to hear about your bad misfortune on the best live cash game you've sat at all Summer. It at least sounds to me like you are making all the right decisions, just cards aren't falling your way. Unfortunately that's the big variance that comes with PLO games. All you can do is continue making the correct decisions, and know the law of averages will swing towards your favor eventually.

I understand not wanting to bust out of the 3K PLO tourney after a big cash game loss, but it sounds like maybe you are being a bit results oriented. I would never underestimate the physiological frustration with back to back big losses, but your PLO game is above average, and whenever you have an edge in a game I think you should be taking a seat. What are your thoughts on avoiding games simply due to a fear of losing rather than being confident in your ability to beat it?

Good luck out there for rest of your trip, rooting for some positive news to be coming.

Unfortunately, yesterday ended up being as rough psychologically as the previous day.

I didn't want to mention it in this thread until after I played the event, but yesterday offered one of the tournaments I had most been looking forward to playing: a $565 headsup tournament at Planet Hollywood. As anyone who has followed this thread or my previous PGC thread knows, headsup tournament poker is my favorite form of poker and in my opinion is the format of nl at which I am the most skilled. I'd only played one live headsup tournament before, a small (~16 players) $300 local one that I won, and I have also won 6/6 live cash game freezeouts, so I was really excited to have an opportunity to play some live headsup and thought I had a great shot of winning.

Unfortunately, waking up, I felt awful. Though this wsop I've done a much better job than I have on previous trips sleeping the night before a poker event I'm excited about, I had a difficult time getting quality sleep the night before this particular event, probably due to a mixture of frustration over that night's brutal PLO session and nervous anticipation over the tournament. As I mentally prepared to play the event in the morning, I found I had a headache, and then arriving at Planet Hollywood I discovered I felt really irritable, finding it painful to even talk to people, which is a rare thing for me.

Nevertheless, I resolved not to let the lack of sleep or the headache bother me and went into the tournament determined to play my best. The tournament started off great, with me amongst the half of the field landing a bye with only 89 players signed up.

Then, however, the kind of thing occurred that lights up the primitive side of my brain that believes in the supernatural. I knew exactly one other person who had registered for the tournament, my tournament genius friend who I've mentioned multiple times recently itt and who I've spent a huge amount of time with discussing strategy and commiserating over beats here in Vegas.

You can guess who my first matchup was against. Yep, with 63 possible opponents, somehow I landed my buddy in a drawing system that was legitimately random, one of the few people I root for as much as I root for myself. Given the spectrum of bad luck I had experienced throughout the week, the draw seemed about right.

Our match lasted about ten hands before I lost. I'm not sure I played my best, but there wasn't much I could do, anyways, as I got brutalized by the deck. The biggest pot we played, I raise at 100-200 to 400 on the BTN with ATdd, my buddy defends, flop Q53ssd. My buddy checks, I bet 400, he calls. Turn 4d. My buddy checks, I bet 900 (rationale for double barreling being I think I can get him to fold a bunch of small pairs and I can get value from a spade draw), he raises to 2500, I call with the nfd and some hope that either a 2 or ace will give me the best hand. River Jx. He shoves, I fold; he told me a couple hands later he turned the straight (w/ diamonds to boot). The whole match basically went like that with me getting dealt fairly strong starting hands that kept whiffing postflop and him getting dealt a bunch of strong hands.

After wishing my friend the best, I drove around aimlessly trying to figure out what I wanted to do, all the while aware that I was tired, felt mentally like I was on tilt, and aware that I probably shouldn't be playing at all for a couple hours. Nevertheless, I headed to the Rio and tried to start up a 50-100 stud8 game. After 20 minutes of waiting with another couple players who didn't want to play short, I went back to my hotel room. That 50-100 stud8 game never starting was some good luck, as I'm certain I wouldn't have played well. It would have been the first time in a long time I had sat down to play poker already feeling as if I was on tilt.

I napped for a couple hours in my hotel room and felt much better when I woke up. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to play, so I decided I'd work in some time thinking about strategy. I watched about 45 minutes of the $10k 6 Max replay before getting the itch to play. I headed to the Aria intending to play some 2-5 PLO. Despite calling in about 20 mins. beforehand, I was buried on the list and the games looked awful. I headed to the Venetian.

After not much waiting, I sat down at a 5-5 PLO game that looked decent. Only a few hands in, I limp/call a button raise with Q1099sscc against an opponent who seemed weak and we go to the flop headsup. Flop 963r (pot: $160) giving me two different runner runner flush draws. I check, villain bets $115, I have an intuition that he might tool out over a check-raise. Villain is sitting on an $1100 stack. I raise to $290, he immediately pots it, I go allin, he calls. He asks me if I want to run it once or twice. I almost always run it twice unless it's the end of the night and I'm stuck; for whatever reason, however, I tell him this hand I only want to run it once. Board comes running 5x 4x. He turns over AA53 for the bare overpair and bottom pair which has turned into a runner runner straight (which coincidentally is exactly how I was crippled out of my Borgata PLO FT and then knocked out in 4th place in a pot which would have given me the massive chiplead), and I feel like vomiting on the table after the last 24 hours. I can feel my anger rising to its highest level.

At that moment, I could sense my mental game armor had finally been pierced after arguably months of playing without ever dipping into my C game. That had been the final blow to prevent my hyperlag C game from emerging. For the next three hours, I played on monkey tilt, which ironically led to me pulling off a couple psycho bluffs in spots I would almost never normally pursue but probably were actually +EV. In other hands, however, I simply played way too loose and too aggro and definitely did not play +EV. The whole time, I played angry and for an hour at least I felt like a very negative presence at the table (which fortunately eventually settled down). This mindset of laggy tilt was familiar, as I've experienced it pretty much every summer in Vegas; it had just happened much earlier in the trips previous trips. I had been hoping to avoid it altogether this time around.

Fortunately, the damage from my episode of monkey tilt wasn't that bad, as I basically finished breakeven for the session after taking the horrendous beat, resulting in a loss of $1100 for the session. Feeling pretty unhinged mentally, I realized as I was leaving the poker room that I couldn't remember for the life of me where I had parked my car, and it took me 25 minutes to find it in the Venetian parking garage after visiting three different levels, something which almost never happens to me, which led to further life tilt. My mental game had reached a new low for the trip.

Went to bed and I slept for 10 hours, something which happens often after I've had a rough day. Today, I feel better, but I am definitely disappointed to be missing the PLO 6 Max and I am feeling some stress as to whether I want to extend my trip at all (currently scheduled to leave Friday). Results-wise, I'm still up decently for the trip, although factoring in expenses I'm pretty confident I would have made more $ if I had just stayed at home. I don't know what to do. On the one hand, games at home will continue to be very slow for a few weeks while continuing to be available 24/7 here. On the other hand, I've struggled in the past overcoming this kind of mental game episode when away from home and I'm getting increasingly annoyed by the trip expenses piling up and by the whole wsop scene in general.

I liked Sam a lot. I've played a little bit of Big O lifetime, although I haven't this trip. I definitely think there's a lot of profit potential in the game. It strikes me that it's a much lower variance game than most people initially think.

Thanks very much for the kind words and I'm honored to have helped inspire your first post. I don't know the origin of your SN, but for whatever reason I really like it heh. Re: the $3k PLO, I agree that we generally shouldn't pass up +EV opportunities, but my skipping it is more out of an awareness of longterm +EV considerations. If I played it and busted, I don't know if I could recover by the end of this trip from that kind of psychological blow in my current fragile state. I realize that's not an ideal mindset, but right now it's my reality; my hope is eventually my mental game is so strong I won't have to worry about such things. Right now I need to take it relatively easy for a couple of days and see what happens.

After I finish my post I head to the Venetian for a low-stress $400 bounty tourney. Three hands in, I get AA aipf against old lady's JJ and her $100 bounty. She starts standing up and collecting her things. I immediately feel like I'm drawing dead.

Jack on river obviously.

Still in it with 1/4 stack.

Just get dealt AA on BB with 15bb stack. Dude limps, old lady from before raises, other guy cold raises for my stack, I call allin, others fold, he has the other AA of course.

Variance is a funny thing.

It's a shame to see you getting so frustrated, but I can certainly see why. Insert it's a brutal game here. It has to feel so rough to run bad at the wsop (again) when it only occurs a short period every year.

This quote really resonated with me for some reason. Even if you end the trip break even, or down, so be it. Think, not too long ago you were talking about how you weren't satisfied at a job even though you were healthily paid. You seem to be having a great experience and really enjoying yourself out there. The stories that you are gathering are likely going to outlast any money that you make in vegas (pending a main event bink, obviously), so even if you don't make money, the memories certainly prove valuable.

It's so much easier said than done, especially when your living depends on your results, and I realize that. I am not criticizing your honesty or emotional state, because that same honesty is what makes this thread so awesome, but I hope that I can help to cheer you up a bit. Hell, I am even enjoying your trip, and I am not even the one taking it.


I hope you don't find this post annoying since I can't even begin to put myself in your shoes.

You've had an incredible attitude throughout this whole journey and we are all really rooting for you. Keep your head up and remember not only are you out here to make money but you're in it for the experience--enjoy it.

Keep crushing life

And just bust the tourney after turning the 2400 I was left with after AA< JJ into 17k. QQ < AKo aipf for possible tourney chiplead, guy probably should have found a fold tbh. King right in window and I am out, guy had like same exact stack size.

Variance is a funny thing.

You're a boss don't sweat it. Dody has some wise words above, my two cents would be to take a full day off to treat yoself. a nice meal (julian serrano ftw), massage maybe, go hiking/play golf, see jurassic world on the biggest screen possible, remove yourself from the wsop maelstrom, get some perspective, rest and re-evaluate, you got this!

Having read through my last week or so of posts, I've come to realize that I ran even worse during that stretch than I thought. Come to think of it, I didn't win a single flip in a tournament during that entire stretch, most notably losing as a slight favorite in the $1500 PLO with the nuts against combo draw to bust, losing a 45bb total pot flip to bust the Monster Stack 22 < AJ in a spot I thought I had a lot of fold equity, losing QQ against AK in tonight's tournament, and losing AK against QQ in the bounty tournament from the other night.

I've also run into some other forms of absurdly bad luck (having a $5200 4 way aipf develop in PLO cash where I have easily the highest equity and getting $0 back, running QQ into AA in the Monster Stack/spiking Q and thinking I had finally sucked out on someone in such a spot/getting rivered by ace, losing the 88/12 in PLO cash game last night for $2200 pot, drawing my friend in the headsup tournament, having fish stick in a huge % of his stack pre with AKQ5 against my AAJ9 in PLO cash and flopping trip fives in a standard flop SPR stack-off spot in another $2k+ pot, getting reverse-Monster Stacked and having my AA cracked by rivered JJ set in tonight's tournament, the Men the Master cooler hand, running really bad at the best game I played in all summer, etc.) Meanwhile, I can't think of any equivalent burst of good fortune. Rather, I was quite card dead in almost every tourney I played and the main reason I ever built such a large stack in the Monster Stack was making a big hero call and outplaying people in leveling spots. I also can't think of any time during the last week where I was on the good end of a cooler, but it's possible that's just because of some kind of cognitive bias where it's easy to forget such hands while easy to remember being on the bad end of coolers.

Anyways, I don't mean to state all this just to further complain. Rather, it's actually a little comforting to see that there was absolutely nothing I should have done differently in most if not all those hands and to know that my runbad has mostly just been running way below expectation in allin pots in both cash games and tournaments and having a bad ratio of coloring someone to getting coolered. I should care more about the fact that for a couple hours this week I played very poor poker and knowingly played my C game w/o getting up from the table, and also that I tried (and fortunately failed) to start a new 50-100 stud8 game when almost certainly I wouldn't have played anywhere near my A game. Going back another couple weeks, I should also care more about the fact that I played nowhere near my A game in the Millionaire Maker; I didn't want to be in that tournament and I played accordingly, getting what I deserved by busting early. I've played too many tournaments like that where I haven't asked enough of myself, fortunately just that one so far this summer.

I guess part of why I've been so frustrated is that I let my expectations get too high once this summer started off on such a good note, with me immediately notching two cashes that meant a lot to me (first five figure tourney score, first WSOP cash in tough event) and winning my first few sessions of cash and feeling right away like I had a big edge, especially in PLO cash. Between those great initial results following months of crushing at home and acting in accordance with my plan outlined in this thread pretty dutifully, I started to maybe dream a little too high and really expected to crush, without leaving appropriate mental space to brace myself for any stretch of this kind of nasty negative variance. All this got exaggerated given my history of really bad wsop experiences and some kind of sentiment that I was "due" to run good at a wsop for once. The truth is, negative variance can pop up at any time, and one can have a huge reciprocality edge by not letting it affect the quality of one's decision-making. I had done a good job of that until recently, finally cracking the other night and playing way below what I am capable of.

As I've written about before, expectations can be very dangerous in poker, and even as I am aware of this fact they continue to be a huge enemy to me. Tonight, for example, I found a certain narrative brewing in my head during the tournament. After AA < JJ aipf the first meaningful hand I played of the tournament, leaving me with 2.4k from 12k starting, I started to think what a sick story it would be if I came back to win the tournament, especially having just posted about how lousy the last few days have been. The tourney continued to be frustrating as I shoved AK only to get called by another AK, and shoved AA only to get called by another AA. Then, however, I was dealt AA for the third time in 45 mins., and held against AQ and 89, even collecting a bounty from the guy with 89; I had chipped up to 11k. Then, I turned that 11k into 17k after I made a great hero call against the old lady that had sucked out on me with the JJ. That hand, I open MP to 600 at 150-300 with KdQs, she defends BB, flop AJ7sss she checks I bet 425, she calls, turn Qx, she checks, I bet 825, she calls, river 9x she snap leads out 2400. WTF. After a minute's tank, I had a hard time believing she had anything, but I didn't feel prepared to call; I just wasn't sure she was the type to bluff. So I resorted to trying to acquire more information; I asked her if she'd show if I folded. She gave a solemn nod, in a kind of manner I've seen seemingly a hundred times now with someone who's bluffing. I called immediately after that. "Good call," she said, showing 9xTs. The table complimented me on the call.

After that, I really started to feel good, suddenly I had an above average stack and imagined myself winning the tournament and turning around what had been a really frustrating few days. I also felt like karma was on my side, a nonsensical thought, but I had been pleased with how I handled the lady's suckout saying "nice hand" with a smile and talking friendly with her a bunch thereafter at what was a fun table, in a nice contrast to my bad attitude last night after taking a similarly bad beat. It didn't take long before my dreams were crushed again, though, this time when I shoved QQ from the SB against a 3better, got called by his AKo, with the winner of the pot going to have one of the biggest stacks in the tournament, and there was never a sweat as the king rolled right out as the window card and I was out of the tournament. I had been crippled and fought my way back only to then lose yet another flip for my tournament life. From despair and utter lack of hope to optimism and dreams to busto, all in a short amount of time.

There's no question this whole mental narrative made the experience of what was supposed to be a low-stress $400 tournament more painful for me than it needed to be. In a cash game, I do fall prey to narratives sometimes but for the most part I am focused on making +EV decisions. In tournaments on the other hand, way too often I find myself losing focus and thinking generally about how I'm running or finding myself daydreaming about a big score. It would be much better to have zero expectations about any outcomes and just try to make as good decisions as possible, giving undivided and an equal level of attention to each decision.

Anyways, this has all been kind of rambly and for that I apologize. FWIW, I am feeling better now than I have in general the last few days. After the tournament, I went for a run, and then played a short 2-5 PLO cash session at Aria, winning $650 and running well in the short span of time I played. Tomorrow, I may play the $600 tourney at Venetian. Don't know yet. I also haven't decided yet whether I'll be extending my trip, which I need to do soon or risk flight and other rates going up.

Dody, this post meant a lot to me; thank you. You're absolutely right. At some point maybe a few months ago, I began to take this sort of life for granted and forgot how miserable I used to be and how boxed in I used to feel by the amount of hours I had to work, my lack of control over my life, and my debt. Now I have total freedom, my debt is gone, I'm healthier than I've been in a long time, and my life is truly my own. Even if I've been running bad over what is truly a small stretch here, I need to put that in its proper context and remember how fortunate in poker I've been so far this year overall; I never expected to have the kind of profits pre-wsop that I was able to accomplish. On top of all that, you're right that the wsop is a special kind of experience no matter what; it'd be foolish to overlook that. I needed the reminder.

Thank you! And, I think that's good advice. I'd done a pretty good job balancing my first couple weeks, chatting and dining w/ friends a bunch, seeing movies (incl. Jurassic World, which was better than I thought it'd be), doing trivia night, exercising and meditating, etc. but over the last few days I've been too mopey. Tbh, I feel some pressure to grind hard since I may be leaving on Fri. and I only have a few more days to make some noise out here. But, at the same time, I realize that perspective is misguided and could lead to trouble for the reasons outlined in my post above.

Anyone have opinions on how soft the $1500 WSOP PLO8 is? I've heard it's traditionally one of the softest fields of the WSOP, but I have no clue whether I'd be +EV having barely played the game.

Just made all the bookings to extend the trip through at least July 7! Goal is to run it up over the next couple weeks and then play the Main.

Way to be Glgl

One of the best threads on 2+2. I like your style of writing it makes me feel like im actually in your shoes. You are a great inspiration, keep going

Well, today was interesting! Woke up a little stressed over the decision hanging over my head as to whether to stay in Vegas longer. Within a couple hours, I had decided I would regret it too much if I didn't give myself the chance to see what I can do over the last couple of weeks of the WSOP. I decided I'm gonna grind very hard and really give it my all for as long as I continue to be here.

Around 5:30, a buddy of mine who just arrived in town texted me that the Big O (5 card omaha hi low) tournament at Venetian had a prizepool that was blowing up. To my surprise, I suddenly found myself interested in playing the tournament, even though I had only played a handful of hours of the game lifetime. I didn't really feel like playing cash, and a $600 non-nl tourney sounded like fun and low-stress after a stressful few days.

I headed over to the Venetian and registered about an hour late. It didn't take long before I felt that, despite my lack of experience, I was very +EV in the tournament, seeing people show down hands that were way too loose from every position and generally way overvaluing low draws lacking scoop potential. I don't mean to suggest I'm great at Big O; I'm definitely not, as several hands today illustrated. But I did feel like the best player at my table most of the day (good table draws throughout the day helped a lot) and I think I already have a very good theoretical understanding of the game relative to my experience level.

The tournament started off kind of annoying as I saw people making really big mistakes but I wasn't getting dealt much to exploit them. In one hand, I got dealt AK432ds in late position with a nut suit, 3bet, got called by two players, and the flop came 865ss (not my suit) to which the first player bet and the next player potted it; bleh. I had to fold. A few hands later, I saw a flop with A2338 and bet into four opponents on a AA2 board, one guy calling behind me. Turn Ax. I bet a little over 2/3 pot. He calls. River 6x. I pot it knowing I have the nut hi locked up and having blockers to the nut low. I get called by a bare nut low. Both the turn and river calls by villain were really bad. On the turn, I almost always if not always have an ace so he's drawing to half the pot, of which even if he hits it he might be getting quartered.

At some point, due to the above hands and some others my original 15k had turned into 6k and I braced myself for another early tournament exit. Fortunately, I ran pretty hot after that and turned the 6k into 38k in a couple levels to build an above average stack. During this time I came across some spots I really wasn't sure what the optimal play was, like whether to open AcQhTh6d3d when folded to me in MP and w/ sticky players in the blinds, but for the most part I tried to err on the side of playing conservatively. I did make one bad call pre flop in a six way limped pot completing the SB with K10852ds (king hi suit at least). I also made a couple calls post flop I think were bad. One hand I completed the SB in a 4 way limped pot with A3KT9ds (including 10 hi diamonds). Flop K97r. I lead 3k into 4.8k expecting everyone to fold on this kind of texture. Very sticky, very loose player flats to my chagrin. Turn Jd. One of the worst in the deck. I check. Villain bets 6k and imo I make my worst decision of the tournament and call. River Tx check check. He wins with KJ1082 and thinks he only has KJ, not realizing he had a straight. I don't think my call on the turn was defensible given the limited number of nut outs available and the fact that I'm going to have to check almost every river and give him the ability to bluff a lot of rivers even if I do somehow have the best hand. One of my worst played hands of the summer and a momentary lack of judgment that I regret.

Some other weird spots from the middle stages: 1) Two people limp from early position and I have AATT8ds on the BTN. We're all fairly deep. I potted it, both called, and the flop came terrible (like 865 again none of my suits) and I gave up, but I'm pretty sure at this stage of the tournament a pot raise was bad. I think I overestimated fold equity. 2) Very bad player pots it from MP, folds to me in the SB and I have AK975ds w/ nut suit. I don't remember what I did tbh (I only remember the hand b/c I noted the spot for review), but I think even against a bad opponent this is a spot one should tread very lightly b/c it's so difficult to play Big O out of position. 3) Pretty identical spot to #2, except this time I'm on the BB and I have AKQJ6ds w/ nut suit. Again, I wasn't sure what to do. This one is probably a better peel than #2.

As the tournament progressed, I got more and more comfortable, mostly just sticking to my plan of playing tight, limiting out of position pots, and looking for cheap steal opportunities. This plan by itself seems to be enough to be massively +EV. With about 35% of the field left, I was among the top 5 in chips (159 players total). From 35% to 20% of the field left, I was pretty card dead but still maintained around an average stack.

Unfortunately, the last level was pretty brutal. One hand, player minraises UTG and I defend my BB with A2455 (one low diamond). Flop 864dd. I lead 9k-ish into 11k-ish hoping to rep the straight (and, even if not, I still have at least the nut low and some kind of high hand). Villain flats. Turn 7d. I think this is gin as I expect him to have an A2 hand after he calls flop and now I think there's a decent chance I am freerolling him with my straight. He pots it allin. UGH. I call, he has A2 with the nut flush. I can still counterfeit his low with an A or 2 river, but it doesn't come and I get quartered. Brutal turn.

A few hands later, a player limps utg at 1200-2400. Folds to me in the CO and I have A2KJ9ds w/ nut suit (clubs) and king hi suit. At this point, I was pretty sure based on table dynamics a pot-sized raise would have a high likelihood of winning the $ in the middle w/o seeing a flop. I raised the pot. Unfortunately, same villain from last hand flats on the BTN and I lose the benefit of position. Then, UTG tank-flats. I have pretty much exactly a pot-sized bet in my stack.

Flop 854cc. GIN. I have the nut low and nfd, definitely a great flop for the situation. I pot it/go allin. BTN tanks then just calls, UTG folds. BTN turns over A267Q for the nut low and nut straight (arguably a fold pre against my range, even though I did show up this time at the bottom of my range). Brutal. Turn Tx. I've picked up a bunch of outs. River another Tx. Sigh. I get quartered again and am close to crippled.

I rebound a bit from there and then the Tournament Director announces we're done for the night with 24 out of the original 159 players remaining. 16 will get paid, and up top is $23k. I'm among the shortest stacks, but with the lack of antes I still have enough chips I can afford to play pretty selectively for at least one level.

All in all, I'm thrilled with my decision to play the tourney. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed thinking through some novel spots. I'm hoping to run good tomorrow and hopefully at least cash. Gonna run some equity sims between now and the restart to build my understanding of the game.


Thanks, guys. Meps, that's very flattering to me given there are a lot of high quality threads on here. I also love hearing that about my writing; that's the kind of reading experience I'm trying to facilitate. That means a lot.

Ended up finishing 9th in the Venetian Big O for ~$2300. I'm satisfied more than I am disappointed with that result, even though it would have been nice to make the final table (Big O plays 8 handed). Considering I came into the day 22/24 and only 16 got paid and I was pretty card dead, I'm pretty happy with the result.

Had one fun spot occur a few spots before the ITM bubble burst. I complete the SB in a multiway limped pot with A3689 with a nut suit (hearts). Flop QT2r checked around. Turn 7h, the best card in the deck for my hand giving me the nut low draw, the nfd, and a bad wrap. I bet 10k into 12k and three other players. Another short stack who had limped pre tanks a long time then calls. River 7x. My ace hi hasn't improved and I have stuck a big % of my stack into this pot. I have around 18k left, other guy about the same. I bet 12k expecting him to have missed a big draw a large % of the time. Fortunately, he immediately open mucks A3 and worse hearts and the bluff works (whatever limited showdown value he had, it was probably better than A9 hi).

Other than that, not much exciting happened. I got more and more card dead as the day progressed but just kept playing patiently and basically ninja'd up the payout ladder despite always being amongst the shallowest stacks. Had I ever been able to build a big stack, I would have loved my chances, as I saw the bigger stacks making a lot of postflop mistakes I could exploit with the right stack.

Probably gonna play cash today and tomorrow, and then a bunch more tourneys. At this point, I'd say I'm 50/50 to play the Main.

Congrats on Big O cash! Love that game.... If you play main let me know. I will buy a few %.

Thank you! I'll post in here right away once I decide whether I'll be playing the Main. If I do play, I'll most likely start a 2p2 Marketplace thread.

You should check out tastystakes.com. That is good place to go to sell pieces of yourself for tournaments. It is good for site for both sides.

Please don't listen to the above post. It's going to be most beneficial to both you and the investors to go privately/thru the forums to sell action.

Another frustrating couple days of PLO cash games since my last post but I feel alright. I've been running spectacularly badly at the Venetian over the last week; I've been quite card dead and the few times I have had a hand the board has come out terribly a disproportionate % of the time. Most impactfully, though, I continue to run very poorly in allin pots, almost always with the best equity. It's been pretty annoying to be losing in soft games at the Venetian while I have been doing extremely well in the tougher PLO games at the Aria and Rio (where I have admittedly been running much better).

Anyways, I don't want to complain; I just wanted to provide an update. While the timing of this stretch of cash game negative variance sucks, I have to remember it has no bearing on the future whatsoever (i.e., the fact that I've run poorly my last few sessions makes it no less likely I'll run like god today), even if the irrational part of my brain wants to believe differently. I'm going to try harder to focus entirely on my decision-making (the only thing I can control) and to ignore results.

In anticipation of playing the $1500 stud8 in a few days, I played about an hour of stud8 on bovada just now, one table of 5-10 and one table of 3-6, and made ~$275. Feeling pretty excited about that tourney, although there's a chance it might conflict with another one and I won't be able to play it.

Gonna go for a run now and then head somewhere to play cash for the night. Starting tomorrow, I'll be playing tournaments for a few days.

Thanks for the suggestion but I agree with xazel that, absent compelling evidence to the contrary (and I admit I haven't researched tastystakes much), the 2p2 marketplace is the best option for all parties.

I went ahead and created a 2p2 Marketplace thread for my Main Event action for all those who have expressed interest: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/18.../#post47384975