Put in 4 hour session min. Learn the inside stuff. When you are finished playing but haven't hit the 4 hour mark, take a hand from the new dealer, muck it then leave the table with chips on it. You get to leave for 2 dealers (1 hour).

If you do the 4 hour sessions you will start seeing rooms comped.

Thanks for the tip!

Busted event 1 in 95th for $1780. Grinded my ass off after losing AQ<98s for 350K pot at 5K/10K. Was down to 85K at 16K at one point but didn't punt. Literally put my rally cap on.

Got some shoves through then 44>22 for some breathing room. Eventually 3b jam 310K in SB over 60K open from HJ at 24Kbb with AK. He tank calls with AcTc and board runs 9x6x5c7c3c and I'm busto.

Checked in to new hotel then drove back to hop in event 2. The grind goes on.

Take it down man! GL

Event 2

Sat down as late reg closed with 25K at 400/800. Great structure with 45 minute levels and 9 handed tables so I had to play it. Eventually shoved 20K over a CO open to 4400 at 500/1000. I had A9o. He had been opening almost literally every hand. He tank called it off and somehow had 99, but I somehow turned an ace to double to 40K. The rest of the tournament was pain. Luckily it was a fun, friendly table, but I had zero spots, and I mean zero. I must have folded 40 hands in a row and none of them were even close. I have no doubt that getting my chips in during any of those hands would have been spew. I eventually got my last 14K in at 2Kbb with K6s. After a flat, a reshove, and a fold, I was shown AQ and actually was live for the triple! No dice though and I busted around 100th of 412 with 45 paying.

Event 4

Event 4 or the turbo extravaganza as I like to call it was the $400 Saturday Series. 25K SS, 30 min levels throughout, 100K guarantee, 1 day tourney. I played pretty well I think and bought a few pots I wouldn't have in the past, raising an A93 flop after bb donked into me and getting a fold with my Q7, 3 betting AQ and getting a double barrel through on KJ4Jcc (guy told me he folded a king and a flush draw!!). When our table broke I had 50K at 2400bb. I find AKs in EP, open to 5200, next seat 3b's to 13.5K, lady in SB shoves 42K. I'd seen her stacking off light at the previous table so any thoughts of a hero fold went out the window. I reshove, 3 bettor tank folds, lady has KK, I flop a flush draw but brick to drop to 7300. I fold UTG1, shove UTG, it folds to different girl in the bb and I tell her she doesn't have to do it. She says her hand is awful and folds LOL. Eventually get 87 in and 2 callers and get a nice sweat on the J45T2 run out and lose to A4/22.

Event 8

Another great structured tourney but no one showed up! The 40bb $450 MTT, everyone gets 40K and we play 3 hours of 500/1000. 40 minute levels throughout after that and it plays like a normal tourney. At dinner there were 16 left of 45 entries and 5 were paying. I had a really fun table that I would list as relatively tough for one of these fields. The kid on my right was a quiet Asian kid who had just final tabled the bounty tourney the day before. I think we both realized that the other one had a deeper understanding of the game than just about anyone else in these fields, to the point that I shoved 16bbs UTG at one point and it folded to him and he tank folded AJo, told me, checked his phone, then whispered "if you're shoving 16% of hands it's a call so I should probably be calling." I made sure not to make this strat talk too loud for the rest of the table

I had 15-20BBs forever. We played 12 handed forever as well. I got so many shoves through with lots of very standard hands. Several times it folded to the kid on my right's SB, he limped, and I shoved. He made sure to let me know he had a balanced limping range and I made sure to let him know I was aware. I lose a hand that drops me to 60K at 2500/5000 when it once again folds to him in the SB. He limps and this time I check the T2s. Flop comes QT2 and he leads 5500. Since I've been raising my bluffs a lot in this spot and I've found the one player I want to be balanced against in the field, I raise to 12K. He tanks for quite some time, looking at my stack, his stack, my face, the board, the pot, back to my face, and finally announces all in. I almost beat him into the pot only to be shown QT . Board bricks out and I am eliminated.

Event 9

So event 9 is the last of the package. I finally found a nice hotel that wasn't super expensive last night. The bed was comfortable and I didn't feel like someone was gonna break down my door in the middle of the night, and I think that's what led to me sleep until just before noon. I really want to be on time for this event since I expect people to really be punting so I decided to wait to play 1B at 6:00. I'm really hoping that this is the event I break through, but I still feel very relaxed and don't feel the bad sort of pressure I used to in live events in the past.

Also forgot to mention I met raradevils yesterday! He walked in to see one of my many shoves get through. Nice guy good to actually meet you!

Shoutout to Benji (spelling?) who saw me today and gave me some really nice compliments on this thread!!! Means the world to me to hear nice words like that and makes me want to continue this regardless of what's going on in my life.

Event 9

Today I played the $300 unique stacks event. I finally found a hotel with a comfortable bed and ended up sleeping until about 11:45. I wanted to register this thing on time in order to get every level in so I decided to wait until 1B to play at 6:00. The blog said the day should end around 2:30, which is late given the 12:00 restart for day 2 the next day, but nothing I couldn't handle.

1A ended up bagging at 10PM because they decided they would play down to 10% of the field. I have no idea when they decided that put it meant that we'd be playing until around 5AM before bagging. Horrible imo. I had a pretty good starting table with the exception of a solid reg on my left but was unable to accumulate chips. I moved to a new table with 15K at 500/1000 and was able to double with AT>66. Soon after I 3b the guy to my right who was at my earlier table. He was playing almost every hand and was friendly, so I felt this was a really good spot to take control of the pot and have a guy play pretty face up against me. I had AJ and he called, flop came Q94 I c-bet he called, and I shut down on brick turn. He put me all in on brick river and showed me 99 when I folded, so I feel okay about my play. Eventually I jammed 18K UTG at 8 handed table with 88 at 1200bb, and CO woke up with KK to bust me.

So the package ended up with me returning just over half of what investors gave me. I wish I could have done better but I don't think there was a ton more I could have done. The entire thing kinda comes down to winning AK vs AT in event 1 but truth be told I ran very good that entire bullet and the AQ<98 and AK<AT were probably the only 2 unlucky things that happened that entire bullet. Unfortunately those were the 2 times I needed to hold the most, but of course that's true of any tournament; the further you get, the more important the hands are, and you don't get to point B if you get unlucky in point A, and the guy who fades it every time often ends up winning.

I know my time will come soon though as I felt confident throughout the series. When I had no chips I didn't punt, and sometimes I was able to spin it up and at least put myself in contention because of it. There were many chances for me to take bad spots in the 40bb tourney but I waited and got my money in when I had the most fold equity and decent hands. An unfortunately cooler knocked me out 7 from the money when I simply checked my big blind, flopped QT2 with T2, only to be shown QT and the door.

The bounty tournament, along with the 40bb tournament, were excellent structured MTTs. The bounty tournament would have been a lot more fun if I got dealt a hand. After doubling with A9>99, I legitimately folded 40 hands in a row, and I'm confident that if I had a hand history like online, I could click through every one of them and feel very good about all of the folds. I was about as card dead as you can be, and somehow found 2 live cards with K6s vs AQs for a potential triple up to get back over 40K and be peaking in the tourney at 2Kbb, but it wasn't meant to be.

The $400 Saturday Series with its 30 minute levels is essentially a turbo, but was probably the softest field along with event 1. I ran my 25K to 50K without many showdowns before being coolered with AKs vs KK for 20bbs each.

In short, there's lot of variance in tournament poker. I was talking with the solid reg on my left today and asked him, "excluding swaps and buying action and anything else like that, what % of people who play in this series will be up money by the end of it, only counting the tournaments played in this series?" He guessed 10%, and I told him I was pretty confident it was lower. We decided 5-6% was probably the best guess. Aside from the fact that there are many poor players, so much money is up top in tournaments, and even more so in these Borgata live birds. 400 buy ins went to 1st place in event 1! So when it comes to investing in horses it's similar to playing tourneys themselves. You'll lose money more often than you'll make it, but when you do make it there's big, big upside. And the hope is that the big upside outweighs the potential many small downsides.

I really want to play the Almighty Stack but you have to plan to go deep if you're going to play and while I might be able to skip out on our Seaside house on Thursday, doing it Friday would be no good, and that's day 3 of the MTT. Thursday-Sunday I will be in Seaside with a bunch of college buddies like we used to do several years ago. We've got 7 teams of 2 for beer olympics and I was randomly paired with my best friend and current roommate. Together we make up A Song of Smirnoff Ice and Fireball and will run over our competition. We're not going to stop the wheel, we're going to break the wheel. And then drink beer out of it. It's gonna be nice for me to get a way for a little while and just relax.

There's a nonzero chance I'll play 1B of the $2700 main event. Consulting with a friend and fellow poker player I realized there are ways to play this event without leaving the comfort of my bankroll management. For example, if I were able to sell 75% at 1.2, I'd only need to put up $270 of my own money, and still get the amazing experience of an incredibly structured tournament, a big buy in event, and 25% of whatever I made. That is a very appealing proposition. I take people's investments in me very seriously, and to be honest I have no idea what my ROI would be like in that kind of tournament. If my true ROI was under 20% I wouldn't want to see at 1.2. I know a lot of players who would laugh at that and say that I'm worth whatever I can sell at, but I really don't want to stiff investors. If I lose I lose and it's okay, but I want them to at least be getting there money's worth in terms of value. So we'll have to see what people think. Otherwise I will just wait and play all the Parx tourneys, including the main there.

Time for some sleep. Had a good time here in AC but ready to get home tomorrow.

The pleasure was mine. I wish I could have sweated you longer.

I subscribed to this thread and I look forward to battling you on the virtual felt in one of many NJ MTT's.

We Playin the Main!!

I'm gonna get to play my first Borgata main event on Monday! Huge shoutout to xazel (and everyone else who invested) on taking a large chunk of my action and allowing me to have this opportunity. I'm really excited about the amazing structure and chance to play this without having to put up a large amount of my own money. I'll be playing 1B and am ready for the challenge. It's a $2700 event which is my highest buy in by a large margin but given I'm still within BRM given how much of my own action I have, I'm confident I'll play my game and not shy away from tough spots just because of the money. Let's do this!

GL sir!

Spelling is correct. And nice to meet you, Dan. It's very easy to root for/follow the progress of a kind and conscientious hero, which is another reason I enjoy this thread. GL in the main and I'm sure I'll see you soon.

i have little respect for players that sell pieces of themselves. I realize the advantages of offsetting your expenses by selling shares but U should get into the habit of playing on your own dime because in the long run you wont have to split up the pie You get the whole pie

yeah sorry that makes no sense. he is getting to play a tournament he has an edge in that he otherwise would be unable to play if he had to keep all of himself. he makes money, the investor makes money. if he doesn't sell, no one makes money. there is no whole pie to keep. nothing wrong with selling pieces, if you wanna not respect people for a silly reason go ahead, but don't try to shame someone for doing something that makes total sense and benefits both him and the investor.

It's one thing to feel that way if he wasn't a proven winner and was selling at some absolutely unheard of mark up. Then you could hate all you want.

OP. Why don't you play on any non NJ sites. The OSS Cubed on WPN would be a great series for you to play in. On some of your slower nights it couldn't hurt to add a nightly $109.

Tell that to Ronnie Bardah who has enough faith in his play and has the balls to invest the $$$ to keep all of himself. If you never heard the name , look him up hes pretty proven player in his own right . Not just Red sox guy but countless others who use other peoples money to get them into tournaments Despicable if you ask me

The only edge he has is that im investing my hard earned sweat and balls $2700 to play in this event while Mr Red sox can sit back relax with the realization that he basically free rolled himself into this event with a few hundred dollars while i have to sweat out every hand hoping i wont bust . If i lived the life of riley playing poker all day instead of working my butt off doing the blood money 9-5 grind then maybe i would sing a different tune.

I'm aware of who he is. It also took me all of 2 seconds to google and find an interview where he says he sometimes sells action.

http://cardplayerlifestyle.com/top-p...ronnie-bardah/

You've still offered no reason for why it would be despicable to sell action other than that it's your opinion. No one can stop you from having an opinion, but that doesn't mean your opinion isn't a stupid one.

I mean this basically reads like you are jealous that he is a profitable player and that people view him as a profitable investment when you are forced to keep 100% of yourself if you want to play. Even if you aren't jealous and i just misinterpreted this rambling nonsense, it is still nonsensical rambling that again provides zero reason behind why it would be despicable to sell action.

Well then you aren't using proper bankroll management. This is the very reason people sell action. They feel they have an edge in these games but can't risk that much of their bankroll to play in them. Dan is +ev in this event, that's why I bought a piece of him. You have to take shots in this game. If people are willing to help you out because of your skill then we can all make some money off it.

Cheers.....

He didn't freeroll himself into anything. He worked hard to get where he is at and people are willing to invest in him(myself included). If you have a big skill edge as well then you could do the same if a $2700 buy in tourney doesn't fit into your bankroll management. He's getting an opportunity to make some money that he otherwise would not have if he didn't sell action for this event. Not understanding your hatred directed towards Dan.

No hatred towards Dan. Matter fact i support his journey in making poker a lifetime commitment . its very hard probably harder than one can imagine . Many quit after a few months when they realize they cannot pay the bills but so far he has proven the doubters wrong. Jealousy perhaps? For personal reasons i just find that entire process of selling pieces of one self is a cheap backdoor way into an event . I realize there are thousands of others who find it prudent but i don't . As far as selling off pieces of myself? That wont happen for quite some time or might never happen. My resume on hendon is rather short with few cashes and total earnings equal to a buy in and a bullet to the main at Borgata on Monday. Regardless of my critique, i still wish Dan the best of luck in the event. On another note i read about the breakup with his gf. He should not dwell over it . This is commonplace if your spouse or significant other does not play poker . They might be supportive but as time goes on the high variance and downswings will eventually take its toll on the relationship.

I feel compelled to weigh in here on the subject of selling action/buying pieces.

As someone who has bought action from a number of players over the years, including some of Dan's, I think it is important to consider both sides of the coin in these arrangements.

The player's motivation for selling action should be fairly transparent and my experience with Dan has been nothing but positive. The player identifies an opportunity to play in an event where he feels he is +EV, but understands the reality of negative variance and decides it is prudent to limit his exposure to it by offering a bit of his equity to potential investors. For someone in Dan's position (I don't know Dan personally, but making this assumption based on his honesty and openess in this PG&C) this is an extremely smart and forward thinking decision.

The investors now have an opportunity to make their own assessment of risk, a player's EV in an event, etc. and if they choose to, purchase a portion of the player's equity. Each investor has a different motivation for buying pieces, different criteria to evaluate a player as an investment, and a different expectation on return.

I will admit there are components of the marketplace that may need some adjustment, but IMO what Dan is doing here is perfectly reasonable.

Going off my original topic . The biggest adjustment they need to make is how reliable and trustworthy is the player selling action. When you sell a signed photo baseball card etc from a famous celebrity or sports figure , in order to legitimize the authenticity of the signature you purchase a certificate of authenticity when you sell your item on ebay or wherever to protect your interests . When you buy action from another poker player you rely on his good faith and hope he will honor the agreement. In my book that method has flaws attached which is why its best to do business of that nature with close friends or family members. In Dan case without even knowing him and reading his blog i can safely assume he is not a shady character. There are those who's word is about as good as the price of a half a stick of wrigleys gum and i can mention names but i wont. This goes back to the tells. If a scam artist tries to scam someone who knows the right people, he might think twice about scamming that individual out of fear. Then again there are some who could care less about who you are and who you know no matter how intimidating you might appear and scam you anyway. Since most transactions are conducted online so you never have to come face to face this might make the scam a whole lot easier. The idea of speculation and non trust in business transaction between both parties gives poker a real bad name

you got this whole thing upside down.. good luck trying to figure it out

Please get back to me in two years and he will be broke. Get a real job like everyone else in society instead of sitting on your ass breaking the mouse if things dont go your way

Did one of your horses sleep with your Girlfriend? ive never come across such a bitter person

lol it's as much of a real job as anything else. so much bitterness. life is much more fun if you aren't irrational/angry/judgmental fyi.