Hey guys,

I wanted to make a short term thread here during my live play in the World Series of Poker Circuit event here in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This thread is mainly to gauge some opinions on my poor MTT/tourney skills and do a little bit of self reflection. I'm not sure if I am going to keep this thread up after the series as I have my own blog (feel free to check it in my profile), but we will see.

So anyways, background: I used to play a lot of cash games/had some okay success there. I took a long break from poker after Black Friday and still haven't really played a whole lot since then. I do, however, enjoy playing some of these live circuit tourneys (and occasionally live cash games). So this blog right here is mainly going to be a bunch of TRs/thoughts on my live MTT grind here for this series.

Here is my package I put up: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/18...-17-a-1310955/

I was fortunate enough to chop the 1st/2nd place money in the first (and only) event I played a few years ago: http://www.wsop.com/news/2010/Feb/26...s-Event-5.html

Here is a schedule of the events this year: http://www.wsop.com/tourney/tourneyd...sp?groupID=938

So I will now be posting my first live TR today.

Gl, 'scribed

gl man, bink something big so you can take us all to vegas

Live Trip Report: Event #1 ($365 NLHE)- (novel incoming)-

I decided that I was going to play a few of these events and sold action a month or so ago. The field is generally very soft and I was amazed at how poorly the players were. As I walked into the building, I was reminded on how much I truly hate the casino- it’s a place filled with old, smelly degenerates. One thing I do love about the Horse Shoe, however, is the chicken fried steak- delicious.

I drew the 2 seat. The structure for these events is actually somewhat decent- we started with 10,000 chips and 25/50 blind levels. Each level was 30 minutes long and it was slower than some of the other tourneys I’ve played in Vegas.

I’ll be describing the opponents as I write.

Opening sequence- Everyone is open limping and or folding every hand. The table is pretty soft all around and everyone seems fairly poor in terms of skill. That being said, I know I’m not perfect and quite donkish at times with regards to tourneys, so maybe I fit right in.

Hand 1- I complete 9 7 after a bunch of limpers. The flop is 8 T 2 and I bet out, getting two callers. The turn is the J and I bet fairly large, getting one call (other guy folded).

This player we’ll call Passive Reg. Passive Reg is the same guy at every table who chats a lot and says stuff like “Really? Ya got that King?” or “Oh, I let you get there, huh?”. He acts like he’s a solid player, but in reality, he’s just a passive calling station. I did not know this at the time of this hand.

So the river is the Q and I think that I should have made a smallish bet (like 1/3rd pot). Instead, I checked, hoping he’d bluff some random hand (something like A8 or whatever). He flips over J8 and my hand is good.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

During this period, I’m stealing every now and again and opening fairly liberally. I do have this asian LAG chick to my left and she plays a fair amount of hands. That being said, everyone was folding so often (and playing so scared post flop) that I was honestly thinking opening like J8o in MP was profitable. I held myself in check a bit though (I’ll discuss more of this later).

Hand 2- Older semi aggressive guy limps in EP, I raise KK and he is the only caller. The flop is J 6 5 and he checks, I bet, he check/raises small. I mull for a second and then call. The turn is the 2 and he bets small, I call. The river is the T and he bets again.

This part is an LOL online poker player part and I didn’t see how much he bet, so I threw in some chips thinking it was a call. In reality, I accidentally threw in one too many chips and they said it was a raise (I had to throw in one more chip to make it a miniraise on his bet). He insta chucks in the chip and he shows QJo and my hand is good.

I’m feeling pretty solid at this point and I’m still stealing here and there. This far in the tournament, there are a few rocks (total nits) and one guy to my direct right (the 1 seat) who seems like he is semi competent.

Hand 3- A few limp to me and I raise A J and get one call from the Passive Reg. The flop is A 8 7 and I bet, he calls. The turn is the 6 and I bet again, he calls. The river is the 9 and I think and check. He mutters “man, I bet I just got counterfeited” and then flips over 8 6 and my hand is good.

We take a break and I get to watch AQ chop with AK on a KQQr board (J/T run out obviously). Asian LAG chick is pissed off.

Hand 4- a super rock limps in MP and I raise K J and get two callers, the main villain being the nit with glasses. Rock glasses is the name I’ll give him. He hasn’t played many hands at all and does super obvious things like shake his head but then calls a bet or two…truly bizarre. He seems to be super tight and somewhat passive post flop.

The flop is K 6 8 and I bet, he calls, other guy folds. The turn is the J and I bet large, he calls again. The river is the A and that’s obviously a pretty ****ty river, so I put out a blocking bet (like 2k into 6k) and he calls with Q T. I have no ****ing idea what this guy was doing on the flop but whatever, super nice turn for him. I’m somewhat tilted by this result but just shake it off.

Hand shortly after: The 1 seat right next to me is the only somewhat solidish guy I’ve seen thus far. He hasn’t played many hands and the only history I have with him is when I 3-bet his open early on with AK and he called and c/f-ed 224r board. His name is Atlanta Braves (he had a hat and matching jersey).

Atlanta Braves gets in a pot against a short stack donkey and Rock glasses. Shorty gets it PF and the Rock glasses calls (so does Atlanta Braves). The flop is Qxx and Rock glasses check/calls a bet. The turn is the Q and Rock glasses checks, Atlanta Braves bets, and Rock glasses shakes his head in disgust and eventually calls. Talk about a horrific poker face- you could tell this guy just wanted to get to showdown and probably could just bluff him off the pot. He’s such a strange player though that he might actually call regardless of you knowing that he doesn’t like the situation.

The river is a brick and Rock glasses checks, Atlanta Braves bets big, and Rock glasses folds in disgust. Atlanta flips over KQs and has the best hand over the short stack. Pisses me off that Rock glasses is giving my chips away but whatever.

----------------------------------------------------------------
I go fairly card dead for a long time. I open here or there and either have to just c/f the flop or I c-bet and then give up. The chips are moving around and 3 people actually bust within a 30 minute time span (we get this aggro older LAG who seems quite good and then another middle aged regular guy).

Hand 5- big mistake/bad play hand on my part hehe. Where the hell is the fun in a tournament if you can’t make a stone cold bluff sometime? I guess this is me getting a little bored, unfocused. Note: This hand is pretty poor by me and I know this…just telling you that now.

Atlanta Braves opens in EP, I call with K Q . We’re both somewhat deep and the largest stacks at the table. We’re heads up to the flop, which is 9 4 5. He bets and I call, thinking that he’s fairly tight/solid and that I can get away with floating here. I thought about raising but raising doesn’t really make a ton of sense given my overall value range here.

The turn is the J and he bets again. So here’s my decision- do I continue with this plan of doing another float or do I just dump it here? I’d guess that he’s clearly somewhat strong here given he opened early and has followed through on this board. Getting people to fold overpairs isn’t really a good strategy in my eyes and I probably should have just folded. Regardless, I decided to just go with it and try to make him fold. I felt that a river raise was probably more credible since no one ever really raises the river without the nuts, so I called his bet.

The river was a total brick and he made a small blocking bet of 3k. I thought for a second and then made it 9k, which is a healthy amount of chips at this level. He tanks for a while and then folds. I laugh at my idiocy.

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So Atlanta Braves clearly gets super steamed over this and a few other hands. He gets into situations where he starts to raise flops and then folds to shoves that are less than a mini raise back to him.

I start to get semi chipped down over the course of a few levels. Aggro older LAG is running people over with a big stack and there’s not much anyone can do to stop him. I win a small pot vs. another guy when he bluffs with T9 on a AJTxx board and I had QQ. I also win another small pot where I call a CO open from the player as in KK hand (and he had QJ) with QJo this time. The flop is ATxT we check down to the river, which is a King (completing the flop flush). This hand was the last before the break and I bet and he calls with KQ.

I see a hilarious hand where Atlanta Braves check/raises on an AT5r board against a short stack who clearly wasn’t bet folding anything. The shorty jams over the c/r and Atlanta Braves calls for a few thousand more (lol). The shorty had AT and Atlanta Braves had 68hh for no pair/no draw. Atlanta Braves was clearly tilting hardcore at this time and was playing super erratically.

Hand 6- So I open AQs from UTG+1 and all fold to Atlanta Braves, who grabs a bunch of chips and re-raises me. In general, I think this is a fold given I opened from UTG+1 and showed a ton of strength (and he shows a lot by 3-betting me). However, I feel pretty confident he could do this with AJ/etc type of hands as well, so I just shove and he calls instantly. I’m not feeling too good and mutter “****” when he insta calls, only to see he has 55. He wins the race and goes back to playing more solid. He had a medium stack and at this point, this leaves me with about 12k in chips at 200/400 (30bbsish).

So at this point, I’m semi tilted because he made such a spazzy play. I shake it off and continue to play.

Older LAG is still running people over. He does strange things like donks pot and bets pot all around. It’s an interesting strategy and he’s definitely picking up his share of pots. That being said, he does some really weird PF sizings, which leads to this next hand…

Hand 7- Older LAG opens in MP to 3k at 200/400. With like 12k effective, I just ship it with JJ. Everyone else folds and he mulls and then calls. The board runs out 6579A and I’m out of the tournament. It sucks and I leave disappointed.

I will now post some reflections in another post as to break this long thing up a bit.

Reflection: I feel like the field is very soft here. With that said, I know that I played far from perfect.

Some things to work on:

-Stealing more. These players are very nitty and passive and give up far too easily. I think that stealing more PF and post flop will help me take down many more pots/dead money.

-Avoid high variance spots. Yes, I know that this is the tournament standard (in that players HATE flipping or what have you). I should avoid spots like the AQs hand against Atlanta Braves and just fold. Getting it in in those situations is a waste of my own skill edge, and I really should just try to grind it out vs. these guys.

-LEARN TO FOLD IN SOME SPOTS! I was a donkey and paid off in a few spots where I absolutely should NOT have done so. It makes no sense to make lighter calls vs. tighter players on bad boards. There are far better opportunities.

Anyways, I play the $250 PLO tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

PLO $250 Trip Report-

Played in the $250 PLO. There were less than 100 runners and the structure for this thing was pretty poor. We started with 5k chips at 25/50 and 30 minute levels (next level was 50/100).

First round: I get zero cards and fold.

I watch the old drunk to my direct right limping every hand and playing super spazzily. I assume he's drunk or drinking because he's slurring his words and has a cup of liquor in front of him.

Weird hand I saw from him- MP opens, LP calls, old drunk squeezes for pot from the blinds. He keeps his cards super up and I can actually see his hand- 73K7. Both players call and the flop is A99. Old drunk bets like 2/3rds pot and MP calls. Turn is the J and old drunk bets 1/2 pot, MP calls. River 2 and old drunk bets like 1/8th pot and MP pot raises, old drunk folds, saying he should have called.

Hand 1- MP limps and I raise A A Q 9 and get a call from the BB and MP.

The flop is 2 2 4 and both check to me. I bet 2/3rds pot and MP check raises, I call.

The turn is the 7, he checks, I check back. I decided to check this back because I'm not really comfortable bet/calling for my tournament life this early (even if we only get 100bbs). Perhaps this could be a bet/fold? I'm not sure.

The river is the 3 and he bets 1/2 pot, I call. He has A 3J 6 , for the J high flush draw and my hand is good.

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Old drunk is still playing quite spazzily. He check/calls a pot bet on the flop with a bunch of backdoor draws and then calls a turn bet with a turned gut shot/he checks and his opponent checks the river back. Old guy has a bunch of high cards.

Hand 2- Old guy open limps, I raise K J 8 9 in semi early position. This might be a bit loose but old drunk is calling ATC. We go heads up to the flop.

The flop is K T T and he donk bets pot into me and I call. I figure calling is best here since he’ll pay off with marginal draws. The turn is the 7 and I have a flush. He bets pot into me and I put him in for a little less than a mini raise.

He has A 6 J T and has trips. He gets an Ace on the river and I double him up.


At this point, I have about what I started with- maybe 4500 chips.

The blinds move up to 50/100, so I have about 50bbs.

Hand 3- MP limps, old guy completes from the SB, I check with KK5 8

The flop is K 9 3 and old guy pots. I pot raise for t1,100, MP folds, old guy calls.

The turn is the 6 and he check/calls my pot bet again. At this point, I have maybe 1.5k chips left.

The river is the 7 and he checks. Now, is this just a check back for my tourney life? It seems like it’d be criminal not to bet here. If the river had been, say, a Queen, I think that it’s just a check. But against this player, I think I’m missing value. So I jam the rest in and I lose to JT87. Maybe it is just a check back, I’m not really sure.

Anyways, that was a quick session. I am disappointed in my results and hope that the next four tourneys (all NLHE) will be good ones.

Enjoying the blog. It's well written. Good luck!

Thanks man!

i re-read this about 15 times cause i don't wanna sound like a donk. but 2 pair 86 beats you here?

awesome blog man, i got a trial to dc a while back and your hand readers series with terp really helped me a lot so thanks. gl on the grind

glgl dave...

you're right man, i mistyped it and couldn't go back and edit the post- the board was A7867, not 9 on the river. my bad!

and thanks keith!

So thoughts on live poker? How many hours of live poker had you played prior to this? Would you ever consider spending hundreds (thousands?) of hours at a live poker table at some point in your future?

I've played a little bit live; mostly in cash games. Not thousands of hours at the tables like some people, but hundreds for sure. I don't think I could do it for a living, though. I have many friends who do the live grind and that's how they make their living. Obviously I have nothing against it but I personally couldn't do that- I really hate the casinos all around. I definitely have some live leaks sometimes as well (I get bored in cash games or whatever- this actually isn't a problem when I'm playing tournaments, which is weird).

I think that I'll still probably just stick with my normal 5> time a year playing live (for now) and the occasional circuit event/tourneys. Despite not really playing a ton the last few years, I still feel that I'm ++++EV in live tournaments.

Orange!

I like the hand histories, keep it up gl

NLHE $365 Day 1-

Firstly, I’m sorry about the lack of hands during the first few hours. It’s been a long day, and I am quite tired. I had a bunch of hands but I can’t remember some of them.

Hand 1- I get K K and raise a limper. I get two calls, one from the BB (who I just saw check raise the flop and then bet turn/river with a set) and one from the limper.

The flop is 773r and both check to me. I bet and BB calls. The turn and river brick off and I bet both streets, getting a crying call on the river. Nice start to the day.

I start to chip up decently by stealing a few pots. These structures allow for a decent amount of play. Standard c-betting and sometimes barreling the turn can win you a fair amount of pots, and there’s really no reason to get into super marginal situations like flips.

Hand 2- I call an open with 88, BB squeezes (same BB as in the previous hand), opener calls and I call. We’re all fairly deep and the flop is T 8 2. The BB squeezer bets, the opener folds, I raise smallish and he calls. The turn is a brick and he check/folds. Maybe it’s better just to flat there but I don’t know- I had the read on him that he’s fairly passive/station-y all around.

I build my stack slowly. I get a hyper old guy LAG to my direct left, which prevents me from stealing sometimes.

Hand 3- I open T T and BB calls. We’re probably like 50bbs deep at this point. The flop is K T 8. He donk bets fairly strongly into me and I decide to flat call here. Raising seems a bit unnecessary and I don’t want to scare him out of the pot. One benefit to raising is that he will be afraid if a diamond does hit the turn and it could potentially hurt my action…but I think that flatting the flop and making a move on the turn is best.

The turn is the 3 and he bets 2/3rds pot, a fairly large bet. I decide to just ship it at this point and he thinks and then calls with AKo and my hand is good.

Nearing the end of day 1, I am still in a solid position. I have had about 50+ bbs for most of the day and have been fairly steady. My cards have been solid for the most part and I definitely was hitting some hands. I was constantly telling myself “play solid, don’t be stupid”- it’s hard to resist the urges of going back into 6-max cash game mode where I am raising and going ape**** every other hand.

Hand 4- tighter weird middle aged guy opens UTG + 1, I call with A J. We’re about 45-55 bbs deep at this point (I can’t recall the number).

The flop is A22. He checks and I decide to check back. I guess I don’t mind checking one street and am not really going to auto go for 3 streets here against unknowns. Perhaps this is a leak?

The turn is the 6 and he bets 2/3rds pot, I call.

The river is the Q and he bets the same amount as he did on the turn. I raise 2.75x his bet, intending to fold to a jam and he tank calls and my hand is good.

We play on and my stack takes a few hits. I get down to about 25bbs or so. I eat a nice chicken fried steak at the café and am feeling pretty solid about my game.

Hand 5- One hand I was confused about- MP big stack opens 4x (very large) and I have JJ in the button. I don’t know if I should just jam it here with 25bbs? Do I 3-bet smaller? Anyways, I shipped it and he folds.

I start to chip up without ever showing a hand and I steal here or there (or just plain get good hands with zero action). Asian chick LAG shows up at the table with a lot of chips and starts to open a lot. At this point, I probably have about 30-40bbs and am feeling decent. It’s late into the day at this point and we’re down to our final few tables. We’re about 7 players from being ITM (top 21 get paid) and everyone is fairly tired.

Hand 6- Asian LAG opens in MP, I flat call with AQo from the BB. I’m not sure if this is just an auto-3-bet or what with these stack sizes (35bbsish). Off topic a bit: I find that I’m perfectly fine playing a big stack (75bbs+) or a small stack (like 15bbs>), but mid stacks are really tough for me.

Anyways, The flop is K 9 5. I check, she checks back.

The turn is the 3 and I bet, she calls. The river is the 7 and I bet again as a pure bluff (obviously) and she tank raises me 2.5x my bet. I fold.

This hand seemed like a mistake all around. I think I should maybe just try to check the turn and try to get to showdown? But it seems weird because after she checks back the flop, I think she’s got some sort of weird medium SD hand (and she bets all of her air on the flop). Her river raise is super strange all around and I have no idea what to think of it. I had air anyways, so not a big deal.

We end the day at 2:00am, I have about 15bbs at 60k in chips.

WSOP $365 Event Day 2-

I woke up super uneasy and tired. I idiotically pre-registered the day before for another $365 that I was planning on playing today (but obviously didn’t due to making it to day 2), so I had to go to the casino 3 hours before my tournament start time to unregister. Luckily, my good friend Mike and his dad (RoundGuy on 2+2) are staying in town and let me crash at their hotel room.

Hand 1- I win vs. a short stack who is all in preflop with KJ vs. my AQ. I hold and that’s a nice start to the day.

People start to bust very quickly and we go in the money within the first 30 minutes of play. We didn’t even have to do hand for hand, which was nice.

I start to really open up and take chips. We’re like 5-6 handed at this point waiting to minimize the tables to 2, and I’m stealing like a mad man. I build my t60k stack up to t180k without much effort.

We get reassigned at 18 and I have to move tables/seats. Again, I go on a stealing rampage and start to hit hands and steal liberally. It seems that I am winning every hand and one guy mentions “This is sick…this is like the Truman Show, and we’re all just watchin’ you. Only it’s the Dave show here”. I build my chip stack up by winning several hands in a row, none of which go to showdown. I’m running well and playing great at this point and am one of the top stacks in the tournament.

Hand 2- confusing spot here- UTG+1 opens (Asian chick LAG) for like 11k at 2.5k/5k and I flat with 9 9. She has like 25bbs effective. Maybe this is a fold or a shove? I don’t know.

Older guy who used to be chip leader jams over the top in the CO for about 100k and Asian chick folds. Maybe this is a call too? I have no idea here… I folded. I folded because I know that I don’t need to push more marginal edges than need be, especially when I am already stealing so many pots uncontested. Maybe someone can give advice though.

Hand 3- I open Q Q and get two callers. One is the asian chick LAG from before (her stack has dwindled from her calling like ATC oop and not playing correctly post flop) and this older guy. The older guy had a bunch of chips at one point and plays fairly passively (with occasional moments of spazziness).

The flop is a beautiful Q J 2 and both check to me. I bet like 1/5th the pot and the older guy jams over me. I call and he has KJs and I hold.

This pot is really massive and at this point, I am a huge chip leader. I’m the Terminator at this point and start knocking other players out. Asian chick LAG loses with J9o vs. my K8o. The board is J238K and she is obviously pissed off.


We go down to 5 handed for a while and we’re waiting for one last person to bust so we can make the final table (10 players).

I hang back a bit and my steals get shoved on by short stacks. I double a guy up who has A4 against my A7 and he spikes a 4. I still have a ton of chips at this point.

I really need to learn how to use my stack better and put players to decisions for all of their chips. It’s hilarious to actually type that out, but it’s true- betting all in when you cover them instead of just a large amount puts so much more pressure on them than otherwise.


Hand 4- I open Q T on the button and a decent short stack 3-bets me (miniraises). He’s got maybe 17bbs effective. I think for a second and then ship it in. This is an important moment for me; not only because it won me chips, but because it helped with my momentum and statement with the table. He folds after a bit.

We make the final table and the last 10. I’m the big chip leader at this point, with t500,000.

breaking this up into two posts since it's so long. Final table-

The final table goes quickly. Players are getting knocked out very fast. I win a race with AK vs. 77 and turn a King against a short stack.

Hand 5- I call a raise with K J from the BB. Villain is a solid player who is clearly a live regular but does some decent things all around. The flop is J 2 5 and I check/shove, he folds after tanking. I’m wondering if just c/c-ing a few streets is better.

There is a spazzy old guy who is a goat herder who is playing super aggressively.

Players are still busting quickly and we get down to 6 right before dinner. I’m still a healthy big stack and there are 2 other short stacks/2 medium stacks (decent live reg and old guy).

Hand 6- live reg min-opens from MP, I call with K T from the BB. The flop is 9 Q 8 and I donk bet into him. He tanks and calls. The turn is the glorious 6 and I bet again, he tanks and eventually calls.

The river is the 3 and you obviously know what I’m going to do- I bet a 65% of his remaining chips. This is where I think I made a mistake on my bet sizing- I should have just gone all in at this point instead of doing this. Instead, he tanks and calls with AQo and I show my bluff.

We go on dinner break and I eat another chicken fried steak.

So I have to keep talking to myself and make sure that I’m still playing solid poker.

Hand 7- I open 3 6 on the button for a min open. I get one call from the spazzy old guy. The flop is 8 6 2 and he checks to me. I should have bet here I think, simply because 6x doesn’t have a ton of showdown value. That being said, checking vs. this player is definitely nice because he WILL c/r me fairly light (and has c/r-ed me before).

The turn is the K and he bets 20k into a 50k pot. I call.

The river is the J and he bets 100k, nearly a pot bet. I tank and then call, and my hand is good vs. 52.

The next hand after I see him c/shove with J2 on a 9 T 5 board and lose vs. Q9h.

Hand 8- I open Q 2 on the button for a miniraise. The BB calls. This guy has been playing fairly loose and made some really bad calls (saw him call a 15bb UTG shove with A2o and he got there). All in all, he seemed like a fairly poor player.

The flop is Q 2 8 and he checks, I bet, he c/rs pretty big. I ship it at this point because I know he isn’t folding any Qx. He has Q 9 and my hand is good.

We bust the short stack and it’s down to me and live regular heads up. At this point, I have a small chip lead. First place pays $14.5k and second pays $9k approximately.

We start playing. I use the miniraise strategy and I think it’s best with the stack depth (maybe 50bbs). If he made huge mistakes such as calling way too much OOP and c/f-ing too many flops, I think that I could make it 2.5x or what have you.

He starts to run really hot (or he changes gears insanely and goes from a semi passive player to a fairly aggro player). He wins the first few pots and we don’t really go to showdown.

Hand 9- I open A T and he mini 3-bets. I call.

The flop is T 3 3 and he bets a very small amount. I think and then call.

The turn is the K and he checks, I check back.

The river is the 2 and he bets very large, about pot. This is a tough decision and I decided to call here. He has TT and my hand is NOT good.

This is a huge momentum swing and he continues to play fairly well and win more pots than me. I get grinded down to only about 30bbs.

I start to adjust my strategy so that I’m just betting much more aggressively all around and not checking as many flops. I also incorporate more donk betting into my game. I start to make some progress and get some chips back.

30bbs or so, I open 77 and he ships it. He’s done this every 10 hands or so, and I’m not really sure what to think of it. I decided to call and he has 99 and I lose.

I’m pretty happy with getting 9th, but there’s also a part of me that’s pretty disappointed as well. I had a significant chip lead and am discouraged that I could not finish it out. 9k is a decent pay day though and even after I pay my investors, I will still have a little bit.

There are still 2 more tourneys to play- the 6-max tomorrow and another $365. I’ll update this thread then.

I will also post some thoughts on my critical mistakes this past tournament.

Congratulations on the score Dave.

Good luck for the next couple of tourneys mate.

NLHE 6-max $365

I’m pretty tired after my long grind last night. I was pretty excited for this 6-max event though and I felt my edge was pretty high in these games.

The structure is pretty good in these events and we started with t10,000 with 25/50 blinds.

Hand 1- I open 6 5 from the BTN and get two callers. One is a super passive station woman who will not fold any hand pre or post flop. The other is an old man who is passive as well.

The flop is 5 8 2 and they both check to me, I bet, Old guy calls, station woman folds. The turn is the 8 and he checks, I check. I figure he’s not folding anything he called the flop with. The turn is the 9 and he check calls my bet and is disgusted when I show my straight.

Hand 2- I open K J blind vs. blind vs. Old man and he calls. The flop is Q T T and I bet, he calls. The turn is the 9 and I bet, he calls. The river is a brick and I bet again, he calls once more and my hand is good.

Definitely running good at this point. Both of these hands are within like 1-2 orbits.

Hand 3- I raise Q T from the SB after station woman limps UTG. Old man and station woman call. The flop is 6 4 2 and I bet and the Old man calls. The turn is the J and I bet, he miniraises, I jam the rest of his stack in and he calls with 98 and he is out of the tournament quickly.

I’m stealing more and have more than doubled my stack at this point.

CRITICAL MISTAKES INCOMING! RANT INCOMING!

I really need to get out of online cash game mode. I usually have to constantly remind myself to calm down and just play solid, simply because the inner spaz within me is so crazy and erratic at times. I definitely need to just FOCUS and play super SOLID, not SPAZ and just play well. Live players are far nittier than some of those online cash games. I just need to remember this and not flip ****.
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Hand 4- Since the old guy lost, there is no SB. I have seen station woman call a huge % of hands (she generally limp/calls a high amount and then c/c-s tons of boards). I HAVE seen her spaz out once with a weak top pair hand (TPNK) and she c/r-ed flop and then lead turn/checked the river. So I think she does overvalue some hands. But overall, passive.

I open KK on the button, she’s the only BB. She 3-bets me. I 4-bet like a ****** and she 5-bets. Of course she’s never doing this without AA but I’m a tard and decide to call. She has about 100bbs at this point and we get it in on a Jxx board.

Really awful play on my part. There’s no way an old passive woman is 5-betting pre-flop with anything but AA. I should have just called her 3-bet and then called down. Instead, I donate 5k chips back and curse at my own stupidity.

Hand 5- At this point, I’m somewhat annoyed at my poor play, but I truck on. I still am stealing a fair amount but also lose some medium pots along the way, mainly when players raise my c-bets.

I open A 9 from the CO, station woman folds and young kid calls. Young kid is a weird player- fairly passive (limp/calls a lot) and seems a bit loose/passive. He definitely does not seem like an online player though because his mechanics are quite poor from my observations.

The flop is 9 6 3 and he check/calls my bet. The turn is the 7 and he check/calls another bet. The river is the A and he donks out 3/4ths pot.

This was a tough hand for me and I thought about folding…but obviously didn’t. I felt he could do this with some weird lower 2 pair type of hand. Regardless, he had 66 and my hand is not good.

Hand 6- I raise with K K and get a bunch of calls. A total nit who hasn’t really played a hand and has slowly lost his stack by either raising small and then giving up or just calling raises/c/f-ing every flop spaz jams AJo and I obviously call and then win.

I lose a few more medium pots due to not making any hands or just the board not coinciding well with bluffing opportunities.

Hand 7- I open A 8 and I get one call from the BB. The BB is a guy who looks like Alistar Overeem’s brother (if you’re an MMA fan, you know who he is). For those who aren’t, he looks like this:



Anyways, he’s quite passive and fairly donkish. He takes extremely strange lines such as c/c-ing multiple streets with A3o on a 654r J board and then making lighter calls. He also will raise KK and then check/call a 8xxss board and then check the turn/bet the river large. All in all, I don’t really think he knows what he’s doing.

The flop is 9 T Q and he check/calls my bet. The turn is the 9 and he checks, I check. I know he’s a station and he’s never folding anything. The river is the K and he open shoves, I fold, he shows K9o proudly.

Hand 8- A bunch of people limp, the SB raises big with a very short stack and I have AA in the BB. I re-raise a pot committing amount and he shoves over the top with 9 8 and my hand is good.

Despite winning that stack, I really can’t get anything going. I hover around 50bbs or so for the rest of the tournament and can’t make a hand to save my life. I can’t really steal either because calling station woman is there and I don’t have a big stack to work with. I get chipped down to like 14bbs and a tighter guy moves to the table.

Hand 9- Tighter/solid/competent seeming player mini-raises on the button with like 13bbs effective. I jam with K T from the SB and he calls with JJ and my hand is not good.

I’m left with 1bb and some change for antes. I get it in on the last hand before my BB and I have KJ but lose to a flush.

All around, I’m disappointed with my play. I had a great chance to play well and build my stack but instead did that stupid KK hand, which slowed my momentum hugely. I got control of my play near the middle/end, but at that point, it was too late. I missed my opportunity to really exploit my opponents by value betting them to death and being forced to just play much tighter than I would have liked at those early stages. Oh well…I’ll get them tomorrow.

Also, I see that I had a typo in my previous post (not this TR but the last one)- I got 2nd, not 9th. I meant I got $9,000 for my prize*.

Hand 5 looks fine fwiw. He can definitely have worse 2 pairs and some spazz bluffs and I'd expect straights and sets to have raised flop or turn

Nice score!!

Thanks. Yeah, I don't think I was ever really folding...but not sure how much hand ranges change in these nitty live donkaments. Thanks for input!

Thanks Iain!