Unfortunately it’s non transferable. So I have to play if I win it.


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Day Ten - Thursday August 8th

The last two leaderboard tournaments are higher buy-ins. Today we have $1,100 Omaha 8

I have a very strange table. It’s like bingo with 5 or 6 players seeing every flop no matter how many raises there are.

At first break I haven’t made a hand and I’m down to 15k from 30k starting stack.

At 2nd break after I did make a few hands I’m up to 60k

Just after the 3rd break I’m out. After the 2nd break some very aggressive players (even more aggressive than the already aggressive players that were originally there) joined the table and it was just carnage.
Every pot was 3 bet and 4 bet. We have some good starting hands but just whiffed every flop.

So back to the day job. We have bets on New England tonight in their first pre-season game. We laid -4.5, -5 and -5.5 so quite a big position. The game closed -6.5

We find a good spot to watch it in the sportsbook.

The total was originally bet down on the possibility of weather, then when it looked like the weather would miss it drifted back up.

I’m watching the game and looks like the weather did indeed arrive as it’s windy and raining pretty good. I watch the first two series and look at the live total and see it hasn’t adjusted enough. There’s no way this can go over. We unleash hell.



Well not quite hell, but we put some coin down on the live under and first half under, both at the kiosks and at the counter.



This is the life. I’m relaxing with corona’s and kamikaze’s in the bar and let others do the work. Much easier than playing poker for a living.

We cash all our bets on the game for a very nice day.

After the game finishes I go to check out the tournament. Smaller field today so only paying 6 spots. Yuval our main challenger busts in 8th. No points.
Neal Corcoran takes it down to become a new challenger. Looks like I’ll have to fade 4 or 5 rivals tomorrow if I don’t cash.


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Lovely property, I played Event 1 1M guarantee.

When I busted they broke down to 6 tables, 3 hours short of day 3.

Day Eleven - Friday August 9th

Happy to get my morning swim in today after having missed it the last couple of days.



The last tournament for the leaderboard today $1,100 HORSE

I finish the rebuy period on one bullet with 40k, up from 30k starting. Not great but certainly playable.

There’s less entries today so only paying 5 spots. Yuval will need 4th or better to beat me if I don’t cash. He comes to our table after his breaks with a similar size stack. We play the following hand in Stud at 2k - 4k limits

He raises with an 8 up
I 3-bet with an Ace up. (I do have another ace in my down cards) He calls.
4th, 5th and 6th street no help for either of us. I’m betting and he’s calling.
7th street no help for me. I check. He bets.
I know he’s made two pair but I have to call.
Sure enough he started with hidden Kings and caught two pair on 7th to beat me. That one hurts as it makes me weak and him strong.

A few hands later the situation is reversed with him having the Aces and me the Kings. He catches open 3’s as well on 5th and I correctly fold but again it hurts. I’m out soon after.



Dinner at Council Oak. I try the New York stripper with Potato Gratin and 2 glasses of Malbec. The steak was pretty bland and rather disappointing to be honest. Also over-cooked as I asked for medium rare and it came nearer to medium.





Def Leppard playing here tonight and the casino is pretty full.



We’re only interested in betting NFL preseason though.



We set ourselves up in the sportsbook again.
Having already bet the Atlanta / Miami total Over we add Houston and Under and Philadelphia and Under (some of it bet live)





Slight bad beat on the Miami total as there was 27 points in the first half but only 6 in the 2nd.

We made up for it by getting lucky with Philly. The Under was never in doubt but Philly missed a 50 yard field goal (hit upright) with the game tied and only 20 seconds left in the game.
On the very next play Baltimore for some reason ran a passing play (looking for a Hail Mary I guess) but the Philly D stripped the ball from the QB and recovered it. They then made the game winning field goal as time expired.

So another good day on NFL preseason.

At halftime in the games I went to check on the HORSE final table.
With 5 left Yuval was still there as well as Chris Hice who beat me heads up in the $600 HORSE and could also pass me on the leaderboard with a win.
What happened next I didn’t like one bit.
They made a deal with Chris getting 1st place and Yuval 2nd place. That meant both would pass me on the leaderboard with Yuval winning it. Yuval also gave Chris $1k under the table to accept the deal. The whole thing stank to me. That’s not really winning it.

So in the end I finish 3rd on the leaderboard, the prize for which is an $1,100 seat into the Hold’em tournament on Monday. Not that I really want to play the tournament but it’s non transferable so I guess I don’t have much choice.



Day 1A of the main started today. This is the feature table setup that they are live streaming.


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Day Twelve - Saturday August 10th

After our morning swim we head to the sportsbook to watch the Olympic women’s soccer final.



Finals are usually tight affairs and i’m thinking both teams will be tired after 5 games in 16 days, plus it’s a really hot day and all things point towards the under.



USA win 1-0



Brisket sliders for lunch while we watch. Really good

The leaderboard is over but there are still mixed tournaments to be played.

$600 8-game today. We grind our short stack all the way to the final table and on the bubble.



At this point we only have 100k in chips and put it in shortly after the break starting with A-4-5 in Razz. For once we don’t catch bricks and make a 6 to double up.

The bubble bursts and we lose a couple of players then play a big pot in 2-7.
There’s already 3 bets when it gets to me in the big blind and I look down to see 2-4-5-7-K
I 4 bet to get it heads up and we both take 1.
I make a 9 straight away and bet.
Villian calls and takes 1.
I bet and again Villian calls and takes 1.
On the end I check, he bets, I call.
He made an 8 and we’re short again.

We’re all in again on Razz with 3-5-7 and this time we do catch bricks to be eliminated in 3rd place.



Another near miss.

We also have a rough day in NFL preseason going 2 - 5 despite having good closing line value on all plays.


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You obviously know what you’re doing. Lots of deep runs

Day Thirteen - Sunday August 11th

Another day, another near miss. This story is getting old now. Sigh.

First this is the NFL preseason action we had today.



Denver +3.5 was never really in danger but we took a bad beat on Dallas.
Up by 6 with LA driving inside the last two minutes. First they intercept them but it was called back for defensive holding which allows the drive to continue and they get the TD on 4th and goal on the last play of the game. More sighs.

Today’s tournament was $400 O.E. and it seemed a soft field. We couldn’t really take advantage early but did so as the tournament progressed and made the final table with about 200k in chips.





Same old story. Can’t get the cards to fall for us at the final table.
People betting the brains out of their high pairs in the Stud 8 round and us missing monster draws.
First it was us with 5-6-7-8 against K-K-x-x
We made two pair 8’s and 4’s no low. Villain made a flush on 7th. Half our stack gone.

Then we were eliminated after we made a King high pai gow with no low after starting 2-5-6 suited vs 9-9-x





It never rains but it pours?


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Nice report and great run.

Day Fourteen - Monday August 12th

Last day today. On deck we have the $1,100 No Limit Hold’em tournament with a $500,000 guarantee which I won a seat for by finishing 3rd in the mixed game leaderboard.
To be honest I’d rather be playing the $1,100 Big O but I can’t pass up the freeroll.

The tournament starts at 12pm but I take a look at the structure and it’s pretty slow so decide to skip the first few levels and go after the 1st break.



Gives us chance to get a few rays at the pool. Normally it’s all in the shade earlier.

I get myself mentally prepared to play the two card game and in a positive mood but that drains away shortly after I sit down. 3 people with sunglasses at my table, 3 more with earphones in, and at least 5 people more interested in their cell phones. And to top it all off the guy on my right has a routine of looking at his cards, placing a chip on top and then taking 30 seconds to make a decision, any decision, even folding. I’m losing the will to live and I’ve only just sat down. Get me back in a mix game

Unfortunately I still remember how to play and have doubled my 20k starting stack to 40k at the dinner break which is inexplicably 90 minutes long? WTF? I guess they want registration open longer to meet the guarantee.



Salmon and baked ziti today in the food court.

The 90 minute dinner break reminds me of when I used to play at the Aviation Club de France in Paris many years ago. They would always have a two hour dinner break with at least 3 courses including a cheese course and all the wine you could drink, but that was Paris and right on the Champ-Elysees. Not sure the long break is warranted here.





With the extended break I have time for dessert tonight. Really good gelato here at the constant grind coffee place. My favorite is mint chocolate with rainbow sprinkles .

Anyway back at it and there’s some big hands going on at our table - AA loses to QQ when the other two queens come on the flop to make quads.
Every pot is opened and 3 bet with occasional 4 bets. Pretty much everyone knows how to play to a decent standard. There’s no table talk. All too serious for my liking.
My torment is ended when I 4-bet AKs into QQ and don’t get any help from the runout.
I bust just too late to max late-reg the Big O so that’s all she wrote for this trip.
My mate Lee from Manchester ends up winning the Big O after a 3-way chop. I tease him of course that he only won it because I wasn’t in the field, but happy for him and some dollars going back across the pond.

By the Numbers

Tournaments Played: 12
Bullets Fired: 14
Total buy-ins: $9,200

Cashes: 6
Final Tables: 5
Total Prize money: $21,560

Net Winnings: $12,360

(Excluding the NLH freeroll)

We only had the one cash session where we lost $1,000. Sports bets we made around $2000.

Total expenses were around $3,000 including everything: flights, hotel, ubers and food.

So roughly about $10k net profit for two weeks work. We’ll take it.

Had a good time and made some new friends. Really impressed with the facility, good tournaments, good structures, well run, good TD’s, good dealers. Everything first class. Will definitely be back.

Until next time.

Dios lo bendiga





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Thanks for the report, very enjoyable.

Great thread I enjoyed following along! Very refreshing. Also the pic with the laptop, drinks, and bet tickets…living the dream!

Thanks for the TR and well done on the results. Shame you couldn’t take one down but still, very consistent