Treasure Island
Ended up doing Treasure Island's weekly get paid to play promo ($600 for 60 hours) in under 5 days.
The poker room opens at noon and the weekly promo period begins on Sunday. They also have a bonus hour where you get 2x hour from noon to 1 pm so you get one bonus hour a day.
I began the grind Sunday right at noon and the table immediately filled up with 8 9 regs and 1 recreational player. The recreational player quit the game fairly quickly probably noticing how little action there was and it was quickly filled up by another promo hour grinder.
I would say the TI game that begins at noon is one of the nittiest 1/2 or 1/3 games I've played in Vegas (although the Harrah's morning promo and Southpoint morning hours come pretty close). The game stayed very stale every day I played it but got better at night (9PM+). After 9 pm, it played a bit more similar to a typical on strip 1/2 NLHE game with random stragglers/recs/tourists wandering in to splash around.
Day 1
About 2nd orbit, a couple of limps to me on the button and I bump it to $20 with KK. I don't know anything about these players as this is the first hour I've ever played here and UTG who limped bumps it to $100 with a $250 starting stack. Folds to me and I tank and try to get a read. He's an older asian man who wears a hat and has headphones and is watching his phone for most of the session. I decide that in a vacuum I just need to get it in here without reads and its only for $250 and TI is a 500 max buy in so I jam and he has AA. As I play through the week, I learn that his range here is only AA and this is a snap fold. He never 3 bets QQ or AK and the only 2 hands in his 3 betting range is KK and AA. I will safely assume his only hands in a limp reraise range is AA.
I put in roughly a 15 hour session on Day 1 and towards the end of the night, a few reggy looking players who seem decent and probably play a bit higher stakes wander into TI looking to splash around and drink a bit. I'd guess they might be 2/5 regs at the Wynn or something. I'm in the game for 750 and leave around 3am with ~$1200ish after winning a few big pots from them.
Day 2
Was super tired from the session prior and I play a "short" session this day for about 9.5 hours. I barely remember hands from this session and nothing really interesting came up.
Day 3
I get buried in this session for about $1500 in buy ins as people keep hitting sets on me or getting super coolered (having 8t vs KT on 9QJ). I also ran a bluff that didn't work towards the end of the night.
I raise J
T
in MP to $8, BTN calls.
BTN is a player I haven't seen before so I have no reads but he bought in for $350 and he looks like he might be an ok player. My raise is a bit loose but I'm stuck and I open up my range a little when I'm stuck.
Flop: Q
9
4
(POT: $18)
I bet $12 BTN calls $12
Turn: Q
9
4
J
(POT: $40)
I check, BTN bets $20, I check raise to $85 BTN calls.
River: Q
9
4
J
A
(POT: $210)
I shove a little over pot size effective and BTN tanks and tanks and tanks and ends up calling with 8hTh.
I like my play here overall despite the results. I think combowise my hand is ideal to be playing it this way. I block the Ts and I block turn 2 pair with a J. When he bets turn, I don't believe I actually have the best hand anymore but I should still have decent equity and I want to be applying pressure to Qx type hands which I think I can blow off. The river As seems like a scary card for me and him but having the Ts in my hand makes this a pretty standard jam bluff in my spot.
Anyways, the guy ends up not being a very strong player at all as the night progresses and he turns out to be sort of a station. My bluffy image also pays me off as eventually I get back all of my chips from him. A few other weak players come in and out and the game gets good and I can't leave the table. I play til 1 am and cash out a nice $1750 stack.
Day 4/5
Start off the session stuck (4th day in a row) getting super coolered and running very poorly in equity. Top 2 vs bottom set, missing pair + flush draw vs AA. I'm also half delirious this day as I'm on about 3 hours of sleep per night and I'm straddling and splashing around too much. I have the button straddle to $6 and a lot of people come in and I decide not to bump it up with A
7
.
Flop comes A
T
7
I get check raised on the flop by the BB who is a TI decent reg. I call the check raise, he bets a 4
turn, and bets a J
river for about $120 and I make the call and he ends up having AT. Feels like I lost the minimum.
So now I'm already in for about 1k by the time night time rolls around. I'm clawing my way back and girl from Ukraine sits to my left. She seems fairly solid and tightish. She is folding her BB to smallish raises, she doesn't limp very often, in fact she comes in for raises more than I'd expect and she folded quickly to a small 3 bet pre from another player. Her game seems respectable.
H1:
I raise AA and she flats and BB calls and we go to a flop. QQ9ccx flop checks through and I bet 1/2 pot on an 8 turn and she min raises me and I call. River is another 9 and it checks through and she shows 88.
H2:
A player limps, I bump it to 12 on the BTN with QQ and she 3 bets (first time this session) to 25 in the SB and first guy flats and I flat.
Flop: 8T4 rainbow. She bets 50, I call
Turn: 8T46. She bets 100, I tank fold and show her only. She doesn't say anything
H3:
A play who likes to limp a lot but opens fairly tight opens UTG to 13 and I elect to flat BTN with QQ. Girl 3 bets from the SB to 50, UTG calls and I flat.
Flop: A66.
Checks through.
Turn: A668
She bets 60, UTG fold, I call
River: A668A
She checks I check behind and she wins with KK.
I think its possible to be turning QQ into a bluff here on the river to specifically fold out KK. I imagine her to be having a very tight range here and its very unlikely that she takes this line with AK. I believe by the river and after she checks, her range is specifically KK QQ and JJ. I think she will respect my game enough to put me on an A here given and will fold to a bet of 100 or so. This is also exactly how I would play any Ax.
I get stuck even more running kind of bad here and she racks up to cash out and I ask her what she had on H2 and she tells me she had JJ. Dammit. Oh well.
As the night is wrapping up, I consider giving up on the 60 hours and just doing 50 hours but a super fish walks in and begins to play. From the get go, it is pretty clear he has no idea whats really going on and needs the dealer to tell him what kind of options he has (to bet or check or raise etc). We are 4 handed and the other two players notice how bad he is so we keep the game going. He goes on an absolute insane run and runs his stack up to $650.
He goes all in on the turn with T7 on K427 and the other player called him with a K and the river is a T. This player doesn't even notice the T and says he has a 7 and his facial expression reads that he actually thinks he has the best hand. He turns over his cards, the dealer tells him he has T7 and he wins with 2 pair.
He also cracks AA vs one of the morning regs with QT in a 3 bet pot preflop on a KJ9 board.
Fortunately for me, this hand comes up.
Fish limps button, I pop it to $20 with KK in the SB, BB folds, and fish calls.
Flop: T
T
9
Fish starts to bet out of turn, dealer has to remind him its not his turn, and I decide to cbet $20 despite him betting for me because he had a very consistent tendency of always raising people's bets. He raises to $60. When he raises, he tends to barrel the next street at a near 100% frequency from what I've noticed so I elect to just call as I don't know what would happen if I 4 bet him on the flop.
Turn: T
T
9
7
(POT: 160)
I check, He bets $480 all in, I snap call and when I snap call, the reg on my left audibly yells "****" because he realizes all the fishes money is likely going my way.
Hands get shown down and fish has 55. He actually rebuys for $200 but the other reg ends up getting it and the game breaks at 4:30 am. Now I only have 2 hours left to do so I sleep another 3 hours and finish up my session in the morning. I get insta stuck again for $300 in bad spots and make it mostly back. Even though my results at TI were decent, I'd say I ran fairly bad overall throughout the week.
Overall the game is pretty horrendous in the morning and afternoon, and its fine deep into the night. I only slept a grand total of probably 15 hours since Sunday so I'm probably going to lay off the poker for a few days.
Final results: +$776 Treasure Island NLHE + $599 bonus hour rewards