First Ever WSOP Begins

Landed in Vegas Thursday night. First time ever flying by myself; also first time having a layover in between. Not only was it cheaper but the idea of getting out to stretch my legs halfway through sounded amazing. All in all it went very smooth. I had to power walk my way to my gate in Dallas after we landed a little later than expected but I made it in time. Landed in Vegas and grabbed an Uber to the house I'm staying at no problem.

Friday I got up and wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I sold for my package that would start the next day so I decided last minute to hop in a $600 500K at Venetian. 20K starting, dropped to 15K, spun up to 60K then lost 2 flips to bust before the money. Zero negative feelings after busting. Why do I feel so good regardless of result when I'm in Vegas? The answer I've come up with to that question is that there's always something else to do! Whether it be play another tourney, go get some food with a friend, head back to the house and hang out with whoever's there, or even just playing online with my NJ brethren, I've got something to do. Which makes me realize that most of the tilt that comes from busting a live tourney is the fact that I don't have anything else to do now lol. It's miserable busting something at Parx and realizing the rest of your day is going home and waiting for something to do til the next day's tourney.

Friday night I head over to the Rio to pre reg the Colossus and just check out what the Rio is like during the WSOP. I get into the big main hallway and the first person I see is Erik Seidel. The 2nd person is Stephen Chidwick, 3rd and 4th people are Fedor and JaKoon and I realize the 100K is on break lol. Pretty funny for that to be my first experience in that hallway!

Saturday I played my first WSOP event ever with the $565 Colossus. I sit down to my table on time with 4 other players, one of whom is fellow NJ reg Katie Stone (shoutout to Katie!). 3000 miles away and can't get away from that NJ grind . I drop to 3500 pretty quickly from 5K starting stack, spin back up to 7K, move tables and have Ari Engel at my table, move tables again and have Tyler Patterson at my table, move tables again and have Francis Anderson at my table. I thought every table was gonna be me and 9 randoms! Eventually 3b jam TT at 200bb over an open to 600 with my 4400 stack. BB wakes up with QQ and we are out.

I head over to Venetian to meet up with some friends, they're all playing $600 100K. Again I haven't sold to this so this time I just hang out and play online on my laptop for a little while before heading back to the Rio with a couple guys who are gonna fire the 5PM Colossus. We get there and I realize I'd be starting an hour late so I decide not to fire and instead head to the big stage to watch Joe McKeehen at the FT of the 3K shootout. Idk if I've mentioned it on here before but I've known Joe for quite a while and when I realized there didn't seem to be many people on his rail I started relaying him hands from the live feed. He gets to dinner break 3 handed with Joe Cada and Sam Phillips and we head off to grab some dinner and watch the rest of the stream.

McKeehen has a decent lead on the other 2 who are quite close coming back from break, and sure enough the other 2 get into a flip shortly after restarting. Cada wins and Phillips is left with maybe 2bbs. Phillips then spins it up and McKeehen opens 66 on the button, Cada 3b's, McKeehen goes ahead and rips it in which I think is fine if Cada is opening wide enough (more on that later). Cada had KK this time though and Joe finishes in a somewhat disappointing 3rd for 101K.

Today I wake up early to go play Colossus again. Sit down with a table that I expect is more like what most Colossus tables would be like. I spin up to about 10K in the first level and then Joe Cada sits down in the 1 seat . Turns out he's a very nice guy but table is fanboying hard so I just stay quiet and go about my business. Side note: Cada seems like an amazing ambassador for the game. He was polite and friendly with everyone at the table, didn't have any air of cockiness, and even spread misinformation in a similar way I do when at the table ("yeah of course you have to get it in there can't fold a flush draw getting that (clearly not good enough) price!"). Eventually I chip down to 5500 at 500bb and Cada opens in EP. He had some chips and had started opening a bunch so KQo seemed good enough to go with from CO. He calls with 98cc and flop comes J76 one club. I can't help myself but to be goofy in these runouts where people are often so intense, and I assume Cada will play along so I look at him and say "fun flop!" Turn Ac and he now has all the outs. "Fun turn!" River is obviously 3h cuz I'm pure and I double to 12 or 13K.

From there I start opening a bunch and Cada and I begin talking a bit. People are constantly talking about the bracelet he just won from the day before so eventually I let him know I was on the other Joe's rail and ask him what he thought of Joe's 4b jam with the 66. He's pretty open about it and tells me that if he's 3 betting a lot (I assumed he would be) then it's probably okay, but the short stack would often just put the money in and then he'd be committed to calling, so he didn't think he'd be 3 betting too wide there. Uh oh! If that's how he's thinking about the spot then Joe's jam is a punt! Cada should clearly be 3 betting really wide in this spot since Phillips is going to be incentivized to fold a good amount for a shot at finding a pay jump in case Joe finds a hand to 4b jam (like he did here)! But if Cada isn't 3b'ing wide then blah to jam.

Anyway I catch a punt and fade a bunch of out to spin to 30K, win J9>A6 of a shorty in dramatic AKTQ4 fashion, 4b shove AJ into AA in probably not a great spot, pull off a bluff then bluff off a bunch, and eventually get AK in vs TT near the bubble for 22K each at 1200bb. Euro was not pleased that I r/c'ed button with 19bbs with AK instead of just jamming it in for ICM purposes. I won the flip though and had a bunch at that point. We reach the money and our table breaks with me around 50K at 1600bb.

Next table I chip up to about 80K then lose 99<87s for 24K each at 2400bb. 50K going to 3Kbb then get AK in vs 99 of same guy. A on the flop for no sweat and we're over 100K from 5K starting!

Chip down a little to 80K when chip leader who's opening a lot of hands makes it 8K in EP at 4Kbb. I have AQo in MP and decide to rip it in. Button calls for less and we're probably ****ed lol. He has AK and we lose to drop to 12K as blinds go up to 2500/5000 for the last level of the day. I get JT in vs KQ and get the cool KQ492 runout but then jam KQ into AA to bust 86th of about 2000 entrants, 13 minutes shy of the bag. With levels going to 60 minutes for day 2 it would be pretty sick to be in a relatively soft field with some actual room to play, but it was still a fun run and a cool experience for my first ever WSOP event. And it's not over! I'll be heading back in the morning for 1 more bullet of it, and then Venetian $1100 3.5M after if that doesn't work out.

Peak:

Nice update and sounds like a fun trip so far. Your mindset seems like it's in a really good place. Keep up the good work and good luck.

Thanks I appreciate that! Working on my mindset every day!

Colossus 1E

Wake up at 9 on Monday, out the door at 9:30, Uber driver takes some really long way so I get inside at 9:55, line to register is forever and I eventually get seated around 10:30 for the start of 50/100. Drop a little below starting, eventually 3b shove 4500 with KK at 300bb, get tank called by AJ and hold to get to 10K. I slowly chip up from there, peak at 18K and move tables at 800bb. Defend BB with A4dd, flop QJ2 xx, turn 3 brings bdfd (not mine) I bet he calls, I plan on jamming a lot of rivers but river 3 is not one of them, give up and lose to KJ, then 3b jam QTs for 9.5bbs, get a little nitroll from Matt Salsberg but he eventually calls with AJ and we lose on the exciting Q42A6 runout.

Venetian $1100 1B

I've been doing my best to register everything on time this trip but sometimes late reg can't be avoided. Since I was in the Colossus for a while the Venetian $1100 $3.5M guarantee is already at 200/400 with 20K SS. I get an Uber over and by the time I get in my seat the level is just about over, so I come back to 500bb with that 20K SS. I play a somewhat funky hand to get off to a good start. EP opens 1200, 2 calls, I have 9h9s in the SB. I'm not sure whether I like flat or all in best. We're essentially set mining when we flat which isn't great, but we're also just dusting off 40bbs when we jam and the opener has TT+. In hindsight I think I like jamming better. We often pick up a ton of dead money, sometimes we win and double when we're called, and it's pretty hard to win the pot without flopping a set when we flat.

Something about playing so many hours of the Colossus got my head in a good place for live tournaments. I (and most people I think) have a tendency to shy away from wanting to get stacks in when playing live. Getting knocked out of a live tourney is way more annoying than online. You're one tabling so your session is over, you have to get up and physically walk all the way out of the poker room, you have to figure out what you're gonna do with the rest of your day that you were planning on being in a poker tournament for the whole time. So there's a natural tendency to shy away from getting knocked out even if you're a good player who realizes it's all part of the game. However, the best players either never had this feeling or have knocked it out of their systems with brute force. I've started doing that pretty well, but the Colossus makes it so clear that your tourney life really isn't as precious as it might feel. Oh, you tripled your stack and now have a pile of 15K in front of you? Great, in a few hours you'll have 12BBs and we won't even be in the money yet. The structure is so accelerated to allow players to make the money after 12 levels, or 6 hours, that it's pretty obvious you need to go for it early and not cling onto whatever stack you might have now.

So when I sat down for this tournament I had that mindset. I wanted to take every spot. 40 minute levels are great but that doesn't mean you should shy away from the close spots. In fact, you should pick on the people who are doing that themselves! I think I am still gunshy about busting a tournament as soon as I sit down, but the more I play live the more I'll be okay with that. I opted to call here but again, I think in hindsight I'd jam. BB also calls. Flop comes 764hh and it checks through. Turn 4h and now I have a decision. Again I think this is close. I don't think any of the last 3 who checked are going to have very strong hands. They can't have 85 or 53, they'd all bet their sets when checked to, probably betting overpairs, and they'd most likely stab their flush draws so I'm not too worried about the flush getting there. The BB is pretty uncapped though. He can pretty much have every boat and the suited combos of straights (I suppose he can also have some offsuit straights as well given the price he was getting pre). He can also have a ton of 4x. Because of this I chose to check/call, but clearing up equity and getting value from those hands that have one big heart might be better. BB does indeed bet, MP calls, and I overcall.

River is a pretty amazing 4x, giving me a full house to move ahead of flushes, making it less likely BB has 4x, and probably making 7x feel pretty comfortable about having the best hand. I check, BB bets again, MP folds, I call and beat T8.

A few hands later the 3rd November Niner I've played with in the last 2 days moves to my direct right. Cada (2009 champ) on my Colossus table Sunday, Dan Sindelar (7th in 2014)at my Colossus table Monday, and now Neil Blumenfield (3rd in 2015). Bumping into these guys as often as I have been out here makes me start to wonder if final tabling the main is really all that difficult . I'm really happy with how I feel when guys I've only seen on TV have been sitting at my table. There aren't any nerves or even any feeling of "oh cool I get to play with this guy!" It's more just realizing that they are just also poker players who, most of the time, just ran well in the right tournament.

Neil was very friendly and I bantered with him in a pretty similar way that I do most friendly older guys. It folds to his SB at 1Kbb and he makes it 4K. We're about 40K effective at this point and this just feels like a raise size of someone who has a good but not great hand and "wants to take it down right now." I plan on defending any reasonable holding and J9o falls in that category. Flop is QQ2r and he c-bets 3K. He can just have a lot of airballs here and I have a bdsd so I continue with a call, deciding he's gonna have to fire 2 barrels if he wants to win this pot. Turn is a 5x and he checks and kinda gives me a death stare, which I interpret as "please don't bet please don't bet." With 15K in the middle and about 30K back I decide I'll go 1/3 on turn and jam a bunch of rivers. I don't expect him to have Qx or big pairs with how he shot me this glance on the turn so it's going to be very hard for him to stand up to this pressure. I bet 5500 on turn, he tanks and seems a bit frustrated but eventually folds.

I continue chipping up to about 60K when I open CO to 2700 at 1200bb with AJo. Button, a guy named Roger from France who I've been having nice conversation with, 3b's to 6500 off a 25K stack. On one of my Colossus bullets I opened MP with AJo at 1Kbb to 2200 and button 3b to 5500 with 16K to start. I decided there was a chance he was tired of me opening a bunch and wasn't aware that he couldn't really 3b/f off that stack so I jammed. I told a few friends about the hand and they all seemed to agree it's a pretty easy spot for me to just fold. They didn't think rec players would be really going for it in that spot. They are probably right given villain in that hand had AA.

So that spot comes up in my head and I start leaning towards finding the fold. But then I remember a follow up conversation I had with those same friends where I discuss another spot that led me to feel like I had some decent FE in the Colossus AJ hand. They point out that that spot is different because positions were not the same. If I was CO when I opened the AJo, for example, my 4b jam might have been more reasonable since it'd be more likely for the button to be messing around. But people are probably not 3b'ing light against the MP open.

So once again my mind switches back to wanting to jam. Add to the fact that Roger was the one who bluffed with the T8 and he's a younger European and I decide I must jam this hand. He more or less snap calls and I think "dammit, ran into AA again" but I feel better when he turns over 99. I unfortunately lose the flip but I really liked the way I was able to think through the spot and come up with an informed decision based on multiple different conversations I'd had in the past few days.

I lose a few more pots and go to dinner with 19K coming back to 1K. Of my 5 friends at dinner, 5 of us are around 20K with the 6th, Mike (wsopboy1993) at 115K. I think he covered us all combined lol.

Back from dinner I win some small pots then 3b squeeze 25bbs with KQ. The opener iso's AJ and flop comes J54ccc. Neither player has a club, turn is Kc, river is Ac. Pretty fun runout. Our table eventually breaks and I have about 25K at 1600bb when I sit down to my new table. I'm in the 1, Andrew Brokos in the 2 (shoutout to him if he ever sees this, fun playing with him), and none other than Mike in the 4! The atmosphere at the table was pretty relaxed and we were all having a good time. I got a ton of shoves through and didn't do a whole lot other than jamming. Two players bust and Shannon Shorr and Harrison Gimbel move to our table and my shoves continue to get through. I chip up to 60K at 3Kbb before finally playing a few hands with showdown during the hand for hand last 5 hands of the day phase!

First I open to a non-all in size for the first time in hours when I make it 6500 in MP with 99. Folds to Shorr in the BB who jams for about 12K more than I have and I call it off. He has AK and the J93 flop is a good one. Turn Q river brick and we double to 120K. Next hand I open 6500 with AJo, Shannon jams his 12K I call, he has QJ and board runs xxxxQ. We won the important one though so not allowed to be annoyed there. Next hand I open 99 again and Andrew calls on my life this time. I don't remember the exact action but I believe I got one street on a board with 2 overs and won the pot. Last hand of the day Mike jams 30K or so with JJ, gets called by SB's AQ and wins the flip to double back to 70K. He'd lost a big one at the beginning of the level but managed to hang in there and survive to day 2.



So after the dust settled I ended up bagging 133K coming back to 2K/4K on Thursday (my birthday!). I decided to take the day off today and try to catch up on some rest. I also want to go get some groceries and I've been laying around being lazy. I'll get up after posting this and go do that. It's hit triple digit temperatures every day I've been here so far and it's projected to continue doing that every day I'll be here. We don't have a rent-a-car so I'm going to walk to a Walgreens rather than pay for an Uber. I'll probably be sweating a bit on this journey but it'll be good to get some exercise. The internet connection in our house is weak which is very frustrating so I'll probably go try to find a Starbucks or something and play online in there. There are a bunch of tourneys I'd like to play on the NJ schedule that I skip since they start at 9PM and later. But in Vegas that's 6PM so I'll most likely be hopping in the $250 they have tonight, along with maybe some ACR stuff. Tomorrow I think I'll fire the Wynn $550 100K and sell 50% off at 1.27 to make it a $200 50K for myself . I'm really enjoying the trip again and I'm excited about that!

Note: I wrote the following probably 4 or 5 days ago but started falling asleep so I copied it to paste back here for later. Will make a new post after this one to finish this post and update what's happened since then.

Wynn $550 100K

With Venetian Day 2 on Thursday I didn't have anything to do Tuesday or Wednesday. I decided to go on a run and then relax Tuesday, but Wednesday I headed out to play the 1 day $550 100K. 18K SS and I'll just post the hands that were notable that I remember:

500/1000/1000, late reg has just closed, folds to my SB and I have JJ. I'm pretty sure he has about 14bbs but I ask to see his stack for 2 reason. For one, confirming he does indeed have that many chips and two, a limp now is gonna look absurdly weak. People don't balance bvb limping ranges, especially in a $550, and this seemed like a player who might read into that. I limp, he jams, and I hold vs T2s.

600/1200/1200, I 3K CO with AA and 35K to start, folds to BB with a lot of chips who makes it 10K, I count my stack down to confirm I do indeed have 35K. I also think this looks weak, and while I'm not in the business of trying to give off fake live tells or anything, I would want to chop my stack down in some other spots where I have weaker hands to confirm how many chips I have. So I do this and then elect to flat, there will be 22K in the middle so SPR of 1 after I flat and I think BB is gonna over c-bet. Flop comes J73hh and he jams Ad6s. So I think my read was right lol.

I go to dinner with 101K coming back to 3Kbb with 80 left and 39 paying. I bust less than an orbit into post-dinner play

1500/3000/3000, folds to SB who makes it 9K, I call Q9hh. Flop Q42ccd (21K) he bets 8K I call, turn Q42ccd Td (37K) he bets 19K I call, river Q42ccdTd7s (75K) he bets 35K. I have 55K going to the river. I really didn't know what to do in game. Every draw missed. I don't know how to interpret his non-all in bet. I'm gonna have a decent amount of missed draws myself but do also have some 22/44/QT. I 3b QQ/TT/AQ, maybe KQ pre, so I guess I also have some KQ and QJ in the better hands category, but QJ blocks more missed straight draws than Q9 does so I'd prefer calling Q9 to QJ anyway. From an exploitative standpoint, I think population probably bluffs flush draws too often here. I'm gonna try to come up with an accurate range for him and plug it into equilab at some point to decide what I like best in this spot after thinking about it for a while. In game I called, was shown AQ, and was left with 27K.

Next hand MP jams 20K I iso AKs and lose to Q9o. Final hand (which is probably the 7th hand back from dinner) I get my last 2bbs in with KJ, 2 other players are in a side pot, flop comes AQTss and I am eliminated . Guy who got all my chips with the AQ had A7ss this time and river was a spade. What can ya do?

Venetian Day 2

June 7th, my birthday, and I feel really fortunate to be alive at 27 and able to play a game that I love for a living. I get up and grab an Uber over to the Sands Expo Center at Venetian to start up day 2 of the $1100 3.5M. Early on I open AKs to 9K at 4Kbb from UTG1, CO 3b's to 25K, I jam 140K and he more or less snap folds. There were 650 players back to day 2 with 450 paying; after the first 40 minute level we were down to 558 so it appeared we'd reach the money quite quickly. I chip down to 140K and then UTG1 limps for 5K which was sorta strange since he'd opened a few times and had yet to open limp like this. UTG2, the same guy who 3b/f'ed to me earlier, makes it 17K. I have 99 in the SB and I think chip EV-wise this has to be a pretty easy jam. If he's willing to 3b a UTG1 opener light, then I have to imagine he's going to be isolating lighter than the standard live player would in this spot. I also think we're far enough away from the money that jamming is fine. If we were, say, 20 from the money, I might flat and try to navigate post (for all I know folding might be best in that spot even). But over 100 away from the money I elected to jam. I get snapped by AK and we're off to the races. 742 flop is sweet but A turn is not. We count down the stacks and I cover by 3K. Put K3 in on the button the next hand, BB has J6, K8664 ends our day.

WSOP $1500 Six Max

Not to be deterred and still feeling really lucky to be doing what I'm doing, I hop in an Uber over to the Rio to play the tournament I've probably looked forward to the most this summer, the $1500 Six Max WSOP event. I get there at 75/150 no ante and immediately get involved in a pretty big pot. UTG goes 350, HJ flats, I call QTcc on button, flop Q76cds (1275), UTG x, HJ bets 1200! He's an older looking rec player and this spot is quite annoying. Starting stack is only 7500 so this is for a pretty large chunk. He also has less than starting at beginning of hand, maybe about 5K. I decide I need to call one and decide turn, though I think a strong case can be made for just folding. I have both the bdfd and bdsd so I think folding this specific Q would just be too nitty. Turn Q76r Td (3675) and he jams. I call and hold vs KQdd to bust him and get to 13K early. The rest of the table all seem like pretty friendly regs so I joke that it's my birthday so I'm supposed to run good. Kid who opened UTG that hand reveals that it is also his birthday. Small world.

They break our table and move us from the Pavilion to the Brasilia room. I sit down in the 6 seat and see the 1 seat is Scott Stewart (took 13th in the main last year, guy with the American flag bandana) and the 2 seat is Martin Finger (German player with 7.5M in earnings who I remember watching on streams while he played high rollers). Fortunately Martin is short and loses a couple pots to the rec players at the table. The 3-5 seats all seem quite soft so losing Martin and only having to deal with Scott would be ideal. Folds to my button and I have ATo at 200bb. I try to make sure I'm balanced in live spots like this, so I ask Martin how much he's playing even though I'm gonna open regardless of what the answer is. He has 3K, I make it 500, he jams A8o and I hold to eliminate him. Another rec is moved into the 2 seat so the table is looking great.

I run some unsuccessful bluffs and end up at 9K at 400bb. I open AT, 2 calls, flop 987cc and rec in bb just leads 2300 which is about pot. I jam thinking it's unlikely he'll have straights and probably has a decent amount of 9x that I have good equity against. I am completely wrong as he calls with JT and I'm dead to a chop. I bend down to grab my packback and almost give myself whiplash when I look back and see the river is a jack. A few hands later I double KQ>JJ of the same rec to get back to 20K or so. Happy birthday to me!

Unfortunately it seemed like every time I started to get some steam going, I'd find a way to lose a few pots and go back into that frustrating 20-30bb range. I doubled AA>AQ the last level of the day and then lost a bunch of pots to bag 18.4K coming back to 1Kbb.

WSOP $1500 Six Max Day 2

It turns out that 264 players bagged with 250 paying so the plan is to do some good ol fashioned stalling. 14 away from the money with a field this big shouldn't take too long to get to hand for hand and I want to play as few hands as possible between the start and then. My table draw is very interesting. EVERYONE is below average but everyone also has more in earnings than me. In fact, 3 players have 7 figures in earnings, 1 only has 500K but is one of the biggest legends in the NJ online cash scene (goes by TomBrady on Party), and the 5th player has a similar hendon to me with slightly more in earnings. Kevin Saul is on my direct left with 12K and we both seem to be aware that stalling is the play. I hate doing it so much and always feel uncomfortable, but watching Kevin do it was like watching a master artist paint. He'd tank for about a full minute each hand and do it in a very pleasant way, chatting with other people at the table, and often claiming that this actually was a close spot (which was almost certainly bull**** ). We do eventually get to the money and I have 14K with 30 minutes left at 1Kbb.

It's a nice weight off the shoulders to hit the money since you can now just play the game again. It folds to Ajay's (TomBrady) SB and he looks at my stack, which is 13 yellows and about 10 blacks. I tell him "about 14K" and he limps. I jam KT to which he responds "wait, how much did you say you had??" He then realizes I had a lot less than he thought, which I just found really funny since he's obviously way more inclined to play online than live and made a pretty standard live noob mistake. He folds saying he probably would've just jammed if he'd realized. Anyway, no harm no foul for him, as next orbit he jams button, I call off my 14bbs with 44 and lose to his QTs to bust 223rd for the $2249 mincash. Technically WSOP cash number 2 but this feels like the first real one in what I assume will be my favorite event for years to come. Maybe that'll change if I bust the 7500 starting stack early a couple years in a row, but for now I was loving this one.

I came back to the house, got some lunch, and am now just hanging out again. The Millionaire Maker is the next tournament on the package and that starts tomorrow so I'm just gonna hang out today and relax. I ran 3 miles this morning in the Vegas heat and I just feel wiped out, although I did feel very focused at the table so that could be a cool thing to continue doing in the future before tourneys. I've been incredibly fortunate to not have a dud of a bullet yet while in Vegas this summer. The worst bullet I've had was that first Colossus one and even there I took the 5K SS up to 7500 (1.5x starting) before busting. This is of course due mostly to positive variance, but I also think the long structures and my willingness to be patient and only really go for it in great spots has something to do with it too. The guys I'm staying with really love going for it, but I do think they might go for it a bit too much early in MTTs. I see the merit in having a big stack later on and being able to stay on the gas, but they really do seem to light a lot of buy ins on fire in these "good spots" where recs just aren't going to fold since it's early in the tournament. The later you get into an MTT, the more willing recs are to fold stronger hands, meaning going for it there makes sense to me. And that's a big part of the reason these guys crush. But early on I just tend to play my cards and only take the bluff spots that really seem good and necessary.

are you even alive!?

He's back in Vegas for a few weeks.

WSOP UPDATE!!!

Gonna have to be brief on each MTT since I've played a lotta live poker since last post.

June 9-11, Millionaire Maker

Four bullets sold for, all fired, last one stuck. $1500 buy in, 7361 entries, everyone who bagged day 1 cashed. Two players bagged 35,200. They put the better of the two players on top:





Came to day 2 with Joseph Cheong on direct left. Spun up stack to 75K then lost big pot to Cheong where I flopped set and he rivered flush. Hung around and grinded then found 2 doubles vs the same guy to go from 20K to 80K at 2Kbb.



Moved tables but wasn't able to spin it up, busted 248th of 7361 for $5800 and a nice little overall -$200 troll.

June 12, Venetian $1100

One day 250K, 30K SS, spun up to 137K on last break of day 1 back to 3Kbb.



Open limp ATo in SB, BB snap jams 63K with KT, runs J75AQ, get last 55K in with 99 vs AJ and AK, AA2 flop, see ya later.

June 13

Fly home

June 16, 5K Race

Jim Hegedus Memorial 5K, last ever running of it, 22 year old kid died 12 years ago, I met his mother at this race six years ago and we've kept in touch. When my friend died several years ago at the age of 24 I thought of Jim and this race has always helped me keep my friend's memory alive and to catch up with Peggy. My brother and I took 1st and 2nd respectively the first year we ran it. This year was by far my slowest time ever but it was important to me that I be there participating one last time. I did snag 3rd in my age group though



June 23

Fly back to Vegas.

June 24, Monster Stack

Hop into $1500 Monster Stack. Up and down day 1, 15K starting stack, lose AQ to KT on QJ4 for 37K at 200bb to drop to 3500, spin it back up to 24K to end day 1.



Pretty quick bust on day 2.

June 25, Aria WPT500

$570 buy in, 20K starting, only 189 entries in flight 1A but they had a ton of media for WPT which was pretty funny. I represented my country proudly throughout:



Top 12.5% pay, top 5% bag, I was the 7.5% this day finding a mincash for $900.

June 26, Wynn $1100 1M

Quick bust, ran into a lot of hands, pretty uneventful.

June 27, Planet Hollywood $400 Six Max

Very soft six max, I love it. Table full of recs to start, I'm completely card dead, and I try something new and just fold a lot. I think I always try to get crazy and prove my edge on my table when it's soft, which leads to me often going broke more than I should. I went deep in this tourney and I still think this first table is the thing I'm most proud of from it. I move tables with maybe 28K from the 20K starting around 1600bb.

Next table goes quite well, I defend A2 then x/jam AQ9 and hold vs JT. I then defend A3s against same guy, x/c AJ7, x/c K turn, x 2 river, he snap jams. The way he said all in combined how crazy he'd been up to that point made me feel it was a lot more likely he was bluffing than most people would be. I call and beat 92s. He proceeds to tell me what a horrible call it was and how I'm never supposed to be good there, with the 92 still sitting face up in front of him.

I continue to spin from there, have a huge stack and go ham near the bubble. Only resistance I get is from the guy on my direct left who continues to show me huge hands every time he plays back at me. We hit the money and I'm still one of the big stacks in the room. 36 paid and when we're down to 24 I combine with another table. I lose some pots then open limp KQs 180K deep at 8Kbb. BB makes it 19K, he was an older guy who'd been getting out of line at that first table. I jam, he tank calls A8, board runs J849Q and we now have a bunch. Rest of the day goes well and I bag 558K, 4th/15 remaining, 6.2M chips in play, $27K up top.



June 28, Six Max Day 2

Day 2 starts up and we go from 15 to 12 without much happening, redraw occurs and I have 500K starting up 16Kbb. English kid who seemed pretty recreational the day before was playing every hand but again kept showing down massive hands each time. Even r/f'ed 99 to a 27bb 3b jam. He makes it 50K in CO and I rip 480K from SB with JJ. OOP vs the huge open I think jam is all we can do. He calls with AK and we're flipping for 17% of the chips in play. K in the window and that's the end of that run, 12th for $1600ish.

I head over to Aria to fire WPT500 again and bust in 10 mins. It was 500bb already and I flopped top pair and turned a gutter. Mighta been able to fold turn but got it in there with 10 outs and bricked to bust.

June 29, WPT500 and Venetian $400

Played well at Aria, hero folding top 2 pair on river correctly, r/f'ing a bunch to people who were not 3b bluffing, and finally getting AA in vs QQ for last 8700 at 400bb and losing on the Q high flop. Wasn't sure if I wanted to play any more poker that day but headed over to Venetian and eventually hopped in a $400 1M that was supposed to get a ton of overlay. Dud of a bullet and I went home to get some sleep.

June 30, WPT500 Take 4

600+ entries in this flight, again I think I play pretty well and spin the 20K SS up to 130K at 2Kbb. Proceed to get owned by the same rec player over and over again lol, first JJ<QQ in a spot I probably coulda lost a lot more had he 3b pre, then A3hh vs his TT in bb, I open button and again he doesn't 3b, I turn a FD on Q72K and bomb he calls, river Q just can't be a bluff for me. River A or heart and I win the pot, river anything but a queen and I probably bluff again and win pretty often. Oh well. Finally I open AQ, same guy calls, BB calls, AJ6cc I bet 1/3 both call, turn J I x, rec player bets 25K into 50K, BB folds. I have 50K back, we're at 3Kbb and 5 off the money. I can't think of many bluffs for him, he has a lot of Jx, and he could even have something like AK here! I ask him a few questions and he seems really comfortable so I fold. Have to fold down to 10bbs as the bubble lasts over an hour but eventually make the money again with 79 left. I defend 74dd in BB vs EP open, flop comes 6d5d4c . I was gonna rip if I flopped equity but I wanna get this in! I x, he bets min, I jam, he calls with 55 and we brick out to bust 66th for another $900 mincash.

July 1, Escape Room

My first ever experience at an Escape Room place was a fun one. Group of six, me and my friend Bexel, Joe McKeehen and his gf, and recent bracelet winner Ryan Leng and his gf. We beat that **** in 36 minutes. I started getting a little anxious after we didn't get through much in the first 10 mins but then we got a hint that broke it open. Lot of fun.

Came back to the house and ran 2 miles around 5PM. Toasty little 106 degrees outside (that's over 40 degrees for my Celcius friends) but I felt pretty good after the first 7:36 mile and managed to crank out 7:13 on the 2nd one. I did feel pretty dead afterwards though.

Recap

And that leads to right now! It's around 1AM here in Vegas and the main event starts in 10 hours. I'm electing to play 1B on Tuesday so tomorrow I will be making sure I have enough cash for the buy in since TD Bank doesn't exist out here in the desert. Everyone has dreams of winning the main event but it probably feels a lot more accessible to me than most. I have substantial history with two of the last three winners, and each of the last 4 years has seen one or more players who I have some NJ online history with make the FT.

The plan is to do all the cliche BS you hear everyone say year in and year out. Get good sleep, eat well, take it one day at a time, etc. I think this whole summer has been great for me. I've been working hard on finding the live balance of taking as many spots as I can without losing my mind and punting in spots that don't call for it in soft fields. I don't plan on getting into any crazy confrontations on day 1, but that often comes down to table draw. If I have someone at my table who insists on playing big pots then I will be ready to battle. I'm not afraid to bust on day 1 because after all, if you don't cash then who cares how deep you went?? But I feel I have a lot of experience with a lot of different types of players. I think back to that Parx $2500 I played in February. 100K starting stack and we were playing 400/800 but I felt like my stack was on the line every time I VPIPed because of how fearless everyone seemed to be at the table.

If I draw a table like that in the main, I'll be ready! But if I draw a really soft table like those I often see at the live low stakes, I'll be comfortable there as well. If I draw a TV table I have my experience from the live streamed six max to fall back on. There were a ton of cameras everywhere in the little WPT500 and lots of bright lights flashing in my face in this most recent flight and I don't think it phased me at all. I played with 3 November Niners over the course of two days earlier this summer and had no problem treating them like any other opponents. I have work to do to improve my overall game. But I think I have a unique history that should allow me to feel more comfortable in this tournament than 99% of the other entrants. I'll have a great combination of respect for the chips in front of me and a fearlessness of going broke if I'm forced to put them all in the middle. I have friends who have won the main, FT'ed the main, felt the heartbreak of 20th place, made day 6, mincashed, and busted on day 1. I have a friend who's brother effectively FT'ed back to back years. Nothing seems impossible or intimidating. I'm aware that anything could happen, including finding a way to bust in the first level. For that reason, my goal is to go in and have fun. I know I'm going to play my best, I know I'm not going to tilt, I know I'm going to give it everything I have. So I might as well have fun while I do it!!

Good luck in the Main! Love the chipstack pics, looking forward to reading about your ME experience.

Enjoying the Vegas updates. Good luck in the main.

gl in the main!

Glgl!


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Thanks guys!

I headed over to the Rio today to collect some cash and buy into the main event a day early. I almost got ran over by a marching band in the hallway, then scurried into the Amazon room through a side door to get some money from a friend of mine. The marching band went in the other door and was so loud that a guy at my friend's table was screaming "900!!!" at the top of his lungs trying to raise pre. It was quite the spectacle.

But the thing that left the biggest impression on me was not the main event itself but the lines for the mega satellites into the main. Literally hundreds of people were standing in line to buy into a tournament that would just give them a chance to get into this tournament. That's when it hit me how big this tournament is. Thousands of people have come to this casino from all over the world, many of them just to have a CHANCE at playing this tournament. Walking past these long registration lines made me feel really grateful for the chance to play this tournament.

I don't take the fact that I can sell out pretty easily at pretty high markup for this tournament for granted. I've worked hard but had some things fall into place quite nicely for me. I started this thread more as a way of venting than anything else and it's since allowed me to show that I have a level head on my shoulders to prospective investors. Through nothing more than random chance I grew up in the only state where you could realistically make a living the past 3 years playing MTTs online. Because of this and the fact that I happened to be one of the better players who stuck around instead of travelling abroad to play online with ROW Stars, I've had articles written about me and media exposure. Despite the lack of a big fancy Hendon Mob page with a ton of results I'm still able to sell out easily. Of course this has something to do with the work I've put in but nonetheless I do feel very lucky.

Time to get some sleep and get to the Rio tomorrow by 11 for the greatest tournament in the world!

Let's go, rooting for ya!

Nice recap.

Gl today, have fun and enjoy the experience. I'm looking forward to your updates on twitter.

GL!

WSOP Main Event Day 1B

62.3K from 50K starting in the bag going to day 2 on Thursday, blinds will be 300/600/100. Had a pretty smooth day with a pretty soft table. I was in the 2 seat, Romanian kid who bbissick is actually living with (meaning he's prob a high stakes cash crusher) was in the 5 seat but we didn't really get involved with each other much, and reg named Aram I've played with a bit was in the 7 seat. Aside from that the table was quite soft and most hands I played stayed quite small. I might have literally VPIPed 0 in the last level of the day (250/500/75)...I was looking to play hands but every time I thought "this would be a good 3b spot" or a spot was a clear open with a large % of hands, I had complete air. Nothing to be done about that sometimes, and in the main event you can go 2 hours playing 0 hands and it hardly affects your stack.

I played 2 hands of note, one with some play behind it and one that was a pretty standard (or was it?) all in pre.

Button opens to 800 at 150/300/25 and I defend Q9ss
Flop JT4r (one spade) (2K) I check, he continues 800, I call
Turn JT4Ar (3.6K) I check, he bets 1400, I raise to 5200, he snap calls
River JT4A3r (14K) I bet 11.5K he quickly folds

I've been picking up more live reads lately and there are a few that are often pretty reliable. Snap calling a bet before the river is very often someone who does not want to face any more aggression. In this case I wouldn't be surprised if my opponent had a hand like KJ/QJ/Ax that wanted to block turn to check back river but didn't feel like he could fold to a x/r yet on turn. I suppose he could even be as strong as AK/AQ given he is no longer beating any of my value on river. My x/r on the A turn looks quite strong as well imo so the river barrel while blocking the nuts seems mandatory to me. The bet only represented 23% starting stack but it can be pretty nerve-wracking in the main event!

The second hand of note came when button, a rec who I'd been friendly with throughout the day, opens to 800 at 300bb off a 15K stack. I have TT in the SB and 3b to 2700 (I can prob go bigger but I think this was fine against him). I'd 3b him a couple times so the plan was to just go with it when I had a hand this strong. He pretty quickly 4b's to 6300. I wonder if this is a spot that we don't want to get into in the main. Are people really going to ever 4b light here? Is there value gonna contain worse than TT? I'd like to think so and I'm really not sure what else there is to be done here. I jam and he sigh calls with AK. Board runs QJ42A and we were one card away from a 90K stack! It's okay though, before the tournament if you told me I was going to go 0-1 in all in flips on day 1 of the main and bag above starting stack I'd be very happy with that!

I am out of the Main Event. Feeling pretty sad right now so I'm gonna write a post here then go on a run to try to get all the cobwebs out of my brain and get me thinking straight again. The first hour of 300/600 was fine and then we started hitting a bunch of speed bumps. CO opens 1500, I 5500 in BB with AK, he goes 12K I call, J62r I x/f to a 7K bet. Not really sure how else to go about that hand 55K deep to start. 44K on break back to 800bb.

After the break I open to 2K with AQo UTG, button (same villain from last hand) flats, A63dd I bet 2200 he calls, turn Jx I x/c 5300, river 5x I x he bets 9K. I tank a pretty long time and almost decided to fold. Obviously my hand is way too underrepped to fold in theory given I decided to check turn, but I do expect to see a lot of 66/33/AJ/JJ here (15 combos of those hands), I don't expect him to be river with AT so I guess he's got some missed flush draws like KQdd/KTdd/QTdd and maybe some T9dd/98dd as well. In game I decided it game down to whether or not he was going to try to turn 77-TT into a bluff to beat a perceived QQ/KK type of hand from me. At the end of the day I decided my hand's just way too strong to go x/c turn x/f river so I called and lost to AK to drop under 25K.

Folds to the button who goes 1800 and I have 17K in SB with QQ. I'd often just rip here but I decide to exploit and make it 5100 in hopes of him spazzing. I'd been 3 betting a lot (mainly just good hands but none of them showed down) so I thought it was possible the spaz would come. He jams, I call and beat A7 to get back to 37K at dinner break.

My table broke right before dinner and I move to Kelly Minkin's direct right. Everyone seems to have a lot of chips here, especially compared to my last table. I lose a couple small ones to drop to 28K at 1Kbb. It folds to my SB where I have AKdd and I limp as I would with the rest of the top 80-90% of hands, Kelly checks, she has well over 100K. Flop AQ8ss I bet 1K she calls. Turn 9s I x she bets 2500 I call. River 5x I check she bets 12K into 10K I call and beat Kc6s to get back to 44K.

Folds to my HJ I open to 2300 with QQ Kelly 3b's to 6K. I'd gone too small on a 4b earlier on day 1 so I sized up from what I'd normally go here to 17K. Problem is, on day 1 my size was too small because we were infinitely deep. Here at 44bbs deep I can probably get away with going much smaller, maybe in the 14K-15K range. In any case, she flats which seems very strange to me, I assumed shove or fold is pretty much the only play for her once I 4b to almost 40% of my stack but she is ready to take it to the streets. Flop comes AA5cc. I have 27K back with 36K in the middle. I elect to bet 9K and not fold. I really don't know what her range looks like here. I would expect her to have some nutted traps like AA/KK but I don't really know what other hands are gonna be in there. I don't think she only has nutted hands but I can't come up with hands it makes sense to flat with here. I guess JJ/TT might flat to allow me to spaz it off post if I was bluffing pre. Idk what else. Live players don't like folding pre so maybe some suited broadways? I block a bunch of that with 2 queens. If she has KK+ so be it, we could just gotten it in pre anyway, I'm just gonna take my medicine and get it in on this flop. I think she jams AK pre, we block AQ, I guess there's still 2 AJs she could have. I'm planning on jamming most turns in hopes of getting value from JJ/TT and anything else she might want to call with.

Turn is a K (AA5ccKx now) and I now think it's highly unlikely JJ/TT will call here despite getting an amazing price. At this point I have 18K back with 54K in the middle. Again, I'm still ready to just take my medicine if she has better, so I want to figure out how to get the last 18K if she has worse. I check and she checks back.

River is the 7c (AA5ccKx7c) and maybe I can jam for value here? I'm pretty lost at this point, don't think I can fold (maybe I can?) if I check and she jams. The hand has gotten strange and I really don't have a clue what she has. AA/KK still would make sense imo but nothing else really would; maybe for that reason I should x/f. I check, she takes some time then bets 15K, I call and she turns over what might be the most gutting hand to possibly see: 77. I really don't have a clue what she's doing pre, I guess on flop she beats my broadway combos that have gone crazy? The 9K bet on flop did it's job and I got value from worse. Idk if jamming non-K non-Q turns is the right play but it's what I was going to do so the K prevented me from jamming and getting a fold (would she have folded? She didn't fold pre so maybe not lol). And then the 2 outter hit the river and I'd already decided I wasn't folding so if she elected to bluff with 77 on any brick rivers then I was just gonna get the full double.

She turns the 77 over and I'm obviously very rattled (I think I did a good job not to show it but I was actually speechless), the random old guy on her rail starts going nuts, she says "hey at least I let him live!" as I sit there were 3300 chips in front of me. Rest of the table was pretty sympathetic which was nice. Get the last of it in with 22 the next hand and lose to BB's T5. I knew busting the main was gonna sting one way or another but I didn't expect to be as shell shocked as I was. It's probably more a function of the specific hand that did it. Up against a player who has gotten a lot of TV time and has some pretty good tournament success and she 3b/calls 17bbs pre off 44bb effective with 77 and then spikes 2 outs on the river. It was just all pretty shocking.

Anyway, maybe I'll have some clearer thoughts after I go on a run now. It's 106 degrees right now, I'm going to run to the 7-11 that's 0.6 miles away, buy a water, and then just keep running until my body gives up on me. Hopefully I'll just tire myself out to the point that my brain isn't able to think about anything anymore.

Seeing that someone has $1M in lifetime cashes and then reading that abortion of a hand history makes me want to just quit and become a tourney pro.

Holy sh*t she played that hand bad.

Tourneys are alive and well clearly. Sorry man that's a super brutal way to go out. Mostly like how you played it, couple spots that are close but in terms of the big decisions she pretty much just tried to punt it off to you but godmoded instead. Main event has a special feel but in the end it's just another tourney and you are going to bust it with nothing to show for it most of the time. Keep your head up. Gl if you are playing any of the upcoming events!

Yeah lots of variance in tournaments, I'm sure she does a lot of things well to crush fish and put pressure on and all that. I've been trying to not write people off as bad players just because they play a hand in an absurd way that I disagree with. Some people don't understand some concepts whereas they crush in exploiting live fish. Obviously pretty painful to bust in a spot where I think she just straight up didn't want to be "pushed around" by a younger internet looking kid.

Thanks Tyman! I'm really not sure what the best way to go about postflop is. Could jam flop, could jam turn, could probably even check flop, lots of options despite the incredibly low SPR. Preflop maybe she thinks she's gonna wait for a clean flop so she can get it in vs AK/AQ (I disagree with that line of thought obviously but maybe that's what she was thinking?) but then flop comes AA5 and I'm not sure what the flop call is or what's going through her head at all. At the end of the day it doesn't matter, it's just another hand of poker, just a tough one to handle given it's my effective bust hand in my first main event and I'm prettttttty broke again. I went on my run yesterday and then just laid in bed chilling the entire night and slowly felt better about it all, feel totally fine today.

Man that's a horrible way to have it end so sorry.

I'm glad you're feeling a bit better today. Safe travel on your way back.

Not to pile on because she played the hand terribly, but the river is a clear fold. I'm not sure i can think of any hands that float there and on a very good runout vs what appears to be a weak hand on this board don't even bother to put you all in. There are no thin value bets you beat either, because she wouldn't be betting JJ/TT thinly there.

You might be right. Do you think she checks river if it's a brick? I have to imagine she knows she has no showdown value at this point and I think she might rip river. Obviously just an assumption and I could be wrong but seeing she had 77 in range by turn made me feel like river call might actually be fine.

What do you rate as a bigger mistake, her preflop flat of your 4bet or her flop call? I'm assuming her preflop 3bet is fine?