Just busted the 4pm deepstack about 30 ppl off the bubble... sitting on 30bb, mp opens 3bb and btn 3b jam 19bb, i don’t know what the **** to do from the big blind with JJ so I tank..

and rejam.

MP snaps with QQ and we have a AK vs JJ vs QQ situation, I don’t improve.

And I get to watch Zac last longer than I ever have in a WSOP event as he’s still in there nursing his 14bb stack. Nothing but support for him but I need to get **** going in this series asap.

As far as the millionaire maker, my first foray into the WSOP this summer...





Yeah that stack and $1500 was gone in three hours. I got J9ss in vs A6cc on a J84, 4 if clubs flop to see running clubs cripple me. Same guy limp/calls KTo from UTG to lose the next hand, then within that same orbit he 3x button vs one limp. I have ATcc in the BB and call with 16bb. On a J98c flop I x/j, he has QQ and I don’t improve.

So my summer has started off expensive
but we can maybe bounce back next week with a slate of tournaments coming up. Going to cut some more $1500s from my schedule as I just don’t feel great playing most of the time - my friends are around, bbqs have been ignited, pools swum in and I’m looking for more of that action.

Took my brother, a friend and his girlfriend out to Mizumi last night. No pics but this cool bear in the Wynn:


The Oh Toro roll there must be the a5 wagyu of fish, just an incredible piece of fatty tuna belly(?). Rest of our sushi we’d ordered was very good as well, but the Oh Toro ($40/2 pieces) was a life changing bite. Teppanyaki was good, fried rice A+, vegetable mix A+, miso soup B+, scallops A, and the dessert green tea macaroon was unreal. Salad was kinda bad but I don’t like most vinaigrettes.

Currently: down $2500 but we’ll try to make a comeback.

Got some quality pool and gym time the last couple days. Now in the Wynn day 1B for the $1100 one mil guaranteed.



Starting t20000 chips.

massive hand after the first break midway through level 7.

300/600/600 b.b. ante
QQ utg+2, i open to 1500 and get called in six places.

J74cc flop. Checks to button who bets 3700 and I’m the only call.
Qd turn. I x/j on button bet of 9500 and he calls with QJ drawing dead.

sitting on 109k at the dinner break. big hands:

400/800/800
old man utg+2 opens to 2000, mp flat, i call btn with TT.
flop T84, we gii 20bb vs AA and hold.

500/1000/1000
open BTN to 2.2k, both blinds call. 60k eff with B.B.
Kh Th 3c flop. checks to me, I bet 4500, b.b. calls.
3d turn, b.b. x/c my bet of 7000.
9d river b.b. x/fold to my bet of 13k

500/1000/1000
ATo in CO i open to 2.2, SB and BB flat.
T86ss flop checks to me, I bet 4200 and SB calls.
Kd turn SB x/c 5000
3o river SB checks and tank calls my bet of 7000, mucks to my winner.

gl gl me for six more levels today

playing pretty aggro since dinner break. involved in a lot of hands.

800/1600/1600
solid reg (english?) opens to 3.3
i 3b QQ from MP to 11k
young pro 4b jams from bb for 40kish

i snap, QQ vs TT and board runs out clean.

currently level 11, we play 15 today.

208k midway through level 12. Hands:

A5o CO vs SB.
800/1600/1600 blinds, me vs the second biggest stack at the table who covers me.
i open to 3.5, he makes it 13, i make it 29 and he calls. i bet brick flop and he folds

99 open UTG+1 to 5k and BB defends. good pro, he has 50kish.

T87cc flop I cbet 5k and B.b. check calls.
4d turn checks through.
Jr river BB leads 7600ish and I jam. He folds after some deliberation.

273k at the last break of Day 1 (13.75 starting stacks)

Hands:
1000/2000/2000
55 utg +2 i open to 5k, called by old man +3 and three others. i have 200k and cover all.

642 flop checks to me, i cbet 11.5 and get called by old man. rest fold.
Qd turn i check and he bets 33k. i think for a second and call.
Tr river goes x/x and I’m good vs AK. This man goes off on me yelling about how bad my turn call was and I feel bad for this but I feed the anger a little bit lol, by talking about how bad i am and how lucky it was for him to have AK there.

owned imo

THREE LEVELS LEFT IN DAY ONE!

I was about to end the first day of a large field multi day tournament: the $1100 Wynn Classic with $1mm guaranteed prize pool, 6-figure payouts for the top four. For my first time ever, I would enter day two of a tournament, Sunday, ready to skip father’s day plans along with a couple hundred other entrants to chase the sweet looking trophy: a model-replica of the Wynn, and $300k. My brother and some close friends knew I took nearly 275000 chips to dinner, nearly 14 starting stacks. After working my way through a soft table despite playing mostly small ball, my table broke at 9:30pm or so. I got sent to table 54 to see my 300k shrivel up like the very unfortunate pair of what must be called breasts on an octogenarian woman walking out of the Encore’s beach club’s chest. She was the only topless person I saw walking down the greatest real estate in poker all day, but I digress. The point being: I was the shortest stack at a table including wsop-bracelet winner Upeshka de Silva, a bunch of european pros who seemed to know each other, a guy who said he’d played 5/10/20? with me at the Aria, and some tournament regs wearing coaching shirts who all knew each other and seemed desperately trying to hold onto what was left of their late twenties. Still, all of them were worlds better than me.

Now instead of relaxing and keeping my airpods in to make day two, I had to lock in Blake Lively-style. I think I would’ve picked her situation in the shallows over mine, stuck at a table surrounded by 2018’s version of card sharks.




I open six hands at the table and get 3b in all of them, usually forcing me to fold. I’m down t60000 in nearly an hour. K2s on the button, QTdd from MP, A9s from utg+3, squeezed by SB 130k jam after four callers, forced to fold after limping behind 3 limps with 77 in co and huge BB rip, that sort of ****. I’m bleeding fast and haven’t seen a single exciting hand. My brain is mush, my goal clear, but my path befallen by monsters lurking under every rock, huge overbet and floats that get there.

********
2000/4000/4000 ante, I’m sitting on 210k
I open QJhh utg+2 to 8500, de Silva 3b 31500 from the big blind. I call (mistake?)
983dd flop. He checks, I fire 32000 and he calls.

I make a stupid joke about him having sunglasses on: “time to level the playing field”, and I put my own on as well. I mean ffs it’s 10:30 at night and we’re inside a casino, poker pros gotta chill with the eye protection. Of course he can see right through my stupid ****.

Ad turn. I continue for 47000 with the plan to give up. He calls and I do just that on a 6 river, checking behind and giving up. He rolls AKo no diamond after I sheepishly turn over my QJ.
********

Since the Wynn tournament, I have on stream busted the $100k online $320 buyin 66 < AQo aipf with three tables left, the $85k high roller $1k buyin KK < AKo, and a couple other small tournaments. I’m in this summer for $5000 in buy-ins yet have $800 in cashes to show for it.

********
As we continue with the final half hour of the final level of day 1 at the Wynn, I’m nursing a 130k stack at 2000/4000/4000. Still a respectable spot. I open Q8s from the button to 9000, the BB repops to 36k and I can’t find a reason to call.

Down to 121k.
********


My favorite thing to do in Las Vegas away from the felt is to take a decent meal on paper plates outside around dusk. I sit and relish warm air and meditate on abstractions and hypotheticals, nothing intellectually demanding, fueled purely by emotion and intuition.

Those dreams I conceive take place off in the distance; the sun sets behind the mountains to hide the brilliant colors of the sky and sheath them in dark blue.

The stars never come out in Las Vegas, a city whose strip illuminates nights and prevents true darkness. Still, on rare occasions I continue to lounge outside for them and I wait.

********
Twenty minutes remain in day one. Tournament clock straight ahead of me, I watch the yellow digits tick down impossibly slowly. We somehow manage to play faster than any live table I’ve ever had, my airpods die because I forgot to charge them over the chip color up break, and I’m anxious having not seen a hand I liked in four hours. I have shown down two hands, both bluffs, and not won a single pot. The rest of the table smells blood in the water.

2000/4000/4000
I open 98hh in HJ off 121k to 8500. Small blind, a sunglasses-wearing reg donning some coaching website’s t-shirt, three-bets to 32000. I make a fate-sealing call.

JT8hdd flop. He continues for 42k and I see nothing left to do but stick the rest of my stack, he gets the rough count and calls with AQo, no diamond.

6h turn. The time before the dealer rolls over a river slows down. I calculate every possible out: three safe 9s, two safe Kings, two safe Aces. Seven outs and one card... that makes me an 86% favorite to escape day one with ~270k in chips.

King of clubs on the river.

“****.”

Good write up.

Curious why you didn't tighten up at such a tough table? Especially one where you are getting 3b so often. The end of the day was near and you get a redraw for day 2.

you’re right, i should have. i just suck

Loved this last write up. You've got a penchant for prose.

I don't want to pile on, but I second WiCane's suggestion for tightening up in these situations. I'll preface this by saying you're a much better player than I ever was, but having made a couple of deep runs in liveaments there's a lot to be said for adjusting your playing style depending on table. I've definitely had some table draws with a bunch of heroes where I've been content to sit back and let them battle it out for hours on end. Even despite the nitty image, I never really struggled to get action when I did venture into a pot at these types of tables. Try to remind yourself that these multi-day events are marathons not sprints. Don't be too scared of the occasional dwindling of chips either. Its rare that you're going to wire-to-wire a 50+ bb stack to glory.

QJhh could warrant some discussion. I'll just comment on pre, which I believe to be pretty standard to peel there. Unlucky on the bust out hand.

Thanks for the kind words - it’s always nice to hear I’m not writing and ranting to myself like a lunatic.

You’re right regarding my mindset; seems to be my biggest problem shifting from both online & live ring cash games to large-field MTTs. The “marathon not sprint” cliche is one I tell myself I’ve internalized when clearly I keep reading and hearing those words, yet continually bomb MTTs in the middling, barely before the bubble pops, phases. I get win-every-pot syndrome to the point where I give good players no credit for the strength of their ranges and level myself.

~~~~~~~~~<*><~~~~~~~~~

That said, I felt as sharp as ever in my first live 5/10 session since February. 5/10 at the Venetian, in for $2100 out for $2300:

Ok admittedly I went to the Venetian expecting to play tournaments. Little did I know that they move all tournaments over to the Sands Expo Hall during wsop, so dreading the walk in 115+ degree sunlight I said, “**** that pussy ass tournament ****” and put my name on the 5/10 list for the first time in a while. Felt good.



Sitting on $1300ish before I took this picture as I dump $900 early: BB is a portly middle-eastern guy who fits the Chaldean gambling stereotype. We get it in with him easy after he 4b rips A2o, cold calls 4b with A6o and KJhh:

utg open to 40, I cold call from SB, BB whale sticks $320 and I jam for the rest of his $900, he has KK and we reload asap with the rest of the $2100 I brought with me.

After about two hours of growing my stack by trying to steal every pot I could vs a mix of middle-aged recs and bad regs, I dump off $300 squeezing pre kinda light and getting called, then running into gross boards. One bad reg seat-changes as fast as she can to my right. My image is perfect to get the max from fat value hands:

A8cc on the button. MAWG opens CO to $40, I flat, whale in SB comes along, BB calls. I’m at $1700 and CO covers.

873 flop (one club, two hearts) checks through. I bet this flop when checked to sometimes.
9c turn checks to me, I bet $110, rest fold, CO calls.
Jr river, CO leads for $200. I’m pretty confused but the only thing I can really see is to raise and I make it $460. CO calls after some thought with... KJhh. nice call by him

I’m then on $1100 when I get lucky and this hand happens my next SB:

Tight woman (but bad reg) opens $40 from HJ. I 3b 74ss from SB to $140, BB (whale still sitting on his case $400) cold calls, unexpectedly. HJ calls (and covers).

Q63 (one spade) flop, I continue for $90 as I would with a healthy portion of my range (qx+, a2-a5s, monkey bluffs you can see i 3b with) here. HJ calls.
5s binks turn, which goes x/x. Often times deeper OOP on dry-ish boards I’ll check nuts with flush draws and bet those without as a nice way to balance both ranges.
Qd river, I ask the dealer to spread and push around the pot a little bit. Of course this is to give a gambly image to what I’m actually doing, which is adding the damn pot in my head (it’s so ****ing simple, no idea how so many live “pros” can’t do 140x3 + 180)

After that I decide to think about value bet sizing when something struck me: won’t I get the most if I stuff the rest of my stack, $900?

I jam, she calls quickly, I confidently table my 74ss, and this woman I’ve never seen before does this silent-giggle thing. It’s a look of forced bemusement, a less-confrontational version of the “honey, he three bet me with 74!” rant every ****-reg at every casino has in their arsenal when they can’t believe someone has a hand they would never have.

Sorry for the rant, but live wanna-be pros are the most annoying people group of people - perhaps outside of virulent racists and elected officials - I’ve ever met. They ***** and moan at the whales dumping huge stacks, they ***** when they get unlucky, they moan when they do get lucky (“yeah where’s this when I need it?”), they ***** about the floor, half the dealers, the room, the rake, the other ****-regs, the chips, the room food, and just about every topic the table tries to be sociable about.

Corollary: good pros who are sociable, or at the very least polite, often are amongst the most interesting people and fun to play against.

tldr: If you wear an Upswing Poker t-shirt and 3 Bet! hat to a 5/10 table, I will make fun of you when you get stacked.

Some other hands but I’m done writing about a session I netted like $180 in. Nice to have a winning day this summer

xl

can’t fix above post, I had AKo in the KK hand where I flatted / 4b snapped BvB

brief update: every WSOP report i’ve tried to write in the past couple weeks has turned out acerbic, whiny, or depressing and i don’t want that morose ****.

retrospective on this past WSOP and more generally the role poker plays in my life coming next in my most sizeable post by word count ever.