Are you playing the flight tmr? Might see you there

Yeah, I am, I'll be there a little early too.

How'd u go? I just busto arnd 70th

Busted with ~80 left I believe. I chipped up at the start to around 19k (10k starting stack) but ran into a cooler. Eventually, five hours in, I jam 13bb on CO with AK and the player in the BB who I initially categorized as your average MAWG, said "let's gamble" and called with KQ.

I have to work on my flipping skills, because a queen hit the flop. I also have to work om live-read skills, because that guy was 6 time WSOP bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro. Oops.

Busted about an hour after you. Was in push/fold mode for the last 3 hours. Never got any traction. Good luck on Friday.

It played out that way for me too, but I was pretty close to having a playable stack even at later stages. Hopefully Friday is more forgiving.


A recap of last night:

With a starting stack of 10k and blinds starting at 50/100 it was reasonably easy to bust in the first three 40-minute levels. As did many, we lost about 25% of the field before the first break, two hours in.

My table had no people on it I recognized, not surprising since I mainly play pub games in the North. I made a rough estimate and it seemed to my left I had two competent younger players, to my right an OMC next to a very aggro player, and across the table a couple of MAWG/MAWLs. Not ideal, but things started off pretty well. I picked up a few pots uncontested and recognized opportunities when they arose:


Blinds 75/150, 10-handed. UTG (OMC) opens to 400, I'm next to act with AQ and I call. No sense in raising an UTG open by an old guy. BTN calls, BB calls.

Flop K33, pot 1600. UTG checks, and after he checks with such a dry board my range is by far the strongest. I bet 550, everyone folds.


I build my stack to 15k at first break. Sqwerty12 comes over and tells me I have a tough table with some pros on it. He tells me it's bad luck I get seated on a table with so many regs and even Jeff Lisandro. Wait, what? Turns out MAWG across the table is none other than the Australian 6-time WSOP bracelet winner. Younger guy to my left has a 4th in a WSOP event under his belt, and other younger guy to his left is a good cash regular. Well ****. Sounds like I got the ****tiest spot on the ****tiest table.


First hand after break:

Blinds 100/200, ante 25. Lisandro opens UTG to 600, UTG+2 shoves for 2450. I'm in HJ with JJ and I'm confident I'm well ahead of UTG+2 range since he showed shoving 73s an orbit ago. With 15k and no bustouts yet on this table I'm one of the bigger stacks. Lisandro has ~8k. I opt to just call and probably call off Lisandro as well if necessary. Everyone folds, UTG+2 shows KK.

Flop 893, pot 6k.

Turn 5. For some reason I think I have the J, and I'm not really sweating it since it's pretty much a cooler for a small portion of my stack.

River J. See, I make my flush and hit top set, easy game. Takes me a while to realize I can't have hit both... Ah well


I now have 19k and have table CL. It's a pretty volatile flight with a lot of loose play though, and no more smooth sailing for me...


Blinds 100/200-25. UTG+1 opens to 500, MP calls, BTN calls. I'm in BB with AK. Pretty sweet spot for a squeeze, I've been active but have not shown down much and both UTG+1 and BTN have around ~8k and I want them to jam it light rather than call with position, so I make it a bit bigger. I raise to 2k.
UTG+1 and MP fold, but the LAG on BTN calls, leaving 6k behind.

Flop K99, pot 5350. Pretty safe flop. I bet 1800, he calls. I suppose this is a worse K, 9, or some brainfart.

Turn T, pot 9k. Villain has 3600 behind. On blank turns I would just check-call, with this turn I'm just getting it in to not give weird floats a free card. He calls, shows 97 and holds. He called off 25% of his stack pre with a suited one-gapper. I'm not surprised, but not much I can do differently here.


I am down to 10k after this hand and don't get anything to work with for a while. Eventually I jam my last 5.4k at 200/400 from the lojack with A6. CO overjams for 14k and shows 66.

Board runs out AKJ23 and I find a double.


Very next hand I make a classic mistake:

Blinds 200/400-50. I'm first to act with 12k and AJ. I open to 800, cash-reg calls in MP, rest folds.

Flop 986, pot 2650. Because I was stacking chips and a bit flustered because I just dodged a bust out, I don't remember my suits. I really don't want to check my cards (but I should have) and check. Villain checks.

Turn 9. Again, I don't look at my cards and just check. Villain bets 1300 and NOW I look. Crap, I have the A, what do I do now? I just call.

River K, pot 5250. I check, villain bets 2500 and I contemplate a hero call vs. this villain, but fold. Ugh. What a mess.


After the second break I have 9.5k at 300/600-50 and get moved to new table. Lisandro gets moved to the same table and has an even better position on me here.


Fifth hand in:
Blinds 300/600-50, I have 8k. I'm in CO with AK and it folds to me. I shove and it folds to Lisandro in the BB with ~14k. He starts talking what a sick spot this is:

"I think I'm a slight dog here. I probably should fold."
"What the hell, let's gamble, I call"
"You got sevens?"

And after he sees my hand:

"I did not want to see that. God, I didn't put you on that hand at all"

He shows KQ and the board runs out Q33JK and it's GG for me.


Can't say I was tilted here. I recognize I got away with a couple hands earlier and I understand that for a player for whom $330 is peanuts (why is he even playing this game to begin with!?) this is a reasonable call, especially since he's seen me jam ace-rag earlier. So it's fine, we'll try again on Friday.

UL on the flight. At least you got a pretty sweet story to tell playing against Lisandro!

Yeah so that was fun. Fired a second bullet. Dream table, spun it up to 18k at the first break, get it all in first hand after the break with QJ on QJ5 v NFD for 30k. He gets there of course, next hand open ship AT for 3k v KK. GG.

Can't play next 2 flights. Bring it home for us.

why wouldn't jeff think you could have AK there?

That sucks man. It's too bad you can't really afford to lose a sizeable pot in this structure. I suppose this is different in the Main, any plans of playing that?

No idea. I can think of a few things, but none of them are good reasons. There is no reason to assume AK isn't in my range there. Maaayybe he noticed I was a bit nervous and attributed that to me not having a big hand like that.

Hey this is sqwerty12. My account got hacked and it's been closed. Good luck today. Keep us posted

I busted the second flight yesterday in a standard spot, but for quite a big pot. I started the flight on a lol soft table, I must have been quite unlucky with my table draw on Tuesday. I chipped up quite nicely to ~19k (start stack 10k) but the fish busted and better players took their places. I did bust one of the fish in a weird hand:

100/200-25, UTG opens to 450, two callers and I call with 95 in the BB.

Flop Q93, pot 2150. I check, UTG check and so do the other two.

Turn 5, pot 2150. I'm pretty confident my two pair is good here give flop action, but I don't want to give a free card on this wet board. I bet 850 (should've bet more in hindsight), UTG calls, rest folds.

River 5, pot 3850. I bet 2200 assuming I can get called by worse putting me on a missed draw. UTG jams for 2800 total. I call and he shows JT for a silly slowplayed flush.


I then ran cold for 2 hours, not getting hands or not getting action. Final two hands:

Blinds 200/400-50. I'm UTG with 13.5k and TT and raise to 800. UTG+1, young aggro kid with huge stack, calls. BTN calls too, BB 3-bets to 2800. BB is really not the type to light 3-bet an early open and call OOP, his range is very nutted here. I make a tight fold.

UTG+1 calls and tankfolds to a potbet jam on 955. I feel fine with my fold.


Very next hand, still 200/400. UTG opens to 800, one call, and SB 3-bets again to 2800. I have AK and 12.5k. I don't think SB is particularly weak here now, but I'm not folding and I might have some FE here, who knows. I jam and SB calls with QQ and holds.


All in all I really enjoyed playing a "proper" tournament, I just wasn't lucky enough in the big pots but I was really pleased with my game. I played disciplined but timed my bluffs and double barrels well, and in the big pots villains gambled and ran well, except for the AK<QQ of course. I didn't feel tilted about my bust outs at all, and will definitely play the next Series opening game.

Not making day 2 also let me play the monthly final on Saturday, a $50 game $3k gtd. I did well in that tournament, see next update.

There's a 440 turbo tomorrow night you could consider. It will be like a pub game!

Thanks for the tip, but it's bit rich for my taste. Also my PhD work is piling up after taking some time off last week for poker. My first paper is due soon and I really should try to get a first draft before Christmas.


Yesterday we had the $50 monthly final which was a good plan B after not making day 2 of the Series game. This is a relatively new game, I think this is the 5th one. I FT bubbled the first one and finished 5th in another one, in a 55-65 player field.


Reigning in the LAGs

Blinds 100/200, 9-handed, avg stack 25k.
UTG (playing very loose/aggro from the start) limps in. HJ (also very active, friends with UTG) raises to 750. I'm in CO with A5. The three players behind me are weaktight, so this seems like a nice spot for a light 3-bet in position with an ace blocker. I make it 2200. UTG folds begrudgingly, HJ tank calls.

Flop K93, pot 4900. HJ donkbets 1500. Given my hand this is a great flop for me obviously, I also still have an uncapped range including all the monsters. I raise to 5500, leaving 20k behind. I still have a 25k rebuy option, so calling off if he jams is meh but fine. HJ folds.

Since I'm on a friendly footing with HJ I show the 5 for the fun of it. It also doesn't hurt my image, given that I'm a fairly tight player in general. UTG remarks to HJ: "You got schooled son!"


Early double

Blinds 300/600, 8-handed, avg stack ~60k.
UTG (HJ from previous hand, capable aggro player, but he's overlagging it at the moment) opens to 1800. I'm UTG+1 with 55 and I call. Four more players call and we see the flop 6-handed.

Flop 858, pot 10.9k. UTG checks, I check, BTN bets 5500. UTG calls, I call, rest folds.

Turn J, pot 27.4k. UTG checks. I think BTN will check behind a lot, so I bet 12k. BTN folds, UTG calls.

River 4, pot 51.4k. UTG checks, I shove for 28k. UTG calls with TT.

This seems to be case of attributing one's own tendencies to another player. It's a very optimistic call I think. It's also possible the previous A5 hand helped me in this case.


I get moved to a very soft table and keep building my stack. I bet three streets from BB in a limped pot on K9735 with K5, but snap-fold to a river jam when villain obviously caught his flush (A4 as it turned out). If the betting pattern hadn't convinced me, his overly fake hollywooding would have.


Insanity

Blinds 7k/14k, 5-handed, avg stack 180k. F3T, 16 left.
I'm UTG with 150k and KQ. 5-handed this is a clear shove, no need for anything else. It folds to a young guy in the BB, who is a beginner and has luckboxed his way to the chiplead, ~360k. He won a big pot in the previous hand.

I think I hear him quietly say "Fold".

He then turns over AK. I realize I must have misheard him, and dealer asks in an affirmative tone "That's a call?". Turns out I heard him just fine, because he confirms he said fold.

Everyone just sits there in stunned silence, looking at me and the kid. I'm still confused, but a fold is a fold, so I rake in the chips. He then says:

"I just got these chips, I didn't want to loose them again"


Blundering on final table

Blinds 15k/30k, 8 left, avg stack 330k. 6 get paid.
I'm in LJ with A9 and 220k behind. I'm chatting with the TD who's a friend of mine. When it folds to me with nits in the blinds I shove quickly. I then suddenly notice a 450k stack in the middle already. I hadn't heard UTG going all in! ****! To make matters worse, HJ instajams his 400k stack. I'm so crushed here...

UTG shows AK and HJ shows AK. Huh, that's not the worst outcome I suppose.

The flop gets dealt and the third card is the 9. People are aware I thought I was open shoving, since other players commented that they didn't notice the first all in either. The turn and river produce blanks and I triple up to 700k. I've made a major blunder, and get rewarded for it. I'm extremely embarrassed and feel so filthy. I pride myself for my table awareness, and this is just inexcusable.

The next hand HJ from previous hand tiltjams into my min-open, and his 43 can't catch up to my KK. He smashes his fist into the door when he leaves. I feel sorry for the guy, but now I do have the chiplead 7-handed.

Time to abuse the table.


Angering another one

Blinds 30k/60k, 5-handed, avg stack 500k. I'm UTG with AQ with 1M behind and open to 125k. It folds to BB (400k) who calls.

Flops 552, pot 280k. BB instajams for around pot. BB is not a bad player and this looks like a standard stop-and-go. I'm beating all unpaired hands, and it's unlikely he has a 2 or 5 here, or pairs >77. So I quickly call. BB shows 66.

Turn A

River J

BB jumps out of his seat on the turn and is clearly aggravated. He berates my snapcall (although we were having friendly chats during the whole final table) and keeps muttering angrily while he leaves the table.


Time to punish

A Colombian player to my left has the second largest stack and has been my main opponent throughout the final table. He is aware of good spots and does not seem to be afraid to make his chips work. It also means he is aware of ICM. I "subtlety" verified this when I jammed on his BB from SB and he sighfolded. I told him "ICM is a bitch", and he agreed.

The other two players left are a Asian lady, who is a reg and a supernit, and a weaktight MAWG. Nitlady has 500k, MAWG has 300k, the Colombian 650k and I have 1.4M.

I proceed to jam from SB on the Colombians BB, and the nitlady keeps giving me walks. MAWG doubles up when Colombian jams on BTN and he tanks for a solid 2 minutes before calling with AQ...


Greed is good

The chipstacks of the other three have now evened out with ~400k each, I have 1.6M. This means I won't get to pressure the Colombian as much anymore. It also is a perfect deal spot for me:

"I'm open for a deal guys. I get first place money and you guys split the rest"

MAWG and nitlady show instant relief: "OK, we can work something out." They clearly haven't understood my proposal. When they realize I want first place money ($1100 + $100 ticket) and they get to split the rest ($300, $400+ticket, $600+ticket) the Colombian is clearly too smart to agree to that and the others catch up quickly. Worth a try. But I can tell they all want a deal.

So when they offer me $900+ticket (ICM for me is <$850) and them $500 each, I agree. It's a good deal for me, especially at these blind levels. I don't see the need to battle three players for potentially only 20% more.


The rungood continues:




Online bankroll: US $1430
Live bankroll: AU $6714

Nice misclick!

Haha yeah, and a pretty crucial one at that.


November
Since I'm not playing tonight it seems November is a wrap. I played 18 live tournaments this month. Out of the 3 "bigger" ($50+) games that got offered this month by the poker league I mainly play, two Monthlys and a Quarterly, I played and won the $110 Quarterly ($2720, 130 runners) and a $50 Monthly ($1000, 60 runners). This means this has been an exceptional month and with a net result of >$3000 this has been my best month so far, despite bricking my two entries in the $330 Summer Series opening game.

As I mentioned before this means I now have reached my minimum amount that I figured I'd need to go to Vegas in 2016, AU $7500. With the current exchange rate my total bankroll, both online and live, stands at $8700.

I'm obviously not stopping here, but I'll have to think of a new goal, such as actually playing a WSOP event instead of just Daily Deepstacks when I'm in Vegas. This will depend on the week(s) that I'll be there, and that depends on when my poker friend with whom I've come up with this plan is able to join me. For now I'll just keep riding this heatwave, and for the time being AU $10k sounds like a fun budget to have.


Online bankroll: US $1430
Live bankroll: AU $6714

Cool update and very nice graph! Dat misclick tho haha

Don't you think it's more optimal for you to try and chop three-handed or HU when you have 1.6M vs three 400k stacks? I know variance is a bitch but seems like negotiating a ridic good deal would be easier that way and with stacks like that + your presumably huge edge it should be more profitable in the long run I think

Thanks! Honestly, I think this is the best deal I could've gotten. It's actually not very common when chopping in these games to not just split it evenly. This also means that proposing something like that already meets resistance because of the principle of the thing. I now got $1000 with first place $1200, I'd be very surprised if I had been able to get more 3-handed or HU, because that implies a chip distribution where we'd have just played it out. I think playing it out was my only other option, which is a very viable too obviously. I might have done that if the most capable player wasn't to my direct left. I'm really quite curious if I'd win that line-up often enough to warrant declining 83% of first place cash in hand.

Nice thread man, it's ur friend from Sydney. Talked to you earlier today about ur PGC

Welcome! I'm pretty sure you're the first poster in this thread who has been a villain in one of my hands. Pretty boring one unfortunately:

Played the Pokermania Championships yesterday ($220 buy-in, 123 runners) after the Asian supernit lady reg that I've mentioned a bunch previously gifted me a $55 ticket for this tournament. As has been the case the last couple weeks my shoulder was bothering me a lot, so it wasn't a very enjoyable experience. I finished in 28th (13 got paid) and was mainly relieved that I kept my composure and discipline and didn't spew away my chips.
Lost almost all my chips when I jammed 77 for 16bb effective over an HJ minopen by a player who had just showed down KTo the previous hand that he min-opened. Despite losing that pot, I felt he was surely wide enough that this is a clear jam. He woke up with AA this time though.

Including this last game I now have bricked my last 8 games or so. I'm playing a $100 WSOP satellite ($4.5k package for first) this weekend, but will probably skip most of my regular games until I've got this shoulder problem figured out.

Had fun playing with you at the 220 buy in man! Hope ur shoulder gets better and cya at the satellite!

Which events does the satellite get you into? Or is 4.5k flight accom and 1 event?

Thanks mate. That K9 hand was ridiculous!

Just one event, although I don't think they have figured out which one just yet. I got told they might just give the players money instead, so you can decide yourself what to play.

Last year there was a load of npl or apl players playing the Millionaire Maker and a journo covering the event for social media.

When we were itm, they found out my seat and came over based on the fact that I was Australian but the minute they worked out I wasn't part of the group, they lost all interest and burned me completely!