JTo utg1 straddled pot is a pretty loose open. If he's a good player I'd only expect JTs (obv I was wrong though)

I've had a week off due to a business trip to Israel. I got back Thursday 9pm after an 18 hour journey home from Tel Aviv and decided to dive into the Thursday 10pm - 3am High Hand Promotion.

The Winter Festival Tournament Series has started and I therefore expected a bit more action than usual, but it really wasn't as hot as I was expecting. I wanted to play 5/5, which had a 12-person interest list, but they didn't open it for around 2 hours and I jumped into a fairly solid 2/5 table.

Sub-session 1

Venue: Playground Poker Club
Game: 2/5 NL
Max Buy-In: $500
Rake: 5% max $15 + $2 for BBJ/High Hand Promotions
Hours Played: 2.0
Profit: -$200
Expenses: $0

No interesting hands to report from this sub-session - it turned into that kind if night...

Sub-session 2

Venue: Playground Poker Club
Game: 5/5 NL (with $10 UTG straddle on most hands)
Max Buy-In: $1000
Rake: 5% max $15 + $2 for BBJ/High Hand Promotions
Hours Played: 3.0
Profit: -$1170
Expenses: $0

The 5/5 table was very gamble-happy, with a running $10 straddle most of the time, and many pots got AIPF, or folded to all-in shoves with hands as loose as AKo, TT. I got it in myself twice with AKo: first time I raised $50 first to act in a straddled pot, 1 loose MP caller, OTB makes it $165 and I ship ~$850 (he tank folds); second time I again open raise $50 in straddled pot, next to act makes it $150 and I know I'm never folding versus this gamble-happy guy, so I ship in ~$1000 and he snaps me with AKo...boring!

Apart from that I managed to miss a ton of flops with promising hands in MW pots (usually with $200 - $300 in the pot pre-flop) or miss draws on the turn or river. Basically I didn't make a hand all-night with one painful exception:

Hand 1

9 Handed, No Straddle (UTG always straddled, but forgot this time!), Hero = BB, Gamble-Happy Guy = UTG
UTG raises to $20, folds to my BB with AKo and I decide to call (highly questionable, I know, but I knew this guy was never folding to an OOP 3-bet and I figure let's play some post-flop poker with a guy I know is loose)
Flop ($45): K93r
I Check-Raise his $25 bet to $75. He snap calls.
Turn ($195): 8dd
Bet $125, Snap call
River ($445): 7o

I bet $225 and he quickly raises to $575. I really haven't detected this guy stopping to think for 1 second in this hand, so I stop to think what hands could possibly be played this way and have me beat: AA seems highly unlikely as I have a blocker and I think he would have stopped to think at some point; AK is possible, but seems unlikely he would raise the river; 99/33 are obvious candidates, but I'd expect a raise on the turn (but they're still somewhat likely); K9 maybe...

Honestly I found it hard to put him on any of those hands, but somehow felt that I was beat (my feelings were, of course, correct). I think I should find a fold here because I just don't see this ever being a bluff raise given my strong post-flop line.

Given the player's image, however, I made a bad call and once again I have lost a big pot to the UTG open-raise with JTo that I have pretty much eliminated from my range these days, sigh!

I really don't know how he calls the Flop XR with just a gutshot, which is why I couldn't think of that hand in his range of possibilities, but obviously once he turns OESD he's going nowhere...

I'll get one more session in this week later today (Friday night juicy action, I hope), but then I'm once again traveling for a week on business to the poker desert, but beautiful paradise that is Honolulu

I'll be in Vancouver for the weekend after Honolulu, and might try the downtown poker place there (but reports of that venue are not good), and then LA for a couple of days business (unlikely that I have time for poker) before getting back to Montreal for a few days before my vacation to Aruba in February, which has interesting poker action

So after Thursday night's negative variance, we thought Friday night, usually the juiciest night of the week, would provide redemption. Unfortunately the variance continued to bite me in the butt!

Venue: Playground Poker Club
Game: 2/5 NL
Max Buy-In: $500
Rake: 5% max $15 + $2 for BBJ/High Hand Promotions
Hours Played: 7.0
Profit: -$570
Expenses: $0

My first table was pretty dead / full of regs, but I noticed a huge whale at the next table and put my name of the wait list. Meanwhile I moved to another more active table for a couple of hours with 2-3 soft spots, including two beauties versus the same fish (Hands 1 and 3):

Hand 1

9 Handed, Fish = UTG, Hero = MP
UTG limps, I raise to $30 with AQ
Flop ($65): AQ6
Check, Bet $40, Call
Turn ($145): 8
Check, Bet $100, Raise to $250, I jam $430, Call
River ($1000): J
I show and he mucks

At that stage I imagined it was going to be a good evening, but the poker gods had other things in mind...

Hand 2

Feeling confident maybe one orbit after that big pot...

9 Handed, Hero = CO, OTB = Tight Rec ABC player
I open $20 with 67, OTB raises to $60 and with $650 effective stacks we decide that 15-to-1 implied odds are juicy enough to call (probably Mistake #1)
Flop ($125): 893
Check, Bet $60, Call
Turn ($245): J
We decide we need to try to take this pot down with some fold equity and lead for $150 (possibly mistake #2), he thinks for a while, but makes the call with around $400 behind
River ($545): 4
I think long and hard and believe I've the image from the AQ hand to represent strength here so I make an audacious all-in bluff (quite likely Mistake #3 although with my Turn bet, I think I have to barrel all safe rivers). He tanks for a long time. Finally he starts talking to me. I should have stayed silent, but I decided to talk (Definitely Mistake #4). He finally called with KK

So I'd managed to donk off my winnings and some from the AQ hand and put myself into a self-inflicted hole. Then the poker gods decided it needed some needle...

Hand 3

9 Handed, Hero = EP, Fish = OTB
Limp A6 MP makes it $20, 3 callers and I call
Flop ($100): 366
We decide to check first to act because late position player always stabs at pots. Sure enough it checks to him and he bets $45 from CO, OTB fish calls and I think about the fact that there is now $190 in the middle and I have around $400. Any decent-sized raise that I make will give anyone with FD correct odds to call to try to win the rest of my stack (e.g. if I make it $200, it is $155 to call to win the $390 in there plus my remaining $200. As such, I think if this fish is bad enough to call off my full stack earlier, he's likely to do it again, even with a FD, so I decide to just ship it in. Sure enough CO folds and OTB tank-calls. I'm pretty happy...
Turn ($990) T
River ($900) T
At this stage I feel like I've scooped since his flush lost to my boat, but he turns over 67 and he made an unlikely chop on the river Oh well, it could have worse with a 7 on the river, but I feel like I just lost $500 due to some pretty bad variance. In reality we had 78% equity and lost $280 of $EV.

Not much else happened at this table and I finally got moved to the whale's table only to learn that he was leaving in 30 mins. He actually extended to around 50 mins and we managed to play this beauty a few minutes before he left:

Hand 4

9 Handed, UTG = Tight solid reg, Hero = CO, Whale = BB
UTG opens for $25. He doesn't open UTG very often, so he clearly has a hand, but since the whale is in the BB and will call $25 with ATC, and I have good position, I'm thinking I'll be calling fairly wide here, then I look down at AA. I have $430, UTG has me covered and whale has $215 and is getting ready to leave. I want to win that $215 before he goes and I know he will lead any flop where he has any piece of it, so I decide to flat to sucker him in. He naturally calls without even thinking about it.
Flop ($75) Q65r
Whale quickly jams his last $190 into the pot (yep!) and after thinking for moment UTG calls. I also think for a moment and jam in my $430. UTG sigh calls, the board runs out two bricks and the nice friendly whale turns over Q5o (he really is a nice guy - and we all treat him good and congratulate him on his good fortune). At least I win the side pot to breakeven on the hand, but again I feel like I ran pretty bad in that spot.

Hand 5

7-handed, UTG = Fishy Rec, Hero = CO
UTG opens for $25 and I flat 77
Flop ($55) A76
He leads for $30 and I figure he must have an Ace, no FD/SD, so I think a flat here is fine to let him keep betting.
Turn ($115) J
Sure enough he bets $65 and I need to raise here to get to a nice river sizing, so I make it $175 with $270 behind and he quickly calls.
River ($465) T
Fairly harmless and I jam it in when he checks to me. Unfortunately he tank folded...I wonder if sizing $200 is better, but I just didn't want to miss any value versus AK or 2-pair type hands.

Again I felt like the poker gods had robbed me of $280 and couldn't get my groove back, so I called it a night.

Upon reflection, driving home, I figured, yes I'd had negative variance, but if I hadn't donked off $600 on a bold, but foolish bluff, I'd at least have finished the night breakeven, sigh!

I'm off to Honolulu for 5 days business, then a weekend in Vancouver (poker maybe), then 2 days work in LA (no time for poker), before getting back to Montreal for some more Playground Cash Game action (unfortunately with the LA-trip having just come up, I'll miss the entire Winter Festival Tourney Series now).

Poker doesn't care that you couldn't play for 2 weeks due to business travel.
Poker doesn't care that you endured 2.5 hours at the deadest table to finally get moved to the Whale's table and he has over $1500 in front of him just waiting to be won.
Poker just deals the cards and lets the chips go as they may...

I've just had the longest and worst session of the year. It could have been worse. At one point I was down over $2000, but ground it back in the last few hours. I'm hoping this is the end of my downswing, but poker doesn't care.

Venue: Playground Poker Club
Game: 2/5 NL
Max Buy-In: $500
Rake: 5% max $15 + $2 for BBJ/High Hand Promotions
Hours Played: 13.5
Profit: -$1360
Expenses: $0

My first table was pretty dead, but I was patient for 2.5 hours until I got moved to the whale's table. There are no interesting hands to report from the first table. At the whale's table, I failed to win any of his money (he donked off the $1500 he had in front plus another $500 over a couple of hours).

All I had were relatively easy decisions with bad outcomes. I don't think I made any major mistakes, but what can you do when these hands occur...

Hand 1

9 Handed, Tight Businessman = UTG ($1500), Whale = UTG+1 ($1500), Hero = SB ($540)
UTG limps, Whale limps, MP limps, I raise to $30 with KK, BB calls, all limpers call (note my sizing is to keep the whale in the pot, he doesn't like to limp-fold, but he will if my bet is too big).
Flop ($150): KQ3
Bet $100, BB folds, UTG calls and the rest fold. At this point I'm definitely putting him on a draw. I'm most afraid of flush draws, JT and maybe AJ/AT, but this guy is pretty tight. I don't think he's calling AJ or AT unless they're hearts and if he has those hands with hearts he might well just get it in on the flop, so I think they're pretty unlikely.
Turn ($350): J
I have $400 behind. I'm not really afraid of that turn as it hits so few of his possible combos. I don't want to jam and scare off flush draws / JT, so I cut out $180 and he insta-jams, I snap call, blank river and he shows me 9T

Hand 2

9-Handed, Somewhat Competent Rec = OTB ($1500), Super loose player on tilt = UTG, Hero = MP ($500)
1 extra $5 post, UTG limps, I make it $25 with AK, OTB call, UTG calls.
Flop ($80): 753
UTG leads for $25 and I don't put him on much so I call, OTB calls.
Turn ($150): 9
UTG checks, I check, OTB stabs a weak-looking $50, UTG folds and I have good odds to call.
River ($250): 4
Having hit my flush, I figure I have to bet for value versus all the worse flushes OTB may have, but I can fold to a raise, so I make it $150, he thinks for a while, plays with his chips, looks like he's making the call, then slips out an extra $200 to make it $350. This is such an obvious tell. I puke fold face-up! He ribs me that he had Qd, but I know he's lying and he later admitted he had the Ad and that I made a good fold.

Hand 3

9-Handed, Super loose player on tilt = UTG ($350), UTG+1 = Loose Reg ($1000+), Hero = MP ($600), Whale = LP ($104: yes, he's lost most of his $1500 by now and down to fumes, but he has some more cash in his pocket).
UTG $15, UTG+1 calls, I call with QT because I know these guys are loose and the whale is calling, but I did think these are just the type of hands that get me in trouble...Whale ships it in for $104 and both UTG and UTG+1 call. At this stage I feel like I'm priced in to call...maybe it's a small mistake, but I don't think it's a big mistake.
Flop ($400): T85
UTG ships $250, UTG+1 folds, and I think it's a fairly easy call since he's most likely on a draw, especially with his image and he's playing almost every pot. Runs out 7J and I lose to Q9o. The whale has AQ

Hand 4

This one is debatable as to whether to fold or raise pre. I know Meale wants me to either fold or raise hands like these, but I feel at these loose tables they're worth playing. Maybe I'll learn my lesson...

7-Handed, Reg = HJ ($800), Hero = OTB ($250), Bad rec = BB ($250)
HJ opens for $20, I call OTB with T7, BB calls
Flop ($60): 893r
Checks to me and I make it $50, sizing my bet so I can shove my remaining $180 on the turn, BB calls, HJ folds
Turn ($160): 7o
He checks, I confidently shove, he snaps, the river is another 7, which makes me think I've won, and once again I've ran into the infamous JTo (this is my nemesis hand).

These two hands just for memory of my run bad:

Hand 5

Same rec as Hand 4, but he is down to $200. I open AQo for $20 from EP and get 3 calls. Flop Q93hh, Bet $60, Rec shoves $180, I snap and he has 99, sigh!

Hand 6

6-Handed, Same rec again with $400 effective stacks. Loose OTB bets $15, I call SB with KQo, Rec in BB makes it $40, OTB calls and I call. Flop KQTss, I check, BB bets $100 and I move in for $360. He tanked, showed me AK and sigh called. Runs out TT for a chop

Hand 7

This is an interesting spot where I'm not sure what's right to do. Probably the only spot in the session where I really questioned my play.

There is a ongoing auto-straddle to $10 and it's my turn to straddle. It's 8-handed and everyone limps to me and I look down at 66 with $80 in the pot.

Should I raise here?

If I raise I need to make it $100 to take down the pot and I'm effectively turning my hand into a bluff. So I think, nah, let's call and see the flop. If I flop a set I should have a chance to be paid and if not it will be easy to play...not!

Flop ($80) 532

Once again I'm in a quandary, so I decide to check and evaluate. Bad rec from the past few hands stabs $20 at the pot, good reg calls $20 and it's back to me...should I be raising here? It seems quite risky, but I know that calling shows me a lot of bad turn cards. My conservative nature gets the better of me and I decide to call.

Turn ($140) A

Pretty bad card, I think we'll agree, but it checks around!

River ($140) 9

Checks to the competent reg and he makes it just $30. Can I really find a fold now? I'm know I'm beat so often, but I'm getting crazy odds, so I call and he shows me 54o. I doubt I can get him off that hand on the flop, so maybe I lost the minimum on the hand ($60), but it left me thinking I could have played it more aggressively pre-flop...?

After that I finally had a little bit a run good, although I never really got paid in full for my hands, with no full double ups, just +$100-$200 here and there to run my losses down from over $2k to $1360.

Overall I was happy with my play and didn't feel like I made big mistakes. I put it down to variance and now have another enforced break of 1 week in Dubai before I hit the Aruba tables next Friday night...can't wait!

After a week on business in Dubai, I managed to get to Aruba for 5 days vacation (was originally supposed to be 10 days but that's life...)

The Aruba poker scene centers on the poker room at the Excelsior Casino, located within the Holiday Inn Resort on Palm Beach. There are other smaller rooms at a couple of other casinos, but they don't have the same level of action. There have also been rumors of locals colluding at other rooms, whereas the Excelsior is a well-run room that is friendly to tourists. Drinks are free. The rake for 2/5 NL is 10% / $10 max, plus $4 for high-hand / BBJ promotions.

On Friday and Saturday nights they run a $500 high-hand promotion every hour from 8pm to midnight, which then reverts to the usual $50 multiplied by the number of tables per half-hour. Considering that play is slow, perhaps 25 hands per hour, this means $100 per table per hour for the promotion, which is pretty close to breakeven during the promotion period when they get 4-6 tables running. After the promotion ends, the tables start to dwindle and the last table runs until around 2 or 3 am. There are also 1 or 2 tables of 4-8 Limit HE and 1 table of 5/5 PLO gets up and running once there's enough demand, which happened around 10pm on each weekend night that I attended.

The players are a mixture of tough locals, bad locals, good tourists, bad tourists and the occasional complete drooler. There were quite a few young Europeans / Americans, who certainly knew how to play on the weekend that I was there, but there were always enough spots at my tables for me to think it could be profitable, although the 10% / $10 max rake is brutal, especially when a lot of pots are $100 or less.

I entered the poker room at around 9pm on the Friday and got immediately seated at a new 2/5 NL table (5th table running; a 6th opened shortly thereafter). I didn't take hand notes during this trip, so I'm not recounting any particular hands, but the first few hours were pretty slow and I was down $400 at one point, not from any major pots, but just from running bad for a while. My luck turned around and I started to make some hands, but what I noticed was that I was unable to build big pots with winning hands. This was frustrating, not least because I knew a lot of the money on the table was slowly being bled off by the rake. In the end, after 5.5 hours of play, I got back to $75 profit before the final table broke for the night at 2.30am, but I was left thinking it is hard to make money in a game like this.

I went back a little earlier on the Saturday night and got a better table than Friday, with one complete clueless drooler two to my right and some other pretty soft spots. I quickly won $200 before the drooler lost all of his money and the other soft spots moved on. The table got harder just as my cards got deader. I endured a few hours of pretty boring poker while my stack dwindled to a $400 loss.

At that moment, perhaps it was around 1.30am, a very drunk guy marched into the room and shouted that he wanted to play PLO. There was a 5/5 PLO game running with 7 players, he got the 8th seat, and I made a snap decision to join that game, snaffling up the last seat. Apart from the drunk (on my direct left), the table had two LAG Finnish players and the rest turned out to be local regs who played pretty loose for the most part. A lot of pots went straddle, five limps, pot bet in position and five calls, meaning around $500 in the middle before the flop.

The drunk guy had bought in for around $3000, other stacks ranged from $500 to $2000, and I bought in for $500 (with another $900 in my pocket). I planned on playing tight, flopping good hands, and going with them. This worked out perfectly early on where I flopped trips with a good draw and got one of the Finns to bluff off his stack and double me up.

Continuing with the same strategy I flopped a set of 7s and got it in versus an obvious drawing hand. Since it was a $2200 pot, I decided to run it twice, won the first board and lost the second. Hmm. A little while later, I played AKKJ to a five way raised flop (maybe $500 pre-flop) and flopped JT8. I potted the flop and the drunk guy re-pots me while the rest fold. By this stage, although he was definitely very drunk, I'd seen that he was actually a good PLO player, if a little on the loose side. I thought about my odds for a bit and he decided to show me Q9, then he showed me the 5 but left his last card face down. Obviously if that card was the A I was toast, but after a while I figured it was very unlikely and decided to get it in for another $2200 pot. Given his hand, I think running it twice is the optimal play, but once again I won the first board (insta snap hit my flush on the turn) and lost the second board.

So, if I hadn't run those two hands twice I'd be up over $2500. Hmm. After that my luck turned and I couldn't make a hand for a while, my stack dwindling off to around $750 when I managed to get a lot of money in pre-flop with KK67. The guys in the pot would definitely have re-raised me if they had Aces, so when it came a pretty benign non-coordinated flop (something like T72 rainbow), I thought my hand is usually still good, but perhaps that's my PLO inexperience, because my bet was met with an all-in raise and with only around $300 left I couldn't find a fold or hit either board when running it twice versus a flopped set of Tens.

At this stage it was past 3am, I was tired and a little drunk and the game had dwindled to 4 players, including the drunk (who was winning) and two good locals (who were also winning). I should have been smart enough the realise that I had become the mark in the game and left at this point, but I decided to gamble-up the $900 remaining in my pocket. I soon managed to play AJ25 and flop two pair heads-up versus the drunk on A23 and proceeded to bet the flop. He called and we saw Q on the turn. Bet Call. J on the river made me an even better two pair and I didn't think I could fold at this point because most of his draws had missed and he was prone to bluffing rivers (he'd done it twice and shown). He had AQxx and that was that!

So I lost $1800 on the night and didn't get any more poker in on the trip, because I just wanted to enjoy my vacation for a few days. On the last night I was there (Tuesday), I went back but only one 2/5 NL table was running and full with one person waiting, so I went back to my hotel and decided to drunk gamble Black-Jack and Caribbean Stud (which you can no longer find in Las Vegas and I enjoy playing). $1450 loss and a few very good glasses of wine later, I called it a night. Any gambling losses I incur this year I'm counting as poker expenses, so this trip gets me down to -$4,242 for the year!

Now I'm in Las Vegas for 5 days and plan on playing some cash games at Encore and my first MTT of the year (The Wynn Classic Seniors $550 on Monday). Unfortunately I have to leave on Tuesday for an important appointment in Montreal; otherwise I'd have loved to have stayed and played a lot more of the Wynn Classic Series...here's hoping for some run good!

Two cash sessions and a tournament at Encore since my last post. I'll post each separately:

Venue: Encore, Las Vegas
Game: 2/5 NL (45 mins 1/3 to start)
Max Buy-In: $1500 ($500 for 1/3)
Rake: 5% max $5 (10% max $5 for 1/3)
Hours Played: 7.75
Profit: $940
Expenses: $0 (I'm in Vegas for other reasons)

Background: Encore is my favorite poker room is Vegas and runs 2/5 NL pretty much all of the time (as well as 1/3 and 5/10). I love the room, chairs, dealers and service there. The players are good too: a mix of live regs and tourists/businessmen, generally pretty well-heeled since this is one of the more exclusive casinos in Vegas.

I had to wait 45 mins for a 2/5 seat, but got into 1/3 immediately and there was Teddy "Ice Man" Monroe on my left. He played pretty nitty / bad for the brief time I was there. Nothing notable happened at 1/3 and I left with $20 profit to take $520 into the 2/5 game.

My first 2/5 table was tough: lots of young serious-looking guys, but obviously prepared to gamble as witnessed on our 3rd hand at the table when UTG opened, OTB 3-bet, SB 4-bet, OTB 5-bet, SB shipped $1500 and OTB snap called his AKs, which won the race versus QQ.

Hand 1

9-handed, Hero = OTB, UTG = young guy that just won $3000 pot, HJ = tight reg, $500 effective stacks

UTG opens for $20, HJ Calls, we have 99 OTB and elect to call (Should we be 3-betting here? I didn't want to because of what UTG did the last hand).
Flop ($65): QxJx7 checks around
Turn ($65): 5 UTG bets $45 HJ folds and we call (maybe just fold here...?)
River ($145): Q and UTG bets $125. It seems quite bluffy, but it feels like his flush got there. I actually thought he has AK or AT and it is just a question of whether they're spades or not. So eventually I convinced myself he has more AT/AK non-spades than spades and called to be shown AT

After that hand and a few others, I felt like I had no edge at this table and moved, adding $300 to my stack. My new table had a lot of sit outs and the first major hand we played was 3-handed:

Hand 2

Hero = OTB, SB = Tight guy, BB = Loose loud New Yorker
We open QQ for $20 and BB calls
Flop ($40) Q95 I bet $20 and get check-raised to $40. I decide to call for deception.
Turn ($120): 5 He bets $50 and I raise to $125. He says "you really have a five" but eventually calls, meaning he had only one pair on the flop.
River ($370): 9 I'm really hoping he has a 9 and go for value with $325. He tanks a bit, but folds what he said was QJ. Maybe my flop lead and turn C/R sizings could be bigger?

Hand 3

Posting this one because I'm finally learning to 3-bet in spots like this and want to reinforce this in my mind:

8-handed. Hero = SB, CO = Loose Young Euro, OTB = Loose New Yorker, BB = Rec that bought-in short for $200, lost it, and now has bought-in again for $300. Seems bad / too loose.
HJ opens $20, OTB Calls, Hero 3-bets KQo to $100, BB Calls, HJ and OTB Fold.
Flop ($240): K78 and we check call his $200 shove
Turn ($640): 6
River ($640): Q and MHIG

Hand 4

Posting this for bet sizing analysis:

9-handed. Hero = BB, CO = Another New Yorker, not so loud, but obviously rich with lots of expensive jewelry / flashy watch / big cigar.

CO Limps, OTB Limps, SB Completes, I check BB with J9o.
Flop ($20): 998 SB checks, Hero checks, CO $15, OTB $15, SB Folds, and with $50 now in the pot, I make it $50, which I think is fine for sizing, although perhaps I can raise the pot and make it $65. CO calls, OTB folds.
Turn ($150): J and I lead for $100 and CO quickly calls. Of course I'm hoping he hit his flush here, or has an 8 or 9 (or even a straight, such as QT), but in hindsight if I put him on any of those hands, I think I can size full pot $150.
River ($350): A, which doesn't really help us much. Given he has quickly called flop and turn, and that he has lots of money, I think he might pay me off with a big bet here, so I finally go for PSB at $350 but he folds what he said was QT.

Hand 5

Posting this for pot odds analysis:

9-handed. Hero = SB, MP = Younger guy, a bit of a grinder, who had earlier lost most of his $2000 stack he said he had built for 8 hours, and now has around $500, HJ = Rich New Yorker, who had showed big hands when 3-betting.
MP $20, HJ $60 and Hero decides to flat call QQ from SB, MP calls.
Flop ($180): T97 Hero checks, MP open jams $450, CO folds and we have a pot-odds decision:

It is $450 to win $630 so we need 42% to call. Let's put him on a range of all suited A KQ KJ K8 QJ TT, 99, 88, 77, 98s, T9s and we have 40%.

Can his range be wider than this? Possibly, but I don't think we can count on it.

At the table I couldn't accurately assess that range, but I made a proxy range of AcXc, sets and two pairs and figured I was below 40% (actually only 32% versus such a range).

I folded and I think it is correct, based on the analysis above, but he said his actual hand was 75 and we had 50% equity.

So, in future, should we think villains can have any combo draw in this spot for such a large shove, especially as he opened and called 3-bet OOP pre-flop?

Encore Friday tournament is $200 + $100 add-on at 1st break, $10k GTD, 10K chips (+5k add-on), 30 minutes levels. We got 85 entries with $6.2k for 1st and 9 paid.

It is only worth playing because it starts at Noon, well before the Friday cash games get juicy, and you can late reg until 2pm, so I got there late at around 1.15pm at 100/200 level and this is my very first hand:

UTG 400 MP call, Hero calls AThh in the CO, BB calls.
Flop (1700): A53r BB leads 1100 and we decide to call.
Turn (3900): 7 BB bets 2200 and maybe we have jam/fold decision. I decide to fold because we know nothing about villain. Maybe we should jam...

At 150/300/25 with 7.5k MP limps and I decide to raise T9o OTB to 1200 BB calls and MP calls.
Flop (3950): 975dd checks to me and I bet 2000 BB calls and MP ships his last 5k. I call and lose to J9ss (I was literally LOL at that hand and MP got upset! He donked off a bit later).

So we're down to 1625 with around 20 minutes left of late reg / re-entry period and just want to gamble it up or re-enter. We fold down to 1450, OTB limps, SB calls and we check-jam J87 with 97 and win versus A2 OTB.

We're then card dead until the break and decide to just come back with 20 BBs (3k at break plus 5k add-on) and play perfect short-stack tourney poker for a while. Here is a quick collection of mistake-free poker for a few hours. This is every hand I played!

200/400/50 with 8k we fold ATo UTG and next hand we ship TT from BB after UTG limps with 2 callers and beat his AQo.

300/600/50 with 16k we open A8ss OTB to 1600 BB calls we check down 9454ddd to an 8o on the river, get our 2k v-bet called and MHIG.

400/800/75 with 15k OTB opens 2.5k we ship KQo from BB and he folds.

600/1200/100 with 15k UTG limps, OTB calls, SB calls, we ship BB with QQ and all fold.

600/1200/100 with 18k behind, UTG limps, SB calls, we check BB with K8o
Flop (4500): K75ss SB leads 2200, we tank fold, he shows me 75hh and I'm feeling good about my decisions.

600/1200/100 with 16k, CO opens 3k and we ship A8o from OTB, SB tank folds what he said was 88 (LOL), CO folds.

800/1600/200 start with 21k with 22 players left and we fold card-dead for the entire level.

1000/2000/300 start with 13.2k with 18 players left, we fold until we're BB and face MP middle-aged woman shoving 22.5k and we decide to fold K6o with 3 BBs left! Next hand UTG limps, CO calls we ship AQo from SB and amazingly they fold and I'm up to 18k.

1000/2000/300 with 17.5k UTG+1 limps, MP limps, we ship CO with KQo, SB nit-rolls me with JJ, we can't win the race and out in 17th place.

I really just posted this to demonstrate how easy this type of daily tourney poker can be. I'm quite profitable in these types of tourneys because I know how to fold or shove, whereas so many bad players are limping or opening light in LP and folding to 3-bets.

After the tourney I want some Friday night 2/5 NL action, but there's a wait list for both 2/5 and 1/3. I donk-off $100 at BJ while waiting (sigh!), then get into 1/3 at 5.30pm. Once again Ice Man is on my left!

So here's a funny one - I think it's the first time I ever did this...

Hand 1

9-handed, Hero = BB, SB = Young guy, probably good
OTB limps, SB calls, I check BB with A5o (possibly can be raising here, but w/e)
Flop ($9): A36r SB checks, we bet $10, SB calls
Turn ($26): 7 SB checks, we bet $15, SB calls
River ($54): 4 SB checks, I don't even notice I made a straight and check behind, he says "I've got a set", shows me 66, and I MUCK!!!

The moment my cards leave my hand and perfectly hit the muck, I realize my mistake, but obv it's too late. Oh well...

Hand 2

Hero = CO, MP2 = Young guy, seems loose (but we don't know much at this stage)
MP1 limps, MP2 $16, Hero calls with QJ, MP1 calls.
Flop ($47): Q92r MP2 bets $45, Hero Calls, MP1 folds
Turn ($137): 2 and he bombs it for $135 with same amount behind. I study for a while, conclude that his bet sizing makes no sense for value, move-in, he tank calls what I said was AK before he showed it and we hold.

Around 6pm I get moved to 2/5 where I play for around 90 mins before I go for a nice dinner with my wife. I could post some hands, but I ran good and left $1100 on the table, thinking I'd get back in time to keep my spot (it's around 75 mins in Encore). Dinner took a bit longer and they'd picked me up, so I got moved to another table around 9pm.

At first this table was tough, but then some good spots moved-in, this one guy two to my right was somewhat drunk, played aggressive and had huge stack swings (but he knew how to play). I actually lost down to $125, did not top up even though I had $900 in my pocket and then I got doubled up twice to get back to a more playable stack.

I continued to build it up and got back to around $1k when the perfection of a Friday evening cash game in Las Vegas actually happened: two drunk, very bad, wealthy Bolivian guys showed-up and got seated at our table. One was literally falling asleep at the table and played super-bad; the other was more lively, but played somewhat bad. They donked-off and re-bought. I was getting some, but others were getting more. Also the rich flashy New Yorker was there for a while and lost a few $k, mostly to the drunk guy two to my right. He built his stack to over $4k.

While I was also drinking I wasn't getting hammered and these guys continued to donate. We were still playing after 4am and my stack was around $2,100 when this happened...

Probably there's a straddle, drunk guy two to my right opens OTB to $40, less drunk Bolivian calls, Hero in BB 3-bets to $140 with QQ and both call.
Flop ($430): 975 Bolivian bets $200, I decide to call, OTB makes it $900, Bolivian folds and I'm in this spot:

$1830 in the pot, $1800 behind, so obviously it's shove or fold and if I shove I'm never getting a fold and betting $1800 to win $2830. I need 39%. If we give him all suited A, 99, 77, 55, 97s, 75s we have only 30%, but I think his range is wider. If we add JJ, TT, 88, 66, T9s, T8s, 98s, 97s, 87s we have 57%.

At the table, I simply thought he had an Ace high flush draw, where we are basically flipping at 50% and went with it. I knew it was a massive gamble, but we had an edge over the odds and have to do this...

The board ran out 34o and he shows me A2

That put me only $500 down at cash that day and $900 down total if we count the $300 tourney plus $100 BJ. I'd won $940 the previous day, so it made me breakeven for the trip.

Despite this it left me gutted. If only I win that flip I'm sitting with $4600 at a great table at 4.30am in Vegas. It felt pretty bad for a while, but after taking Saturday off from poker (to watch a pretty forlorn Montreal Canadiens team lose to the Vegas Knights at the T-Mobile Arena), I'm ready to get back in the saddle today...

I agree with you as well, Encore is my favorite poker room in Las Vegas. Better luck at the tables today!

Short report today but we finally booked a BIG WIN BABY!!!

Entered the Encore Sunday MTT at 1.30pm and busted out around 18th place at around 5.30pm. I actually did build my stack to 70k-ish this time, but managed to donk it off to a Euro with AA who had the perfect image for a light 3-better...sigh!

Nevertheless we got redemption for Friday night's cash game:

Venue: Encore, Las Vegas
Game: 2/5 NL
Max Buy-In: $1500
Rake: 5% max $5
Hours Played: 10.0
Profit: $4130
Expenses: $0

I didn't take note of hands, but we actually lost our first relatively short buy-in of $420 on a speculative play, where a donator was obviously squeezing light and we decided to gamble with KT but couldn't beat his 66 with a ton a dead money in the pot.

We bought back-in for $600 and got it all back and more from the same guy when we crushed his AA with Q8 getting maybe $300 in a the flop of Q86 and the rest on the 8 turn.

Others at this table were pretty bad too, we built up to around $2500 when the table broke at maybe 4am, and then we got moved to the late Sunday night donks table ;-)

I actually thought I would just play a few hands and cash out, which I did, but not before we manage to win a $4500+ pot with 99 on 9AA flop and get two Asian guys to go all-in, each holding a naked Ace.

I honestly can't recall all of the action because it was late, I'd been drinking, etc. but I think we got around $1000 in on the flop, then got the rest in on a Q turn and were so relieved when a blank 6 hit the river and we knew we were good.

MTT Report

Wynn Classic Seniors NLHE
Buy In: $500 + $50
Format: Re-entry until end of Level 8
Levels: 30-minutes
Entries: 167
1st Place: $23K

My Buy-Ins: $1100 (2-entries)
My Cash-Out: $8900 (3rd place)
My Expenses: $300 (including tip)
Profit: $7500


Happy to get my first MTT score this year on my third try (well, actually fourth try because 2-entries in this one). I was probably still drunk when I showed up at around Noon (tourney started at 11am) and decided to go get lunch before entering around 12.45pm in the middle of Level 4 (150/300 with 300 BB Ante).

We dusted off our first buy-in at 300/600/600 when this super-LAG South African guy limped UTG, we raised KQo in HJ to 2k with 16k behind, CO calls, OTB calls and UTG ships. We could easily fold in this spot but with so much money already in the pot I felt that we were getting good odds to call versus his move and, unlike cash games, we have to try to accumulate chips in tourneys by taking risks. After I called I was surprised that the CO came along too, their hands were AQo and TT and the board bricked.

In hindsight I think we should fold here because tourney re-entries really eat into MTT profits and we were not really getting the right price to call, but at the time I went with my gut and got it wrong that time...

Second entry obviously went a lot better. Here are some hands:

300/600/600 with 30k
Hero = SB, MP = Loose passive woman, CO = LAG woman
I'd just got the CO to steam by bluffing her the previous hand. She raises MP limp to 2.2k and we decide to call 66 knowing that MP will always just call.
Flop (7.8k): 752 XXX
Turn (7.8k): 9 XX CO Bets 4.5k, Hero Calls, MP folds
River (16.8k): 5 X CO Bets 7k, we snap call table the winner and tell her "never bluff a bluffer" as she mucks.

500/1000/1000 with 70k
Hero = SB, MP = TAG Guy (29k), CO = LAG woman (33k)
MP opens for 2.5k, CO calls, we see K6 and decide to call (I'm posting this hand to pretty much remind myself not to call out-of-position with bad suited Kings).
Flop (9.5k): T82 We check, MP bets 5.1k, CO flats and they both have 20-25k behind with 20k in the pot. I think we've got very little fold equity here, so do we ship, call or fold? In hindsight I think we can find good reasons to simply fold, but at the time I decided to gamble, they both called and we didn't have much chance versus AA and A5

I was pretty annoyed with myself after that hand and told myself to make no more mistakes. We tightened up quite a bit and then got a nice double up at 800/1600/1600 when we shipped 99 OTB versus HJ open to 5k and won the flip versus AK.

1500/3000/3000 with 85k
UTG = TAG woman, Hero = MP
UTG limps, we decide to raise AQo to 13.5k and she ships.
I tanked pretty hard on this one and actually got the clock called on me. She seemed pretty confident and I felt her range was quite tight, whereas this was the one hand in my range I can fold here. So finally I make the big laydown, show her, and she kindly shows me the same hand! Even after I see it I'm happy with my fold.

We are card dead and blind off to 2500/5000/5000 with 56k, ship A8o from CO and beat the BB's AQo to get to 120k (got to get lucky in MTTs!).

In the money with around 15 players left:

4000/8000/8000 with 150k
Hero = CO, LAG Guy = SB (300k)
We open TT to 20k, SB makes it 100k, we ship and he has A3o (WTF!). He manages to flop an Ace, we get up to leave, and a magical Ten hits the river(phew!).

That gets us to the Final Table:

5000/10000/10000 with 300k
Hero = MP, TAG Guy = UTG
UTG limps, we raise AQ to 45k and UTG ships 250k. It is pretty much the same spot we had earlier and we make the same decision, showing our fold, and he tells me I made a very good laydown. I think from his demeanor that he was telling the truth.

I then went super card dead and blinded off quite badly. The BB ante really hurts when we get to the 10k/20k/20k level and two orbits costs me half of my stack. We finally ship Q8o from the CO with 106k and beat 77.

We then manage to ship A9o and 77 back-to-back with no calls to get up to 340k.

At this stage I think there were 7 players left, we decided to stop taking notes and simply focus on playing for the win. We did manage to get a big double up with some kind of a flip, then we got super lucky when our 66 beat the AA of the same guy that had donked with the A3o earlier.

3-handed I wanted to deal, but the same guy refused, and we finally went down when SB (and nice guy eventual winner) open raised, we shipped A9 and couldn't beat his AQo.

It's a good result, but always disappointing to finish 3rd, when the win is so close.

Back to Montreal today and some Playground cash games / maybe a tourney this weekend. I think I'll come back to Vegas for the Wynn Classic Main Event in a couple of weeks.

It's after 4am and I've just finished an amazing 13 hours of poker at Playground (Montreal). First, we got there at 2pm and played some cash:

Venue: Playground Poker Club
Game: 2/5 NL
Max Buy-In: $500
Rake: 5% max $15 + $2 for BBJ/High Hand Promotions
Hours Played: 5.5
Profit: $2875
Expenses: $0

Then when our cash heater finally seemed to be cooling off a little, we jumped into the "Power Weekend" Tourney Day 1A:

Playground Power Weekend Event #2
Buy In: $200 + $20
Format: Re-entry until end of Level 6
Levels: 30-minutes
Day 1A Entries: 144
Guaranteed Prize Pool: $100,000

My Buy-Ins: $440 (2-entries)
Starting Stack: 20K
Ending Stack: 212K
Players Remaining: 28
Average Stack: 103K

In the cash game I ran so pure for around 5 hours that it's pointless to post hands where I flopped it and got paid, etc. I'm just posting this one questionable cash game hand (whereupon I decided my run-good was over and entered the tourney) and one ridiculous tourney hand that accounted for my first buy-in:

Hand 1

Hero = CO with > $3k, Bad reg old guy = SB with $425
Hero opens CO with KJ SB calls
Flop ($40) T92
SB check Hero $25 SB $60 and Hero decides to call in-position with two overs plus a gut-shot (quite speculative, since his play is pretty strong and my overs are probably dead - I think we should just fold here).
Turn ($155) 7
SB $100 with $225 behind and we decide to flat with our double gut-shot. OK let's see if we got that right: $100 to call to win $255 plus his remaining $225 (if we hit) minus $7 additional rake means we need only 17.5% equity, but do we have that? Surprisingly we do have 18.2% versus a tight range of TT, 99, T9s and 22. The issue, however, is that if we hit the two of our outs that are we might not get his stack, thus reducing our equity. It's a close call, but maybe we should fold?
River ($350) A
He checked when that card hit and looked somewhat concerned. So I quickly decided to bluff the scare card all-in for $225, but if we really put him on that tight range above, it is not a scare card at all. He quickly called with T9 and said "I suppose you have Ace-Ten" (since he had seen me run so good up to this point).

I think we don't need to play hands like this, no matter how good we are running, and we can probably just fold to the C/R on the flop...?

Hand 2

150/300/300 with 20K
Hero = UTG+1, TAG Woman = UTG
UTG opens for 800, Hero raises to 2K with KK and she calls
Flop (4750) AK6
She checks, Hero bets 2K (because we're quite sure she has an Ace and not a flush draw) and she quickly calls.
Turn (8750) J
She checks again and we think there's no chance she ever has QT here, pretty much always has an Ace so we want value and to set up a river shove by betting just 3.5K
River (15750) A
She checks and we quickly ship our remaining 12.5K.
Here is where it gets disgusting: she nit-rolls me for 20 seconds before finally calling with AJ

Anyway, we've made Day 2 (which is on Sunday) with a very nice stack from our second entry, which is not bad as there are three Day 1 flights and we could easily end-up with 5-6 buy-ins if we run bad.

We should easily make the money and hope for a deep run / final table / trophy

PS: Since our Aruba losses, we are on almost a $15K up-swing for an overall YTD profit of over $10K in 136 hours of poker ($74/hour, even including our gambling losses / other expenses)

Nice upswing, not sure why but I thought you were late 20’s/early 30’s so was like wtf when saw your played the seniors event haha. Glgl day 2


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah I'm 50 since last April and just love Seniors' Events because the fields are pretty soft. Finished 99/5389 in last year's WSOP Seniors . Perhaps I sound like late 20s/early 30s because my poker career started around 13 years ago and I "grew-up" playing / interacting with the online generation of young players on Stars like Annette-15 (Annette Obrestad), Bond18 (Tony Dunst) and Timex (Mike MacDonald). We had a great community on P5s back in the day for discussing hands, etc. Tony Dunst got his start as a social media star by writing parodies of my live tournament / life antics.

Played a Friday night session, but cut it early because (a) running bad (b) no action table (c) tired.

I think in general it is good not to try to force something to happen and take your medicine, especially since yesterday was so stellar.

Venue: Playground Poker Club
Game: 2/5 NL
Max Buy-In: $500
Rake: 5% max $15 + $2 for BBJ/High Hand Promotions
Hours Played: 5.0
Profit: -$750
Expenses: $0

At first my table was relatively good, with a loose-bad rec on my direct right and a young LAG bluff-monkey two to my left. The rec quickly donked-off $500 in several pot, but I just couldn't get anything going versus him. The kid bluffed-off a lot too, but again not to me.

Meanwhile I managed to run KK into AA for a quick $500 loss.

On my second buy-in I did win a few small pots and ran it up to around $700 when I got myself into a spot I probably shouldn't have:

Hand 1

Hero = OTB, SB = Older guy always playing back at me and getting lucky, BB = Young LAG bluff-monkey (caught a few times, but just keeps doing it)

Hero opens 67 OTB, SB calls, BB makes it $90 with $294 behind. Obviously I think he's at it, but even if he is can we ever profitably play 67s from this situation?

Probably not. I should just take my medicine and fold, but I decide to try to get lucky and call. Probably Folding > Shoving > Calling, but I made a mistake. Anyway now the SB surprises me by shoving all-in for $371, BB thinks for a bit and sigh shoves his remaining $294 and I think at least let's consider the pot odds: $294 to win $828 so I need 26%.

At the table I thought my equity was close, but not quite enough (maybe within 2%). If I give the older guy AK, AQ, TT+ and the younger guy AK-AT, 88+, KQ then somewhat surprisingly I have exactly 26%, so I actually had an even-money equity call.

Anyway I elected to fold and the older guy won with AK, we didn't see the young guy's hand, and my 67s would have lost...not unhappy with my fold; but I am unhappy with my flat-call of the 3-bet.

Not a lot else happened in the game of particular note. I missed so many flops and had my opens / iso-raises of limpers called in multiple spots and just felt like it wasn't my night.

The only other hand worth thinking about is the one time in the evening I got reasonably lucky on the flop:

Hand 2

Hero = OTB, SB = Older guy keeps playing back at me; HJ = Friendly loose-passive guy.

UTG elects to straddle $10, CO calls, we decide to call with 55 OTB, SB calls, BB calls and UTG checks.
Flop ($50) J5J XXX CO $10 and we think we don't want to lose any customers at this point so we just call, SB calls, BB folds, UTG folds.
Turn ($80) T XX and we bet $35 so as not to scare off the SB who we think may be on a flush draw, he calls and CO folds.
River ($150) 4 meaning the flush draw got there and we get what we wanted when he leads for $50. So what size do we make our raise?

I elected to raise to $200 and he tank-folded what he said was J8...grrr at the flush card!

After that we pretty much lost all of our hands, including:

Hand 3

Hero = OTB, CO = Friendly loose-passive guy
CO opens to $15, we make it $50 OTB with KK and he takes a while before deciding to call.
Flop ($100): A98 Ugh! XX
Turn ($100): J X and we think we'll take a stab at it for $50, but he quickly calls.
River ($200): 4 XX and he shows me AQ

I quit shortly thereafter, feeling that it just wasn't my night.

We'll take Saturday off and be well prepared for Day 2 of the $100K GTD on Sunday at Noon.

Decided to play the Party Poker Millions Live Mega-Satty Turbo Saturday night because they added 3 seats to the prize pool:

Buy In: $530 + $55
Format: Re-entry until end of Level 6
Levels: 15-minutes
Total Entries: 56
Prize Pool: 8 x $5,300 Seats plus $3150 for 9th

This means they gave each entry an average of $229 free money even after the rake: gotta play for that kind of juice!

First hand of note I'm not sure if I botched it:

Hand 1

250/500 + 250 Button Ante with 28K
Limp 55 UTG, HJ calls, CO ships 4.2K, BB thinks about it and decides to flat (with 25K). I think it's a clear fold or shove situation and I decide that it's early we don't need to gamble yet and fold. HJ calls and we get to see the whole board:
Flop (13.5K) 853 (FML)
Turn (13.5K) 9 (OK then)
River (13.5K) 3 (FML!!!)
Shorty has AT and wins; BB said he had AJs

I still think it's a good fold in that particular spot...?

Hand 2

400/800/800 with 32K
Loose older guy limps CO, I make it 2.5K OTB with KK and he calls.
Flop (7K) A53 X, Bet 2K because we have NFD, Call
Turn (11K) 2 X and we decide to check behind to catch bluffs on the river or maybe we just felt something because the guy was right next to me...?
River (11K) 3 he bets 5K and he is so nonchalant and confident that we really feel like we are beat, but realistically cannot fold, so we reluctantly call and he shows me 64 we really did lose the minimum!

Hand 3

500/1000/1000 with 24K
UTG limps, UTG+1 4.5K, we ship SB with AK, UTG folds, UTG+1 quickly calls and we win versus AQ

Hand 4

Posting this because the guy was mad at my call.

800/1600/1600 with 50K
MP loose passive lady limps, we call OTB with 89, SB calls, BB ships 15K exactly, MP folds, we do some quick math and re-ship, SB folds and we win versus 67o. OK so the math was quite simple: there's 21.4K in the pot and it's 13.4K to call meaning we need 38% versus his range. At the table we estimated we had 40% and indeed when I look at it now we have 40% versus Any Pair, Any Ace, Any Broadway, so a good call.

Hand 5

1000/2000/2000 with 65K
UTG ships 12.2K, MP all-in for 3.6K, we're in HJ with KJ and decide that we can profitably call here, but fold to a shove behind us (which doesn't happen). They have A3 and Q8 and UTG holds.

Hand 6

1500/3000/3000 with 51K UTG+2

20 players left at two 10-handed tables, 9 get paid and the blinds are up next hand. There are two very large stacks to act after us at the table (150K), but they've not been bullying. There are also a couple of medium stacks that have us covered and then shorter stacks.

We look down at AT and think about what to do...eventually I decide to bet 7.5K and if a larger stack ships we can study and think about it (potentially folding...?). It folds past the larger stacks to the CO, he ships 41.5K and it folds back to me.

Now, this guy is loose aggressive and we know from past experience that he doesn't play too well. Also, he shipped UTG earlier in this level and showed A7o. It is 34K to win 56.5K, meaning we need only 37.5%, but obviously if we lose we're down to 9.5K. Given the tourney situation I believe we need to gamble to win this pot if we believe we have an equity edge.

At the time I though I have over 40% versus his range, some of which I'm crushing. If we give him Any Pair / A8o+/ KQ we have 44%. We're only slightly below equity if we limit his range to Any Pair / ATo+ and believe me this guy is not that tight.

Also he looked a bit nervous.

We decide to call, he says he only looked at one card , turns over AK and holds.

We lose all-in the next hand and we're out, but ho-hum that's a turbo satty (we've played hundreds of these online).

MTT Report Part 1 - Day 2 of Playground 200

Playground Power Weekend Event #2
Buy In: $200 + $20
Format: Re-entry until end of Level 6
Levels: 30-minutes
Day 1A/1B/1C Entries: 607
Guaranteed Prize Pool: $100,000

My Buy-Ins: $440 (2-entries)
Day 2 Starting Stack: 212K
Players Remaining: 126
Average Stack: 103K
Place Paid: 76

Result: 17th Place for $1240 ($75 expenses - food and premium drinks are not free in Tourneys at PG; just in cash games)

Started with 212K and drifted off card dead to 168k at first break going into 3k/6k/6k with 70 left 217k average (i.e. already In The Money).

Hero opens 15k with AJ in MP, CO and BB call.
Flop (54k) J62
Bet 25k CO calls.
Turn (104k) J
Bet 40k CO calls. I sized my bet a little on the small side to leave me a good river shove, but didn't want to size so small that it revealed my hand strength.
River (184k) 8 The flush came in, but I'm really not worried he might have back-doored me and confidently ship 88k. After a long tank he calls and MHIG.

We're up to 360k

Still at 3k/6k/6k, MP opens for 13k, OTB and SB call and we decide we're getting a good price to call with QT in the BB. We did think about RIO and just told ourselves not to get hanged on tricky flops, which is exactly what we got:
Flop (58k) JT8
We check, MP continues for 19k, OTB calls, SB Folds and we're in a tricky spot. We have a marginal holding with so many turns we don't like and even if the 9 hits we still have RIO versus KQ. So after some thought, remembering what we told our self pre-flop, we decide to fold.
They check down 66 and show K9 and AQ...hmm?

Now at 5k/10k/10k we decide to open 44 from MP to 22k and TAG woman ships 118k from the SB.
It's 98k to win 165k so we only need 37%, but I thought versus her range we may not have even that. Let's see, if we give her 88+, AK-AJ we have 37%, so she would have to be shipping wider than that for a call and I really didn't think she was. We fold 44 face up and she kindly shows 99.

We enter 6k/12k/12k with 480k, 34 left, 450k average.

UTG+1 is a good aggressive reg. He had a big stack earlier, but lost most of it getting unlucky. He shipped the last hand to pick up 30k and now ships again with 165k. We have 99 and think about it for a bit. We're flipping if we give him 55+, AT+, which seems like a reasonable range for this guy with 13.5 BBs, if not a little wider. We call and put a bad beat on JJ. Up to 670k.

Still at 6k/12k/12k we open QQ UTG to 32k (we meant to bet 28k, but mis-clicked). OTB calls and TAG woman in BB makes it 150k with 350k behind. This is not the same TAG woman as earlier, but someone we've been playing with all day, chatting to and understanding her game. Given what we know she knows about me, we decide to make a Hero Fold and she shows me KK. I was very confident about my fold and this was good reinforcement that my reads were right.

Unfortunately, reads sometimes go awry (not the read of his hand, actually, but the read of his decision)...

LAG guy who got lucky 33 > AA for a big stack opens in MP to 28k and we decide to call ATo from the BB. Possibly we can 3-bet here, but I don't think this guy is ever folding to a 3-bet so why bloat the pot OOP?
Flop (74k) 678r XX (given his check behind we decide we're leading safe turns)
Turn (74k) 7 Bet 35k Call
River (144k) 2o We think about his hand: probably a weak pair or a premium Ace-high, so we have to bluff to win. Thinking about our sizing versus this player, we know we've got to make a big bet, but what's the best sizing? I eventually decide on 110k and he tanks for a long time and calls with 33. Ugh! Maybe we can size full pot and it works...?

Now at 10k/20k/20k we open TT UTG to 50k with 460k behind. The same woman in the BB to whom we folded QQ earlier confidently makes it 150k. I think she could be leveling given the meta-game dynamics from the previous hand. In between she did actually show a 4-bet bluff to another guy, so she's got game. This time, if I had QQ, I'd go for it, but TT just seems a bit too weak to gamble for stacks in this spot. We decide to fold, she doesn't show, but says quietly to me only that she had AA. Maybe we believe her...?

A little later a young guy ships 214k UTG, we reship AK for 415k and lose to 33. Down to 200k.

We then ship A9o over the same guys OTB raise to 50k and he folds.

Next hand we ship AJo over big stack open from EP. He goes deep into the tank and finally calls as we enter the break with AJo for a chop.

We have 300k at 12k/24k/24k with 21 left, fold for a while, and finally bust 17th: same big stack we chopped with opens to 50k, we ship TT OTB with 214k and lose to KTs with K on the river for a disappointing $1240 cashout.

MTT Report Part 2 - Event #4 $100 + $20 + $100 Bounty

It is 7.30pm, we've been playing intense thinking poker for 7.5 hours, so now we decide to drink some more, have fun and play the bounty event...

We spend $170 on a one-hour chair massage, drinks and food! And we spend $70 on a taxi home plus back the next day to pick up my car (but we'll be playing Monday night's $300 6-Max MTT anyway).

And we cashed for $990 (6 x $100 bounties plus finished in 9th place for $390).

No hands to report from that tourney since we weren't taking notes and somewhat drunk, but we ended the day with $2,230 in cash-outs from $660 buy-ins for $1,570 gross profit less around $300 of expenses!

Can we handle a $4000 Coin Flip after 12 hours of poker?

I'm only going to cover one hand in this report per the title above, but to set the scene we played for 12 hours at Playground today: 3pm to 3am.

As usual a guy I'm going to call DTW was playing in the afternoon and this time we actually got onto his table at around 4.30pm and he was staying later than usual (he played until around 9.30pm, which is super late for him).

The table agreed to bump the game up to 5/5 NL with $1000 max buy-in.

Once again when playing with DTW we ran bad and managed to book a $500 loss before last minute late registering the $300 + $30 bounty tourney at 8.30pm.

That didn't go well and we actually got back to DTW's table by 9pm!

We promptly ran QQ into AA and JJ into KK to leave us stuck close to $1500 for the day by the time DTW left.

There was another action guy at the table that stayed the whole day/night two to my right, another soft spot to his right, and then this crazy maniac Asian guy shows up directly on my left. The rest of the table are reasonably competent, but somewhat loose / gamble-happy types.

The crazy guy suggested a mandatory $10 straddle, which was agreed, and every time I straddled, because he was on my left, he double-straddled to $20. He usually raised his straddle or double-straddle to something like $75 - $125 as well as entering other pots with similar bet sizes.

This obviously made for a high-variance, high-entertainment game where big money could be won and lost. He ran good at first and built his stack to around $4K, then he donked all of that but $500 off to the other players, before running that $500 up to over $2k again. Somehow, I never had a big pot versus him but the money was flying around.

I did manage to run $330 up to around $1000 then got a massive boost to around $2.2k when I flopped top 2 with KTs and filled-up on the turn (and also won my first high-hand promotion: $250 bonus ).

We were then card dead / flop dead and did not win a hand for literally two whole hours. Our stack drifted off to $1500 before we won one relatively small pot against the crazy guy to get back to $1800.

It was approaching 3am, the end of the high-hand promotion, and we were thinking we might book a small win for the day when this happened:

Hero = OTB with $1800, Crazy Guy = SB with around $1500, New Guy with only $350 = Straddle, Highly Talented Pro = CO with over $2000.

The guy in the CO is one of the best NLHE players in Montreal. I've played with him a bunch, we respect each others' games, we're quite friendly with each other, but once it comes to poker we both know we're going to play each other hard.

There's a $10 Straddle, MP Limp (action guy), CO raises to $60, and we decide to flat QQ OTB, partly because we want the crazy guy in the pot. He might raise, but he will almost certainly call, which he promptly does, BB folds and then the Straddle ships $350.

The CO thinks for quite a while and then ships all-in. Wow, what a massive situation! While I am tanking, the crazy guy folds out of turn.

Now, I know the CO can make moves, and I also know he knows how to extract value and make the right plays. The crazy guy had called off bets bigger than $350 with marginal holdings, but had never put anything like $1500 in the pot pre-flop.

As such, I considered that the CO was never making an iso-raise with AA/KK because that would destroy the potential value of having the crazy guy call off $350 pre-flop then potentially hit one pair or a draw and stack off to a single better pair (he'd done this already a few times).

So, if we take AA/KK out of his range what can he have? Well the answer is obvious: AK/QQ. Since we have QQ it makes AK a near-certainty in this spot.

So, if we know he has mostly AK, do we take the flip for a $4,000 pot?

The variance is crazy and we know he only ever runs it once.

In the end I just told myself that this is why we play and we have to take on plays like this, win or lose.

So we called. He asked me what I had, I told him and he said I was currently ahead, confirming that he has AK (which he showed).

It was pretty nerve-wracking, but the board bricked-out Ten-high and we won all the gold

I'm happy I was brave enough to make this decision. It's what poker is all about.

Venue: Playground Poker Club
Game: 5/5 NL
Max Buy-In: $1000
Rake: 5% max $15 + $2 for BBJ/High Hand Promotions
Hours Played: 12.0
Profit: $2,500
Expenses: $0

Nice call

Quick report for today:

Wynn Classic Seniors $360 + $40: Lost one-entry (played 5 hours)
2/5 NL Cash bought-in $1000: cashed out $1785 after 4.5 hours
Wynn $1M GTD Satellite (20 seats GTD) $265 + $35: Lost one-entry (played 1 hour)

Profit for the day = $85

Notable cash game hands:

Hand 1

7-handed, UTG $20, Hero raises CO to $65 with AQ, OTB flat calls with $300 behind, UTG calls.
Flop ($200): A43r. X Bet $110, OTB ships, we call and lose to AK

Can we ever get away from this?

Hand 2

6-handed, CO opens for $20, we make it $65 from SB with J8 and he calls.
Flop ($130): Q44 we bet $70, Call.
Turn ($270): K we bet $150, he folds.

His flop call seemed somewhat weak and we just barrelled the scare card to take it down...good line or spew?

Hand 3

5-handed, we open A7 $20 from the CO, SB calls.
Flop ($40): J46r XX
Turn ($40) 7o, he bets $25 and we think our 7s are good so we call.
River ($90) 8o, he bets $65, we tank call and win versus AQ.

Hand 4

9-handed, Straddle $10, 2 limps, we make it $45 OTB with A6o and get 3 callers.
Flop ($160) Q6c2r: XXXX.
Turn ($160) Qc: UTG bad bluffer sneakily bets $250 (he had two black chips hidden in his hand and it looked like he was betting $50 then suddenly he drops the extra $200; almost a string-bet, but we don't object because it looks like such a weak move), we move in for around $850 effective, he snaps folds, and we show saying we thought our hand was good (which it clearly was, but is this line just too risky?).

We continued to play aggressive and took down some more substantial pots, then we got super-tired from jet-lag, etc. and made a bad play:

Hand 5

7-handed, Straddle, HJ opens for $30, CO calls, we call OTB with AJ, Straddle calls.
Flop ($125): A56 XXX we bet $80, CO calls
Turn ($285): 8 XX (we basically checked here for pot control)
River ($285): T, he quickly bets $100 and we almost snap call, then we stop ourselves to think can he ever be betting a worse hand here for value...? After thinking for a minute or two, we don't think so: either 2-pair, AK or AQ, so we open fold our AJ and he shows us A4

I realized I was too tired to play deep-stack cash and donked around in the satellite a bit before calling it a night - I really could have called that hand If I had a little more mental clarity!

Bi-Monthly Review

During the first two months of my challenge I played 196 hours, roughly 2/3 cash games and 1/3 MTTs. We had quite a lot of success and on we're target to meet our annual goals:



I'm in no doubt that my sample size is way too small and there's a long way to go to establish a consistent win-rate, especially given MTT variance.

Separating out pure NL Cash Games, we logged 136 hours for $10.4K Profit at $62 per hour. This is almost certainly a higher win-rate than we can hope to maintain, so we're running good, but it does give me confidence going forward.

Regarding my play, I do feel that it is improving due to:

a) Playing more often
b) Taking notes on key hands and reviewing them later, including sharing them here
c) Discussing hands with friends / other poker players

I'm going to keep working on my game and hope to see further improvements.

Another successful day at the Cash tables at Encore. We started at 2pm with 2/5 NL for 5.5 hours (+$1,250), played and lost in the Satty early evening for a couple of hours (-$300), then went back to 2/5 NL until 12.30am (+$1,180 in 3 hours).

Here are some key hands...

Hand 1

Open AT OTB for $20, BB calls.
Flop ($40) AJT X we bet $20 and he calls. He did a strong tell when he called and I became suspicious...
Turn ($80) 2 he leads out for $50 and we call.
River ($180) 7 Bet $125, and I know he’s really strong, but it's very early in the session, I know nothing about the guy and I can’t seem find the fold button. He has JJ.

Hand 2

This is what I get for playing QJo...silly me!

MP limp, another limp, I limp CO with QJ, OTB $20, BB calls limpers call, so we decide that we're priced-in and call. Clearly if we do elect to play QJo we should be raising the limpers here not over-limping. I've got to eliminate that type of over-limp from my game.
Flop ($100) J98 so we've absolutely smashed the flop, MP limper bets $50 with $460 behind, second limper calls, I raise to $200 and MP calls with just $260 behind.
Turn ($500) Q Obviously we're never folding here even though it seems obvious that MP hit his straight. He checks, we ship, he snaps calls and holds with T9

So those two hands got us stuck $800 within 30 minutes, we add $800 and get to work.

Hand 3 - 3-bet aggression wins us a much nicer pot than otherwise

EP loose passive guy limps, MP limps, OTB $20, we make it $65 from SB with KQ, BB calls, EP calls, OTB calls.
Flop ($260) K86r: We bet $150 and they all fold.

Hand 4 - did we have enough equity?

We open K9 for $20 in CO, loose passive BB calls.
Flop ($40) JT7 he Donks for $50 with maybe $400 behind, we think that our equity is good so we ship it in, he quickly calls and we win with a KK run-out.

Let's look at that equity: if we give him all sets, JT/AJ/KJ/QJ/Q9/J9/KQ and a bunch of diamond draws we have only 36.4% of $940 = $342, so maybe we made a mistake here, since we are betting $450. Even with some fold equity we're not winning enough equity here to justify this play = spew! Oh well.

Hand 5

We open AJo UTG+1, MP calls, OTB calls, SB calls.
Flop ($80) J94: we bet $65, OTB calls, SB calls.
Turn ($275) 5 We think our hand is still good here so we continue value betting $200, OTB moves in for around $800 and SB folds. We've played some hands versus this villain, who seems to have gone a little on tilt from our play, and we're sure we're ahead here and he probably has a flush draw or a combo draw. We call and hold versus 32

When she sees the hands, SB said she folded QQ. To add a little background, SB is an evidently wealthy young Ukrainian woman who brought out a wad of well over $5K in crisp $100 bills when she bought-in, put her Porsche key on the table, along with her very expensive bag and was flashing a massive rock on her wedding finger.

After this hand she got a lot more aggressive and played many more hands, often with limited value, and therefore went into donator mode, but she did get unlucky here:

Hand 6

She limps MP, we raise to $30 in the CO with AK, OTB good aggressive young player makes it $110, she calls, we decide to just call and completely whiff the 992dxx flop.
She leads $400, OTB calls, turn Q, she moves in, he snaps with QQ and wins versus AA.

We didn't take notes at this point because we were playing lots of hands in position versus her, picking up lots of pots. She finally left to go meet her husband at 7.30pm and we finished with a nice $1250 profit after being down $800 early.

Without her, the game wasn't good, so we late-registered into the $265 + $35 Satellite with 10k chips during level 2 (75/150).

We quickly ran it up to 22k, UTG bets and we go 5 ways to the flop with 22, flop 256hh, checks to us, we bet half pot, call, UTG initial raiser ships, we call and he has 55. Ugh!

Down to 10k at 200/400/50 our first hand after the break we open 99 UTG, MP calls, same guy as set over set makes it 4.2k OTB, we ship, he calls and has TT. Double Ugh!

So we're back to 2/5 NL with $1000 at 9.30pm and get back to our old table, although it's not as juicy as before it is good and we get some good spots as well as pulling some cool plays (since we have two friends at the table, and we're all trying to outplay each other, we make a side-bet with one of the guys that whoever wins against the other with 72 gets an extra $100 and we nailed it, much to his chagrin!). We're confident, aggressive, a little drunk and take down another $1,180 profit in around 3 hours.

It was great fun and not the time to take hand notes!

Inevitably we had a bad day.

Ran our stack in the tourney up to 80k before we donked it off then hit the Friday night cash games, where we got a very juicy table but ran bad in key spots and lost. Probably played bad because we were a little too drunk!

Tourney: -$1,600
Cash: -$2,650

After the beating we took the previous day, most of which was self-inflicted due to bad drunken play, we resolved to play as well as we could for Day 1C of the Wynn Classic Main Event ($1,500 + $100). This was our second entry, although we were prepared to re-enter if we busted before the dinner break.

Starting with 30K chips around 20 minutes into Level 1, we struggled to get any momentum until the dinner break, with our stack varying from 23K - 38K, but never really at risk of busting (the blind structure was very kind).

Our initial table was mostly solid ABC players, but there were some soft spots, which became more evident after the dinner break. We got to dinner (after eight 45-minute levels) with close to our starting stack with three key changes to our table:

1) Tony Dunst had joined around an hour before dinner 2 to my left - we've known Tony forever and although we know he's going to make some plays, especially if we're opening pots given his position, he doesn't get too out of line.
2) Scott Clements bought-in at the dinner break and was seated 3 to our right - Scott is a beast; super-aggressive and knows just when and how to sense and attack weakness; probably one of the toughest players I've met.
3) New buy-in on my direct right - turned out to be a complete fish.

This caused a lot more dynamics after dinner and we started to get something going, running our stack up to close to 90K at one point, before losing some back in the last hour or so. We were definitely tired during the last two Levels of the day, and did make some mistakes, some of which we'll cover below.

Finally we finished the day with 56K, which is way below the average (around one-third of the field made Day 2), but is still 28 BBs going into the 1000/2000/2000 level.

Key Hands (mostly just those with questionable plays)

Hand 1

100/300/300 with 32k: EP limps, we raise to 1.2k with AJ in MP, next to act and limper both call.
Flop (4.3k): 9Q6 XXX
Turn (4.3k): 2 X we bet 3.5k, one fold, then initial limper raises to 8.5k. This guy plays quite bad and it seems obvious he made his flush here. We need to call 5k to win 16.3k in the pot plus whatever we can get called on the river if we hit. We only have 7 outs so we need to win at least another 15k on the river to make it worthwhile. We have 24k behind, so we could win more than that but it seems unlikely since our nut flush will be quite obvious. In hindsight, I think we should fold, but we called and missed.

Hand 2

200/400/400 with 22K in the BB (after posting the ante): HJ opens to 900, OTB active aggressive Euro 3-bets to 2.9k, and we cold 4-Bet to 6.7k in the BB with AA with 15.2k behind. HJ folds, OTB tank calls. Flop (14.4k) J64 we ship and he folds. I know OTB is a sticky player, so I made my 4-bet sizing so he would call, but I think I need to make it a little larger to make this ship more realistic (if I make it 8k we have 17k in the pot and I’m shipping 13k).

Hand 3

200/500/500 with 32k, Tony Dunst just joined my table. Guy on my right is playing some hands blind, the one to his right is on tilt after losing a big pot. 2 limps, guy on my right blind raises to 1k, I make it 3.5k with AJo and he calls. We check down KQ7KK to the river where he bets 2.7k, we call and MHIG. Although we got value on the river, I think we should be c-betting this flop. We were not sure whether he had looked at his cards or not.

Hand 4 standard 4-bet ship, I think...

500/1000/1000 with 40k
Open AQ OTB to 2.5k, SB calls, Tony Dunst in BB 3-bets to 10k and has me covered. I ship it in and they quickly fold.

Hand 5 can we get more value?

500/1000/1000 with 52k
Open JT to 2.5k from MP, Tony Dunst OTB calls, SB calls (older TAG).
Flop (10k) KQ6r. X, we bet 3.5k, OTB folds, SB calls. I think we can size our c-bet larger here when drawing to the nuts...?
Turn (17k) 8o XX (he's sticky so we take the free card)
River (17k) 9d. SB bets out for just 3k, we make it 13k and he snap calls with top two. With 20k in the pot after his bet, and his small blocker-bet type sizing, I thought that raising more than 50% pot would get too many folds, but I think I can go for more value here, even up to PSB.

Hand 6

500/1000/1000 with around 70k.
Tony Dunst opens UTG to 2.5k, we defend our SB with KT
Flop (7k) T86 X 2.5k Call
Turn (12k) 5 X 5.5k and we think his line is very strong and decide to make a tight fold...? Later Tony told me my hand was good...
The first issue here is playing suited Kings OOP can often get us into tough spots, especially when we hit our somewhat weak kicker as top pair. When I discussed this hand with my friend Gary, a good tourney player, he said I should C/R the flop to find out where I'm at...?

We enter the last two levels of the day with 64k

Hand 7

800/1600/1600 with around 85k, Scott Clements opens CO for 3.5k, SB calls and we look down at ATo in the BB. I think we can either 3-bet or fold here, not call. The fact that we called shows that we were too tired and making mistakes. If I could have one hand back all day it would be this one.
Flop (12k) AQx7x XX Bet 3.5K SB Folds and we raise to 8.5K. I did this pretty much is response to the KTs hand versus Tony earlier, after I'd discussed it with my friend, but in hindsight I should just call here. Anyway, when he quickly calls my bet, I should know I'm beat, right?
Turn (29k) 7 and I really don't know what to do here. Do I lead as a continuation of my flop-line, do I check fold or do I check-call? I've put myself in a tricky spot out-of-position versus a tough opponent with a marginal hand. I finally decide to check, hoping Scott will check it down, but he's too good to make it that easy for me and he bets 8.5k. It may seem weak, but I think I can just fold here because I'll be facing more heat on the river. I decide to call.
River (46k) 5 and I'm hoping for XX, but he simply moves all-in. FML!

This hand really hit me hard and we realized we'd made a big tired mistake by playing it. We tightened up and managed to get through with 56k, but we've got to play mistake-free on Day 2 (and get lucky).

No doubt that Vegas is hectic - barely time to post my progress, but here goes:

Day 2 of the Wynn Classic Main Event was mistake-free, but not successful. We made it through around 2.5 hours playing perfect shove/fold tourney poker when this happened:

1500/3000/3000 with around 45k
MP open limps, HJ raises to 15k, we see KK OTB and ship, tight player in BB likes his hand and decides to ship around the same stack as me, limper folds, HJ quickly calls and we're 67% to more than triple-up versus QQ and JJ...

So we late-reg the daily for $400, run it up but finish 7 places from the money...one key hand worth posting for perfect live reads:

400/800/800 with 30K, 3 limps, we limp 22 OTB, SB calls, BB makes it 5.8k and it folds back to me. BB has a big stack with a lot of ante chips, meaning she is aggressive. We feel that her hand is almost always AK here, so we decide to take a flop and play any flop that has no Ace or King.

Before the flop even rolls-out, we tell her "I know you're shipping any flop", which she promptly does, while we observe her (i.e. before we've even looked at the flop). She gave off an "unhappy with the flop" live-tell, we looked over at J63hh, thought for a while and decided that our read was correct, calling and telling her she has AK before she even turned it over. We hold and win a major pot. Nice!

After busting close to the money on a somewhat dubious 15 BB ship from HJ with KJo (called by AT in the BB), somewhat tilted (and drinking again), we take a shot at 5/10 and lose $1,800...

Then we won it all back at Blackjack (+$5K)

Yesterday, we tried another $400 daily and busted before the dinner break, had a nice dinner, won another $5.5k at BJ (this is a theme - read on). Our friend Gary was approaching the FT (which he finally chopped for around $6K), so we stuck around and joined a crazy 2/5 NL table with a few friends.

The whole table first agreed to play the 72 game, then have a $10 mandatory UTG straddle, then do continuous $25 bomb pots (whereby each player puts in $25 to see the flop).

We ran very bad in this game for around 2 hours, becoming stuck around $2.5k, before we first won around $800 flopping Q2 on Q23dd and talking this friendly Spanish guy into putting his remaining $600 stack into the pot with just a naked Queen.

The next hand we flopped our first set for 3 days (really!) with 88 on 856ss, we bet $200 and got called in one spot. The turn was an ugly 4s, and we feel that he hit his flush, but luckily he checks and we see a perfect 8 on the river. He checks again, we bet $400 and he raises to $1400. We only have $1800 so we ship it in and hope we didn't experience a bad beat hand in a room that doesn't run a BBJ, but luckily he just had a regular flush and we scooped a massive pot to get us unstuck and maybe up $500 on the session.

The game then broke, and a few of the guys, having heard my Blackjack winning stories, wanted to go play with me, so we sat down at the $100 minimum table and ran it up another $4K.

So, after a week in Vegas, coming in with $9,800 cash, we somehow woke up this morning with around $18K, despite having a losing week at poker!

We're sticking around in Vegas for a few more days...if we can survive