Id actually be tilted for the rest of my life

Well done.


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Yeah it’s unfortunate. I lost 2 big 70/30’s for most of the chips in play once it got 5 handed. I also ran very well in the middle stages to get a big stack. The rec who busted me was also a really nice guy and was a nice guy to play with. Sometimes it’s just not our time to win

Thanks man, was great meeting you!



One more tourney today before the main tomorrow

Great run! Well done.

How much did you win for 3rd?

TY sir!

3rd was 6k. 2nd was 8.4k. 1st was 13.6k

Jerrad played the FT well, can confirm #Witness
Now if only he hadn't shown me highlights of Arizona big man at 3am the morning before brackets locked...


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Thanks, but at least I didn't tell you to take Virginia...


I ended up busting both flights in the main rather early, I played ok. Had a few very good plays mixed in with some bad ones.

Very happy with the trip overall and was much needed plus netted me some profit!

Will get back to investors today, as I only cashed once (for 6k) but have a bunch of refunds on bullets and other tournaments.

Will probably do a brief summary later today.

Harrah's AC Trip Part 1

3/10: Day 1

I head to Borgata with my girlfriend mid-day Saturday for a day of fun and lax gambling. I had originally planned to play the Monster Stack to kick off the circuit but get down too late. I check in, (comped room on a weekend always coming in clutch) hit up the Amphora lounge and go to the $10 Blackjack tables with the gf and we have a pretty fun time.

3/11: Day 2

Poker time! I check out of Borg, and me and my girlfriend take the nice scenic 30 second drive to Harrah's. I check into the waterfront, unload my computer and immediately head to the tournament room to start my circuit event.

I busted both bullets after level 9. Was very standard play and just lost 2 40bb flips (AKss<JJ and AQo<55) to finish off the day with little fanfare.

On the brightside, key battle (who has posted here previously and new BTS student) makes a deep run finishing 4th in the Monster Stack as I was able to sweat him briefly. Big congrats to him.

We soak up the victory before heading to Borgata for some cash games, we sit at 5/10 after a short wait (plays relatively deep). He stacks me 5 hands in and I'm in a $-1400 hole very quickly. The table was pretty good though and I'm up about 2k when a silly hand occurs vs reg who won Event #1 at Borg about a year ago (don't know exact name)

UTG reg opens 35, Button villain reg calls, and I squeeze KK to 175, Button calls, we're about 2.3k effective.

Flop: Q J 7 ($400)

Could cbet here but I elected to check at a deeper stack size here, he stabs $200 and I call.

Turn: A ($800)

Doesn't change much tbh. I check and he stabs $500, not really sure what the plan is on river but given he's repping an extremely thin value range, I call.


River: Brickkkkk ($1,800)


I check, he takes about 7 seconds before jamming for $1,600. I had a very serious internal debate here as I think calling is usually good here, I block K10 significantly, I expect villain to 3b AQ at some frequency 7 handed vs reg open. Not sure if he will stab AJ or something silly or defend K10o. Rounding it out I gave him about 15-18 value combo's. On the other side, I feel this is an extrememely underbluffed spot, I also think my hand looks like AK quite a bit here and feels like it's an optimistic spot for someone to blast a reg off of it.

I go back and forth and decide to fold. He asks if I want to see and I nod yes. He smiles and shows 88. I nod my head, tap the table, and immediately tag him as a bad reg.

Not much happened after but I scraped out a decent win.


3/12: Day 2

This tournament went much better. I actually think I played my best poker of the series here despite no cash. I was able to chip up significantly in the early levels before losing a flip and 70/30 to drop to 25bb's. I get to around 20bb's when I ship AKss (was shipping wider than I would online due to getting called much lighter at this table). I'm called by ATdd. I fade the flop, but a T turn has me drawing thin, the river brings me no help and I'm eliminated.


I decide to not head to Borg. and stay in Harrah's and play 2/5. Was a very fun game and even met some people I play with. I played veryyyy splashy but ran good and booked another pretty decent day, just a very lively game with a lot of back and forth. Reg started the table by asking, "is the big blind sick?" when I'm in BB, always nice to know people are reading this thing!

Regardless, it was a fun time but I leave relatively early to focus on the tourney I've been waiting for.

3/13: Day 4

6 max time!

My table is very good and I'm quite active, prob VPIP 35/30 early on. I lose a few silly hands before getting in a marginal 70bb flip spot AKo>QQ to end the 1st bullet.

Bullet #2 doesn't go much better. Flops are going 3-4 ways quite often and I bleed. I eventually lose AJ<KT for half my stack before jamming A8o vs CO jam and do not win against 77.

Bullet #3. I busted bullet #2 quite late so I sit down with about 28bb's. I flop a set my first hand and get value to get some breathing room.

I then play a hand where I open KQdd, reg 3bets. Flop is 974ssx, I stab small (not great combo) but think it's ok in this spot. Turn Ax and it goes check check. River is Kx. Villain bets about 70% pot, I've played with him online before which plays a part, I make the call and beat his 66.

Now rocking a 65bb spot I use my experience to just pick up a ton of small pots, people we're not defending appropriately and cbetting close to 100% of their range.

I lose one flush vs cooler hand before getting quite lucky. I limp AJo SB vs reg BB. I miscount his stack and think he has 24bb's (He had about 30) I have him slightly covered. He raises 4x. I tank and rip and he nitrolls me calling JJ after 30 seconds. Ace on the flop leaves me in good standing and I hold.

I start to pick up big hands and have a top 10 stack although I will freely admit I picked up extreme heat in the middle stages to bubble time of this tournament. Anyway, the bubble is approaching and I'm being relatively active.

I have a sponsored pro limp SB vs BB, I rip his 20bb's and he takes quite awhile before folding (in hindsight maybe splitting a raise/call and raise/fold range may be better) He asks what I had and I deflect and ask if he had a very weak ace.

He laughs and say's "I'm never folding an ace to you and then goes on to say it's amazing what you hear in these tournaments". I can't lie it did get me a bit heated dealing with condescendence. I bite my tongue and we break the table next hand.

I start racking my chips (subtle brag:takes awhile) and I'm the last one to get my stack off mostly cause I'm a live fish and not used to handling all these chips. Anyway, I'm still at the table racking up when the same pro starts berating me from a table away telling me that I'm essentially stalling and messing up everyone's equities in this tournament.

I'm taken off guard and honestly a bit flustered, but also pretty ticked off at this point. I tell him to worry about himself and the floor has to come to tell us to knock it off. Internally, I'm thinking that I'm most likely the best 6 max player in the room at a 70bb stack depth and that me not playing is helping other people's equities. I bite my tongue and don't say that mostly due to how arrogant that sounds, although I believed it to be true.

Back to poker, there's 21 left and I defend 44 about 75bb deep (130k) vs. a 65bb deep stack.

The dealer about to spread the flop and the window card is the 4 and all I'm really thinkin' about is Vegas and the... you get the idea.

Flop finishes: 4 7 8

Villain fires out 5k and I C/R to 20k. He thinks close to 2 minutes before calling.

Turn is the K

I fire out 30k , villain takes about 10 seconds before jamming all in for 65k more.

My first instinct is this is kind of gross since we're on the bubble and I don't think most villains are bluffing here. That being said not folding a set here so I call and we're up against 7 9. We fade river and boat up and all of a sudden we're CL.

Fast forward to the final table, I've bled to about middle of the pack and have Greg Fishberg on my left who had been aggressive and a nice guy rec on my table.

After 1 orbit of nothing going on, I open ATo in the HJ off 26bb's, Fishberg 3b's in the CO, I rip pretty quickly and he folds after about 5 seconds.

A few hands later, I defend 65dd in the BB off about 35bb's. Flop comes K23dxx. Checks to PFR who bets about 70% pot, SB folded and I tank and call, turn is 2d and it goes check check. River is the Js, I lead about 33% pot and get a frustrated fold.

Eventually a bunch of the short stacks bust out, I'm now 2/5 with about 47bb's and feeling very comfortable and have a pretty large edge on remaining players. I have been opening quite wide. Eventually SB rec limps off 29bbs. I iso AQo. And he snap rips it.

Maybe I'm a nit but felt like another gross spot with 2 short stacks 15bb eff and the rec playing very straight forwards. I take a look at other stacks kinda knowing I'll never fold. I call and am pleasantly surprised to see A7o.

Win this one and I have about 60% chips in play. Flop bricks through but the turn brings the 7 from heaven and now I'm the shortstack of 5.

Thankfully, I had Dan (Redsoxnets5) sweating me and he brought me some Mcdonald's to give me a 2nd one. I chip up to about 18 bigs when SB rec opens 3x and I rip A4ss. He tanks and calls with K2o and once again we get outflopped.

Flop: K 10 6

Turn: J

Bink! And we're right back in it.

The other 2 short stacks are eliminated and soon it's just me, Fishberg, and the nice rec left. We trade the chiplead a bunch before I chip down to about 315k at 5k/10k. I limp SB vs Fishberg who was now playing about 800k and getting very aggro. He iso's to 35k and I 3bet to 110k, after some deliberation he calls.

Flop K6 2 (200k)

I lead for 55k, and Fishberg rips it all in covering me. I knew I was calling but never fun to call off for your tournament life.

I call and flip over 88, I get the beautiful sigh of disgust from him as he rolls over 33

I hold through turn and river, and am now the new chipleader, at this point it's almost 3AM and play is winding down. I win a few more small pots and play is halted before the chips are bagged and tagged.

I have about 728k of 1.6mil in play, Fish has about 290k and the Rec has 600k. I go to bed content with my play but mostly just having a complete blast playing the game I love. Restart is at 1PM and I go to sleep knowing I have a great chance at winning my first circuit ring.

Part II Tomorrow.

gg bro
gl tomorrow

Thanks man, but tourney over a week ago Just doing a recap

btw what hand do you reckon villain should be bluffing with in ur KK hand, doesn't it entirely depend on his defending range pre? say he defends 77+ and doesn't peel suited connectors preflop then 88 would fall in the blast off your stack category on this runout no?

I don't think any reg will fold SC's over 200bb deep IP. Essentially, feel like you'd have to stretch a ton of parameters to make me think bluffing 88 here is good, but who knows I've been wrong before

If I knew you we were going to sit at same 6max table I would have shut my mouth playing 2/5 drunk the night before! NH w/ KQ vs. my 66 (le sigh call ship the chips).

yeah I mean I don't know it could be wrong but I wouldn't automatically write it off as a completely horrible play, I mean I say that because solver does use the lower pocket pairs in our range as 3barrel bluffs in 3bet pots in most sims I ran that I can remember

The biggest adjustment live is that you don't always need to pick your bluffs based on GTO conditions such as hand combos, and sometimes it's more ideal to make them situationally based due to the extremely low sample size.

For example, while it's certainly much better for him to be bluffing there with JT, TT, K9s etc, he's not going to get into that same situation with you enough times to be able to wait for an optimal bluffing hand -- he's only going to get into that spot one time (with you), and for whatever reason he thought you were weak and/or capped and went for a big move.

The fact you say the spot is so under-bluffed could be reason enough to merit the play as "good".

I'm not saying it is or isn't good, but your reaction of instantly calling him bad instead of thinking about why it might have been good is a big leak imo. Will hurt your ability to adjust to live play (much more exploitative than online).

Re KK v 88

I think this spot is more along the lines of live players are pretty inexperienced against online regs with reasonable checking-frequencies that contain strong hands. Villain probably incorrectly thinks op will barrel 100% of his strong value/good bluffs so when OP checks he's perceived to be capped/"weak". Just kinda seems like, with the benefit of hindsight, the guy decided he was bet/bet/shoving and winning the pot without actually thinking about Op's range.

Where it gets a little fuzzy is that the ace should smash op, where hands like AJ/AK get there, so in fantasy land all he's really folding out is the occasional KQ/KJ. I would think a weak, live reg, would perceive hero to be betting KK, so it's not like he's trying to fold out this particular hand.

Anyways, again with the benefit of hindsight, you probably should have gone for the cbet just to play slightly more straightforwardly against a stationy/bad live reg. I probably nit/fold the turn, just because in bb terms the pot is getting pretty big, and it's a pretty bad spot for the guy to be bluffing, I have no plan for the next street, and I'll have a ton of strong hands on this turn ace that can continue. I also do think a weak live reg can show up with AJ here - that bets the flop b/c puts you on ace king. AQ makes a whole lot of sense too, and between those 2 hands it could be up to 18 combos which means GG.

tldr I don't really think villain is thinking, but just nit it up and fold turn.


congrats on the mini-score cya on the virtual felt

Knowing who you were online def. skewed me to call in this spot but I do like your bluff, was a nice play.

Definitely correct. I wouldn't use 88 though, I did think of it from villain's point of view and I still think it's bad. I'm assuming he just me as weak and as described 'made a move'. I just don't think his move was great despite working out. And showing me unprovoked was probably not smart either, (although I don't play much live, so probs not a big deal)

partypoker - $5 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (SB): 142.22 BB
BB: 139.96 BB (VPIP: 30.60, PFR: 23.18, 3Bet Preflop: 9.78, Hands: 16,991)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 6 6

Hero raises to 2.4 BB, BB raises to 10.4 BB, Hero calls 8 BB

Flop: (20.8 BB, 2 players) T 4 J
BB checks, Hero bets 6.6 BB, BB calls 6.6 BB

Turn: (34 BB, 2 players) K
BB checks, Hero bets 28 BB, BB calls 28 BB

River: (90 BB, 2 players) K
BB checks, Hero bets 97.22 BB and is all-in, fold

Hero wins 187.12 BB


I disagree with your logic. If we're relatively readless I don't think we should deviate from our strategy. Making extreme explo plays when we don't know what we're exploiting seems bad to me. Once we get a strong enough sample, or "tell" that we're sure enough of than deviate from our strategy.

I thought about it for 5 seconds and thought it was bad. Asked friend at table what he thought of the hand (no framing) and we came to similar conclusions. I did try to think of it afterwards from his perspective and didn't like it.

I would say I'm very open minded when it comes to poker, so suggesting I have a big leak based on one blanket statement where I said a reg was bad seems stretching.

I think online is much more explo than live actually, and I think strong online players will have a much stronger exploitative game than any live regs.

Despite us disagreeing on every single point Thanks for making your post I definitely enjoy the discussions that come out.


Going to finish Part II

Excellent write up with part 1. Looking forward to part 2.

+1 to all this. Also, agreed that my mistake to call turn fold river is a pretty bad, as you said when I called turn I was a bit in no man's land and was still in evaluate mode. Readless, folding turn is probably best play followed by calling down. So yeah def not played super well on my end either

Harrah's AC Trip Part II

3/14: Day 5

After bagging up, (which coincidentally, I need redsoxnets help to put the chips in, since I literally have only bagged up 3-4 times in my life) I head up to my room and stop to the room next door. I had 2 friends come down to go out and have some fun, but with my deep run they had to go it alone. Me and Dan enter the room to see them absolutely tanked saying some of the most ridiculous things, it was definitely a light hearted end to a fantastic day. Me and Dan talk more poker before we fade to sleep at 4 AM.

I get up at 12PM, I realize I'm an hour late and have missed the biggest tournament opportunity of my short career... Just kidding, restart is at 1PM. I shower, get packed, leave my headphones behind (no need for these today) and leave 12:45 feeling extremely amped.

I arrive at the final table (they have the plushiest seats, +1 to you Harrah). I talk to Rick (the rec) and we basically talk a little bit and say whatever happens, happens. He was definitely an enjoyable guy to have at the tables. Fishberg arrives and we unbag and get ready to play for the ring.

As far as I remember stacks were : Fish-19bb's Me-45bbs Rick-39bb's. Fish was on my left with Rick on my right, but it really was anyone's game.

Anyway, we get started. First 2 orbits are consisted of us trading button steals. Before first notable hand comes up.

Rick folds, I have 77 in SB and decide to limp. Fish has 20bb's and checks back.

Flop is QJ5. I check but I think I should prob stab most of my range here + hand could use a little protection.

Turn is 3 bringing bdfd. I bet 16k into 45k and he raises pretty quickly to 45k, he has about 200k behind.

I'm obviously never folding, but contemplate forever whether to call or 3b rip here (for protection) watching how Greg played his range I think his 2p combos are very slim.
I tank call cause if my read is wrong and I punt the chiplead 5 hands I'll kick myself.

River is 6 brick. I check and he bombs about pot for 95k or about half his stack. Not really funnest spot. I block 74 combos and felt like he was a reg who could definitely bluff missed diamonds. I hero and lose to 42o and now we're all in the middle.

I 3b back to back hands with 22/55 and get folds, and now regain a co-lead with Rick. We both have about 650k and Fish is sitting at about 370k.

I open button with 106hh, Fish folds and Rick defends. Flop is KQ4hhx. I cbet 1/3rd and he calls. Turn is 7h. He quickly check his cards, checks, and I bomb for about 1.25x pot or about 135k, he calls relatively quickly.

River: Jh

Rick tanks about 15 seconds before sliding out a bet of 200k. Extremely frustrating hand, but I fold relatively quickly.

Rick now has about 900k and me and fish are very close in chips.

I lose another small pot and dip to 370k. Rick opens BU (has opened 100% this match) and I look at QTdd in SB. Very weird spot, I don't want to flat in SB and don't want to rip 25bb's I elect for explo play and 3b small. Rick tells fish that he would never fold this hand and shows QTcc. Well that's one way to get a chop.

3 hands later: Fish opens BU off 20bb's and I rip BB with TT, he tanks and folds A8cc. Feels like that has to be a call. Next hand, Rick opens BU and I look at ATo in SB (23bb's) and decide to rip. This has been my 5th or so 3bet against Rick and I think he's getting sick of it. He calls after about 7 seconds and shows A2o.

I win this and I'm back up to 775k and close to half chips in play.

The dealer slowly spreads out the flop, the Ace is the first thing I see.

Flop: AQ5rb

Pretty goooood flop.

The dealer burns and turns

Turn: 2

Pretty badddddd turn.

Def hit like a jolt, but I remind myself I have quite a few outs on the river.

River:....7x

I register I've been eliminated, wish the other 2 luck and head to the cage. I'm pretty disappointed which the Harrah's employee notices when he say's "congrats on 3rd place" and I look at him with a grimace.

I go to cage and get my 6k and feel much better, I played relatively well and only made a few small mistakes overall. I got a long with my opponents well and didn't even mind busting to Rick (I lost two big ones to him) since he was such a nice guy.

Anyway, Dan busts the turbo and we both want to get far away from Harrah's. I'm a diamonds reward member so we decide to go to Caesars and get lunch at the diamond lounge.

It was really nice view as we overlooked the ocean and there was plush and leather couches everywhere. We had an amazing sandwiches with some Margs (questionable?). We both decide we need a small break from poker and decide to meet up with some of his poker friends nearby who are tournament crushers.

We arrive and decide to play a rathole game, like the popular one on ACR. We start off by buying in for $5 and having blinds at .25/.50. So everyone starts 10bb deep. The guys are all really cool and it's a nice atmosphere. I transfer my runbad from the ring event and convert it to heat as my 10bb stack eventually get up to a peak $400. It was pretty funny how we we're going with any hand below 50bb's and then past that threshold everyone was playing solid poker.

After the rathole game, we end up playing 2 Sit N Go's, I take down the first one and Dan ships the second one for a profitable but very fun day.


3/15: Day 6

Felt like this one had a lot of potential. I chipped up big early and tables were soft. Unfortunately, I only really remember bustout hand. I open midstage of the tournament with 75bb's in CO, BU who covers me calls, shorty in SB rips for about 12bbs, I 4bet Iso to 25bb with AKo and Button rips for my last 50bb. Such a silly spot, figure if he ever has JJ/QQ has to be a call since he's never bluffing here, I call.

SB has AKo and BU rolls over KK. Not an optimal spot. We pick up a small sweat on turn before bricking out.

I play a little 2/5 and lose every hand for a quick 1k loss. I decide to play online and make it back and more.

3/16-3/17: Main Event Time

I wish I had a long write up for this one, but it was me mostly not making hands and bleeding. I did make one nice hero call and almost called off 85% of my stack with K high in 3bp. Unfortunately almost doesn't count and I got showed a nice bluff for it .

I think I played reasonably well, that and the field was absurdly soft (a theme for the series) I busted midway through Day 1A but didn't want to reenter for 30bb so waited til the next day where I only lasted til Level 5.

My mom came down for a night of gambling though so got to spend some time with her and even managed a win in the pits.

In summation, even though I lost a little with tournaments, it was great to get out of the house and just worry about poker and stretch my legs about. I even made a little money.

Little did I know the best was yet to come...

+1. I don’t think deviating from balanced strategy without read is great at all unless the borgata live player pool has overall too weak checking range that can’t check call three streets at enough frequency. Maybe it’s true that live regs overall don’t check enough strong hands to make his readless exploitable play profitable.

BTW, I believe I stack you off the very first hand I sit down. Literally the first hand we played together.

Great meeting you there



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How many tables do you play at a time? One of my biggest leaks is playing too many, and was curious how many you did.

Same to you buddy! Yeah I was playing for a little but it may have been just as you sat since you were right after me on the

Since February, I've been keeping it 6-8 and my results have skyrocketed. I used to do 9-10. Just finding that sweet spot between hands per hour and and amount of tables you can play before your play drops off significantly is key

Can we get some cliffs on the spoiler