Hey all, have a gross hand I wanna make sure is perfectly fine.

Ok we have 550k at 15k bb level after a solid double with AK Vs A-10 and a $500 bounty pull after 2k pull earlier in money section of tourny.

Ok a good northeast reg makes it 30k (he’s agg), button is a black nyc guy that is also splashy and agg. He flats. I have AKo in sb and covered by button. I make it 150k. Ep folds and button tank calls. I put in 410-420k before flop is dealt bc I’m never folding. Flop is 249. Guy tank calls A5 (wtf). You fine with just ripping before flop is dealt. I jammed like 410-420k into pot of 360k. He tank called A5 lol saying he felt I had KQ lmao. Turn was a 5.

Also one more hand? Do you love this bluff- I never have done this but I felt so good after it. 200-300k at 6k level. I min open to 12k and same black guy calls from blind. Flop is Q74. I cbet 12k into 44k pot. He calls. Turn is a 6 of hearts with two hearts on board and I have 10h. He checks and I bet 34k (half pot). He calls. River is a 8 of hearts. He checks and I rip (I had him covered) thinking I have the heart blocker and didn’t see how he could get to river with a 5. He sigh tank folds and we win! Normally I would chicken **** and not go for it on river. I show bluff- winner winner chicken dinner bc I’m an underbluffer. Do you like? I felt I had hh a lot and maybe A5 ish a lot here. The heart blocker also made it an easy spot to bluff? Good or nah? I normally never triple barrel but felt this spot was so solid and I had a tight image due to bad card distribution. Sorry if this hand is poorly written- I just got done and smoking a cigar now.

H1 - You don't have to do it every time you squeeze, but generally I'm fine just squeeze shoving up to 40BB with a hand like AKo, especially from the blinds. Great equity but difficult to play postflop OOP = a good recipe for shoving instead of a smaller 3-bet.

H2 - I think as played this should work a lot. The Th is a very good card to have for your bluff, as both a heart blocker and T9 blocker. What was your other card? Do you remember which card on the flop was a heart? (Mostly wondering if the Qh is on there, because QhTh should still make sense for your hand as played.)

I wanna say it was Qh for h2 but not 100% sure. Idk I normally never triple barrel bluff but this spot just seemed so juicy. I didn’t see villian getting to river with 5x really and the heart blocker just seemed like a good card to have- I can’t remember a triple barrel bluff that I’ve done- this spot just in the money seemed so profitable per se where if I min cash- idc bc the min payout is comical and felt the need to acquire chips as big- I felt villian should fold Qx that isn’t 2 pair bc I prolly have all the overpairs and better qx plus my image was slightly tight.

H1- I guess I’m just asking- I’m surprised villian called with A5. He thought I had kq per his comments which made me lol inside. I thought he might call with a random pair. Folks vegas Is fun fun fun with mtt players. I felt he may have had a 4to a flush but in game don’t remember it so I think he had back doors to a flush with a 3 or 5 helping him. I felt his call was super punty. I feel I have all the high scared pairs lol jj 10-10 when I do this. I’m so surprised he called with A5 but love it. I would have had heaps if I won so I won’t complain. Like 80-90 bbs when avg was under 35 lol. Kinda rough but it is what it is. This whole
Trip I’ve run like **** in big spots. I’ll study more and come back in 2024 and hope to do better. Might need to tone down the aggression in spots but I think they is a good problem to have. Think too aggro is much better than playing nitty especially for tournies. I could have jammed say 40bbs but I feel we lose value when we do it. I think 3! / sigh call off is better especially against certain player types. I feel ripping 40bb makes it too easy for villians to make simple decisions, I feel they are only calling say 10-10+ if we rip

imo shoving the flop blind is burning money. You take away parts of the game tree that are the most profitable, like betting tiny on ace low low or a low paired board, or cbetting with bdnfd and jamming turns with nfd and fold equity to balance all your overpairs, or keeping villain wide with traps when appropriate. The money in poker is made in making optimal decisions over multiple streets, so why take that opportunity away from yourself?

Shove pre is also fine.

Ha I gotta be honest that is true regarding betting small on Axx dry flops. Idk I felt so much was in middle- we are never not getting it in. Prolly bad but if we get called by A5- I love it bc printing money. Guy thought I had kq which I found so funny. Next time I won’t shove like that. I’ll tank a little after flip for 10 seconds and rip.

Let’s say flop was A84, what are you betting as your flop bet? I would go fairly small but even like 1/4 or 1/5 is a lot due to pre action. Think it would be good exploit. Folks will call and fold turn

Do you think showing on H2 influenced his call on H1?

+1 to shoving pre on H1

Yes kinda. He thought I had KQo in his speech during the tank. I’m not bummed by the call honestly. I love it. If I win the pot I have 1.2 mill with 15.9 mill in play and roughly 80 bbs. I’m most likely going to make final table and have a shot to really put pressure on with 2 tables left and exploit the ft bubble if I win this hand.

It’s kinda funny. I thought villian had A5dd and two diamonds on flop but actually he had just 1 diamond, I’ll never understand the call. Stuff like this- calling 150k pre is just lol bad and then calling off in this spot where I have all the overpairs and AK, AQ, etc and maybe 1-2 bluffs if that in this spot is just comical. I ran #s and what i have 64-65% after flop. It’s kinda crazy to think he had 35% equity in this spot.

Again I don’t bluff often so I love to show- especially a triple barrel bluff in a spot I would normally chicken **** out of and just sigh check the river and lose bc I didn’t have the stones to bluff. I love the call- want the call- just obv hate losing. It kinda hurts looking back- I got $2500 in bounties and min cashed for $1600. I ended up playing like 15k in tournies and only got back $4900 (lolz). Trip- I lost some gross spots and fared really poorly in spots where I got it all in with say 30-60% equity. Examples lost qq<Ak with two tables left for heaps where 9 paid, lost kk <aq and jj for like 180 bb mid stages of a tourny on higher end of my buyins, and lost some other 30-40% equity spots deep that meant something. I went like 2/34 in terms of cash bc which is lol- I would expect like 4-7 cashes for this many tournies. When you include last summer at wsop, I’m like 2/ 50-55 in cashes which is just lol run bad. This year I may have had 2 bad punts but were in smaller mtts.

40.8k up top in this mtt. Would have been nice to FT and bink a nice score but it wasn’t meant to be. I think ripping 40bb with AK is a little too spewy. I feel 3 betting get it in will yield more profitable play or 3 bet call to a 4 bet. I feel ripping just allows villians to fold all worse hands while only continuing with the best of the best. 3 bet allows villians to spew with AQ of A5 lol and call it off and hope to get lucky. I know pot was weird but I stick behind my play. Once we get a pot of 360k on flop and have 420k behind, I’m almost never folding post unless some sick bubble dynamic exists. Looking back, I wish I made my raise size pre a tad bigger like 180k to have just under a pot size bet to rip on flop.


I’ll get them in 2024! I’m ready to win a tourny at Venetian which is one of my Singh goals- I want a Venetian trophy so bad. Have 2 wsop circuit rings but the Venetian trophy is on my poker bucket list. The only good thing I can say- in 2023 I fired $1500s at wsop and had an abi of day $800-900 that year- went 0-15 in mtts that year. This year I really notched down the Abi to about $400-450 so lost less money! I can afford an Abi of day 500-800 prolly if I wanna be risky but yea prolly not the wisest move. This year- I’ve made 90k in gambling (50k on Kentucky derby weekend and binked a wsop circuit for say 38k earlier this year)- I could have really went crazy in vegas but only played 15k in mtt buyins over 34 mtts. I’m proud I learned from last year and didn’t fire $1500s at wsop etc. idk I love bigger buy in mtts but they tend to draw tougher fields and the $1500s at the WSOP- good luck final tabling a tourny with 2k+ runners. I’m fine sticking in the $400-800 buyin range where fields can be smaller + more weak players exist. While I say there are a lot of bad players regardless in tournies, when the play matters late- a $1500 is going to have a lot more better players late Vs a $400-600. (Not the most brilliant statement) but yea I wanna play in smaller stuff that can still pay well for a 1st but has some
Bad play.