No exhaustive post today. I’m not exhausted, either, after getting my first good night’s rest since leaving Portland.
Didn’t do much in the early part of the day. I had been scheduled to cover the first day of the Colossus, but due to a couple of live reporters wanting to play the Casino Employees event, that went on my ticket, so I had about 36 hours until my next event, the afternoon flight of the second day of entries.
I did head over to a computer shop here in town to get some RAM for my trusty MacBook. I’d intended to upgrade the memory for a while. It’s one of the late 2008 aluminum-body models that came with 2GB of RAM, which was perfectly fine a couple of years ago, when I started to do some 3D modeling in Cinema 4D for a Civil War battlefield visitor’s center, but the newer operation system upgrades have made it grind to a halt just opening Safari. A very nice young tech named Jessica at Century 23 here in Vegas had the 4GB modules I needed in stock and popped them in for me in just a few minutes.
Went back to the house, rested for a while, then headed out to the Venetian for the 7pm bounty tournament (Deepstack Extravaganza #14). I chipped up quickly, knocked out an angry old man who was like a tall version of Portland’s Sleepy Don, took another bounty from a kid with a Muckleshoot cap, then lost a race against a female player from Portland, and doubled up another player when I called his all-in with [ah th] on a [qx tx 6x] board. He showed [kx kx], I got an ace on the turn, then the jack on the river took a big chunk of my chips. My final downfall was when I shoved [kc 9s] from the button and [qx jx] called all in with a shorter stack from the small blind. I had him covered by 600 chips at 800/1.6K/200, he caught a jack on the flop and stayed ahead. I went out the next hand.
Thought I might try my hand at the 1/2 Big O game. There was a seat open and I was able to sit without waiting. I won a little hand that put me ahead after twenty minutes of folding and paying blinds, making top and bottom pair on the flop, then top two pair on the turn and a full house on the river. Then:
A♦️9♦️K♣️Q♣️A♠️ falls short on T♦️9♥️6♦️ 3-way allin on flop to turned set of jacks.
Yesterday got off to a slow start, as I hung around the house for a while working on the computer. I followed up a response to the WSOP’s soon-to-be-official Twitter boss Kevin Mathers about the sizes of the Daily Deepstacks with a link to my article from last year with a chart of the prize pools through the whole season. You might find it useful. Cliff’s Notes: Mondays are usually the largest prize pools, probably as everyone takes one last shot before they head home from a long weekend.
Played a little microstakes NLHE 6-Max on WSOP.com and lost the last $5 I had on there. [kc as] called after the two-diamond flop by [8d 6d] and I lose 45BB. Onward!
Headed over in the afternoon to the Orleans. There was a long list for the 4/8 O8 game, but 4/8 Omaha had a seat open and I popped in there. Before I get my chips, I’m in BB with a couple of tens in my hand, but fold after the flop. There’s a crazy guy in seat 1, raising every hand. As it happens, I should have played with my tens, because by the river I would have made a set in a huge pot, and it would be the only hand in the session that I would have won. Crazy guy was literally shoveling chips into other players’ stacks and it felt as if vultures were swarming to get at the carcass because every time a seat or two opened, it would be instantly filled. He was blowing through buyins so quickly that he’d put a hundred on the table after getting felted, and half the chips would be “in the pot” before the runner arrived with a rack. Frustrating not to be able to get a piece of that. After a hand where I made three pair on the [tx 7x 4x] flop, I lost a good portion of my chips when an ace made a better two pair and it was downhill from there.
I had a few hours to kill before either of the tournaments I wanted to play, so I went to the restaurant Tomer and I went to almost every night when I visited him during trips to the Series. Krung Siam’s just a couple minutes drive up Valley View Road from the Rio—though it’s a long, hot walk in the Vegas summer. Then again, what isn’t? Got Drunken Noodles at a 7 on a scale of 10. Either I’m getting older or my memory of their heat scale is faulty. After the first bite, I was wondering if this was a good idea before I needed to sit for several hours in a tournament. And yes, I am trying to smile there (this was pre-dinner). That’s just the way it comes out.
My choices for the evening were the 7pm HORSE tournament at the Orleans or the $15K guaranteed NLHE Survivor at the Venetian. I love playing HORSE, and the buyin was a third of the Survivor—which was an advantage on my poker blogger bankroll—but the median ROI advantage of the Survivor’s flat payout structure overcame my aversion to putting more than I’d just lost in the Omaha session in play, so I drove over and parked at the Venetian, registered for the tournament, then went looking for something like some ice cream to counteract the Drunken Noodles. Walked down to the Ben & Jerry’s at Casino Royale, but they didn’t have anywhere to sit; checked in at the new White Castle there but the line was incredible. There were any number of places in the Venetian itself to get gelato, but I wanted real ice cream, and finally found it after I went back up to the second level of the Venetian and found a Johnny Rockets, where I could get a chocolate shake.
The game did not start off well for me. I quickly lost half my chips by somewhere in Level 2. Not doing anything bad, just having hands go wrong. There was a fair amount of aggression in the early stages, so the pots got large fast, and that meant some punishment when I had to fold. After a while, things turned around and I beat my way back up to starting stack and above.
Somewhere in the middle of the tournament, I picked up [qx qx] and shoved from the BB over a bunch of callers and a short-stack raise. One of the big stacks called, and the short stack went all in to show [ax ax]. The big stack had [tx tx]. The aces held up, and the player tripled her stack, but I had her covered by enough that I came out with a gain. From there, for a while, I had a run of very good hand and the position to take advantage of them. People folded when I raised with not-so-good hands, and they called when I had monsters. And the monsters held up. I took out several players as the tournament played down to three—and then two—tables. We’d started with 73, so the Survivor format (please, someone in Portland start a series of these!) paid out $2.5K for seven players as a straight chop, with an eighth getting $750. Starting stack is 12K, average stack at chop time is 120K (a little more than that in the nice, clean, new Venetian tournament chips in the photo—I forgot my card protector at the house), so if you could get up to 100K or more, unless you did stupid stuff like try to knock more players out, you were golden. Some people can’t help themselves. One young guy who’d looked me over and given me the “I’m letting you get away with it this time” speech before laying down his SB to my UTG raise with [ah 6h] blew away a stack comparable to mine, and ended up with eighth place.
We survivors congratulated ourselves—I had a good time talking to my table neighbor Jason T who just swapped sides after the final table redraw and squeaked into the big money after falling victim to several of my three-bets—and picked up the payout chips from the desk. This almost proved to be my undoing. I stopped on the way to the payout cage to take a picture, then picked the chips up and got in line behind a guy with a couple racks of considerably more cash game chips. He asked if I’d been in the tournament (he may have thought I was in the $150K or the SuperStack that was still running), then asked about the payout, saying “Everyone get $2K”? I looked at the chips in my hand and there were indeed just the two $1K chips. I didn’t see how I could have dropped the $500 chip—I had a death grip on the yellows—so I walked back over the short path I’d taken and sure enough, there on the table where I’d taken the picture below was the $500. If you look close, you’ll see it’s a little smaller than the $1K chips; I’d stacked it on the bottom when I was picking them up, and didn’t notice it got left behind. Vanity may not kill you but it could cost you a pretty $500.
I stopped overnight on my way south to Las Vegas at a Motel 6 in South Sacramento. My wife’s rule of thumb is that if there’s a directional modifier attached to the name of the town or city, there’s probably something wrong. Bend v. North Bend (it may work even if the cities aren’t near each other), St. Louis v. East St. Louis, Sacramento v. South Sacramento. That’s not to say that the non-direction place names are necessarily good, just that the directional makes the city less savory.
I got to the motel about 8pm on a Friday night, and half the driveway was coned off. There were two guys in uniform at the entrance to the motel driveway, and on closer examination, they both had handguns strapped to their waists. The good news was, they weren’t police responding to some sort of horrible crime. The not-so-good news is, they were armed security hired by the motel, presumably because they feel there’s some sort of need for armed security. I checked in, went to my room, hauled all the computer equipment into the room (which was the plan, anyway) and hit the air conditioning. All I know is, when I go to Lincoln City, there’s no armed guards at the Motel 6.
Sacramento’s about halfway to Vegas on my route through Bakersfield. In the morning I hauled my stuff back out to the car, chatted up the morning duty guard (I did actually work a stint as a guard myself a couple of years ago), and got back on the road.
On the way south I listened to a mix I put together a few years back, specifically targeted to keep me awake while I was driving, then switched over to the PokerNews Podcast, where I caught Chris Sigman of Vancouver calling in to Donnie Peters and Rich Ryan with an idea for generating some more heat at the November (or whatever it is this year) Nine.
Once I rounded Bakersfield and got to Interstate 15 toward Las Vegas, my trusty Ford Escort was overtaken by a steady stream of Porches, BMWs, Mercedes, and other luxury and semi-luxury sedans, most of which seemed to have been just driven off the lot that day without any type of license plate. I was doing anywhere between over the speed limit and way over the speed limit myself. Had to laugh at the absurdity of a distance sign with LAS VEGAS and SALT LAKE CITY stacked above each other. Then, after rounding a bend coming down out of the mountains, I found myself drawn to the collector of the Ivanpah solar farm, which I assumed at first was simply reflecting heat at the position from which I’d first seen it. As I drove down the incline and around the plant, however, it felt as if the bright light was following me, and I realized that it reflected sunlight in all directions. It was hot, and I started to wonder how long it would be before I burst into flame like an ant under a microscope.
I’m renting a room from an incredibly gracious host in Las Vegas, whose new house in town just closed last week. He and his folks just got into town in the morning with furniture and spent the whole day setting up beds, and even though it wasn’t really ready for room tenantry, he allowed me to come on in. Which is a good thing, because there are literally no rooms left in town for Memorial Day weekend.
Got my big computer set up (I’m travelling with a large contingent: my iPhone, four tablets of various types, two laptops (Windows and MacOS), and my main workstation, though I left one of the big screens at home. Wifi was already set up in the house. First things first. Played a tournament on WSOP.com for the first time in a year while my host and his folks went out to buy a few items and get some dinner and busted 30/82 after refusing to rebuy or add on. Then headed over to the Orleans for a little 4/8 Omaha Hi-Lo and made enough in fifty minutes to buy a nice little late-night steak dinner. Best hand included [as 2s] to make the nut-nut kill pot.
In case you didn’t see my announcement in this week’s #PNWPokerCalendar, I’m going to be live reporting from the World Series of Poker this summer, and the application process, plus starting to make preparations for the long haul of the series after getting accepted, has sucked up a lot of time. On top of that, if you liked the hand-by-hand examination of a 6-Max tournament I did, I spent a large part of the last week working up a similar series of articles for a PLO8 game, showing the chance of making the best high/low hands for the players remaining on each street. That will start going live in the next couple of days. But it hasn’t left a lot of time for the poker.
HAND 93
500/1000
92T
PLAYER
POSITION
CARDS
CHIPS
START
PRE-FLOP
POST-FLOP
PRE-TURN
POST-TURN
PRE-RIVER
RIVER
65
D
7AKT
25.3K
26/4
–
–
–
–
–
–
6
SB
6K92
14.4K
5/8
–
–
–
–
–
–
42
BB
93J5
4.8K
14/15
43/19
81/6
–
–
–
–
7
UTG
6K73
12.9K
5/2
–
–
–
–
–
–
39
HJ
9J88
44.0K
33/0
–
–
–
–
–
–
21
CO
4543
15.1K
26/48
64/53
20/25
–
–
–
–
Encore Club Encore Poker Series VIII #2 $30K NLHE
I wasn’t able to get to the tournament until 9pm, so I bought the add-on, despite it still being No Re-buy/Add-on Week. I did well for the first three hours, then started slipping down after midnight. I made a raise with [as qs] for about 25% of my stack on the last hand, then called all-in against a slightly larger stack who shoved [ax kx] from the blinds. I could have folded with 10BB behind, but I didn’t want to. Another shorter-stacked player went all-in on the same hand and was knocked out.
Four hours. 68th of 185 entries.
Final Table $1K NLHE
Lost a race after losing a bunch of chips in the first round of the button.
Forty-five minutes. 21st of 21 entries.
The Game 1-2 NLHE
Got off work (not the WSOP job yet) and dropped into The Game for a little shootout. I need to work on following my instinct to cash out while the cashing’s good. There was just one table with six players after midnight Wednesday, and after the first hour I was up 100BB. One of the players left the table and I was inclined to go home myself after a long day, but since there was just 40 minutes to closing, I decided to stay.
MIssed the Thursday night $9K because of a family obligation and I had to work on Saturday, so the special $25K game was out. I ended up getting in at break in the Friday night game after passing up the opportunity to smoke legal weed at a friend’s get–together early in the evening. Got the buy-in and add-on, but not the live re-buy. I’m cheap.
My table was entirely late-reggers, including several of the club’s top regulars. On the second hand I played, about 40 minutes after the first break, I had [kh th] in a multiway raised pot, the flop was [kc tc 8s], and a regular on my immediate right made a bet. I shoved, everyone else folded, and the reg called with [ac 8c]. The two pair held and he doubled me up, though it didn’t make much of a dent to his stack, even though we’d started at the same time.
Half an hour later at the second break, I had 40K, equal to what you could buy in for if you bought the max chips. Chip average was 51.5K, so I felt relatively comfortable. By that point, my original table had broken and I was in a new position.
On the first hand after the second break, we had a raise and four callers (not including me) to the flop, a bunch of low diamonds on the board. Everyone checked, The turn made it [3d 4d 5d 6d]. Nervous chuckles all around, but no bet. [7d] on the river and everyone checks, not a diamond in the bunch. Not that it mattered at that point. Five way chip.
I picked up blinds and antes in one hand with a shove holding [kx qx]. A little bit later, I open-shoved the same combo from SB and was called by BB, who showed down the same hand. Lost a little more than a third of my stack when I called a raise with it, then a third player re-raised, the original raiser called, and I called, only to have the original raiser shove a [jx 7x 4x] flop, which he took down.
Two-and-a-half hours in I hadn’t seen a pair above [6x 6x]. Finally got [qx qx] and shoved 12BB and got no callers.
I spent most of three hours with a third to a quarter of the average stack. I’d just been through the blinds when our table broke and I was moved into the BB on the new table. A fold left me with only about 3BB (and I still had to pay SB on the next hand. Shoved over a raise with [ax 8x] and got called by queens, with low bards on the board and that was the end of the chance to make the WSOPC Main Event at the Bike!
Three hours and forty minutes. 27th of 104 entries.
Bovada $2K NLHE 6-Max
I really blew this one. Got into the game with a ticket from points for all of the Zone play. Fifteen minutes in, I got incredibly lucky, and not because of the cards.
I was in BB with [td ah]. UTG and SB limped, I raised from 40 to 160 (stacks were still mostly in the range of the the 5K starting stack). Both players called. The flop was [ad 7c kd], I bet 250, UTG called, BB folded. UTG had [qh js], so he’s pulling for a ten. The turn is [4d], I bet 500 and call a raise to 1K. [9h] on the turn, I check, UTG tries to rep the flush again, and I go all-in to call. I was down about 500, so I come out with 9K.
I take out a short-stacked player half and hour later, drop back down near starting stack after losing a couple hands then getting bluffed off [6d 6c] on a [5d 7h 9d 5s] board by [ad 4d]. Then I tripled up with [jh jc] against [ac 2c] and [js ah] on [3c 4c 8d jd 8s]. That put me up to 14K. Just a couple hands later, I knocked out a similarly-sized stack with [kd kh], outrunning a flopped flush draw by [js qs]. Suddenly, I was in the chip lead. Picked up another 5K from a guy who 3-barreled me when I had 2nd pair, which put me over 30K.
Then it was downhill. Flopped top pair against bottom set (who made quads on the river) but didn’t pay off the river value bet. I did, however, pay off with [7d 7c] when [kd qd] went all-in after making a river flush. That hand took me from 22.3K to 8.3K, and left me with just over 16BB, which wasn’t enough to keep me alive long enough to make the money.
Three hours and five minutes. 210 hands. 26th of 142 entries.
Bovada $1K NLHE 6-Max Turbo
Lost 3/5 of my stack the first hands I played. [jc 9c] made an open-ended straight draw on the flop. A short stack goes all-in, UTG shoves, and I shove. UTG has [9d jd], short stack has [jh qc], and short stack wins with queen-high. Out just a fe3w hands later all-in pre-flop with [qh th].
Fourteen minutes. 13 hands. 37th of 43 entries.
Final Table $1K NLHE
The start of a bad day of live poker. Already trying to forget it. Did an (uncommon for me) rebuy because there was some overlay (the early starts this month in Final Table’s shootouts may be eating into their morning tournament). Half the field went to the final table. I was short-stacked, lost a race with tens to another short stack and missed the money by a few spots.
Two hours and forty minutes. 7th of 21 entries.
Final Table $1.5K NLHE
Came back in the evening and the overlay was even bigger. Again, I had to do a re-entry, but things did not go my way and I busted on the last hand before break.
Fifty minutes. 14th of 15 entries.
Encore Club $1.5K NLHE
The early bustout from Final Table meant I could get over to Encore in the middle of the second level. Bought the live re-buy when I got in, There was not only no overlay there, the pot was more than double the guarantee. I made what was probably a bad bet and had to fold to an all-in and just never managed to recover.
Sixty-five minutes. 37th of 43 entries.
Bovada $2K NLHE
Late reg with a ticket. It’s a Deepstack tournament with 10K chips to start. I sign up during a break during Level 11, with blinds at 250/500/50. My first hand, I have [ax kx] UTG2, and I raise to 1.5K. CO shoves for 7.6K, I call when action gets back to me, and the board runs out with a ten on the turn. Next hand, I shove [7x 9x] and triple up against the table chip leaders with high ace hands. Then it’s out a couple hands later shoving [qx tx].
I’ve been working on a sort of smash-and-grab approach to Zone Poker where I stop playing after ten or fifteen minutes (or less). Not exactly ratholing; I don’t immediately jump back in the game, but I do leave when variance hits me with a good session. Remind me not to get all-in with [jx tx]. Overall, not a good week on the tables, -7BB over about 2.5K hands: -0.28BB/100. Session 17 was particularly brutal. On the first Zone hand, you’re always in as BB. I had [5c 5s], actioon folds to the button, who raises to 3.5x, I call and hit a set on [5h kc 7h], check and call another half-pot bet. Turn is [js], I check, he bets pot, I shove, he has top two and rivers [ks] for full house over full house. Eight hands later, after I buy back in, I had [kd ad] in SB, and a stack of about 40BB. Button raises 3x, I 3-bet to 9x, he shoves with a 140K stack, I call, he has [ah qh] and makes [qs] on the flop. Yes, it’s just poker, but the downside of Zone is that the bad beats (as well as the good) come a lot closer together.
Big hand for me was [jd ah 8s 7s]. Not much to look at, but I called a UTG1 raise from SB along with BB, flopped [9s kh jh], and everyone checked through the [3d] turn and [as] river. I bet my two pair, UTG went all-in with [ah 4s 3s 6c] and a worse two pair, and gave up nearly 30BB on the river alone.
Nineteen minutes. 19 hands. +37BB.
Bovada 0.05/0.1 PLO8
A rundown of [5c 6c 8s 7d] was the winner here, though not because I made the straight. No, a short-stack with [tc js ac 4s] made a pre-flop raise, I was one of two callers, I hit the open-ended straight on the [qd 9h 7c] flop, SB potted, I raised, he called all-in, there was a [qh] on the turn, and a [3d] on the river, and he missed everything.
Twenty-five minutes. 22 hands. +76BB.
Encore Club $11K NLHE
Lost my first buyin all in pre-flop with [ax qx] v [7x 7x]. Rebought and went out on the last hand before break after I flopped trips from BB in a limped pot then lost to a flush draw who called my all-in. Saved myself the add-on (prize pool in the image isn’t complete, they hadn’t put in all the add-ons yet.
One hour. 78th of 83 entries.
Encore Club 1/2 NLHE
Tried a couple tricks that went horribly wrong.
Thirty minutes. -80BB
Encore Club $1K NLHE
Very fast busto. No re-buy, no add-on.
Five minutes. 8th of 8 entries.
Bovada $1K NLHE Turbo Bounty
Got all-in with [qh jh] and a decent-sized stack against aces at two tables and didn’t make it much longer after that.
Ninety minutes. 81 hands. Four bounties. 13th of 194 entries. +188% ROI.
Bovada O8 Bounty
I got to HU in this game with a 2x chip lead, but managed to give away a bunch of chips. Highlight hand was number 62. I was down to 2.7K from the 3K starting stack, limits are 300/600, and I’m in SB with [qd qs as 3h]. A full table, BB’s all-in for the blind, almost everyone’s limping until HJ raises [jd 8d jh ah]. Then everyone but D is calling, until it gets back around to UTG3 ([9d tc 6s 8c]), who 3bets to 900, and that gets called all the way around. The flop’s [ac th qh], I bets and get three calls. [4c] on the turn, I make the big bet and everyone calls again. [5d] on the river, I bet, UTG1 calls with two pair and no low, I scoop the pot with a set and get a bounty for BB.
Three hours. 189 hands. Four bounties. 2nd of 25 entries.
Bovada $200 O8
Another late-reg mistake.
Forty-seven minutes. 20 hands. 20th of 27 entries.
Bovada $5K NLHE Thousandaire Maker
Another shot. I was in need of a double-up with half the chip average and 10BB, I raised to 3BB with [kd kc] and got called by a 16BB stack with [qd td]. The flop was [ks ad jh] and I shoved my set into the Portland Nuts.
One hour and twenty-four minutes. 72 hands. 73rd of 115 entries.
Bovada $5K NLHE Turbo
Got in with 20BB after busting the Thousandaire Maker. [ah qs], meet [qc qh].
Fifteen minutes. 18 hands. 199th of 564 entries.
Bovada $4K NLHE 6-Max
Got [ks js] in on a [kd jc 7s] flop against [ts ac] and ran into [qd] on the turn.
Ten minutes. 8 hands. 43rd of 50 entries.
Bovada $7K NLHE Turbo
Got into this with 12BB after busting the 6-Max. Tripled my stack in the first 30 hands. Hand 38, with 8BB, I got [tc ts] in BB and call all-in pre-flop against a UTG2 raise and call from CO. UTH2 has [kh 8h], CO has [ac ad], and I hit top set on the flop. Last hand, I shove [ks qc] UTG with 10BB (though about the same number of chips I ended up with 20 minutes earlier) and run into aces again, without the lucky result.
Sixty-eight minutes. 55 hands. 84th of 713 entries. +55% ROI.
Final Table $1K NLHE
Burned through two buy-ins, didn’t add on, and went out on a bad beat I don’t remember. I just know it was bad.
Seventy minutes. 20th of 26 entries.
Bovada $200 PLO Turbo
Late-regged in the second level of a turbo and a third of the field was gone already. Looking at the hand I busted on, I cannot figure out what I was doing.
Five minutes. 4 hands. 27th of 43 entries.
Bovada $500 PLO8 Bounty
Called a 900 raise preflop (18% of my stack) with [qs kh ts ks], flopped an open-ended straight on a flop of [tc 4d jd], bet it and got raised for my entire stack. Hit the nuts on the [ac] turn, then lost two ways with the [td] river against [qd as 2h ad].
Fifty-five minutes. 31 hands. 34th of 46 entries.
Final Table $1K NLHE
I got very lucky at the final table. Then very unlucky. We were eight-handed, I had [kc 3c] in the BB and a solid—if a little sticky—lady in middle position made a min-raise that folded around to me. I was short—about 12BB—but called anyway, only to get a [3x 3x 2x] flop. I check-raised all-in, which she called with [ax ax], I managed to avoid an ace on the turn and river, even hitting a king for a full house and doubling up enough to get to the money. By the time we were three-handed, it was me with about 8BB, an even shorter stack, and a “giant” stack with about 20BB. I picked up [9x 9x] UTG, shoved, and the short stack in BB called me with [tx 3x], hits two pair on the flop and tops it off with a full house on the turn. I go out next hand with [4x 8x] against the big stack, catch a four on the flop and lose when he makes a higher pair on the river.
Three hundred and ten minutes. 3rd of 22 entries. +325% ROI.
Bovada FLO
Got involved on a [4c 3h 5h kc] hand on a [qh 7h jc] flop that looked promising. and continued on a [5s] turn, but the river paired the board and I lost.
Twenty-six minutes. 20 hands. 17th of 19 entries.
America’s Cardroom $200 PLO8
Checked in on ACR to see if I had any funds left there and decisded to play them badly for a while.
Forty-five minutes. 35 hands. 25th of 31 entries.
Aces Full $1K NLHE
I hadn’t been into Aces Full for a while. Their daily noon game allows two live rebuys, but there isn’t an add-on. I don;t usually like rebuys, but I did one after having my jacks lose to a [4d 7d] that made a straight on the river and paying it off. That guy lost his entire stack to the guy on my right just after the first break, so with two tall stacks of 1K ships, he was one of the three callers against the tens I finally had to shove with less than 4BB. Lost to [ax kx], but other wise might have tripled up.
One hundred and thirty minutes. 16th of 19 entries.
Not a particularly uplifting week. Some more near-misses and agonizing defeats. Poker, in other words. Work kept me from playing the big games in Portland last weekend, so I had to make do with mostly online.
Bovada 0.5/1 and 0.25/0.5 NLHE Zone 6-Max
I had a bad patch at 0.5/1 and decided to drop down for a bit. Still managed to call off with tens against an obvious 4-bet pair of pocket kings, but….
Seven sessions. One hundred and eighteen minutes. 500 hands. +319BB
Bovada $200 Omaha Hi-Lo
Never really got much going in this, but I did make it nearly to the money.
One hour and fifty minutes. 95 hands. 8th of 26 entries.
Bovada $5K NLHE Thousandaire Maker
You only start with 2.5K in this tournament though it’s a decent structure. I don’t think I ever got it much over 5K. Hand 82 I’m UTG2 with [tc td] and less than 12BB. I rip it in and get called by two shorter stacks with [ah qd] and [js qh], [5c kc 7c] on the flop, I’ve got better than 75% equity at that point but an ace (not clubs) comes on the turn and another king on the river and I’m pout on the next hand. Eight places paid $1K, with a ninth-place consolation of $100.
One hour and forty-eight minutes. 83 hands. 31st of 108 entries.
Final Table $1K NLHE
There was over $200 in overlay Monday morning. I got to the final table with one of the shorter stacks but managed to stay alive, shoved aces and 10BB, got two calls from smaller stacks and a pair of queens beat me with a flopped set. Another bubble.
Four hours. 6th of 19 entries.
Bovada $500 O8
I limped in with [kd 4s 2d 4c] and flopped a set and flush draw, with a potential full house on [4d 7d 2s], and post-flop betting put me essentially all-in with the shallow stacks in this tournament. The [ac] turn made a straight for another player, and it remained good with no deuce, four, or diamond foe me on the river. Out a couple hands later.
Eighteen minutes. 12 hands. 47th of 53 entries.
Bovada $4K NLHE 6-Max
Hit a flush on hand 5 with [7h 5h], lost to [9h jh] and didn’t manage to recover.
Eight minutes. 12 hands. 39th of 46 entries.
Bovada $1K NLHE Turbo
I late-regged with 15BB, just about doubled up my 1.5K stack on hand 3 with [9d 9c], picked up [ah ad] two hands later and got it all-in pre-flop against [4h 4c], then he caught a set on the flop. Got most of it back on the next hand ([qs jh] v [6s 6d] against the same guy), but never got higher than that before my [qc kd] lost to [ad 6s] (we both hit the diamond flush).
Twenty-six minutes. 29 hands. 78th of 214 entries.
Bovada $200 PLO Turbo
Late entry, starting stack is 1.5K, blinds are 60/120. I was in the BB on hand 4 with two limpers and [qs 7c qc 5h]. The flop is [3c qd ad]. I pot to 360 and SB calls with [kd ah 2c 9d]. [kh] on the river, SB pots, I raise all-in for 1.1K, and he calls. [td] on the river makes his flush. Running the numbers, I’m way behind all the way.
Five minutes. 4 hands. 30th of 48 entries.
Bovada $1K NLHE Turbo
I was still more or less at starting stack after late-regging , and was down to 12BB after nearing the end of the first hour. Called an all-in with [ks js] and lost all but 60 chips to [8c 8h].
Fifty minutes. 30 hands. 96th of 165 entries.
Bovada $500 PLO8 Bounty
I was the chip leader for most of this tournament. Got off to a good start on the fifth hands with [th jd ac 8c] and made the nut flush on the turn against a king-high flush, then picked up part of bounty on the next hand with [9s jh 5h 7s] when I made a flush. Bovada’s algorithms for awarding bounties are screwy. I took half the pot for the high, two other players split the low, but I got only a third of the bounty. Got up as high as 10x the starting stack and probably should have dialed it back a bit there, but kept taking risks and inevitably lost a couple of key hands with low draws.
Three hours and forty-eight minutes. 145 hands. 13th of 59 entries, 6-1/3 bounties. +88% ROI.
Muckleshoot Spring Poker Classic #2 $4K Added NLHE
I thought I was in luck. Had jury duty scheduled in East Multnomah County for Wednesday and Thursday, the first two days of the Muckleshoot series (and the less-expensive events) My names called first in the random selection Wednesday morning, then the computer crashes after a few more names are read. They have to reset the computer, and when they do the second random selection, I’m not on the list, so I’m off for another two years.
Drove up to Auburn on Thursday for the $200 buy-in event. I managed to run my stack up to 2.5x the starting stack by the end of registration, but there it sat for the next five-and-a-half hours. Knocked out five players (including two on one hand) but never managed to cross the 30K mark. Didn’t have any really gut-wrenching losses—I shoved [ks ts] over a raise from [ax qx] who lost to me, and the guy across from me at my second table lost half his stack with aces to a junk hand that made a straight around one card—I eventually went out with [ac ks] and 10BB UTG, and got called by [tx tx] 18 places short of the money.
I had aces once and didn’t get any action, and jacks four times, one of which I flopped a set on but had to lay down when the board ran out [ks jc 8h tc qd] and the guy who’d called my bets all the way put out another 3K. I might have been beat on the turn, but even a nine beat me on the river.
Pretty good structures, apart from the numbering, which had the breaks as a level (you came back from the first break after level 3 to level 5, a little weird). A sort of Italian antipasto at dinnertime for the tournament players. The payout curve was very steep, with 21st to 26th only paying $300 and $14.5K up top.
So. No Shooting Star Satellite last week. This week and next were/are too jammed with other stuff to make a trip, I’m otherwise occupied tomorrow, the day of the big $20K-to-first game at Final Table, so I’m going to try to make it for part of the Muckleshoot series next weekend, if my jury duty doesn’t interfere.
Bovada 0.5/1 NLHE Zone 6-Max
Positive if I hadn’t gotten my aces cracked by a flush draw all-in before the river.
Ten sessions. Ninety-five minutes. 364 hands. -83BB
Final Table $20K NLHE
I was talking to one of my table-mates about having busted on the bubble in two tournaments over the previous two days and vowed not to have that happen again. We were down to 24 players, 20 places paid. I had [tx tx] in the BB with just under average stack, about 135K. An active player with a larger stack (though not incredibly large) raises to 35K, action folds to me, I shove the tens, he calls for more than half his stack with [6x 6x]. Flop is [6x 7x 8x] and I don’t get either a ten or a nine. Three bubble in two days; call me a liar. That puts the nail in any hopes to get down to the $500K at the Wynn Classic (see this week’s Deal in the Planner, there’s still time for you, Ebenezer….)
Six hours and forty-five minutes. 24th of 151 entries.
Bovada $200 Omaha Hi-Lo
Never really got much going in this, but I did make it nearly to the money.
One hour and fifty minutes. 95 hands. 8th of 26 entries.
Bovada $1K NLHE 6-Max
I shouldn’t have played in this one. The only thing with more variance than a 6-Max tournament is late-regging a6-Max tournament. Started with 19BB, went out with 10BB.
Fifty minutes. 55 hands. 43rd of 76 entries.
Bovada $3K NLHE Turbo
This was a deepstacked tournament, where we had 500BB to start. I was down just a little from starting stack and made a cold four-bet with [as kd] in BB, and got it all in pre-flop against [qd qc].
Forty-five minutes. 30 hands. 113th of 143 entries.
Bovada $4K NLHE 6-Max
Never really got much going here, either. Took a shot with [ac 5c] against three bigger stacks and lost to a pair of sevens.
Ninety-nine minutes. 90 hands. 37th of 106 entries.
Bovada $5K NLHE Thousandaire Maker
I was trying to multi-table this and the 6-Max above on my Windows laptop, but the current version of the client software was killing me by locking up. On hand 25, I can see I’m dealt [ah ac] in HJ, but when I try to make a raise, the button doesn’t do anything. I’m down 800 from the 2.5K starting stack (table is seven-handed, it’s a great place to open, but by the time the client refreshes, I’m folded and my aces just sit there like dead fish. A pair of nines UTG limps, [qh kh] limps in from the SB and takes the hand after making top pair on the flop and betting the turn. He might have won on the river, but I know all my chips were going to be in before the turn. After that, I petered out into oblivion.
Seventy minutes. 70 hands. 54th of 86 entries.
Bovada $10K NLHE
I had just knocked a short-stacked player out with [qh qs] v [5d ad] and pushed my up to 35BB, which was in decent position to make the money. We were only 100 from the money. I make a call for half my stack with [qd kh] against [ac 7c] and almost make a heart flush, then three hands later go all-in pre-flop with15BB and [kh ks] and get called by a guy who’s got me covered by less than 10BB, with [8h jh], who makes a back-door flush after I flop a set.
Three hours. 118 hands. 255th of 1,139 entries.
Bovada $1K NLHE 6-Max Turbo
Don’t late-reg 6-Max Turbos, either. Out table is mostly new all late-reg. I’m down to 4.2K from 5K starting on hand 6, [8s 8c] in CO five-handed. I call a UTG min-raise to 800. BB shoves 5BB. UTG has nearly 20BB and shoves over the top. I have 2BB in the pot and just over 10BB, so I’m all-in to call. BB shoved [3c 7h], UTG shoved [jd qh], flops a jack and rivers two pair.
Five minutes. 6 hands. 43rd of 76 entries.
Bovada $1K NLHE
More on this one later. Nice to take first place every now and then. Had one really lucky break that I can recall at this point, got to HU with just a slight chip advantage, lost a big hand [as kc] against a pair but didn’t let it rattle me, tried to have the best hand at showdowns, and wrapped it up in about 30 hands.
Three hours and twenty minutes. 249 hands. 1st of 112 entries. +2,245% ROI.
Bovada $4K NLHE
In the CO with 25BB and [ad as], about two-thirds of the way through the field after late-regging and tripling up my stack, UTG raises to just under 3BB, I 3-bet to a little over 8BB, and he shoves [jc jh]. A pair of nines on the flop, and [jd] on the turn.
I wasn’t feeling in tip-top condition during the day, but I really hate to miss this monthly event, because it’s one of the best values in town. I got off to a good start building up a stack of nearly 40K by the first break. After the break, things started to go sour, as I called off a bunch of chips with [kd jd] on a jack-high flop against a [ks ts] flush draw that got there on the turn. Picked up a few chips shoving [8x 8x] against [8x 8x] on a [4x 4x 2x 7x] board. A couple other raises went nowhere and, I was down to under 15BBn when I 4-bet with [ks qs] then called an all-in for more against [jd jc]. The board ran out [ah th 9d 8h 6h] and I was out.
Three hours and twenty-five minutes. 92nd of 166 entries.
Bovada $100K NLHE
Sunday evening is family dinner at Poker Mutant Central, so I don’t usually play any of the big tournaments but since we were missing a key family member due to the Super Bowl, I decided to take a shot at the weekly $100K tournament, especially since I thought there might be an overlay due to people watching the game. I’m about 50-50 for cashing the big events, although they’ve just been min-cashes so far. This was my deepest run so far, getting into the top 5%. No overlay, but the number of entries was about 500 short of the other times I’ve played it. There was still over $21K up top and $110K in the prize pool. I won’t say that I didn’t get lucky a couple of times.
Only 20 hands in, I was almost eliminated with [tc th] getting it in against a smaller stack after I raised and then called his all-in. He had [ks jh] and the board ran out all hearts (with a king on the turn, to boot). I got knocked down to 7BB. I doubled up with [jh js] against [as jc] three hands later against the guy I lost to, then moved back over starting stack beating [td qd] with [qc kh] by hand 30. I got lucky at least once, sucking out on [ax kx] with [kd td], and making a king-high straight.
Five hours. 31st of 739 entries. +194% ROI.
Bovada $500 O8
Decided to play some Omaha Hi-Lo with my ill-gotten winnings. Ran it up good so that I was in the chip lead at the first break, but played a few too many of the wrong hands too aggressively, missed a couple of great draws, and ended up just out of the money by three spots.
Ninety minutes. 12th of 55 entries.
Puffmammy NLHE
It all began for me with this group of guys in a home game tournament about eight years ago. My cousin’s husband invited me to the game after I hadn’t played any poker for more than twenty years. The game’s suffered the same sorts of setbacks since the recession that have afflicted poker in general: we used to get two and sometimes three tables but it’s down to most of a single table these days, though we did start with two a couple weeks back. I blasted through a buy-in early against T, a pretty canny player who used to play a lot online, but after I rebought, he and I were the chip leaders most of the night. We got down to the three paying spots and he was just winning every hand. I shoved [kx 7x] with 5K over his raise of 900 at 150/300/25 and he called with [ax 9x], hitting the ace on the flop. I got a seven on the turn but nothing on the river and took home a small loss.
Two hours and forty-five minutes. -8% ROI.
Bovada 2/4 O8
Jumped into a 6-Max table with four players for five minutes and made $20. Toodles!
Five minutes. +5 big bets.
Aces Full $1K NLHE
I hadn’t been in to Aces Full for a long time but I dropped by because my friend D said he might go in for the weekday noon tournament. It’s a structure different from most of Portland’s tournaments in that there’s no add-on at the break. You can make two live rebuys ($20 per buy-in). Plus, the blind levels are 30 minutes at the beginning of the tournament, which is longer than anything but the larger special event games in town. I got a little reckless, lost some chips, then called a a 3-bet of my raise with [7c 9c] and hit a pair, getting it in against [kx jx] from an aggressive player with just over cards. He hit a king on the turn and I double-paired on the river. Lost the entire thing to the same guy shoving [ax tx] on a ten-high board against his [kx tx] and getting called. Blew another buy-in, then went out just before break with [kx qx] on a [qx 7c 6c 8c] board shoving top pair against the aggressive guy who had called my pre-flop raise with [kx 5c]. He hit the flush on the river and I headed home.
Ninety minutes.
Bovada 2/4 O8
My old friend. Played on a nine-handed table for a while, nearly doubled my buy-in, then flopped third nut flush into second nut flush and called him down. Played for a little while longer and I was still up a dollar from my buy-in when the Xfinity guy on the street looking for some sort of feedback problem cut off my connection.
Forty minutes. +0.25 big bets.
Bovada 1/2 PLO8
Wow, did I step into a mess here. Half an hour and I’m down 60BB. Time to pull the plug
Bovada 2/4 O8
Was playing this on my iPad the problem? Limit games are the ideal thing on tablets because you only have three buttons for options, you don’t have to worry about a slider or trying to get your bet typed in before your time’s up. I recover part of my losses from PLO8, then stay too long and things start going south.
Eighty minutes. -10 big bets
The Game 1/2 NLHE
Maybe a little over-aggressive after losing in PLO8 and O8? I stopped in at The Game after work intending to just play for an hour, and was up a bit after getting kings, making a set on the river, and getting a couple calls out of a guy on the other side of the table. Nice. Then I overplay [kd qd] when I get top pair on the flop and get it all in against his aces just a few minutes before I planned to leave.
Fifty-five minutes. -100BB.
Bovada $500 PLO8 Bounty
I got into this game a little late at the 60/120 level, but with 5K in chips I was fine. I chipped up fast, nearly tripling in the first 20 hands, then stagnated for a while until I nearly lost it and had to make a quick surge back into the ranks. Got down to the money and languished on the edge for a bit, then hit a hand and smashed up to the top. Did I mention this was a bounty tournament? Technically, I took 8 bounties in a 65-entry tournament, though in reality, one of them was a half-bounty and another was a whopping one-third bounty (one bounty being a third of the buy-in). Three bounties before we got to the money. Made heads-up with a 2:1 chip lead but didn’t really care whether I got first or second since the other guy—who’d been chip leader at the final table before I took it away from him, and was playing incredibly slowly—just sort of pushed every hand to the end, which ended up with me in second.
Four hours. 176 hands. 2nd of 65 entries. +865% ROI,
Bovada $5K NLHE Thousandaire Maker
I skipped the special $9K at Encore Thursday since I was planning to play Friday night’s game and had to work Saturday. Got tired of writing for a while (big upcoming project for the site) and decided to try to get some more read of the Thomas Jefferson biography I’m supposed to discuss at a book group Tuesday while I played a little game.
As I mentioned in last week’s calendar planner, I have a thing for Survivor tournaments, and Bovada runs a few similar games, the biggest of which (that I know of) is the Thousandaire Maker, a $75+$7 tournament that pays out even $1K prizes, plus whatever’s left over.
I had just been writing (for the project) about how buying at 10BB in a $20 tournament wasn’t such a good idea, then I go and do it for $82. In my case, it worked out okay. I got lucky twice catching the bottom card with hands like [kx qx] against [ax kx], and as we approached the money, I took out two players and swung into the position where I could conceivably have just folded to the money. Not my style. I lost some chips with [6x 6x] trying to take out a short stack who, it so happened, had [kx kx] but I was still in second or third position, with seven full payouts to be made. I clamped down and was never in any danger of not making the money; I let other folks do most of the work from there on out.
We got down to eight and the bubble took almost 40 hands, then I finally clinched it with [ac ks] against [tc ts] and we got paid. Nice way to end the reporting period.
One hour and fifty minutes. 131 hands. 95 entries. +1,120% ROI.
This was the usual Friday night tournament at Encore, and it was busy, with 130 entries and a substantial prize pool. I got a little overaggressive in round six and called a 3K raise with [ks qx] in late position. The flop was [qs 8s 6h], with top pair and backdoor send nut flush, I shoved over a c-bet from the original raiser, who gave it some pause before calling with [ah qd]. Another spade came on the turn, but I didn’t get any love from the river. A couple hands later, I shoved 5.5K with [8h 5h] in middle position. SB dribbled in a chip without realizing I was all-in (see the last installment about undercalls), but in this case, the dealer ruled it was a call of the all-in, which was fine at first when SB turned over [8d 4d]. I paired my five on the flop, but there was a [7x] on the turn and [6x] on the river to put me out of the tournament.
Went over to the 1/2 shootout, got [ax ax] and made a few chips, lost most of that when I raised [ac tc], got a zillion callers, had the board run out [8x 6x tx 8x 7x] and laid down to a $75 river raise from a guiy who claimed he had just ace high. Then lost my buy-in with [ax ax] after [kx 9x] hit top two on the flop. On the plus side, I got aces twice in 25 minutes!
Final Table $500 Big O
This was my first chance to play the afternoon Big O game that got going after Portland Players Club closed down at the end of the year. As usual, my unorthodox hand selection (can anything be truly orthodox in Big O?) riled up Butcher, who bet me $5 that I couldn’t make the final table. As there were only two tables to begin with, I was confident that was going to happen. I should have made him pay more. I got to the final with a third of the chips in play, but ran into some bad draws that ended up with me going out in sixth place. Got my $5, at least.
One hour and 45 minutes. -93% ROI.
Final Table 1/2 NLHE Shootout
Played the shootout for an hour while I was waiting for the evening NLHE tournament. Ended down a little because an early hand where I’d 3-bet [qx qx] in the small blind got called by [jx jx] and a short stack with [ax kx], the flop came out [7x 7x 7x], then the river was [ax]. I got a side pot, but the river gave the main to the short stack (who’d had just a few dollars under my 3-bet. So that was annoying.
One hour. -9BB.
Final Table $1.5K NLHE
Mostly went fine through to the bubble. The short stack on my right had doubled up a couple of times. I was regretting folding [6x 6x] in a hand where I would have flopped a set against [ax ax] and a drawing hand (that doubled up the player with the aces and I was down to shove stack territory myself when I pushed [5x 5x] from SB in an unopened pot and the short stack woke up with [ad td], catching a ten on the flop. I shoved [6c 8c] on the next hand with just a few blinds left, know ing that Nu—in BB—would call me, but I also got a call from the player on my right with [ax 5x]. Nu flopped two pair with [8x 3x 4x], and I rivered a better two pair with [6x], but [2x] on the turn gave CO most of Nu’s stack and knocked me out.
Four hours and twenty minutes. -100% ROI.
The Game 1/2 NLHE
The first Wednesday of the month at The Game is Player Appreciation Day, with no door fee before noon and buffet lunch and dinner, along with prizes. So I headed over with a friend and spent a few hours playing very few hands. The guy on my left when the table started up straddled every one of my big blinds, raising almost every one when action got back to him, but during the time he was there, I never had the opportunity to take advantage of it. The guy on my right had gotten felted for the max buyin several times with single pairs within the first hour—with none of that coming directly to me—calling off his entire stack with top pair at best. He moved to my left by the after the aggressive guy left, and started winning back a little bit of what he’d lost. I mostly played smaller pots and picked off a few bucks here and there, making a little over 25BB/hr, my friend did considerably better.
The Game 1/1 and 1/2 NLHE
Went back the next day and played in the pre-noon 1/1 game, where, after losing a bit, I limped in with [6x 6x] UTG. UTG1 raised the pot, my friend re-raised from CO, and SB went all-in for more than I had left. There was so much in the pot already, and it seemed extremely likely that UTG1 and my friend were going to be all-in, so I put my 33BB in and watched my little pair flop a full house against [jx jx] (UTG1), [tx tx] (my friend in CO), and [ax ax] (in the SB). I ended up that session ahead by 85BB, after losing several hands to a player a couple seats to my left, who seemed to have the right amount for me to have to call him on the river dialed in pretty well.
When the game kicked up to 1/2 after noon, I put another 50BB in my pile. Nothing much really happened here, until a hand where the player who’d had aces before noon in the hand above raised my BB and I called with [3d 7d]. The flop was [qx 3x 7x], I checked it and several other player’s who’d called checked, then the raiser put in a big bet and I shoved over the top, with something like 100BB. Everyone folded around to the original raiser and she called for less with [qx jx]. My two pair stayed good. I took a few other small pots, but that was the significant action of the hour. A little concerned that my big wins were from getting it in with 14% equity in the first case and with a hand where I just get lucky and flop bottom two, but I can live with it for now. Ended up +110BB or so and headed out to Hunan Pearl for lunch.
I had a few hours to kill before either of the tournaments I wanted to play, so I went to the restaurant Tomer and I went to almost every night when I visited him during trips to the Series. Krung Siam’s just a couple minutes drive up Valley View Road from the Rio—though it’s a long, hot walk in the Vegas summer. Then again, what isn’t? Got Drunken Noodles at a 7 on a scale of 10. Either I’m getting older or my memory of their heat scale is faulty. After the first bite, I was wondering if this was a good idea before I needed to sit for several hours in a tournament. And yes, I am trying to smile there (this was pre-dinner). That’s just the way it comes out.
down to three—and then two—tables. We’d started with 73, so the Survivor format (please, someone in Portland start a series of these!) paid out $2.5K for seven players as a straight chop, with an eighth getting $750. Starting stack is 12K, average stack at chop time is 120K (a little more than that in the nice, clean, new Venetian tournament chips in the photo—I forgot my card protector at the house), so if you could get up to 100K or more, unless you did stupid stuff like try to knock more players out, you were golden. Some people can’t help themselves. One young guy who’d looked me over and given me the “I’m letting you get away with it this time” speech before laying down his SB to my UTG raise with [ah 6h] blew away a stack comparable to mine, and ended up with eighth place.
