*** TJ's 2024 WSOP Trip! ...That Might Turn Into A Move?

Went downstairs to the Horseshoe food court, and got a chili cheese dog from Nathan’s:

Pretty tasty, if overpriced to the gills from strip pricing.

I think I’ll head back to the Paris ballroom, and play some 1/3 cash. I’m determined to get unstuck by playing WELL, and WITHOUT kicking it up, as penance for how badly I played yesterday.

It IS Saturday night at the WSOP, after all. I don’t expect a boring, nitty, OMC kind of game.

I ate more than once at Nathan's and ordered the very same chili cheese dog on breaks when I was at the WSOP earlier in the 2024 series. It's easy to get to on break and no line to order. Tasty and bad for you, which is exactly my dining wheelhouse.

Love your writing! Sorry about the card-deadness. That JJ hand is a tough spot, but I'm probably jamming all day (which is probably why I was also 0-for-world series earlier this month). Very unlucky that she smashed a flop like that if that's indeed what she had, but I wouldn't put it past a competent big stack to also be check-raising a ton of speculative hands here and putting some pressure on a smaller stack right before break. But the in-person read is often the most informative, so good for you for correctly going with your gut. Get 'em back in the cash game!

saw this thread tonight, TJ, I'm rooting for you as always! When in doubt embrace your undertitle!

Only Gives Out Winners

- McMuffin

Love those Nathans fries - something about the accordion (sp?) shape of those krinkles and that fake cheese sauce stuff is clutch. One of the only easier options to be able to grab on a regular/non dinner break

Thanks again for the kind words and support, everyone. It’s really motivating to be as thorough and frequent as I can. For my own posterity looking back, and for everyone else, too.

Against many, many people, and complete unknowns, I’d be cranking it there all day too. It’s just that I’d played with her for 4 hours by then, and everything I’d seen from her play made me think she wouldn’t be doing that with something I’m ahead of.

If you make a big call down, or run a successful bluff, it feels great. But what sucks about making a big, even correct fold is, you still lose the pot, and usually don’t get confirmation that you were correct. It doesn’t alleviate tilt to make a big fold. Gamblers know it’s almost a relief to call it off, and get it in behind anyway, so you can chalk it up to a cooler and move on.

That’s what we’re always doing around here, giving out winners!

When I go apartment hunting in Summerlin later this trip, one of the places I looked at online has an outdoor chess set by the pool, with 3 foot tall pieces! I’ll be sure to get a pic for you

Breaking news… the games Saturday night at the center of the poker universe during WSOP are, in fact, BETTER than they are at 10:30 am in a big card room that’s known for regs and promo hunters.

Gives me an excuse to finally post some chip porn! In for 300, out with:

Finished +657, after a solid almost-5 hour session. Still stuck for the trip, even just for 1/3, but this is an encouraging step in the right direction.

I know mackem hates context-free results posts, so here’s a couple hands:

It started right from the jump, on the first hand at a table where the new game was starting. Everybody buys in for 200 or 300, and is jovial about getting the game going. UTG, playing $200, opens to 15, one call, and I look down at JJ from the cutoff. I say “first hand, right?” and make it 50. UTG grumbles “really?” and calls, other guy folds. He dark-checks the flop over to me, which comes 2-2-3. I go 65, and he IMMEDIATELY shoves.

It’s possible I’m behind, but this is vs a complete unknown, on the very first hand. With all the wacky **** I’ve seen people do at 1/3, there is approximately a 0.00% chance I’m laying down a strong overpair in a 3bet pot here. Plus, I already had reload/top-off chips in my pocket anyway.

So of course I snap call. When I call so fast, the rest of the table is going “whoa!” and thinking this could be a crazy game. Villain is clearly unhappy with the alacrity of my call, and asks, “Aces? Kings?” I say nope… right as a jack rolls off on the turn, so I add “…but that helped.” I turn my cards over before the river, because if I really DID get there on him, I wouldn’t appreciate the slowroll.

He looks disgusted, and tells me I needed the jack. But he mucks without showing, so I don’t think I believe him. If he really did have exactly QQ or 2-x, thats the sort of thing people show, expecting sympathy from everyone else.

A couple hours later, I’m cruising on about a 200bb stack, and straddle UTG. Two limps to the straddle, button makes it 20. I call with Kh3h, thinking the limpers will also call, to make my call less bad. They both fold. Phooey.

My mood changes when the flop comes 8h 6h 2h. I check, he bets 15, I checkraise to 50, he calls fairly quickly. He has about 150 behind, so as I’m trying to decide if I should go for it all now on the turn, or put him on a two street payment plan, the 9h comes off on the turn. Of COURSE it does, we’re back to thinking phooey again.

I check, and he IMMEDIATELY shoves. Sigh. Well then. Argh. But I have the second nuts. No, wait, third nuts… because when I dabble in PLO, I can assure you ALL that straight flushes are very real things. I’m thinking about it some more, and I wonder if he would have chosen that flop sizing with just the naked Ah. Seems unlikely, most people play that faster.

As I’m thinking, I finally remember this is a people game, not a card game, so I actually look up at the man.

…And he’s been staring a hole in my forehead this whole time. Hmmmm. Now I think he just doesn’t want to see any more cards, to win it right now. Caro’s book of tells says this means he really doesn’t want a call.

If that’s the case, I want to disappoint him, so I call. River bricks, and he shows QQ with a heart.

It’s always nice to get stacks in on the turn when you’re opponent is drawing completely 100% dead.

As I’m playing, I’m mostly folding, and absent-mindedly looking up at the TV’s to check the baseball scores. Then I notice a guy walking by that looks exactly like David Sklansky.

I chuckle to myself, then the wires cross and I remember where I am. I call out “David,” and he looks up.

I get up and go over to him, and assure him first that he doesn’t know me, but I have like 13k posts on this site. He asks my name, and he says he recognizes it. I’ve been a member since 2007, so as long as we’ve both been here, our paths were bound to have crossed.

His writings, and this site, played a large role in my poker development. From back in the online boom days, when I was obsessively studying poker theory, on to now, when the community that’s still left over here is what we make of it.

It was cool to be able to tell him that.

loving the TR so far. Nice call going with a downtown Airbee&bee. I've always enjoyed walking Fremont and playing at the Nugget.

Glad your cash games are trending in the right direction. Now that you've bumped into Sklansky, a deep run in your next donkament seems inevitable!

giant chess set pic incoming

Meeting up with Slansky's lore

#ThreadDelivers

Nice report. GL rest of the way.
Advice unasked for a move given by someone who has now made this mistake twice:
You can replace most everything that's not an heirloom or valuable at Costco and Amazon when you get to the new place. Heavy large things don't need to come.

Waking up in Vegas is a great feeling. Every day has so much potential!

I started the day off with a necessary grocery run. I Uber’ed to a nearby store, and picked up drinks for the mornings, shaving stuff that TSA wouldn’t let me bring, and laundry detergent pods for when it’s time to wash my clothes.

Today I thought I’d head over to Aria to play PLO. I somehow never made it over here on my trip last year, so I hadn’t seen the new food court that replaced the buffet, which Covid killed.

I’ve heard good things about the Italian place in the food court, simply called Parm. I ordered the mozzarella sticks, and of course had to try the chicken parm sandwich. You order and pay for the food from kiosks, then they text you when it’s ready. Living in the future is pretty cool!

The mozzarella sticks were quite girthy. As Peyton Manning once said, “Chicken parm, you taste so good!”

Very tasty.

Meeting David Sklansky had to've been a thrill.

re the JJ hand, if you're folding to a check raise you're better off checking back the flop. Yes, you're giving away some free cards but you can induce bets from worse hands and bluffs/semi bluffs and realise your equity cheaper.

how much was the Parm/ Sticks combo?

PLO, however, was much less tasty.

I forgot that the reason I didn’t make it over to Aria last year is because I have PTSD from how bad I’ve run here. Buy in for 500 to play 1/2/5 PLO, and the first hand of consequence I play is, naturally, the double board bomb pot the table plays on every dealer change.

I forget the exact boards, but I made top set of tens on the bottom board, with nothing much going on the top board, which was fairly dry. I was early to act, with a pot of $140, so I checked to see what the field would do. The flop checked around.

The turn was an overcard to my tens, but I remember no straights or flushes were possible, so I bet $60. Now a shortstack raises a committing amount. Honestly I don’t remember what the other board looked like, I’m just annoyed that I’m in a spot where I have a strong hand, but with no chance to scoop.

Anyway, I call, and call the rest of it. He had a wrap on the bottom, which got there on the river, and his two pair stood up on the top, so I got scooped. Annoying. I wonder if I should just be YOLO-potting top set and ready to stack it down, but it seemed rash since I didn’t have anything going on the other board.

The next interesting hand I played was ALSO a double board bomb pot, and I remember the action better. This time I have the button, and wake up to AT65. The top flop was A-T-7 rainbow, and the bottom was 8-4d-2d. So I have top two up top, and a double gutter to the nuts both ways on the bottom.

It checks to me on the button, so I bet to thin the field and see where I’m at. I find out quickly, as first to act check/pots it to like $340, with only another 50 or so behind it.

Well dammit. This is why double board bomb pots can be such a trap. If you have one board locked up, it’s in your interest to play it as fast as possible, to drive out other players and potentially scoop. When 2 or 3 or 4 players feel that way, hilarity ensues. And some people play soooo bad, and make such huge mistakes. …Those fish. Not me, though, obviously. I’m the hero in my own story.

Anyway, since I have both boards working, I say **** it and get it in there. The top board runs out X, T to give me tens full, and I miss on the bottom. He had a set of 8’s on the bottom, and nothing else up top, so we chop.

Couple hours later, we get ANOTHER interesting spot in a double board bomb pot. The top flop is 8-4-4, the bottom is J-8-7 rainbow, and oh hey look at that, I have KQ88! So top full, PLUS a set of 8’s.

Obviously all the money is eventually going in, it’s just a question of when and how. First to act bets $50, and I’m next. With 5 people behind me, I decide to just flat here. Cutoff pots it to 300something with another 500ish behind it, then a shortstack calls off his 300. I backraise shove, which cutoff reluctantly calls. Initial bettor folded.

It was music to my ears that they both had a 4, so neither of them could make quads to crack my top full. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a board pair on the bottom, so cutoff’s T94x chopped the shorty’s money with me. Scooping would have been really cool… after all, I made TWO sets! Ah well.

Sadly, it all ended in tears, when I got oversetted by the one guy at the table who had me covered. I’m annoyed, because I’ve always said small pocket pairs in PLO are a trap, for precisely that reason. T866 double suited looked so pretty, though. There was no straight possible on the turn, only two broadway cards, and two diamonds, so the runout made me feel like my set of 6’s were pretty strong. The river paired the king, and I paid it off. Quads are good, sir, nh.

I picked up my last $46, and finished -1154.

I think it was about $31.

Ordered a la carte, I wanted both.

Today I thought I’d head over to Resorts World, which gives me an excuse to eat at Tacos El Gordo, the best Mexican street food in Vegas.

I started with a pork taco, carne asada taco, and carne asada quesadilla. The meat comes right off the grill in front of you, and the salsa, guac, and cilantro are all especially fresh. Plus a Jarrito’s mandarin soda. People that are actually from Mexico LOVE that stuff. When in Rome and all.

It was so good, I went back for another pork quesadilla and asada quesadilla. The tacos don’t have cheese, which seems like a glaring omission. The quesadillas have cheese grilled on top of the tortilla, though.

Then I walked across the street to play at Resorts World. It’s a nice, well run room that absolutely should compete with the top rooms in Vegas… but hasn’t yet, for whatever reason. The poker room isn’t even open 24 hours. As I got there, only one game of 1/3 was starting.

It’s Monday morning, but only one player at a full table over 50. In for 400, let’s make it a great day!

I keep hearing how great Tacos El Gordo is, but I don't like corn tortillas. I like flour tortillas. Corn tortillas are a hard no for me. It appears to me that they only offer corn tortillas. Do you (or anyone else) know if flour tortillas are an option?

I think you can pick.

Resorts is still finding their footing in poker. At least they are trying. Agree with you. It's a great room.

I think with their summer schedule they aimed to provide counterprogramming to their neighbors like Wynn and Venetian who are in the $1k+ business for most MTT offerings. RWLV went down market with stuff in the $200-300 price range. I can see the logic in just trying to be different, but also wonder if maybe that's beneath the property. Brand new venue. High end vibe. Maybe they should be going $500-600 for their summer schedule at least. I suppose they fear low turnout and empty tables.

I'm talking about MTTs though while you're talking cash. Cash traffic has always seemed a little slow there. I think the simple explanation apart from newness is the location. They are at the far end of the strip. If we think about the strip as a funnel, rooms like Aria, Bellagio, Venetian, and Wynn are going to catch all the foot traffic before it can ever get that far down the tube. RW needs some way to differentiate themselves besides just being a good room, because Wynn just up the street is more established and also a good room. It felt like RW was leaning into the mixed game element, but I don't know if that has been enough to carve out a toehold in the market.

I enjoy the room though and try to find my way there at least once on every LV trip.

TJ those tacos look amazing. Been here like almost 30 times and never had it and I always stay right near by! Gotta try soon. Also, I think I saw you posted food from Parm - that also looks mighty tasty! Good luck in the cash game!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Authentic Mexican tacos don't have cheese. And to rppoker's point, they come on a corn tortilla. Just a corn tortilla, meat, and maybe some onions, cilantro, maybe pico de gallo and/or salsa, and a lime; sometimes some radish slices. Cheese on tacos is more of a TexMex thing, and adding rice and beans to a taco is more of a Taco Bell thing.

I don't say this to begrudge you your preferences. Cheese and flour tortillas are delicious! Just that the lack of cheese isn't a really a "glaring omission."

Enjoying the TR. Best of luck!

Well, the poker has not been going well, which is why I haven’t been motivated to post about it. It’s like the stock market: you take the steps up slowly, but the elevator straight down.

I straddle button for $6, 4 limps to me so I make it $25 more with QQ. Two calls, and the cutoff (an overlimper) shoves over the top for 400. I re-shove, and the big blind makes a crying fold and shows an ace, which I like to see.

Up against AK, flop and turn clean, river K :(

Not gonna complain about how I run, though. There are plenty of examples I could point to where I made bad plays. At least two atrocious river payoffs, which I must improve. When big bets go in on later streets, they simply aren’t busted draws often enough at 1/3. I know better.

Taking a break from poker tomorrow, which may be just what the doctor ordered. I’m gonna drop in on some dialysis clinics, and see if I can talk my way into a job offer.

Then Wednesday, we’re gonna play the $340 8-game mix tourney at the Golden Nugget. That should be a LOT of fun, I’m really looking forward to it.

Do you want us to send you RunGood vibes for the job search or for the $340 8-game mix tourney?