**** TJ's Summer 2025 Quest for Poker Glory ****

Glgl!

First break, on 25k from the 30k starting stack.

I started off catching very well in razz in the first level, winning almost every hand. Unfortunately, because it was the first level, that wasn’t very meaningful, and even worse, it got me a bit overconfident, and maybe I played a bit too loose afterwards.

Then I called down with a low in stud high only. Just an inexcusable mistake, to light 3 big bets on fire.

Still, basically treading water. The triple draw round is a lot of fun! I made number 2, 76432, after the 2nd draw, and got a checkraise in vs two opponents, but I didn’t get to show it down.

One other interesting triple draw hand: I start with 75552 in the big blind, but it’s raised and 3bet by SB before it gets to me. I was gonna 3bet myself, but after I saw that, I just flatted. The 3bettor pats the first draw, so I guess the snow is on! I take 2, don’t improve, and fold, but the button runs him down with an 86. The 3bettor got dealt a pat number 2, and won a pretty nice pot.

Let’s make it 4 more good levels!

So much this!

Busted the tournament.

Had a couple hands in stud games where I started out good, but caught bad. The limits were such that you can’t afford to show down many losers, and still stay ahead of the antes.

Over at Venetian now, on the list for some cash games.

i will not be offended if you ignore everything after this sentence

absolutely

and these wise words from wrath

we're all aware of variance and do not question your long term winning skill
and also how much it can suck optimistically looking forward toward something for so long and not having weeks of actual experience align with months of expectation

such is poker life

where we, for now, only control our abilities to make the best next first decision based on previous intentionally misleading information while also letting randomness sort results

but
turning over a low card hand in stud high is the anthesis of that
feels like you are pressing right now
playing bomb pots against yourself

a brief half-day or so of poker detox brokered by the local spa or nfl approved rub and tug might just do your body and soul some good and help temper any preparation for the marathon of success that will be your main event trip report

uñtil there is a tl:dr summary

as an avid reader it would be a shame if you let weeks of smack you frustration somehow influence any micro decisons in future days

and also remember randomness includes the lesser skilled demonstrating their abilities if you give them enough chances,
no need to rush
the chips will come to you

I greatly value and appreciate your support,

And everybody’s in this thread.

I fly home tomorrow, then I have three straight days of work to decompress and get my mind right.

I’m almost even looking forward to it, as a chance to give myself a hard reset, in anticipation of the Main.

Things are looking up. And I truly appreciate everybody who’s posting or lurking in this thread. It’s very gratifying to be doing it for y’all.

It just takes one bullet to make a difference . You got this TJ!

Maybe the poker universe is sending all of its run bad now so that there is nothing but run good awaiting you during the Main Event. At least I hope that is the case.

SAME.

I’ve just been saving it up for next week.

It's normal to have bad runs. The key is to evaluate your process and try to be as honest as possible about the quality of decisions. Tighten up whatever leaks you might identify. At the same time, keep faith that the good runs and situations will come eventually. I started last summer by bagging three straight tournaments. I had an 0-for-13 streak in the middle. I ended the summer by cashing three tournaments on the same day (won a nightly after midnight, busted a day 2 in the morning, jumped into the next event and cashed it). This game can be very kind and very cruel, sometimes within the span of two hands. Focus on the process.

I've never played the Main, but I've watched days upon days of coverage. If that qualifies me to give any advice, I'll just say that it's a very slow tournament ill-suited to impatience or panic. "Main Event folds" are a known thing. It works both ways. You may encounter fewer bluffs, which dictates over-folding against strength. At the same time, you may be incentivized to take more bluff spots if you sense that certain opponents are afraid to die. The players who do well are able to toe the line between caution and aggression. Danger signs must be respected, but there may be room to steamroll spots when people are fearful.

Bring your best game to the table and try to enjoy the experience regardless of what the outcome is.

Sage advice, I’ll take it to heart.

and we can wait to get updates, no need to rush

Great advice DogFace.

Crazy game at Venetian.

I was cruising right along, chipping up steadily to about +1200, then a WILD bomb pot played out.

I had the button, with Q986. The top was Q-Q-K, and the bottom was 5-6-7r. One guy bets 100, I pot it to 480. A stack on my level cold-flats the bet and raise, then a fourth player check/shoves, for 1300ish total. Initial bettor folds, I call, other guy calls. 3 players all in on the flop, over a 4k pot.

It runs out 9-x on the top, so I filled up, but the bottom got ugly, with two running clubs and the river that paired the 6. First guy has K98x with clubs, so he backdoored a flush. But the other guy had KQ55. So I was already dead on the top, then his other set filled to a boat on the river, to scoop the whoooooooole thing :(

I had even told myself I was gonna pick up after this bomb pot, when I had the bomb pot button.

Action game loosens everybody up now. Very next hand, there’s a straddle to 10, and re-straddle to 20. My head still spinning, I call the 20 on the button with QJ97 with hearts. Re straddler pots it pre, $120 5-ways to the flop. I tell myself if I make any piece of this, **** it all, I’m going for it.

Flop is Q-8-2 two hearts. Checks to me, I say I don’t care, let’s go for it, and pot, which is basically a shove. The other guy who lost the bomb pot with me gets it in also for about 800 effective, and a third short stack calls all in for less.

I catch a beautiful, miracle offsuit T to turn the nuts, the river is an ace, and I’m good. My hearts were very dead on the flop, so that really was a rather light stack off by me. Skill game, though

I play a couple more hands, then think about it, and say to myself ya know, I just played a 4k pot and it didn’t go my way, I think I’ll quit while I’m ahead now, because I don’t think I feel like playing a 6k+ pot later.

So I picked up. Predictably, My seat was filled fast, with a guy waiting even before I finished racking up.

Nice to have a good day, in the twilight of this trip. Finished +1640. If tomorrow goes very well, I might possibly get unstuck for cash games on this trip!

Then I went downstairs, to one of my favorite spots to eat at Venetian: Yardbird.

They have the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. I got that, and the mac and cheese.

I was so hungry, I didn’t think to snap a picture. There’s a pic in my thread from last year, if you want to see what that looks like.

It was $64, with gratuity included.

So tomorrow, I’m going to get up early-ish and check out by 10, then I think I’ll hang around the Venetian until my flight tomorrow night.

Glad you got some luck. And also some of that sweet Yardbird chicken

Good morning!

Packed up and checked out of the Airbnb by 10, then made my way over to Venetian. Dropped my bags with the bell hop, got on the lists for my games on Poker Atlas, then headed over to Grand Lux Cafe to get breakfast.

Unfortunately, the line was out the door, so I wasn’t gonna wait for that, with all the great food options Venetian has.

Went upstairs to the food court, and had Fire of Brazil: Churrascaria Express. It’s basically an orgy of grilled meats, which sounds like an A-OK breakfast to me.

I got the beef and the pork, to go with black beans and broccoli, plus a Jarritos fruit punch soda.

Pretty proud of myself. It was a great meal, for $23.

Now let’s head over to the poker room!

I’m at about 50,000 feet somewhere over Kansas right now, brought to you by free in-flight wifi from Delta.

I finally finished my book! I have lots of thoughts about Project Hail Mary. Great read, if you’re in to that sort of thing.

First I need to recap the day’s poker.

When I got to the Venetian poker room, there was a sign at the desk that cash game operations would be heavily curtailed, due to the turnout they were expecting for the day’s tournaments. That meant they probably wouldn’t be opening new cash tables, so the lists for the games that were running would get crazy, once the day got rolling.

I put myself on the 1/2 PLO list and the 2/3 NLH list, just as a hedge to be doing something, in case the PLO wasn’t a go.

Somewhat surprisingly, I got called for the 1/2 PLO game pretty quickly. Okay, let’s settle in. As the 11 o’clock start time approached, the room swelled with people, and soon every table in the room was full.

With 12 hours to go to my flight, and no place to go back to, and a seat in a game I could never get back in if I left, I guess that means let’s make it a long day.

And it started out great. One big hand was 3betting preflop big with double suited AA87. Flop was a massive K-6-5 with two of my spades, so I continued for near pot. A full 1k stack got it in with me, and it came brick, river spade. When I turned up my hand, he wasn’t even upset to lose with a set of kings. I had the overpair, open-ender, AND nut flush draw, so half the deck twice.

Kept grinding, busting the occasional 300 or 500 stack here or there, til at one point, I was about +2k. Under normal circumstances, I would have strongly considered picking up, but I didn’t have anywhere else to go. Then it turned.

There was a 6 way raised flop, and I make a set of tens in a J-T-4 flop. I swear this isn’t hindsight, but there was something about the voice inflection of the way a tight/passive player said “pot” just made me feel he had JJ. Anyway, wtf I have middle set, I flat the 180 on the flop. Turn is another J, putting two spades out, and I had backdoor spades. Now I’m full, so I shoved when he checked to me. As he’s calling, I say “quads are good,” and he says yep, they are… and I get about 800 more in on that street, drawing completely dead.

I actually treaded water there first a while, still in the +500 to +1k range for a few more hours.

By hour number 9, I ran worse. I call/call/folded just top set on one board of a bomb pot in a bad runout. Then I made I bad decision to bet my nut straight on a river board pair, and then an even worse decision to pay off the river check/shove.

That got me all the way back down to -800. I was tilted, stuck, unfocused, and going on consecutive hour number 10. That’s when I came to the realization that I wasn’t doing myself, or my money, any good, so I finally picked it up. Again, I’ll take the small victory that I picked anything up at all, instead of busting it and feeling worse.

Feeling a bit dejected, after booking another session down, even one that I had started up +2k, I wanted some comfort food.

So I went to my favorite place in Venetian, reserved for special occasions, and my last meal in town on this trip qualifies: I went to Delmonico, the AWESOME steakhouse at Venetian.

…Even though I had grilled beef and pork for breakfast, lol.

I got the bone in ribeye, medium rare of course, and a half side of creamed spinach.

It was $96, and I was way past caring what it cost, after a disappointing day today.

…Pictures aren’t loading for some reason, I’ll post meat porn when I can.

Still with about an hour left til my flight, I thought to myself, hey, I’m in Vegas! I’ve stayed out of the pits this WHOLE time, and I’m stuck piles for this trip anyway, why not take a 1k shot at some dice and see how it goes? Inspired by MuckPls’ 11th hour sun run.

I walk over to the table games section at Venetian. There were only two dice games going, and they were both completely full. I hate when there’s too many people on a craps game. It’s tedious and slows everything down.

So instead, I wandered over to blackjack. Bought in for $1k, and start betting $50 a hand.

Once again, I haven’t practiced counting any time recently, and I think it was a continuous shuffle machine anyway. I cautiously double to $100 when some low cards run out, and scale it back to $50 when I see a bunch of stiffs.

It starts going well, then I press it up to occasionally going to 200 or even 300 a hand, when the cards look favorable.

I was winning a good amount, then I see a bunch of small cards, so I make it $500 on one hand.

Ace,

QUEEN!

…It was even suited.

Pit boss gives me the stink eye when I immediately drop back down to $50 after that hand, but doesn’t say anything. **** his feelings.

Then I perfectly execute the most important part of any pit game: the art of a good quit.

In for 1k, out for $3050. I can’t take all the credit, it was definitely a hot shoe. That covers 10 hours of poker for the day.

Walked over to the cage, got paid, picked up my bags, and hopped in a cab, with a smile on my face.

Well…at least a little positive energy to finish the trip off with

You must be stuck a ton, so no request for a p&l but hopefully you’ve enjoyed the break from every day life and learned some things that will be valuable when the cards hopefully turn your way again

That sounds 'MuckPls'-esque for sure 😀

Must have been rough mentally with all those bad poker results during your trip though, and I am glad it wasn't me who experienced it. But there is probably a good lesson in there somewhere (I have no idea what), and ultimately it's a very likely outcome in big field tournaments even if you are likely +EV in many of those.

Hopefully you are just saving up all the run good for the Main Event.

Nice win! Love blackjack, but it can be incredibly swingy. Interestingly I fluctuated quite a bit at both Bellagio and Aria ($25-$400) but nobody gave a **** since I cashed out 4k before anyone noticed. Or they don’t even care not sure.

Regarding poker scores: it’s not easy. I really want to do a similar trip to what you did some time next year, maybe in March. Stay out of the pits for the entire duration of the trip and focus on cash games for 2 weeks straight (mainly because I’m sick of the swings and sick of being so incredibly undercomped). It would be a fun experiment but not sure how many people would enjoy my TRs without the degen lifestyle [emoji23]

♥

By the way, we haven't seen Moby in a while. Was he with you during your most recent sessions? I think it would be wise to treat him well and give him lots of attention in the days leading up to the Main Event. You know, chat with him, take him sightseeing (like you did at the start of the trip), those kinds of things. 😀

Yes, Moby told me he was feeling a bit ignored, especially as my results at the table began to unravel.

I DID still bring him with me everywhere I went, and kept him in my pocket.