Dailies and Degen (January 8th-14th, 2026 - Las Vegas Trip Report)
Almost two years ago we accidentally got Diamond status on our first trip to Vegas, from a bachelor party where gambling
Headed over to the Wynn for some $1/$3. Only had one interesting hand. UTG and the LJ limp, and the CO raises to $12, and we call with A♠T♣. The UTG and LJ come along. The flop comes K♣Q♠J♣. The UTG and LJ check, and the CO bets $35 into $50. We think for a bit and raise to $85. UTG jams for $135. The moment the CO calls, we jam for $385…well, we tried to. What we forgot is th
Fun spot. If we are fully dialed in regarding stack sizes we just click it up to $70, which allows us to rejam over UTG + the call from CO. But playing live it's often very hard to gauge someone's stack exactly, so I would probably have made the same 'mistake' 😀
Unlucky river, but can hardly fault the CO for getting it in with you. I am actually surprised that he tank-called, although he has to figure he up against at least one straight.
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BTW, since you are on CLP - did you consider 3-betting your hand pre? As Bart often talk about, when someone makes a small sizing pre that is sort of ignoring the limpers, this is very often a weak hand. $12 is probably a regular open here even without limpers, so the fact that he made it $12 over not one but two limpers for $3 doesn't look strong at all.
(and indeed it was weak, as he only had A6cc)
Headed over to the Wynn for some $1/$3. Only had one interesting hand. UTG and the LJ limp, and the CO raises to $12, and we call with A♠T♣. The UTG and LJ come along.
I'm pretty sure that your flop jam should have been allowed. CO bet 35, you raised 50 (to 85), and UTG then shoved for 50 more (135 total). This should reopen action, right?
it's the most confusing rule in poker.
I don't even know what would be runner up
you guys are right
Fun spot. If we are fully dialed in regarding stack sizes we just click it up to $70, which allows us to rejam over UTG + the call from CO. But playing live it's often very hard to gauge someone's stack exactly, so I would probably have made the same 'mistake' 😀Unlucky river, but can hardly fault the CO for getting it in with you. I am actually surprised that he tank-called, a
The goal was to keep the UTG limper in the hand, probably should have put that background in the hand history. He was down 2 buy-ins in under an hour and had been calling with bad draws in spots where he didn’t have the odds to, and bluffing off when it didn’t hit.
Also a case where I play a little bit tighter live than online which is a lot closer to “correct” ranges. For example, I’m flatting the raise there with a lot of lower pocket-pairs where I know hypothetically you are supposed to mix in a lot of 3-bets.
I'm pretty sure that your flop jam should have been allowed. CO bet 35, you raised 50 (to 85), and UTG then shoved for 50 more (135 total). This should reopen action, right?
Somehow this is a rule in poker I never bothered to learn so I appreciate the explanation….in my experience dealers have called out when a raise all-in hasn’t re-opened action so I haven’t been punished for it before.
I know I rounded the UTG’s jam to a clean number for the ease of calculating pot size. I thought I had rounded down $1-$2, but it may have been a round up instead.
As Langdon mentioned, it can be quite confusing, especially when there are multiple all-ins with calls in-between. It's entirely possible (but not common, IME) that player A has all options, but someone down the line does not.
Here are the TDA rules, which are tournament-oriented, but generally a good guideline for cash in terms of handling action. Rule 47 covers short all-ins. If you continue your search for "47", in the example section, there's quite a few interesting examples.
I mean, if anyone wants to bother. It's a lot.
The flop comes K♣Q♠J♣. The UTG and LJ check, and the CO bets $35 into $50. We think for a bit and raise to $85. UTG jams for $135. The moment the CO calls, we jam for $385…well, we tried to. What we forgot is the action was closed and the dealer counted out our call.
let's just pretend Thomas OP raised to $90 instead and move on
Second (significant) hand of the trip I think I misplayed:
Aria Daily - 16k effective at 200/300/300
EP limps, and a kid in the HJ who had shown several bluffs that didn’t make sense raises to 1.2k. We bump it up to 4k on the BTN with A♥K♣. EP folds, HJ calls.
Flop comes K♠T♥9♣. He checks to us, and I know this is theoretically a board we should be making a small range bet, but I think there may be more value in letting him bluff into us.
Turn is the 3♥ and sure enough, he leads for half-pot, 4k. Especially with our heart blocker, I don’t see anything wrong with calling here and jamming for half-pot on a lot of rivers. No reasons to chase off bluffs either.
River is the 4♥, completing the flush. He snap jams for our last 8k. 8k to win 32k and change.
I called and he had Q♥J♣, flopped the nuts.
Counting combos here, I don’t know if we find 25% bluffs. There might be some worse value, KQ/QQ/JJ, but certainly not enough to make it obvious.
Value (19 combos): 1 KTs, 1 KK, 3 TT, 3 99, 4 QJs, 6 (calling pre half the time?) QJo
Bluffs (5 combos, but not bluffing at 100%): 3 JTs, 2 ATs.
Sat down at the Caesars Palace Daily. Flopped a set and got no action on our first hand. Second hand got all-in on the flop with a double-gutter and flush draw against top pair.
We hit one of our million outs on the turn, but pair the board, and he hits the 4-outer on the river. I know it was roughly 50/50 when the money actually got in, but we’ve had a large number of really unfortunate rivers this trip and been extremely card dead. Charge it to the game, we were running really hot prior to this trip.
In the awkward place where I need to navigate a short-stack carefully in a tournament with an add-on at the end of late-reg. But I’m an NC State fan and ESPN has “Survive and Advance” on the poker room TV across from us. If there was any time for magic, it would be now.
Sitting on 12k at 300/600. The CO raises to 1.5k, the SB cold calls, and we jam the BB with AKo. The CO snap calls, SB folds.
CO turns over A9s and says “nice hand”. Same villain we lost a flip to a few orbits ago. He also “nice hand”ed us then before he hit the full house on the river. Two people call out they folded a 9.
I knew what was going to happen….9 in the window.
It’s pretty rare I tilt. Time to grab In-and-Out and relax for a bit.
Second (significant) hand of the trip I think I misplayed:Aria Daily - 16k effective at 200/300/300EP limps, and a kid in the HJ who had shown several bluffs that didn’t make sense raises to 1.2k. We bump it up to 4k on the BTN with A♥K♣. EP folds, HJ calls.Flop comes K♠T♥9♣. He checks to us, and I know this is theoretically a board we should be making a small range bet, but I
I'm not a tourney player but I think you're overthinking this one. It's just run bad. You played it to invite bluffs/bets from worse hands, now you're getting 4:1 on the river with a disguised hand. If I were villain, as played I'd bet all kings (you forgot about KJ), QQ, JJ, all bluffs into you with 8k left.
Sitting on 12k at 300/600. The CO raises to 1.5k, the SB cold calls, and we jam the BB with AKo. The CO snap calls, SB folds.CO turns over A9s and says “nice hand”. Same villain we lost a flip to a few orbits ago. He also “nice hand”ed us then before he hit the full house on the river. Two people call out they folded a 9. I knew what was going to happen….9 in the window.It’s pr
Ouch...That one stings.
Aria Daily - 16k effective at 200/300/300EP limps, and a kid in the HJ who had shown several bluffs that didn’t make sense raises to 1.2k. We bump it up to 4k on the BTN with A♥K♣. EP folds, HJ calls.Flop comes K♠T♥9♣. He checks to us, and I know this is theoretically a board we should be making a small range bet, but I think there may be more value in letting him bluff into u
I wholeheartedly agree with what 'Leon' wrote above; that you are overthinking this one. You slow played the flop to give him rope, since you had noted he was prone to make strange bluffs in spots. You get a super safe runout, and have no choice but to call down here.
He could be taking worse hands like KJ and KQ for value, thinking you might have QQ or JJ. Or he could take hands like QTs or JTs and turn them into bluffs precicely to get you off QQ and JJ (I might have been tempted if I got the sense that my pair was not good). Or maybe he's just clicking buttons like he have done previously.
I guess this is what Bart Hanson would say is inconsistent logic; you started the hand with a plan to let him bluff, and just because he showed up with the nuts you think you should have played it another way.
With 9k in the pot to the flop and you having 12k behind, I don't see how we ever get away from this one even if we start a bet on the flop. You're just unlucky that he is in there with such a weak hand out of position, and still manages to flop gin. But long-term it's obviously amazing that he is in there with this hand, which you have crushed 95% of the time.
(even if you will never see him again and be able to exploit it)
Another day, no cashes. We continue to get kicked in the teeth by bad beat after bad beat. A cruel reminder of why we grind cash and leave tournament play to small dailies for fun when we make the trip out here.
In the Aria $200 we ran QJ with a flush draw on a Q-high board into an OMC who flatted KK pre 80 BB deep and 3-bet us all-in on the flop. That knocked us out pretty early on.
Up to this point, we’ve yet to get dealt AA/KK/QQ or AKs on the trip. We got AKo and AQ once, losing our pre-flop all-in each time. Which sets up nicely for this next hand.
We head over to the Caesars Palace daily, play a few small pots, before 3-betting AA in the CO, and get flatted by the BTN and BB. Flop comes T63 two-tone, we bet 40%, the BTN raises, with only 3 combos beating us and a bunch worse that will call us off, we jam for a couple thousand more after the BB folds. Sure enough, BTN flopped the set of Tens and sends us back to the hotel room.
I have a new respect for you tournament grinders. Going 0 for 7 is a completely normal run of variance, but god does it leave you questioning everything.
Outside of poker, we’ve ran fairly well on some sports bets which takes the sting off a bit. Also checked out Herbs and Rye for the first time last night, incredible. Din Tai Fung excellent as always as well.
Herbs and Rye [emoji106]
Which steak is that?
The 16oz Ribeye. Was it the best quality steak? No. But it’s a great atmosphere at a better price.
Other meals since then, Din Tai Fung is exactly how I remember it. I don’t think it’s that much better than cheaper Dim Sun I’ve had elsewhere, but among people I know who have gone, I’ll acknowledge the vast majority thought it was incredible.
Peppermill Diner is getting added to the “every trip” list. A 10-egg omelette deserves a warning on the menu when you order. Got through maybe 70% of it when I tapped out.
Did Peter Luger’s lunch deal today. If you like the way they do steak, probably a great deal. But I’m not a big fan of their top-broiled method.
Decided to send 1 last daily before heading home. Caesar’s Palace 2 PM.
At 300/600 we have 30k, and raise the CO to 1.5k with QTo. The BTN and BB call.
~5k in the middle, and the flop comes J93r. Checks to us, we bet 1.5k. BTN calls, BB folds.
8r on the turn. We want to keep in A9 and any jacks, so decide on a small bet of 2k into ~8k. She snap raises to 7k. At this point, we tank just to figure out how big we go on the river, and of course flip in the call.
Ace on the river, 22k in the pot, I think I pick a bad sizing here, 9k, but she snap jams for 15k effective and we of course call. She flips over 89, turned two-pair when we made the nuts.
Towards the end of late-reg, at 500/1k, we 3-bet EP’s 2k open to 7k, and call with KQo when he shoves for 22k. One of the things we were studying before this trip is smaller 3B sizes when effective with short stacks in tournaments. I think we might be able to fold there if we only 3-bet 5k.
Ended LR at 59.2k which after add-on (another 15k) is almost 4 starting stacks. 1st gets us back to even on the trip. Let a man dream.
Side-note: We’ve seen some insane bluff shoves this trip. But I just watched 83o make a nearly min-click 3-bet shove 40 BB deep on a flop of J95 and go runner-runner to take out KK.
7-handed final table, 3 get paid. 2nd in chips.
4 left, 3rd in chips, 3 paid. An OMC has folded to the short stack’s 3 BB shove several times now.
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Bubble burst. Short stacked, but we have a big edge.
