MuckPls & Whale - a March Madness TR part III

Oh btw according to pay tables I need 4th place to break even. 73 out of 80 left and we have half the starting stack [emoji3517]

Cashed the tourney for $250, oh well. Now will try to dig myself out of the cash game hole. No more change today until sleep.

glglgl

thank you both for the detailed updates

Took the profit after 4 hours:

And totals:

Small spoiler, I am still in the $120 daily 10:10am at South Point, who had no less than 223 entries!

I am sure Benny Binion would approve:

Go Whale! Run deepest!

Whale is currently CL with 4 left. Two stacks with 3 bb each. $4400 up top.

3 left!

Gogogogo!!!

3rd for $1800. WP, need to win more flips!

Git 'er done!!!

Take it down!

I will try to get a quick writeup about the South Point tournament out tonight, but in the meantime - here is yesterday evening's session from Venetian:

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After coming back from Horseshoe I forced myself down to the NYNY gym for a quick workout, which felt amazing. Then it was time for an evening session, and with very long waitlists everywhere I just decided to head to Venetian again as the wait there is never long.

Before doing so however we play a little bit of Buffalo Gold, and get this insane bonus round (20 spins to start). I must say I was pretty bummed about only getting a $150 bonus in total here:

Anyway, over to Venetian it is. We get a seat immediately and sit down in a game that honestly was not amazing. There were a bit too many players who knew how to raise pre for my taste, although it has to be said that some fishy players passed through the table from time to time.

I usually never forgets this, but I actually forgot to take any kind of stack picture last night. So you guys will have to do with some words and other random pictures inserted to break up the text.

I am down a little in the beginning, especially after a Bomb Pot where I should have folded river. I had AAxx and ended up with a pair of Aces on top and top set on the bottom. But the latter board was a bit straighty, and although the river was only for $40 I still think I should have folded. There exists a bit too many hands that can have two pairs on top and a straight on bottom, and that is exactly what opponent had.

I win a few small pots with AThh and AJdd, before it's time for yet another Bomb Pot. This time I turn the nut straight with 8 high diamonds on top, and I have a weak top pair on the bottom. An OMC-ish opponent bets pot on turn and I just call to evaluate river. I end up making my flush on the top, but it's a board pairing card making my straight more uselses than a Zara Larsson instagram statement. I do improve to top two on the bottom, but there is also a board pairing there meaning that I can get scooped.

Opponent bets pot for $185 after I check and although I think it's somewhat hard for him to have both boards I don't think I can call hoping for a chop here. A hand like KK9J or something will scoop me, so I ended up folding. He never showed, so I guess we'll never know. But it was really poor river card and I am down almost $200 after an hour.

Then we get some good fortune however, when there are two limps for $3 before the same OMC from above makes it $18 from cutoff. Button calls, and I have A2cc in BB. Seems just about good enough for a defend, so that is what I do and the second limper also calls.

4-ways to the flop then, which comes A-4-9 one club and two hearts. It checks to the raiser who throws out $35, and although it's not super comfortable I have to peel once here I think. I call, and the rest fold out.

Turn is 2h, so we make two pair although a flush comes in. But I think his range should be way more big Aces rather than flush draws. He asks how much I have left (a bit over $200) and then bets $125. I gave it a think for 20 seconds, but concluded with what I wrote above - it's much more likely he has a big Ace, maybe AK with the K of hearts or something like that. And I am obviously well ahead of that hand for now, so we jam it in there.

Opponent snap-calls and we see Ad on the river. I am super happy to see that card as we are now beating flushes as well, but it turns out I didn't need it. Opponent had exactly what I said above (AK whith Kh), and we scoop in a big pot. No stack picture though, so here is the Vegas night:

Then I go card-dead for what seems like several orbits, before finally finding the monster of 33 in BB. There is a limp and raise to $15 in front of me (same OMC), I call and the splahy limper (who was good action) comes along.

K-Q-Q is not what I had in mind, but it checks around. Turn comes a 5, and once again it checks around. River is however another Q, and the way this has been played I assume I have the best hand. So I do my patened 10% bet and throw out $5 to get called by Ace high. UTG laughs a bit and folds, while the OMC snap-call and show AJo. My hand is good, and clearly this guy is not betting unless he hits the flop (he would have easily won the hand there).

My hand also takes the lead in the 30 minutes High Hand period for $200, but I had not much hope of such a meager full house holding up. And indeed it gets beaten not once, but twice, before the remaining 20 minutes had expired.

Back to more folding for endless orbits before finding 98cc after a limp from another OMC. I make it $15, the action guy calls in BB and the limper calls. The flop is a beauty with J-8-2 two clubs, and after they check to me I throw out $20.

Only BB calls, and we see Kd on turn. I do not hit my draw, but it's a good scare card and I want to make it difficult for him to continue with a Jack. In addition, I am building up the pot in case I hit two pair or a flush on the river. I size up to $70 (into $86) and that gets the job done.

The action player has gotten a bit short after being in there almost every hand, when I find AQo from EP1. I raise to $12 and get called by a compentent 30s guy in MP before the action player jams for $111 USD. I make it $215 as I for sure have the best hand here, and to get the third player out of the hand. He folds what he later said was AJ.

T-8-4 all diamonds on the flop, and opponent immediately slams up QJdd for a flopped flush. I am dead, and despite having this fish 70%-30% preflop I obviously end up losing. Sigh, but we can't go home just yet.

One more interesting spot arises, and it's actually a limped pot. There are two limps to me, and I complete $2 more with A3o. BB checks, and we see A-A-4. Interesting. It checks around. Turn comes a 5 putting two flush draws out there. I check, BB checks, and then the action player (who had moved seats) bets out $8. I decided to make an unusual slow play here for the High Hand promo, but also because I didn't think anyone had much. BB then goes into the box before calling as well.

We bink the 3 river for a full house, and it's time to bet big in front. How big? $110 into $36 is the answer, simply because I think BB can have a straight here and that the tilty action guy will not be able to get away from a limped Ace.

BB thinks for around 15 seconds before announcing 'call' and UTG immediately folds. I show my full house, and opponent sighs and shows 25 suited for a rivered straight (with a diamond draw). I am obviously super lucky to get the perfect river card here and could maybe have check-raised small on the turn, but I am very happy about the river sizing.

My hand also once again takes the lead in the high hand promo, although there are 20 minutes left. Once again I don't have much hope, but the minutes keep passing and I am starting to think there might be a possibility. And what do you know; it holds up and I am $200 USD richer. Sweet!

It's a good thing these promos exists, otherwise I would be losing massively in the games. Maybe I have just become a promo nit? 😀

That was really all the exciting hands at Venetian, as I was absurdly card-dead for the most part and got very few spots. Given that, I am very happy about the +$370 after 3.5 hours of play. It could have been a really nice win had my AQ held up earlier, but such is life.

Cash Games:

Hours played: 23h 30min
Won/Lost: +$519 USD
Hourly rate: +$22.1 USD

Tournaments:

Won/Lost: -$200 USD (1 played)

If you're going to be out here until Thursday, Horseshoe has a freeroll that you need 15 hours by Wednesday at 6 pm-ish. They play shortly thereafter.

33 IS a monster as long as Venetian has 3 as the card of the month.

Also, I played the same Venetian freeroll that Muck did. We ended up chopping with an icm chop that looked like the good old chip chop. I got first for $1764. The original first place was $2100+, but I was chipleader and I had 8 big blinds. 15 minutes prior I was in 4th or 5th place. Almost every hand caused wild swings because the blinds were so big, and I was happy to take the chop. It was 2nd place money, so I can't complain about that.

Lord help me but I'm going to try for the Horseshoe 15 hour freeroll now...

Meanwhile:

Followed by:

Yee ha!

Nice!

Also, my team in the NCAA's, Arizona, is in the Final Four!

Also want to give a shoutout to Leon as usual. The fact that you have gone to Vegas so many times over the years and played so much UX is absolutely insane. I’m getting PTSD from one session on quarters.

To give everyone an idea, I “won” $4900 tonight. Won in quotation marks as I was in for $2900 and got dealt premium tree of a kind with kicker without hitting anything it’s insane.

How do I know it was for $2900? I had one single $100 bill left on me + like $200 in the machine. Then I hit the quad 2s with kicker for $1500 and then literally 2 hands later the quad aces.

UX can be such an insanely brutal game with the highest of variance.

I've only had the one side of that variance so far. Probably because I've been unable to play enough hands to hit a royal or quads. I give up before that happens.

That reminds me, yesterday I had this on the bottom line just to tilt me. Obv not the 3 10x spots for $10 000[emoji23]

One last thing and then I’ll stop my VP rant:

Leon, it looks like MGM is cracking down on VP even more. Every trip I go there is less and less. There is a total of ONE multi machine left at Park MGM and they removed 2 full rows of 12 machines and replaced them with slots at Aria too.

The really old machines in front of the poker room has also been replaced and the UX multistrike and progressive DDB are always empty so they will likely go too.

It’s crazy, there will come a time in the near future when we won’t be able to play any more VP at MGM.

I sometimes like to play VP to kill time but am an ultra lowroller (nickles only) but only play the UX machines because I am a sucker for both multistrike and the multipliers. I typically play double double or deuces wild. I'm guessing you are playing triple double? I am guessing deuces wild has the least variance and triple double probably has the most. I have no clue to the math though. Are the returns on the different offerings similar? Or is one variation better/best?

TDB is the most volatile and as such has the highest return of them all. DDB follows after and deuces wild is probably the least volatile and also offers the least in terms of return. I’m a huge degen so I guess I couldn’t really go back to a less volatile game like DDB, even playing double super times pay had me bored to death after a couple of minutes

There is no better or best, it’s all just pure variance.