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

Well that was dispiriting, -535 with a rage-quit, because I was playing real bad. It wasn’t a particularly good game, either… so I should have asked for a table change.

Game selection is important, and when it’s all older regs that know all the dealers at 10:30 am, I should keep table changing until I get a good table. This town is certainly big enough.

The table played very tight passive, and I fell into the trap of thinking that just because they were smallish post flop bet sizes, my marginal showdown value hands could be good, when in fact they were crushed.

I played too loose, and impatient. I flopped one pair, turned a 2nd pair, but he check/called flop, donked turn big, and surprise, he had a set.

Another time I floated a small bet with a nut gutshot 3 way in position, then it hit on the river, which put out a 3rd heart. There was a bet and a call in front, so I should have folded, but I made a crying overcall, and ran into the obvious flush.

The hand that made me rage-quit… two tight passive older guys limp in front, I raise $15 with AcTc. Flop A-3-4, none of my suit, one guy check/calls my good-sized cbet. Turn 6, and he donks out a committing amount, almost half his shortish stack.

If I stop for two seconds and think, I’m losing to all the better kickers, and all the two pairs… so my hand is toast. But on the felt, I clicked call, and called off the rest of it when I didn’t improve. He limp/called preflop with AQ.

So yeah, I guess I was in too big a hurry to get off the plane. This is why I started at 1/3… because if I started at 2/5 and blasted off 200bb+ by playing terribly, it would really annoy me.

Fortunately, there’s an easy fix for this: stop choosing to play bad, and make better decisions. So I’m gonna get some Yardbird, regroup, and re-center myself for round 2.

Another reason I love Venetian is out of all the resorts, I like the food options here the most. There’s two food courts where you can get something quick and not pay too much, good mid-range sit down places like Bouchon and Yardbird, Grand Lux Cafe which is 24 hours, and a great steakhouse in Delmonico.

I decided on Yardbird, which has the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. They have a special way they brine it and bread it, so the skin is crispy yet crumbly, and the meat falls off the bone like it’s really good ribs.

I got the Mac and cheese side last year, which was good. Real sharp, which I like. So this time I got the Southern street corn, which has this chipotle-tasting sauce, bacon, peppers, and cotija cheese.

It was excellent, as usual:

I want to wait until the sun goes down before I walk to Horseshoe and back. I feel better after eating, so I guess we’re on a mission to get unstuck at 1/3!

yum

Hobak sucks now and it’s often somewhat empty. Golden Steer is overrated IMO, felt hurried and steak was average. Experience was definitely lacking, wouldn’t go back. Check out steakhouse in Circus Circus, definitely the best value on the strip.

Lotus of Siam is good, but it’s super busy. Weera is a decent alternative if Siam gets too busy. Surprised Esther’s kitchen is not on your list. We liked it ok, but everyone seems to love it. It might hit your taste buds better than ours.

Sooooo remember what I said, about whatever you do, don’t get buried on the first day? There’s a reason that’s good advice. The good news is I didn’t get BURIED, on the first day… but the bad news is I did drop a pretty big number for 1/3.

Maybe half an hour into round 2, I got set-over-set’ed. Shake it off, can’t do much about that. Grinded for 3 more hours, and made it back. Then I missed a 14-outer in a multi-way, $1.1k pot… that would have gotten me almost unstuck on the day! I suppose I could have played it better, maybe they both fold if I open shove my equity on the turn. Still, I didn’t get there anyway (obviously).

Obviously I’m not pleased with my results, but I’m glad I spent all day getting back into hold’em mode. The necessary conclusion I’ve drawn from this is that I’m playing WAY looser than is optimal for hold’em. Folding a lot like I know I should is just so boring! I’m too used to playing PLO, where the preflop action isn’t terribly important, if you can accurately diagnose wet vs dry, dynamic vs static flop textures, and have good stack off ranges.

So we’ll be fine. This is not unrecoverable. The key to growth is learning from mistakes, and adapting.

I waited for the sun to go down before my little excursion hike down the strip to buy into my events at Paris. It’s still REALLY freaking hot in the desert.

RIP to a real one:

Also, breaking news… if you walk down the strip at 11 pm on a Friday night, there are a LOT of people out that are hoo-wasted. The key is just don’t break your stride or stop walking, even when, a propos of nothing, a topless girl in pasties comes up and starts talking to you. No, I don’t want a picture. No, thanks, I don’t want to give you money. Have a great night.

Anyway, I arrived safely at the Horseshoe, the center of the poker world this time of year! The energy and electricity in the place is palpable when you first get there.

Whoever was asking about registration lines, I can confirm that the wait is zero at 11 pm, even on a Friday night.

Then it was time to buy into the tournaments I know I want to play. I handed over 25 big-faced hundred dollar bills. $2,500. That’s almost 2 months rent.

I got back three slips of receipt paper: seat assignments for tomorrow’s Monster Stack, the Pokernews Deepstack Championship a week from Tuesday, and Flight A of the Colossus. Here’s hoping we can turn that into a lot more than $2,500!

After that, I made the trek back to Venetian to pick up my bags, and go check into my Airbnb. I stopped at the 24 hour Walgreen’s on the strip to pick up some distilled water for the humidifier for my bipap machine. So there I am, walking the strip midnight on a Friday night in Vegas, sober as a judge, carrying a gallon of distilled water for my sleep apnea treatment machine.

When did I get so old?!?

For breakfast today, I walked to a little brunch cafe a couple blocks from my place. It’s simply called: Eat.

I had the shrimp n grits, with 2 eggs scrambled with cheese, and bacon, all thrown into the same bowl. It’s all going to the same place!

Now I’ve had a great night’s sleep (thanks to my bipap machine), a good breakfast, and my morning caffeine. I’m in VEGAS, and feeling great!

Gonna Uber over to the Horseshoe, and play the biggest live tournament I’ve ever played, the $1500 Monster Stack.

Let’s gooooo!

My experience at Venetian is not enjoyable. At least before 10pm or so. There are way too many locals playing for the high hand bonus and accumulating hours to enter the free roll tourneys they run. Slow playing sets to try to make quads, etc. I rarely play there anymore.

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In the Paris ballroom, ready to get this going!

To me, the classic tourneanent dilemma is: how tight is optimal, especially early in the tournament? On the one hand, tight is right. Survive and advance. Every hand you fold preflop, someone somewhere else is getting knocked out. You have to run decisively well in all your big all in pots, and the best way to get a head start in that department is to play generally better cards than your opponents.

On the other hand, some large fraction of the tournament playing field is completely dead money. The deadest money will lose their stack the fastest. In a sense, accumulating a stack can be a race to the fishiest players’ money. Especially when you have lots of big blinds, where the game approaches deep stacked cash game dynamics, you want to give yourself chances to level up.

So should you fold a hand like KJo for a single raise from the big blind? Yes, it’s an above average starting hand… and also yes it can be tricky to get value from one pair hands, out of position.

The answer, as is so often the case in poker, is: it depends.

50k starting stack and one hour levels means you have some wiggle room to feel out the table and wait for good spots.

GL. Looking forward to bag pics in ~12 hours.

Yes, so the question becomes, what should my strategy be for today?

On the “squeaky tight vs speculatively loose” spectrum, the structure implies it’s better to be closer to the tight side. With hour long levels, and LOTS of big blinds, being patient is the right approach.

If I’m in a big pot, in a close, yet marginal spot, it’s fine to pass that up. It’s okay to lose a medium-sized pot, as long as I avoid losing a big, game-ending pot. I can come back from a lot.

It’s important not to get too emotionally high or low. No matter what, it’ll be a long day today. I can’t win the tournament today… in fact I can’t even CASH the tournament today.

About 30% of the field will bag a stack for Day 2. That means I need a little more than 3x a starting stack to be average on the restart.

We’re setting a stack goal of 175k for today, from a 50k starting stack. Even if I don’t get there, if I bag ANYthing, I’ll have room for some play on Day 2.

Be fruitful and multiply, little chippies!

Let’s do this.

Good luck TJ!

Just remember that you can't win the tournament on level 1 but you can surely lose it!

gogogogo - That Air Bnb looks cozy - that will do just fine!

Good luck, run well, turn your table into your personal ATM machine.

First break, about 33k from a 50k starting stack. Apparently there was a problem with the registration computers, so we were 5-handed for the first hour and a half. It’s sorted now, and we’re up to 8.

I made one call down in a marginal spot that I wouldn’t have made if I had the reads I have now. In other words, exactly NOT sticking to the plan of avoiding marginal spots and passing them up. I also got unlucky in a 3bet pot in position against the mark who later busted… when I had a dominating preflop advantage, but he got there on the river.

Still, I have plenty of big blinds, and I think I have a good feel on my opponents, especially the ones that were there since the start. The guy I most want to push back against is two to my left, though, so isolating him is tough.

Not gonna force anything, and keep making good decisions.

Good luck. Run it up

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Second break, 27k coming back to 300/600. Not much to report, I’ve been card dead, so playing tight.

I’m still thinking about the last hand of the level. I open JJ, two calls, it comes 4-4-3 two spades. I continue for 3500, and fold to a check/raise to 10k from the chip leader. She got to BE the chip leader by playing very well, and tight, so I gave her credit and made the big lay down.

I figure, best case I’m up against spades and an over card or two, but maybe she does that with a worse overpair, I dunno. I didn’t think she was very loose preflop, so I don’t know how often she shows up with a 4 somehow… but I guess if she does, she plays it that way.

I guess that’s an example of folding in a marginal spot, to lose a medium pot instead of possibly getting stacked.

I’m the shortest at my table, but I’m coming back to over 40 bigs, so no need to do anything rash. This tourney really does have a lot of play, so I’m gonna get my money’s worth.

Well, I’ve made it to the third break, which I guess is an accomplishment, but I’m in pretty bad shape, 15k coming back to 500/1k. Sooooo card dead.

Nothing interesting or even particularly close the last two hours. I’m just lingering like a stale fart.

I might not get to choose how I send it in. Can’t pass up a flip or better at this point. I’ve waited this long… so hopefully it’s a spot I can live with. We’ll see.

Send heat!!

Great TR so far! Good luck!

And very jealous of the Yardbird pic.

GL TJ. Sending spins your way. 15k can become 100k very quickly in NLHE. One hand at a time.

Gl you got this !!

I like those drapes. Simple and cheap. I want to get a set for my rental to replace the beat to hell blinds.

I've finally progressed enough in my traveling to buy a surge protector. I have two laptops and a rechargeable and I don't want to spread them all over the hotel room.

Busto.

I shoved AKo over a raise, and it got through. Then I bet a double gutter from a big blind special after the flop checked around, but it missed so I gave up.

The spot I ended up with, that I waited so long for, was open ripping 11bb with K8s first in from the cutoff. I haven’t looked at the push/fold charts in a while, but with my image, it’s probably fine. Meh. I didn’t think I’d get called in TWO spots, but one of them was A9s of the same suit. Ace in the flop, and that’s a wrap.

The lady told me she flopped 3’s full the last hand before the previous break. That gave me a great sense of closure, and the reward that I made a tight, correct laydown.

Overall, it’s a great tournament, with a fantastic structure. Going card dead for 4 hours can’t overcome ANY structure, though. So it goes.

Overall, I’m generally happy with my play. It wasn’t perfect, and I made some mistakes in medium-sized pots… but I was very patient and observant. After donking around and losing all day yesterday, I didn’t want to lose because I bled loose chips all day. So I didn’t.

Damn. GGs. Charts seem to say it's more than enough hand to jam. Here's Upswing's 10BB shove chart from the BTN/CO.

Sounds like you were pretty card dead. Not much you can do about that.

The first time I played this event, I got destroyed and was out within the first 3-4 hours. I played badly and also had horrible runouts in every big pot.

It's a deep tournament, but still very luck-based.

Onward and upward.