Poker Trips 2024 / 2025

Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Day Eleven - Saturday January 11th

Overcast and raining today as I stepped out of the hotel to get an Uber to the casino

An 11am start again today for the Triple Stud which is a mix I really like as I enjoy the Stud games. Unfortunately not everyone feels the same and it’s usually a smaller turnout as it was today with only 65 players.

(Pic of ballroom in general, not only the Stud players)

We started well increasing from 25k to 39k at the first break but couldn’t kick on and still had around the same when we hit the 2,500 - 5,000 level with about half the field eliminated.

With the extra betting round Stud games play bigger so if you start losing pots at the bigger levels it only takes 1 or 2 then it’s good night Irene which is what happened today.

At Stud had split aces and bet all the way (improved to aces up) only for villain to hit a flush on 7th. So that was half the stack gone.

The rest went starting 4-5-6 all clubs in Stud 8 and was all in on 4th after catching the 9 clubs.
I can’t make a flush or low and lose to Kings up.

The only good thing is we bust before the dinner break so enjoy a nice steak in Council Oak. Bone-in Filet with potato gratin. Really good.

Then to the packed sports bar to watch the first NFL game.

A good thing about live betting is it gives you the chance to change your mind if you think you have the wrong side, which is what happened tonight.

The Chargers started off okay but the game momentum clearly changed so we hit the full stop, reverse engines button when the Texans were leading 7-6 and had the ball. Turned out to be a good decision.

No action on the other game. We watched the first half but couldn’t find a spot to get involved so headed back to the hotel.

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Hope the poker run good returns soon. Glad you ate better tonight

Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Day Twelve - Sunday January 12th

Checked out of the hotel by the airport (the Cambria it was called, don’t recommend it, very dated rooms) and headed to my usual Staybridge suites. It was too early to check-in so just left my bags and walked to the casino.

Nice to be able to walk to the casino again. Very pleasant day today.

2pm start today so called in at the sports book to bet on the first NFL game before heading to Rise for lunch.

Broncos scored first but then it was all Josh and the Bills.

BBQ brisket sandwich in Rise for lunch.

$600 mixed PLO today. Our first bullet went wide of the mark sometime in level 5 so chose to wait and max late reg for bullet 2. In the meantime we bet the Eagles -5.5 in the 2nd NFL game (forgot to take pic)

Our 2nd bullet wasn’t faring too well and we were down to 12k with blinds at 2k-4k.
I took a stand in PLO with 8TJQ and got 2 callers.
We rivered a straight to triple up to 36k which was the catalyst to go on a run and build a nice stack.

Tournament chip porn ITT at last!
300k playing hand for hand when we hit the break after level 16

Just as we were beginning to think things were turning, we then hit the wall and didn’t win another hand.
I’m really running horrible in these mid to late stages.

SB vs BB battle against a shorter stack. I raised pre from the SB and BB called. We then got it all in on the flop and it runs out perfect for him to scoop.

Then I’m short and defend my BB with this hand and get my last chips in on the flop. Again the run out is perfect for my opponent to scoop.

We cashed but not happy with this, especially as it was a very nice prize pool today due to 146 entries with 18k up top.

We did at least go 3-0 in NFL with this live bet placed during a tournament break early in the 1st quarter.

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Yeah you are really catching some gross runouts in the mid-late stages of tourneys.

Just keep getting it in good, that’s all you can control going forward.

At least football looks like it’s going well!

Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Day Thirteen - Monday January 13th

Those of you who read my reports regularly will know that I’m a big fan of HORSE.
Well today we have HORSE on steroids!

Let’s get rid of the boring Hold’em round and replace it with Triple Draw.
And let’s play 6 handed instead of 8 handed.

I give you today’s tournament - TORSE.

LFG!

We buy-in and grab a quick slice and a coke before it starts. The pizza is pretty good from the food court.

Last tournament in the smaller meeting room to the side of the main ballroom before they start setting it up for the live streaming.

We come out firing and run over the table during the first two hours. 40k up from 25k starting stack at the first break.

My nemesis from the August series, Yuval Bronshtein joins us after the break and we clash a few times and exchange some banter.
I get the better of him this time when I make a straight on 7th in Stud 8 to send him to the rail.

I always think if you can finish the late reg period with double starting stack or slightly more then you’re in the game. Well today we’re turbo charged and hit the 2nd break and end of late reg on 116k. Pretty much a perfect first 8 levels.

The inevitable slow down occurs during the 3rd stanza and we go to dinner on 151k, but that’s still well above average.

After dinner we slow to a crawl but the good start allowed us to coast into the money with ease.

So middle of the pack as we get down to the serious stuff.

Played a decent sized 2-7 pot against Michael Dreese. We both take 1 on the last draw and he leads out. I think for a while and try to get a read on him before making the call with a Jack. He shows 23456 for a straight and we’re good.

This is the situation when the final table of 7 is set shortly after. We’ll start it with a below average 210k

I pick up some pots here and there and have decent chips when I eliminate one of the short stacks in 6th.

Stealing some of Mickey Doft’s excellent live updates from seminolehardrockpokeropen.com

More heavy lifting a short while later as we eliminate another rival.

Alan was the big chip leader for a long time but I think fatigue got the better of him as we’ve been playing for over 13 hours now. We hover up the crumbs of his chips, but the bulk he lost to David May.

We continue doing our own dirty work and eliminate Michael Dreese in 3rd.

So heads up against David May who is a very solid mixed game player.
He’s putting us to the test early.
We miss a straight and low draw in Stud 8 and have to call down with only a pair of twos which are good for half.
We also snap him off on the end with a King in 2-7 which was good against his pair of 2’s to edge narrowly in front in chips.

Then came the hand in Stud playing 50k - 100k limits that swung the momentum towards our opponent.

We have the bring-in with a 9. He completes with a K. We call. (We have A-Q buried, all 3 are diamonds)
On 4th we catch the J of diamonds giving us 4 to the flush.
He bets, we call.
5th we catch an off-suit low card.
He bets we call. (Don’t remember his board but it wasn’t scary)
6th we catch an off-suit K giving us a broadway gutshot to go with the flush draw.
He bets we call.
7th we miss everything. Don’t even make a pair.
He bets. We fold. I show the missed big draw. He shows 2 pair.

He takes the lead 1.4 million to 700k

He then has a dream 2-7 round making 3 eights and we’re running on fumes playing 60k-120k

We forced to make a stand in Omaha but run up against a hand that has us dominated.

Always the bridesmaid. [emoji30]

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Annoying to get that close and miss out on the hardware, but that's a lot of bucks! Great run.

It can be helpful to think of it this way: If someone had offered you a guaranteed 2nd when 84 players sat down at the start of this thing, you would've snapped their hand off to take the deal. All things considered, a phenomenal result. I couldn't help but notice that it's enough money to get a room at Aria and play the $5k PGT HORSE on 2.25. "All the cool kids are doing it." I believe this qualifies as peer pressure. Feel free to ignore it. I just want the vicarious sweat.

Very well done - great to see momentum in the right direction

I’ve seen a bit of Bronstein on main event coverage and he looks to be an excellent player

Great job. Happy to see you finally make a deep run.

Thanks for reminding me. The leaderboard is absolutely wide open. There’s been no repeat winners or repeat top 5 finishers or anything like that so pretty much anyone can still win with 3 events to go.

We currently sit in 8th and with a win worth between 100 - 120 points depending on the size of the field it’s still up for grabs.

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Nice run, really enjoyed the sweat. Hope it continues!

Well done. Keep it up!

Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Day Fourteen - Tuesday January 14th

After playing until nearly 3am last night was glad of the later 1pm start today.

So this was actually yesterday but forgot to post it. Got a haircut at this barbers that I pass on my walk to the casino. The barber was from Medellin. Small world.

Today was 9-Game and some controversy about the 9th game. Allen Kessler was saying it should be NL 2-7 single draw but here it’s actually NL 5 card draw.
Agree with him that the NL deuce is a better game but there’s no changing the structure so we go with the classic 5 card draw from the old cowboy movies.

There’s two ways to play a poker tournament. The hard way and the easy way. Yesterday was easy as we chipped up big and early. Today was the opposite.

Bullet #1 turned out to be a dud mid-way through level 6. We waited until the end of level 8 to max late reg on the 2nd bullet.

Yesterday I played A+ poker all day. Absolutely my best. Today if I’m being honest I’d give myself a B-. Despite that we go to dinner with 60k which is about average.

The struggle continues after dinner and we’re pretty card dead, but still grinding our short stacked ass off down to the last 20 when we play the following Stud hand at 5,000 - 10,000 limits.

I complete with split Tens and a woman in seat 1 who doesn’t seem to know what she’s doing but somehow has a lot of chips raises with a 9 showing.
On 4th I catch a 3 to make two pair, tens up, she catches a 2.
She bets I call.
On 5th I catch a K, she catches a 7
She bets, I call.
On 6th I get an 9, she gets a 4
She bets I call.
We don’t improve on 7th so our final hand is Tens up.
Her board is 9-2-7-4
She bets 10k, we have exactly 11k left.
I call expecting to see a big buried pair and hoping she hadn’t made 2 pair.
She shows 777 for trips, having raised my complete with buried 77 WTF?

We can’t do the chip and a chair spin up with our last 1k chip so head back to the hotel for an early night.
Normally I’d be looking to play cash when there’s no football on but just too tired tonight.

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Maybe raise on 4th to get it in?

I would have been worried with her door card pairing on 6th, but you’ve come too far by that point.

Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Day Fifteen - Wednesday January 15th

Updated leaderboard thru 6 events with 2 remaining.

Random pic from the walk in.

PLO 8 today 6 max. Sorry in advance as I didn’t make any hand history notes.

We lose the first bullet early with nut flush no good against a straight flush [emoji30]

Running better on sports as these both turn out to be winners. Spurs scored first which was good for the side, but then Arsenal got 2 goals in 4 minutes just before halftime. We get lucky with a goal-less 2nd half to cash both tickets.

We fire the tournament again and inch our way up via half a pot here and half a pot there to 73k at dinner break.

Shortly after dinner our table breaks as get we down to 3 tables. Our new table includes Phil Hui, Yuval Bronshtein, AJ Kelsall and Allen Kessler so not many easy chips to be had.

Yuval eliminates Phil but there’s no respite as he’s replaced by Ryan Hoenig who has a big stack and is using it well opening 3 out of every 4 hands.

Hand for hand on the bubble with 16 players remaining. We’re fighting hard as a short stack, mainly staying alive by picking our spots to 3-bet Ryan’s ultra wide opening range.

After a long bubble it finally bursts on another table and we survive to the two table re-draw.

We’re on the big blind and Ari Engel has opened for a raise. We look down to see A235ss which is more than good enough to put our last chips in. Ari has KKQJ. We need an Ace or a low board but don’t get either and our race is run.

Our 11th place finish is good for 18 points on the leaderboard which is better than nothing and the two leaders Tyler and Phil didn’t cash.

Tom Koral finished 2nd in the tournament and moves up to 2nd on the leaderboard.
Ryan Hoenig finished 5th and moves up to 4th on the leaderboard.
Points also for Yuval and Ari.

They haven’t updated the leaderboard yet but I think we may be 5th so all to play for in the last event tomorrow, but its going to be a cavalry charge as there’s lots of good players still in with a chance and everyone really wants to win it.

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Rooting for a deep run in the final event!

Gogogogo!

Good luck today.

Yep, run well

We are rooting for you!

I hear live updates increase rungood. People are saying.

[emoji23]

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Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Day Sixteen - Thursday January 16th

Thanks for all the support, unfortunately no fairytale finish on the leaderboard.

Really ran bad today and had a lot or horrendous rivers. At least 7 or 8 times I had the full pot locked up on the turn and ended up with none or only a quarter of the pot on the river. And I’m talking a lot of 2 and 4 outers.

Regarding the leaderboard it looks like Phil Hui is going to win it. He was in the final 6 when I left which will guarantee him the win.

We did however have some run good in sports today.

Not had a winner as lucky as this in a long time, or even at all that I can remember.
Needing Man United to win by at least 2 goals they’re losing going into the last 10 minutes.
They equalize in the 82nd minute, go 2-1 up in the 90th minute and make it 3-1 in the 4th minute of time added on!

The early exit from the Omaha 8 allowed us to have a nice meal at least. We chose Abiaka tonight, which is actually hard to find as it’s on the 2nd floor above the pool.

Went with the skirt steak which was really delicious. They also have a 15% off promotion on Thursdays and Sundays.

And some comfort ice cream for dessert.

After dinner we fired a bullet into the final flight of the $100k guaranteed $400 PLO.

Talk about bingo. Give people 4 cards and they can’t find a hand they don’t like. We managed to navigate the re-entry fest on a single bullet and had increased to 70k from 20k starting.

We found a double that helped us get there in an interesting spot:
UTG opens for a raise and is called in 4 spots.
I look down in the BB at AAA2r. Three aces and not even a suited one lol.
It’s either a fold or pot it. We can’t call.
We pot it and get the desired result. Only UTG calls.
We’re pretty much barreling all flops here except a really wet one.
Flop: J-7-5r
We’ll take it. We shove. UTG calls with 899T
We somehow manage to fade the 12 outs twice!

Not long after late-reg finishes we bust in a sick spot.
We raise pre with QQJTds and get 4 callers.
Flop: J-9-6
We continue for about half pot and get 1 caller
Turn: K
We check, villain pots, we shove, villain calls with 9TQA
We both have the straight. He has the re-draw to a bigger straight. We picked up a flush re-draw
River: T (off suit)
He makes broadway and we head home.

The leaderboard may be finished but still 5 days left and more tournaments to play, so hopefully we can still finish strong.

A very respectable showing, with a 2nd and another leaderboard point accruing cash!

Dinner looks great.

I find myself amused by your predilection for rainbow sprinkles on your ice cream

Stay young at heart, any and every way you can!

Also, that AAA2 hand is very interesting to me. I would have grumbled about my card distribution luck and folded preflop.

You’re making me think about different concepts I hadn’t initially considered with the way that particular hand played out.

Nh!

Win something today please