Poker Trips 2024 / 2025
This trip report follows on from my WSOP trip report here
Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Day Seventeen - Friday January 17th
Brief one today.
We played the $600 Big O and while I won’t bore you with bad beats, suffice to say the money went in good in numerous spots, never to return. Two bullets fired.
The cash game lists were 20+ people deep. I did wait around for a while but they didn’t seem to be moving much so went back to the hotel and watched a movie in the room and did some laundry as I’m out of clean clothes.
Live streaming area set up for the main which started today.
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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!
Thanks. Went for the high variance double or bust line as it was during the re-entry period.
In a cash game I’m most likely folding.
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Experimenting with selling some action for the $1,100 Mixed PLO tomorrow and the $3,000 HORSE on Monday.
Available at no mark-up on Pokerstake.com or PM me on here if you prefer.
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Sure, I’ll take 5% of both.
So $4100 x 0.05 = $205.00?
I have Venmo, PayPal, CashApp, or Zelle, pm me your payment details.
PM sent
Thanks guys. PM’s sent / replied to.
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Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Day Eighteen - Saturday January 18th
So today was actually my 47th name day.
Hhmmm 47 eh? Well it’s a good hand to double down on in blackjack, and 4’s and 7’s are good cards to have in your hand for todays $600 2-7 Triple Draw
Brunch I guess in Rise. Grilled cheese with tomato bisque. Looks like a soup to me. What the hell’s the difference anyway? [emoji23]
Watched the end of the Liverpool game before the tournament started. Frightened the life out of some poor waitress when I celebrated Nuñez’s goal in the 91st minute. An important 3 points in the title race and Arsenal drop 2 points later so a good day on that front.
Onto the poker and our first bullet misses the mark in the 2-7. We fire again and end late reg on not much more than starting at 27,800 but have a good session before dinner to go on break with 55,000
Dinner break for Molly the dog too. I’m a dog lover with two at home so I think it’s great they let you bring dogs in here.
Made some HH notes from the session after dinner:
UTG raises. I’m UTG +1 and 3 bet with 2367x
The 3-bet is meant to iso but the button cold calls as does UTG so we’re 3-way.
1st draw is 2-1-1
UTG checks, I missed and check as I know they’re not folding. Button also checks.
2nd draw is pat-1-1
UTG checks. Strange after he pats. Either he’s weak or hit a wheel or something and wants us to catch up. I drew an 8 to make 876 and decide to bet.
Button folds and UTG calls
3rd draw is 1-pat
UTG checks, I bet, he folds. Guessing he had a 9 when he patted?
Next HH I note:
I noted this from the 2nd draw, can’t remember the action before.
2nd draw 1-1-1
It’s checked to me and I decide to snow with 88
(Anyone know why they call it snowing in this game and not bluffing?)
They both called and both take 1. I decide to give up on the snow and take 1 as well so I guess I had a convertible.
3rd draw: 1-1-1
It’s checked to me. I drew a 10 to make 10-8 and opt for caution and check it back. Our 10 is good.
Last two tables of 4 and 4. Final table will be 7 handed.
Last HH I noted from this session:
I get dealt 96432 UTG (can never draw to this hand as a 5 makes a straight so can only improve with a 7 or 8)
I raise. Only the BB calls.
1st draw: 2-pat
He checks, I bet, he calls.
2nd draw: 1-pat
He checks, I bet, he calls.
3rd draw: 1-pat
He now bets out.
If I were in his spot and I missed I would sometimes bet here but I’ve been playing with this guy all day and I’ve never seen him bluff in this spot so I’m pretty sure he has zero bluffs here.
I fold showing the 96. He says good fold and shows 86
We give ourselves a pat on the back. Saving a bet just as important as winning them.
Good news: we make the final table (we start with 176,000 which is slightly above average)
Bad news: it contains a chipped up Ari Engel
Consolation news: we’re on his immediate left so at least we have position on him
Good news: it’s not a prolonged bubble
Bad news: Ari took out both the 7th and 6th place finishers and is getting stronger
There’s also a woman on our left who we don’t know but having played with her most of the day she plays pretty good being aggressive and having some bluffs.
She takes out the 5th place finisher and is now the chip leader.
4 handed I chop away at the blind and get a couple of snows through and make a wheel to eliminate the 4th place finisher who was short.
I’m the short stack as we start 3 handed play
Noted one interesting hand against Ari:
He raised from the SB and I call from the BB
1st draw: 2-3
I kept 72 and drew 3, hitting 459 to make a 97
Ari bets, I raise. He calls
2nd draw: 1-pat
He thought a while before electing to draw 1
He checks. I bet, he calls.
3rd draw: 1-pat
He checks, I bet, he folds.
He later told me he had 97532 and broke it after I raised, putting me on an 8 and opting to draw to the wheel.
He might have been wrong there but I know he made some great folds on the end, at least twice not paying me off when I had 86’s and I’m pretty sure he had 87’s.
So I’m getting the better of Ari and have been chopping away at the woman whose name we learned was Melanie.
We’ve been playing for 2 hours 3 handed and I’ve wrestled the chip lead with 455,000 when we go on break.
Coming back to limits of 25,000 - 50,000 no-one has a lot of chips and we all realize luck is going to play a big part, especially as it’s such a volatile game so we discuss and eventually agree on a ICM chop
I felt confident I could have seen it out but with the limits so high one lucky or unlucky hand could have been the difference so happy to chop, especially as I’m chip leader so am the official winner and we get our hands on the trophy. [emoji471][emoji3]
Some hardware ITT at last!
Melanie took 2nd and Ari 3rd.
It’s actually not the correct trophy for this event which they say hasn’t arrived yet, but they all look the same so we just covered up the name of the event with the cards.
I should get the correct one on Monday.
Not a bad birthday present [emoji320]
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very nice thread and very nice victory! keep up!
Brilliant - well done
Nice score and great thread! GG!
Hell yeah, way to go! Happy belated.
Happy Birthday! Well done.
Congrats David ! Happy Birthday
Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Day Nineteen - Sunday January 19th
So the first interesting decision today is which tournament to play?
I didn’t realize the $1,110 mixed PLO was a 2-day event and doesn’t start until 4pm, with day two re-starting tomorrow 1 hour after the $3k HORSE starts.
So if we play the mixed PLO and make Day 2 we most likely won’t be playing the $3k HORSE. So which to choose?
My personal preference would be for HORSE but it’s probably going to be a smaller field than the Mixed PLO and I expect there to be more dead money in the mixed PLO.
So we elect to go for the Mixed PLO and give it our all today and we’re okay with missing the HORSE tomorrow, but it’s still there in case things don’t work out today.
We head to the casino early as we want to bet the Man City game which starts at 11:30am. Our full card for today was:
Soccer - Man City -1.5 [emoji736]
Golf - Sepp Straka to win the AmEx [emoji736]
NFL - Rams / Eagles Under 44 [emoji777]
NFL - Rams +7 [emoji736]
NFL - Ravens / Bills Under 51.5 [emoji777]
NFL - Bills +1.5 [emoji736]
All 0.5 unit bets. We go 4-2 for a decent day.
As none of the nice restaurants are open for lunch we opt for the Hard Rock Cafe
Smoked BBQ platter. Ribs and pulled pork. Standard bar food. 7/10
As we had a few hours to kill before the tournament we head to the poker room and are quickly seated in a 5/5/10 5-Card PLO game.
We sit down with $1,000 and it’s immediately clear that it’s not a good game. I should have got up straight away but I didn’t and it cost us.
We raise pre with TJQQKss and get two callers.
Flop T-8-4 with two diamonds. (We have K high diamond flush draw)
We’re first to act. It’s not the worst flop for us but not the best either. We elect to check to try and control pot size.
The button bets about half pot. We call and the other player folds. Heads up.
Turn: J
We check and the button bets about half pot again.
We now have top two, open ended straight draw and king high flush draw. Our two QQ’s also block the current nut straight.
We elect to pot it which sets us in.
The button calls.
River: 8
Villain turns over Q9 for the straight. Sometimes they still have it even if you have the blockers [emoji30]
He didn’t have diamonds so we had half the deck to hit but missed.
We don’t rebuy.
So onto the tournament. 25,000 starting stack today.
We find a good fold early in Big O in a multi way un-raised pot when we have 66xxx in the big blind.
Flop: Q-8-6
SB leads out. We fold. Bottom set on a board like that can only lead to trouble.
The hand plays out and the turn and river come 8-T and sure enough the SB had QQ
We know to be careful with bottom set but not everyone does. We knock out a short stack with top set of Kings vs their bottom set of deuces in PLO to sit on 41,500 at the first break.
First interesting hand after the break I 3 bet to 4,500 in PLO8 with AA45ds
2 callers
Flop KKQ with 2 hearts (we don’t have hearts)
Checked around.
Turn J hearts
Someone bets and we give it up.
Next in Big O we have AA3xxss on the BB and elect just to call a 1500 raise pre and we’re 4 ways to the flop.
Flop 2-4-9 two spades (We have bare ace)
We lead out for 4k (3/4 pot) and get 1 caller
Turn: 7 now two hearts as well (we have suited ace of hearts)
We bet 12k (again about 3/4 pot)
The villain is chip leader at the table and asks how much we have left.
We happily show him our chips and give a rough estimate hoping he puts us in.
He thinks for a while and mucks.
A couple of hands later still in Big O we have Q9944 in the BB
Flop QQ3
We check. Same villain from the previous hand, the table chip leader bets 2k. We call.
Turn: 7
We check. He now bets 12k and we let it go
We win a PLO8 pot holding the nut flush on the turn. There’s two low cards on board and we don’t have a low draw so we bet full pot into 2 opponents and they both fold.
Shortly before the end of late reg we knock out a short stack when we get it in on the flop. We both have the same nut low draw but I have 2 pair as well. The 2 pair holds and no low comes so we scoop.
66,000 at the end of late reg on 1 bullet.
After the break we’re card dead for about an hour and down to 47,000 when the following hand occurs in Big O with blinds 800 - 1,600
UTG opens for 4,000
UTG+1 pot it for 14,400
We look down to see AAJ34ds and elect to re-pot it putting us all in.
Folded round to UTG +1 who calls with AAJT4ds
Sick spot. Only a 1 card difference between the hands. We have a 4 against his Ten. We have hearts and spades, he has clubs and diamonds.
Seems like I never win these spots.
On the 6-6-Qr flop it looks like it will be a chop but he makes runner-runner straight and we curse our luck and head for the exit.
This was the tournament situation when we busted.
So we will play the $3k HORSE tomorrow after all.
may as well just win the HORSE then
Equities of the bust out hand in Big O. We were 55/45 pre [emoji30]
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Sorry for the run bad -- that stinks :(
Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Day Twenty - Monday January 20th
My kids (two boys, 6 and 8) don’t mind me coming on these trips. In fact they actively encourage it as they know they’ll get a present when I get back. It normally goes something like this:
- When are you going away again Dad?
- In January.
- Will you bring us x and x toys?
- Never heard of those. Not sure where I would get them?
- They sell them in Walmart Dad, we looked online.
- Oh okay. [emoji23]
So here we are at Walmart on this dull and drizzly morning.
$3,000 HORSE today. The championship event for mix games if you will.
We start with 40,000 in chips, playing 40 minute levels with 6 hours of late reg.
It’s going to be a small and pro-heavy field but we’re confident in our game.
We start on Razz and ante away through the Stud rounds for much of the 1st level until we make a 45678 in Stud 8 to scoop a 3 way pot on the very last hand of the level.
Similar story in level 2. No hands until we make a broadway in Stud, again near the end of the level.
We lose some chips with 2 pair vs a straight in Stud on the first hand of level 3
Then we play the following hand, again in Stud:
We complete with 48 | 8 and get raised by a 6. We call and it’s heads-up.
4th: We get a 4 for two pair. villain gets a J. He bets we call.
5th: We get an 8 for eights full. Villain gets a 6 for open sixes. We bet, he raises, we 3-bet, he caps. I have an awful feeling he has Jacks full.
6th: We get an 8 for quads. [emoji44]
We bet 6th and 7th with villain calling us down as he did indeed have Jacks full. A sick cooler in our favor for a change.
End level 3: 57,000
Nothing of note in level 4.
John Racener is at our table. I ask him what he had in this hand that we played at the $3k HORSE final table last summer.
He didn’t remember and apologized saying he would have told me had he remembered. I guess he makes lots of WSOP final tables so not as memorable a hand for him as it was for us.
Back to today and in level 5 we lose a Stud pot with tens up when we get raised on 6th by what looks like a flush. We call and lay it down on 7th when he bets again and we didn’t improve.
We also go to 7th in a big 4 way Stud 8 pot with a low, flush and straight draw but brick out.
Noting of note in level 6
End Level 6: 49,300
Jerry Wong joins our table and proceeds to win almost every hand and is accumulating a big stack. Meanwhile we’re struggling.
We lose a big Hold’em pot with AA
We 3-bet pre and get 1 caller
Flop TT8
We bet and get raised and call it down the rest of the way. Villain has QT
Now in level 8 playing Stud we complete with split Tens with two Aces behind and get raised and 3 bet so easy fold.
Down to only 25,000 now.
We recover near the end of level 9 in a 3-way stud 8 pot when we make a flush on 6th and take it down with no call on 7th.
End Level 9: 63,000
An extended 60 minute dinner break tonight which gives us just enough time to go to Council Oak.
Bone-in filet and au gratin potatoes again.
We sit at the bar and watch the start of the National Championship game. We didn’t bet it as no strong opinion and wanted to concentrate fully on the tournament.
Level 10: 2,500 - 5,000
After dinner we get moved to a new table to balance and it doesn’t go well.
In Stud 8 we play a 3-way pot to 7th after starting with four diamonds and don’t make it.
Then we lose 2 hands back to back in Hold’em
AT no good against A9 when villain hits 9 on river.
Then we 3-bet a button open with AJs from the SB but have to lay it down on the turn with the board reading 7-6-4-3 all spades.
Re-draw for the final 2 tables but we only have 20,000 now.
Level 11 - 3,000 - 6,000
We start the final 2 tables playing Razz. We don’t get any playable hands and 2 bring-ins so down to 10k
On to Stud and down to 5k we make a stand with split nines getting 1 caller and hold to double.
The next hand we’re all in again with Aces against Queens. Villain improves to two pair on 7th. We don’t improve and are out in 13th
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Good effort. Sucks when the cards just don't come your way.
Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Day Twenty One - Tuesday January 21st
Last day today, seems like last year when we started this trip. Oh wait ….
We played the $600 O.E. today, and long story short we didn’t lose a hand during late reg and had doubled our stating stack to 50k at the end of level 8, and then we didn’t win a hand after and were eliminated just before dinner break.
In sports we just had 1 bet in Champions League soccer, Aston Villa pk which was a loser.
We were sweating Ryan Hoenig at the Main final table during our breaks. He’s a mix game regular and super nice guy who we’ve played with a lot and gotten to know on these trips.
He had a great run and finished 8th collecting $71,000 for his efforts.
So no prolonged tournament day today meant we could enjoy a nice last meal.
We went for the Italian place Cipresso.
Veal parm with linguine and a glass of Sauvignon blanc. Really good but I couldn’t finish it all. Had to get them to box up half of it to go.
Final numbers from Hard Rock
Tournaments: +$3,461
Cash Games: -$1,000
Sports Betting: +$4,150
Overall Final Numbers Borgata & Hard Rock combined
Tournaments
Played: 19
Total Buy-Ins: $16,200
Cashes: 4
Total Prize Money: $17,161
Net: +$961
Cash Games
Only 5 sessions for a net profit of +$300
Sports Betting
+$6,000
So +$7,261 total for the trip before expenses, which unfortunately were steep this time. Hotel prices in Fort Lauderdale sky high due to seasonality I guess?
Having been further north this trip I can understand why people would want to spend the winter in Florida.
After expenses we netted about +$3,600 so not great, but still profitable and we did get one of these:
And that’ll do it for this trip. Thanks for the support and following along. We may or may not do one more before the Series, too early to say.
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Great trip, thanks for bringing us along!!
Any trip where you finish in the black and bring home some hardware is a GREAT trip.
Great trip mate, thank you and well done
Well done. Thanks for letting us live vicariously.
