Tales from the Small Blind
I rolled over at 4:30 AM last night after reading “Another Kid, Another Dream” for the 3rd time in as many years. This was the first read-through since I had begun taking poker seriously, and sharing an appreciation for a creative outlet to sink my thoughts into, I figured I’d do the same and throw this out into the void. So let’s back up a bit:
One year ago, I left my second consulting job in three years coming out of college. Consulting is one of those things that sounds awesome. You’re traveling anywhere and everywhere, learning from people at the top of their field, and doing it all with a scarcely-monitored expense account. But eventually the toll of an 80 hour work week set in, and I couldn’t do it anymore.
Of all the things I grew to hate, the team dinners were the worst. After a long day of meetings, Excel, and micro-management, you Uber back to your hotel and get five minutes of brief reprieve in your room, before joining your team in the lobby. These five minutes will be the best part of your day. You head over to a nice restaurant, and spend a meal that lasts far too long doing anything in your power to avoid discussing what awaits you when you get back to the hotel.
On the way back, your manager tells you to expect edits on whatever you’ve turned in that day. An hour later, you get a message telling you to check the documents for their vague comments, and work late into the night making unnoticeable edits to a PowerPoint, or adding massive assumptions to a data model to get a result that tells a good story. You look over at the clock, it’s 4 AM, and you’ve got to be at the client site for your daily stand-up, full suit and tie, by 7:30 AM.
That was my daily routine for three years. So to call my new 9-5, a cog in the corporate bureaucracy, mundane by comparison, is an understatement. For the first time in a long time, I had time for poker.
I wasn’t new to the game by any stretch, most of my time in college was filled with 5NL on Bovada and ACR, where I grinded out an acceptable 4.5 BB/100 win rate during classes and desk jobs to pass the time. I was at that peak in the Dunning-Krueger chart, as I took my roommates money playing 10c/20c every night, unaware that I really had no idea what I was doing.
But now I finally had the time to return to the game. I had a $2,000 bankroll I cobbled together over 2-3 years through exploiting overlays on FanDuel and sportsbook sign-up bonuses and it was time to put it to use.
This is the first of four trip reports from the last year, which I plan to pump out over the next few weeks. After that, who knows what the future holds.
A Krill among Whales (June 19th - 23rd, 2024)
Around 4 PM, I stumbled out of Best Western Casino Royale, a $200 Fire Link bonus off a 50-cent spin turning us onto front street for the first time that day.
Unlike the drunken tourists also stumbling for their step, my weak legs were due to a number other than BAC that was quickly climbing, my Apple Watch notifying me I had hit 13 miles.
I had long dreamed of my first trip to Vegas, and one of my aspirations was to place a $10 bet at every casino on the strip in one day, walking the entire thing. An ambitious plan, especially in June, but I was confident, and the days prior to a friend’s bachelor party presented the perfect opportunity.
My plan was to work my way up the west side of the strip, crossing over at the Strat, and working my way back down. Where I could, I would enter casinos as early as possible, and exit as late as possible, prioritizing a longer walk in A/C over a shorter walk on the sidewalks of the strip. I planned to grab a water and Gatorade at every CVS or Walgreens I saw to stave off dehydration.
Four friends, having seen my significant weight gain from my previous jobs and the weather forecast well above 100, doubted this plan, and each put down $100, giving me 2:1 odds, that I couldn’t do it. A 12-hour time limit was set, and side bets popped up tracking my biggest win, total profit/loss, and what casino I would find myself in at various hour marks.
A 5 AM flight was filled with nervous anticipation of poker’s mecca instead of much needed sleep, and quickly we found ourselves dropping off our bags at Mandalay Bay, where we had spent our MyVegas points for a 2-night stay.
At the 1/5th mark, I had met one of my prop bet opponents at the Bellagio Buffet, another friend in town for the upcoming bachelor party with comps to spend. After seeing me avoid all of my favorite kinds of meat, and instead scarf down several bowls of pasta and fruit in anticipation of my carbohydrate needs, he put together a buy-out offer with his fellow dark side compatriots. 50%, $200. No deal.
So that’s how I found myself hitting a half-marathon with plenty of real estate left to go. 4 miles and two hours later, I found myself finally checked into Mandalay Bay, just in time to sneak in a nap and dinner, before another long walk back to Caesars Palace for their $160 nightly.
What I had underestimated, is the sheer amount of distance maximizing my walking time inside would add. Even armed with a map pulled up on my phone, entering on one side of the casino and exiting the opposite was not a simple task. One wrong turn in the Venetian cost me 25 minutes and a mile, and it was far from my only misstep.
I would end the day at 20 miles, down $14 from our gambling, and up $400 from the prop bet. My crotch was on fire, a great condition to have going into a bachelor party. As for poker? I’ve rambled long enough, let’s get into it.
Caesars Palace Daily
At 400/800/800, we are introduced to our main villain and first whale, John, an Australian in a outback hat who referenced ‘The Office’ noting his love for Columbian whites, a substance he had made several trips to the bathroom to partake in. After punting off three stacks in the first three levels, I finally got moved to his table and watched him rebuy, pulling crumpled up bills out of his pockets to post the stake. A few minutes later, a cocktail waitress brings him two Coronas, and he pulls a rolled up c-note from behind his ear and hands it to her. The duality of man. I can only imagine the things that Benjamin has seen.
Sitting behind more or less a starting stack of 20k, we see QQ in the HJ and watch our friend limp UTG, with UTG+1 overlimping. I raise it up to 2.6k, a bit small, but it folded back to John who flicks in the only call. The flop comes out T85 rainbow, and John donk leads out….”all-in”. A 2.5x overbet, but against John, a snap call. I hold against AQo and am up to 44k. John grabs one of his Coronas and is off to the ATM, mumbling something about always losing with monsters.
Before he gets back to the table, we get involved in another pot. There are three limpers to me in the BB, and I check my option with 8♥7♦. 3.2k in the middle, we look down at a flop of J♥T♣9♥. It checks around, and not much changes when a 6♠ peels off the top of the deck. The SB, sitting on several of John’s buy-ins bets 1.2k, and I debate a raise, but decide to call as we see the LJ count his short stack. Sure enough the LJ shoves his 7k, and after the BTN folds, the SB decides to see another card. Calling and raising both seem fine, and we take the more aggressive approach, unfortunately getting a fold. The LJ is drawing dead with A♠J♠, and we are up to 69k.
John buys back in at 500/1k/1k, and again limps UTG. We raise it up to 3k with A♥2♥, and he sticks it in with his 20BB and fiddles with the strings connected to his hat. Against any other opponent, this is an easy fold, but John? We find the call. An ace in the window left me slightly more confident, and after a queen on the river, John announced he got me on the river. AQ? QQ? John turns over KQo and we give him the bad news. 90k, up to 130k with the $100 add-on.
On the break, I see John shaking the ATM, shouting at an employee trying to help him comprehend the “Withdrawal Limit” it displayed. I come back from break, and he was back as well, two fresh Coronas in hand, but unfortunately at another table.
On the final table bubble, at 3k/6k/6k, with 5 paid, I raise ATs UTG to 13k, and get an 84k shove from the BTN. Looking down at our 110k stack, it seemed like a close spot, and stick in the call. We get show AKo, don’t improve, and find ourselves out of the tournament the next hand.
As I walk away, I see John rack up close to 400k in chips, a big leader going into the final table. After a very long day, I decided not to stick around and see if he could find the win and break even. I like to think he did.
Bellagio $1/$3
I roll out of bed around noon, and head over to the mythical Bellagio poker room. After an hour wait, I get seated at a temporary table over in the sportsbook and get told of the 100BB cap at $1/$3. I didn’t expect any grinders at these stakes, but if there were any, the structure would push them elsewhere. We grind our stack up to $365, when we play our most interesting hand of the session. Despite the $300 cap, we are by far the short stack in the LJ, the hyper-aggressive CO has $900, and we are both covered by the SB who has yet to take off his headphones in 4 hours.
UTG drunk guy limps, and I raise it up to $13 in the LJ with A♣7♣. The CO and SB come along, and the UTG we were hoping to isolate folds. The flop comes Q♣8♣7♦, the SB donks $35, and with our equity we call, and the CO keeps the fun going. $151 in the center, all hell breaks loose with a 7♥. The SB calls, and with an extremely aggressive kid in the CO, I decide to call figuring things may get spicy if given a chance. Sure enough, he puts out two blacks and two greens and the SB goes way into the tank. Like way way into the tank. I order a rum and coke, which is in my hands before he finally decides to fold.
$200 to call, and $267 behind. I shrug, look at him and say “I guess we’re playing for it all”. Now lets do some math here. $768 in the middle here, and our villain has $67 to call. What hands in his range at this point can fold at those odds? Before I have a chance to slide my chips into the middle, he flashes Q♥T♦ and throws it into the muck.
We rack up a few orbits later, up $370, still unsure if we should be impressed at his snap fold getting 10:1 odds. Replaying the hand back in our head, we come to our senses, his line makes absolutely no sense, bluffing into two opponents who have both shown strength. Shoving was undoubtedly the right play, it’s a shame we didn’t get the extra value. But the session certainly takes the sting off of the loss last night.
MGM Grand Daily
I head over to MGM Grand for a quick dinner, before entering their $130 11 PM nightly, with $100 full-stack add-ons while at or below starting stack, and a $100 double-stack at the end of late-registration. On future trips, we’d recognize both the time EV and chip EV value in a max-late reg taking only the second add-on, but for now, we were in for all three, $330 and 100k in chips.
We join our hero after late reg down to 65k at 2k/4k/4k. I raise it UTG to 12k with A♠T♠, and get a call from the LJ. A♦K♦J♥, our 15k range bet gets a call, and the 6♥ brings two potential flush draws that makes a 38k shove the easy decision, and we dodge T♦9♦’s outs to go up to double up.
At this point in the tournament, things become a blur. The next hand we eliminate a short stack with 4’s. Half an orbit later, we 4-bet jam with AK and get called by AQ. Take out another short stack with KK and suddenly we are up to 400k.
At 10k/20k/20k, the LJ announces 70k sticking in a 100k with a couple 5k’s behind, and with A♠T♣ we slide in two big ones, putting her all in, or so we thought. Suddenly another 100k appears from under her hand and she makes a call. Lesson learned, target acquired. We check to her on a 975 flop with two spades and she bets the final 40k. We are getting better than 10:1 here, can we find the same fold our friend at the Bellagio made earlier? The ace of spades gives us enough extra equity here, we call. She slams K♦Q♥ on the table and is already walking away as I process we held on the river card. Up to 660k. A stack we keep until the bubble bursts, and we go down to our last five players.
At 15k/30k/30k a short-stack with 1 BB doubles through us, A7 vs K3. UTG the next hand he shoves again, and my QJs is no good against his 56s. We fold through the blinds, once, twice. Suddenly we find ourselves with 180k.
With 6BB, we shove the SB with KTs and get called by the BB’s K4o. We watch the runout….23A….Q….****ing 2 for the chop. We rip a “****ing hell” to no one in particular and get warned by the floor.
Two hands later, we get redemption, doubling up with TT. After a couple 3-bet steals, we found ourselves with the chip lead discussing a chop. It was 3:30 AM, one guy had a flight to catch at 6 AM and he needed to check out, and the rest of us wanted to go to bed. The short stack with 3 BB cites his “skill edge”, ridiculous, but well within his rights, and we play on. Two hands later, at 30k/60k/60k, we raise it UTG with A♦T♦ and the BB short stack, his 1 BB behind getting odds with pretty much any two, calls with 5♦6♦. An ace in the window and I start re-calculating the ICM in my head. I look back down and see the 6 hit on the river. Right next to it, the turn card, a 5.
I pay the BB and BB Ante, SB, and suddenly facing the impending BB, the former short stack proposes a chop. The floor, the dealers, all three competitors, wanted it over. I relented, and picked up second place for my troubles. $1,558 the richer for it.
Bachelor Party
I was wired, walking back at 4 AM. In one day we had doubled our (tiny) bankroll. I found maybe 2 hours of sleep before 10:30 when we hauled ourselves out of bed and met the Groom-to-be on Fremont street. Staying at the D gave us access to the Circa Stadium Swim. Of all the cool stuff Vegas has, Stadium Swim is up there. Dozens of massive screens played every sport imaginable. We sweat out some NRFI’s as people trickled in for the airport. After a change for dinner and a big bet on the Stanley Cup Finals, we found ourselves up $200, lost back quickly at a slot machine we only sat at for a “free” drink. Lindsey took her time with that Rum and Coke, and probably won employee of the month for her efforts. A far more seasoned gambler laughed at my misfortune and took me over to the bar top Blackjack, where $20 and some slow play bought me a healthy stream of cocktails.
We headed off to Caesar’s Palace, who was apparently more than happy to provide a limo and a fancy dinner reservation for a member of our group who was a frequent customer of their online sportsbook. We were escorted over to the tables where I learned this group hated one thing more than anything else, Players Cards, citing a broad conspiracy about games being rigged to maintain cosistent losses with small spikes. In what I’d later find out was my highest +EV move of the trip, I subtly slid my fresh players card and a $10 over to the host who gave a chuckle and a nod.
Seeing the minimums on a Friday night at Caesars Palace, I headed over to a bar top BJ machine to test my newly learned strategy. 4 rum and cokes and 2 propositions from some aspiring entrepreneurs, I left up $30 and headed over to see the whales in action. As I came back, I saw high-fives and got told to stand in a lucky spot as the winning streak continued. I made the wise choice to keep my mouth shut about their players card superstitions.
The celebrations continued into Nobu where the whales enjoyed their $500 wagyu, and I was pleasantly surprised when all I could eat of the best sushi I had ever had only came out to $45. Again, a $5 tip wrapped around a players card came in clutch, our waiter credited every meal to our players card. I’d later learn those extra tier points pushed us up to “Diamond in a Day”.
Apparently the bride-to-be had her own tricks up her sleeve, a connection at Tao Group led to a table at Steve Aoki with the minimum waved. Our whales bowed out right before the headliner finally came on at 2:15 AM. We closed the club down, and were greated by a Vegas sunrise in an Uber back to Fremont street.
Knowing our Vegas dream was soon to come to a close, we grabbed three bills and after an early breakfast, headed over to Golden Nugget for their infamous $1/$2 uncapped game. As much as I wish I had hands to post from this, our sleep deprivation was catching up to us. At this point we had 12 hours of sleep in 105 hours, including our walkathon and dancing all night adding to the exhaustion. Not helping things, we went card dead to a degree not known to be possible, and our 3-bets never found action.
The biggest highlight over a 6-hour session, we watched the old man on our right put his $40 stack in over a raise to $7 6-different times and get called 0 of them. We both cashed out around the same time, each up $3. I decided to pocket a $2 and a $1 and consult a pagan friend for spiritual rituals to cleanse myself of the session. The chips now live in the mouth of a jade frog.
A brunch, some shenanigans, and a dinner at Bavette’s later, we found ourselves on a plane ride home, dreaming of our next chance to come back.
19 Replies
Originally posted this up on the main blogs form which seems to mostly be online grinders throwing up their charts. Ran across this group and seems better suited for my insane ramblings. Need to edit the second trip report tonight/tomorrow, will put it in this thread as well. After that, need to do a write-up for our deep run in the $5M WPT Freeroll, and one short non-Vegas TR.
Last night, finally pulled the trigger on booking my next trip, August 1st- 6th. Hopefully the sun running continues, famously luck has never once run out for somebody in Las Vegas.
Great read. Looking forward to more.
On the way back, your manager tells you to expect edits on whatever you’ve turned in that day. An hour later, you get a message telling you to check the documents for their vague comments, and work late into the night making unnoticeable edits to a PowerPoint, or adding massive assumptions to a data model to get a result that tells a good story. You look over at the clock
Yeah, but you bill by the hour, right?
Great title for this thread... that wall of text though
UTG drunk guy limps, and I raise it up to $13 in the LJ with A♣7♣. The CO and SB come along, and the UTG we were hoping to isolate folds. The flop comes Q♣8♣7♦, the SB donks $35, and with our equity we call, and the CO keeps the fun going. $151 in the center, all hell breaks loose with a 7♥. The SB calls, and with an extremely aggressive kid in the CO, I decide to call figuring thing
Fun one, however the opponent was not bluffing as he actually had top pair with QTo (on Q-8-7-7) 😀 Which just makes the fold even more absurd, especially if you ever have some draws here that you played funky and did not raise off on the flop for some reason.
In general I think your hand should be a raise on the flop though. Donk-leads here are almost never strong, and you want to clean out hands that are currently beating you. For example, if SB is leading with TT or something or maybe the aggro kid has 8x behind you. A raise will make it virtually impossible for both these two hands to continue, and even if they do continue you are building the pot up towards the nuts.
Sure, but when you’re on the bottom rung you don’t see the benefit of that extra revenue your company gets. You might get an extra 1-2% on your EoY bonus, but that’s 5-10 billing hours of compensation for 1,000+ extra hours of work.
I’m sure that the argument to that is the job demands 60 to 80 hours a week, and you’re compensated on that standard, but those of us who left in those first few years found the market pays pretty similarly (unless you’re at MBB) for your standard 9-5 office job.
The experience was great, and it set me up well career-wise, but I don’t regret leaving as quickly as I did.
Good on you to leave a position that isn't working out for you. A few times during my work life I kept slogging at places which I dislikes because, "it's only a little longer," and that was not good for me.
Lost and Found (August 30th - September 5th, 2024)
Caesars was now aware of our (fake) high roller status, and was more than happy to throw a night in a suite our way. One month out from our wedding, and sensing the impending chaos, my fiancée and I were more than happy to take them up on their offer.
Due to some constraints, my fiancee would only be joining me for the first ~36 hours (her first trip to Las Vegas), after that, the next four days would be putting in hours, trying to run it up at as many tournaments and hours of cash as we could handle.
What did her first 36 hours in Vegas look like? Drinks, Dayclub, check-in, nap, Binion's Steakhouse, $100 into a slot machine, Martin Garrix at Omnia, a couple hours of sleep. Check-out, pool time, Wynn Buffet, Omega Mart, some drinks. A plan to elope, and quickly realizing that plan was a bad idea.
We said our goodbyes, and I was off to the Bellagio for cash. I had tickets to Zedd in ~3 hours and was looking to get the poker part of our trip off to a positive start.
Bellagio $1/$3
I buy in for $300, and get sat at a fun table, including some frat boys in town for tomorrow’s Vegas Kickoff Classic. Despite the longer trip, LSU’s purple and gold had flooded the city this weekend, far outnumbering the fans who made the short drive over from USC.
I quickly get into a fun hand where I raise K♣T♥ to $10 in the LJ, and get three callers. On a flop of Q♦7♠3♥, I c-bet $25, and get one call from the HJ, going heads up to a turn of J♥. I throw out a half-pot bet, and after a lot of hesitancy, the HJ counts out $45 and calls. $180 in the pot and the river bricks out. I’m not a live-tells guy, but someone with a Fat Tuesday strapped around their neck checking their hand multiple times and making a call on that board with that much hesitancy just screams a draw. Losing to the large number of A-high he currently holds, we load up the third barrel of $85, and get a quick fold, and catch the A♣ as he shows his hand to his friend.
We grind up to $650 in our stack, when we get tied up with a short-stack. Looking down at K♣T♣, we raise it to $10, and see 5-callers to the flop. 6♣5♠2♣. It checks to us, and I put out a small bet of $25, which gets called by the LJ. The HJ decides to set his price, putting out his stack of $180. It folds around, and getting a good price with our second-nut flush draw and two overs, we make the call. The short stack flips over pocket 9’s, a turn bringing us a very nice ten, and we seal the deal making our flush on the river.
A few hours later, it’s time to head over to Omnia, and we rack up at $1,158, a healthy lead to start the trip.
So I’ll admit, I’ve buried the lead here. My fiancee and I were saving money for the wedding, and seeing the price of a Saturday-night hotel room ($250+ even at Excalibur), I opted for a rugged approach. I had a hotel room Monday-Thursday, and had 10 AM early check-in for the next morning. I could check my bags at any hotel in the city, so why pay for a room I’d only get a couple hours of sleep in?
Well, here’s why, after Zedd got out. I walked 20 feet over to Caesars Sportsbook to watch the F1 race. Once that was over, it was 6:30 AM, and I was walking through the Caesars’ Palace lobby on the way to a long breakfast to wrap up our night. A pack of 4 “drunk” guys stumbled into me, and 20 seconds later, I felt my pockets and had no phone….or my ID that was tucked in the case.
I hustled over to the security desk where 2 younger girls and an older guy had clearly fallen victims to the same pickpockets I had. I grabbed my bags, and used my work phone to track the phone’s location over to the Linq, where my three compatriots and I met six others at their security desk, who had also been pickpocketed. Caesar’s security provided us a business card to their ‘Lost and Found’, and did the same to a very annoyed LVPD detective doing their best to help. Months later, Apple would finally notify me my phone was wiped, when it was turned back on, FindMyFriends tracking it to an “Authorized Apple Reseller” in China.
Aria $1/$3
After a quick nap, I headed over to Aria, suspecting it would be in great position to catch fans leaving the College Football season opener. Immediately upon getting sat at a $1/$3 table, I run into our first issue as a result of last night’s pickpocket.
“Can I see your ID please?” chimed a dealer, who would quickly come to regret the innocuous question she just asked. It was a fair question she had asked. I’m 24, and look much younger than that. Since turning 21, I’ve been ID’ed every time I ordered a drink, and even once going to an R-rated movie.
My fiancee had sent me a photo of my old ID to my work phone which I presented to the dealer, who called the floor, who called the poker room manager…..going forward I started just alerting the desk when putting my name on the list. But for now, I was pulled out of the game while they verified I would be allowed to play. 20 minutes later, I was placed into a newly opened game, the dream game. Drunk LSU and USC fans, spending far more time trying to get free drinks and argue football than play anything resembling poker.
The closest thing we played to a real poker hand follows:
Over a limp, I raise A♦7♣ in to CO to $15, and get called by the BB and the EP limper. It checks to us on a board of 5♦6♦8♥ and I throw out a green chip, and get called by the EP limper. We miss the open-ender, but pair up with an A♣ on the Turn. The limper checks to me, and I keep building the pot putting out a bet of $55, which eventually gets a call. A fairly innocuous T♠ on the river, and a check to us leaves a great opportunity for some thin value, but I unfortunately opt for the passive route, and we are good upon checking back.
After a few hours of catching short-buy punts from LSU fans, we cash out up $438, and head back to our $17/night Excalibur room that was worth just about what we paid for it.
Mandalay Bay $300 Mystery Bounty
Before I get into the tournament, a word on the Mandalay Bay poker room. Don’t. Go.
First off, it’s in a terrible location, between a loud restaurant, the escalators, and a bathroom. It’s a little penned-off area jammed with tables, and no room to move in between them. Second, to compound the lack of space, we played 10-handed, and at several points, 11-handed. The guy to my right kept telling me he could see my cards, and no ****! We have 5 players stuffed into about 3.5 feet of space.
The tournament was poorly ran. A local reg got a warning early-on for acting out of turn, and half a dozen repeated infractions only brought more warnings. Only 10% of the field of 90 got $100 bounties on their head, which became mystery bounties at the end of late reg. They asked for volunteers, and got very few, so I reluctantly took one. I still can’t tell if it’s massively plus or minus EV, but it feels like it’s one or the other.
Right after late-reg ended, with a mystery bounty on our head, we got put in a very interesting spot. Off of a 56k stack (40k starting) at 500/1k/1k, I raise it to 3k in MP with pocket jacks. The CO, SB, and BB call. On a TT6 rainbow board, I lead out for 5k, and only the LJ calls. A 3 on the turn, and I fire off a bet of 14k, which the LJ calls again. The board double-pairs on a 6 river. I check, and the LJ blasts off, putting us all-in for our last 34k, with 50k in the middle.
It’s an interesting spot for sure, I don’t think either decision is clear-cut. Eventually I thought back to a similar line he had taken when a flush came in earlier, showing the bluff to the table. I flicked in a chip, and soon after his cards hit the muck.
I wish I had another interesting hand from this tournament, but soon after we went incredibly card dead as blinds ramped up quickly. With 24 people remaining, and 14 paid, we got down to 70k at 4k/8k/8k, where our shoves went uncalled with Queens, Kings, AKs, and Aces. Eventually we were 12 BB deep, 5 from the money, and raised AJs on the BTN. The SB jammed over the top, and we lost the race to 44 to end our run.
We picked up a bounty early on, salvaging a $200 loss on the day. The next day we didn’t bring our best stuff, and went -$296 in cash failing to find equity on 6-8 flops, and busted out of the $160 Aria daily flip-fest. Still well into the green on the trip, we had two days left to extend our lead, or wipe out the profits we needed to buy a new phone.
Bellagio $1/$3
There’s something special about Bellagio’s poker room in the morning. Players shuffle in, coffee in-hand from the sportsbook bar next to the entrance. Dealers sit around, gossiping and sharing stories, as the floor assigns them to new tables. A $10/$20 game is still going strong, and night-shift grinders get up to greet other local regs about to start their day. The casino is still and empty, with the occasional sound of a vacuum, a daily ritual required to maintain the carpet, as tens of thousands walk the casino floor on any given day.
We’ve played a lot of easy games this trip, a lot of drunk frat boys punting off stacks before heading to the club. Today, we find ourselves playing an away game, coffee-sipping regs, and one of the most interesting hands of the trip
UTG ($120) limps, and we come along in the CO with Q♣T♠, and the BTN ($374) and BB join along to a gin flop of K♣J♥9♣.
It goes check-check to me, and I bet $15 with the nut straight. The button calls, BB folds, and the UTG short-stack raises to $50. We have an interesting spot here, and I’d like to think we made the right decision, and call to try to keep in the BTN, which we succeed.
5♦ on the turn, and the UTG checks it over to us. I bet $100 into a pot of $160, the BTN calls, and UTG calls with his remaining chips.
J♦ on the river dodges the flush, but pairs the board. I think we get a little too tricky here and check it over to the BTN, who double-checks his cards, and ships it in for $221. We think for 15-20 seconds, but getting 3:1 here, all we can do is pray. The button, an older Frenchman, flips over QQ and somewhat correctly accuses us of slow rolling when I show him the bad news.
I wait on a cocktail for a few orbits, before cashing out up $635, absolutely sun running thus-far at $1/$3. Another mid-20’s girl I was chatting EDM with offered an extra spot at her friend’s table that night to see Steve Aoki. I was about to say yes…..but missing our ID has struck again. There was a chance I could show our ID on the phone and get waved through, especially with a “VIP” group. But I opted to save myself the embarrassment and told her I appreciated the offer but had other plans.
Bellagio $1/$3 and MGM Grand Daily
I woke up for the last day of the trip and decided to try out luck at Bellagio again. We trundle over, coffee in hand, and get sat quickly at a $1/$3 table, with a number of similar faces to yesterday.
After missing a few flops, I found myself victim to my biggest mental leak in my game….impatience.
UTG raises to $10, and I 3-bet the button off a stack of $250 to $35 with K♠J♠. The SB cold calls, and the BB, a player waiting for a $5/$10 table both mornings we’ve been here 4-bets small to $85.
It folds around to us, and warning bells should be going off. A capable player breaking the threshold instead of shoving over cold calls is one of the most nutted ranges possible. But when it folds around, I make the only call, left with under a pot-sized bet behind.
Going to a flop with $210 in the middle, it comes 2♥4♦A♦. Check-check. A K♣ comes out on the turn. It checks to us, and after considering our options, I think it’s fine to check it back and try to see showdown as cheap as possible. J♣ on the river, and the villain quickly announces all-in for our last $165. Against a normal 4B! range, there is some AQs, K♦Q♦ and QQ we are ahead of, but between breaking the threshold and the quick checks down, looking back on it, I have to imagine he only is doing this with AA and KK.
We flick in the call and get send packing when he flips over KK. -$300, a small dent into what thus far has been a very successful trip.
After a depressing walk over to MGM Grand contemplating our terrible call, I max-late reg the $130 MGM Daily. You start with 25k chips for $130, and can add-on any time at or below starting stack at 25k chips for $100. At the end of late reg, you can buy a one-time add-on of 50k chips for another $100. The first time I played this tournament I missed the massive +EV play that is the max-late-reg and a single large add-on, now was the time to give it shot.
In a 23-person tournament, the path to a final table involved only one interesting hand, very shortly after we sat down. At 2k/4k/4k, we raise to 10k UTG with 66, and get two callers in the field, LJ and HJ. The flop comes low, 742, and we bet 13k into a pot of 40k, and get jammed on by the LJ for 65k total. A field caller can have some sets here, and occasionally a strangely played overpair, but not often enough to play to live another day. I flick in a chip, and get show AQo, and we hold.
An hour later, we sit down at the final table, with ~30% of the chips in play. To our right, a very drunk gentleman with ~25% of the chips in play. Our first elimination comes quickly, a local reg who had pleaded for a chop to a table who didn’t understand how ICM worked. Time to put on the pressure and push our advantage. Another elimination comes shortly after. 2 from the money.
At 10k/20k/20k, the other big stack, the SB flats a min-raise from a middle-positioned player who was clueless to how to play a 5BB stack. I peel up my cards from the BB and see A♦....then a J♦. It’s go time. We estimate the SB to have ~9BB behind, and we announce all-in. The short stack somehow folds…..and we get snapped by the SB. A9o. I start counting my winnings, about to have a majority of the chips in play, when the 9 lands on the turn.
An orbit later, we are sitting UTG with 3.5BB, playing for the bubble, as a chop is discussed again. Facing down the BB and BB Ante, I agree to whatever number comes back, and somehow walk out making a slight profit on the tournament.
With that our trip concludes. I left for the airport, 5 hours before my flight, as without an ID I read online I would need to go through manual screening. I was the only one in the TSA Pre-Check line when I walked up to Senior Agent Janice, who stated she had worked there for 20 years and I would be unable to fly without an ID as no manual screening process existed. When I calmly pulled up the TSA website that showed this was an entirely standard process, and she called security on me proclaiming me as “belligerent”. Thankfully, the other TSA agent who came on-scene was familiar with this process, which he noted was “entirely regular, and happens multiple time a day” as Las Vegas is a city where both pickpockets and drunkenly losing you wallet is a common occurrence.
If you ever get a Las Vegas TSA agent named Janice, crop dust her for me.
Sure, but when you’re on the bottom rung you don’t see the benefit of that extra revenue your company gets. You might get an extra 1-2% on your EoY bonus, but that’s 5-10 billing hours of compensation for 1,000+ extra hours of work. I’m sure that the argument to that is the job demands 60 to 80 hours a week, and you’re compensated on that standard, but those of us who left in t
I was doing some part-time contract work, and for a different project the company hired IBM as contractors. $750 an hour, iirc. IBM hired another contract house, who in turn hired another contract house The grunts doing the actual work got around $100 an hour (a lot better than I was doing), but those grunts barely could spell IBM much less work for them, and the second contract house didn't have anyone from their firm working there at all.
Was it the Binion's Steakhouse in the Horseshoe? How as it?
Enjoying the trip reports. Moar!
I left for the airport, 5 hours before my flight, as without an ID I read online I would need to go through manual screening. I was the only one in the TSA Pre-Check line when I walked up to Senior Agent Janice, who stated she had worked there for 20 years and I would be unable to fly without an ID as no manual screening process existed. When I calmly pulled up the TSA website
😃
Top of Binion's Steakhouse, it's at Binion's on Freemont Street. Google is telling me it used to be called Binion's Horsehoe, so we might be thinking of the same place.
Steak and the rest of the food was above average. I mean, it wasn't a life changing steak, but it's also cheaper than the rest of the Vegas steakhouses I've looked at. We did an appetizer, split a 16 oz Ribeye which came with two sides, glass bottle sodas, and a big tip for $140. That only covers your steak at some of these places.
What will keep me coming back is the service. The place was packed, but each waiter was only on 4-5 tables. I created a Yelp account just to be able to give respect to our waiter, looking back at it, ask for Jeffery if you make a reservation. He overheard some poker talk and saw me checking out photos they have of the early WSOP days that took place downstairs, and told some stories from the old days before our mains came out. Other than that, just extremely attentive service without being invasive.
Need to remember to save room next time, their dessert list looked really good.
ClubWPT Gold - $5,000,000 Freeroll (December 12th - 15th, 2024)
Online Qualifier
It was 10 PM at night, and I rolled out of my bed and ran for the toilet. I don’t know if it was the new burger place I tried for lunch, or my wife’s steak tacos, but something gave me food poisoning. After I well and truly emptied myself, I slid open my phone to some Discord notifications about a freeroll that ClubWPT was running to beta-test their new US-based site. I got signed up, and shortly after, joined the field of 4,000. The top 30 spots would earn the last few tickets to the invitational tournament they were running at the Wynn a few days later.
Things go smoothly in the early stages, we win the flips we need to and find ourselves in a good position at the closing stages. After getting max-value with trips, I am 13th (18 BB) with 70 people left, sitting on the BB. 4 players limp to me, and I check 98o. The flop comes JTx, and we check our open-ended draw, and it checks around. The Q comes on the turn, and I put out a small bet. UTG jams over the top, and barely covering, I make the call. What did UTG limp? AKs.
Going to break, I had 0.6 BB facing posting the SB. I closed my internet browser and headed to bed, but something told me to come back. “Chip and a Chair”....or something like that. I stick in my final few chips, flop top pair, and hold against two other players. Then I steal the blinds. I steal them again. 3 of the 4 players to our left were folding everything, they had their spots nearly locked up, with no reason to risk it. I navigate my short stack to 4BB on the bubble, 23rd with 31 left. An orbit and a half later, we get the good news around the time the clock strikes 2.
Logistics
When my wife woke up at 4 AM for work, I’ll explain to you what I explained to her. The costs of this were pretty simple. $650 for a last minute flight. $50 for resort fees for a free MyVegas room on Night 1. Caesars Tier Credit nights for Night 2&3. $200 for Food. $100 for entertainment if we have any free time. $1,000 total.
Now what was the value of this satellite ticket? Not so simple. So it’s a $5M prize pool divided between 2,000 tickets awarded, $2,500. There are some factors influencing that. In favor of going, ~70% of tickets were given to the viewers of vlogs who might not make the trip out to Las Vegas and….let’s be honest, probably aren’t the most studied players ever. Additionally, 503 people get paid, which lowers our chances of going home empty handed, especially if a decent number of participants don’t show up.
The downsides are that the significant prize pool is pretty heavily to capitalize upon. $3M is in an extremely top-heavy prize pool, with just $1k for the min-cash. $1M is in mystery bounties, which typically are top-heavy, but this tournament goes a step further, reserving the largest prizes for the final table. Finally, the last $1M is in 100 - $10,000 (non-transferable) tickets to the WPT Championship, a 20% chance to draw once eliminated for all players who finish ITM. Not only is that another tournament we would need to cash in to generate value from, it would involve scrambling for hotel rooms and time off of work.
In addition, while previous trips to Vegas were cheap, and came from a dedicated vacation budget my wife and I use for fun trips, something this last minute and solo would, and should, be funded by the poker bankroll I keep separate from our joint savings. 20% of my $5k bankroll is a lot of glimmer to put in play. Tell Knish to get the truck ready.
I think if you consider all of these factors, and weight them against the cost of the trip….**** it, we ball. I’m not ever a spontaneous person, but at the minimum this will be a cool story of taking my shot among the best, at a sick event, and falling short. My wife was rightfully concerned that this was a scam and too good to be true, but after some assurance from a fraternity brother from college who had since become an MTT grinder, I got the thumbs up, and told work we wouldn’t be showing up on Thursday/Friday.
Day 0 - Wynn $1/$3 and CLP Meetup
It took almost an hour to find the WPT registration at the Wynn. Conference room signs point in various directions and long hallways wind their way back onto the casino floor, or randomly terminated. And for some reason, one of the maps was oriented with south at the top.
Once there, saying the word “Freeroll” got us escorted to a private lounge, with swag pickup, catered snacks, and arcade games. The swag package was pretty good, a hiking-style backpack, a zip-up jacket, and a Yeti water bottle, among some other random trinkets. I took the time to meet some fellow invites, which was a good way to ease the nerves. Most had never played a tournament before, some had never even played poker before, just having seen vlogs online and entering the initial giveaway for the hell of it.
Some of the players in the group I had inadvertently formed headed over to the poker room to play cash, and following the action, I headed along. Getting separated from our targets, I sat down at $1/$3 filled with mostly local players who all knew each other. I started talking to the only other outsider, a young guy to my left, and I asked how his trip was going.
“Ohh man, it’s only Day 2, and I’m down $20k…”
Assuming he was bullshitting, I dropped it, until one of his friends came over and laughed at his growing stack telling him “you’ve still got a long way to go.” I get the story, apparently he sat at a $5/$10 game the previous night, which turned into $5/$10/$20/$40 at a VIP’s request. He got it in deep with top set, and the VIP, refusing to run it twice, went runner-runner to stack him. I pick up from the worst $1/$3 game of all time, letting Captain Ahab and a local reg know that the women’s volleyball game they were betting on was clearly a replay, and walked away as they agreed the bet would stand.
After putting out a fire at work from 2,000 miles away, I headed over to meetup with some other Crush Live Poker subs who had won a ticket and made the trip. It was a fairly interesting mix of people ranging from occasional $1/$3 players like myself just interested in getting better, to $5/$10 grinders, to people who had played in Bobby’s Room for pots that could buy homes. Grabbing drinks with Bart was a great experience, and he took jokes about his Bart-isms (“cutting my teeth at the Commerce”) in stride.
After grabbing a late dinner with the crew that stuck around, I finally uber’ed over to Park MGM to get as much sleep as I could before the biggest tournament of my life.
Day 1 - ClubWPT Gold $5M Freeroll
An early start meant a quick check-out from ParkMGM, checking our bags at Caesars, and a $30 breakfast from Dunkin’. Unfortunately, our table assignment was in a satellite conference room rather than the big hall, so we didn’t catch the celebrity entrances, although we later ran into Jungleman, playing the flute in costume, so that must have been a trip to see.
I introduced myself to the table, and quickly found I had a pretty unfortunate draw. Several players to my right were discussing PADS’ training course, to the left we had a younger euro in a Triton hoodie, and two guys who had won some of the leftover tickets given to players who cashed the WPT Prime the day prior. The only player I perceived as weak was a blonde lady in her mid-30’s, wearing an ace of spades sweater knit by her mom who was “excited she was trying poker”, with a glass of white wine to calm her nerves. That illusion quickly faded when someone recognized her as the 2021 MSPT Player of the Year (among other accolades) Kyna England. For the record, one of the most genuinely kind people I’ve ever met at a poker table, and I’ve listened to her on every episode of the PokerNews Podcast since.
On the first hand of the tournament at 100/100/100 off a 25k starting stack, I look down at A♠Q♥, and for whatever reason don’t 3-bet after UTG+1 raises to 500, and the LJ calls. The SB raises to 2.5k, and I make the only call.
The flop comes J♣Q♦Q♠ and I decide to (incorrectly) slowplay and check it back when given the option. The pot is still 6.2k to a turn of 2♦. It checks to us, and I put out a bet of 3.4k, which gets quickly called. We boat up on the river with another Jack, and when it checks to us, we bet 3.5k into 13k, targeting his random Ax, and we get called by exactly that.
While writing down the hand, I notice a notification from the text thread Bart set up for the CLP members playing the event. I figured it was just a “good luck” text, but somehow Team CLP had already lost a member. Aces into Aces on the first hand, and the board ran out 4-to-a-flush, just a 4% occurrence.
Fast forward a few levels, and we have our next big hand:
At 300/600/600, we call a 1.5k raise from UTG+1 on our BTN with K♠Q♦. The BB joins along to a flop of K♦K♥2♦. Multi-way, in-position, I don’t hate that we checked along when given the opportunity, and see a turn card of 8♣. The BB checked, leaving UTG+1 to bet 2.5k, with ~9k behind. With the BB potentially calling behind, and UTG+1 potentially finding another barrel on a lot of river cards, we decide to call. The BB folds, and we boat up again, with a Q♣ coming on the river. UTG bet out 5k, and we quickly put him all-in. He calls, and we find ourselves with almost two starting stacks pretty quickly.
At 500/1k/1k, we raise our pocket Queens to 2k UTG+1, and get called by the HJ and BB. The flop comes 5♣2♣2♦, and we lead out for 4k after the BB checks. The HJ, the euro in a Triton hoodie, raised big, and after the BB folds, I had an out-of-body experience saying “all-in” and getting snap called. The villain flips over one of the two combos of A2 we feared, and I’m halfway to the door cursing myself out for the unnecessary mistake when the miracle Q hits on the river…..up to 90k chips.
While sharing a bag of Scooby-Doo gummies, courtesy of Kyna’s purse, the table asks for action on the # of players remaining at the next break. ~1,100 left (of 1,457 that showed up) and an hour to the break, I threw out 825 as the line. We came back from break to 825 left on the tournament clock, and for whatever reason, that gave me some confidence back from our terrible play and suck-out earlier.
About ~150 from the money, it’s 1.5k/3k/3k, the HJ raises to 11k, and the CO jams for 48k. We have ~120k in the BB with pocket Queens. It takes awhile, but eventually I talk myself into a flat call. As an inexperienced tournament player, re-jamming at 40bb deep felt bad, but probably was the correct decision in hindsight. The HJ eventually folds (claiming AJs), and we hold against AKo.
Now, I have to tell you about Andrej. When the tournament started, on my right was another younger guy from Calgary, who happened to also be a Carolina Hurricanes fan. Now, I grew up in Raleigh, but I had never met a Canes fan from anywhere else, much less Canada, so combined with his cheery outlook, we decided we were a team. When our table finally broke shortly before the money, we were the only survivors from the original table. We spent a single hand separated in the main tournament hall, before both of our tables broke again, and he ended up on my left.
We make the money, together, and a few hands later, he’s all-in for his tournament life. A♠J♠ against Darryll Fish’ AK. The flop comes, K♦K♠Q♠. Andrej grabs his bag and stands up. A♥ gives the villain a full-house on the turn. “Good playing with you man”, we dab each other up and I go to take a selfie with him. I reverse my phone camera, put it up to take the photo, and see Darryll Fish hitting the surrender cobra pose in the background. Mother****ing Ten of Spades. Royal Flush. We both celebrate so emphatically that even Ryan DePaulo would call it a bit much. Andrej got eliminated an orbit later, but how sick is that? $200 pay jump for his troubles as well.
Fast forward a little bit, no hands with significant decisions come up, and I’m sitting on 214k with 148 left at dinner break, coming back to 6k/12k/12k in the mystery bounty stage.
Shortly after coming back, I raise AKs UTG, and get jammed on by the SB with Queens, and I river the wheel to double-up. A few orbits later, I raise KK UTG, and get it in pre against a short stack on the button with A3o. She hits her Ace on the flop, I find a set on the turn. Up to 620k with a bounty to claim later.
On the last hand of the night, at 15k/30k/30k, I raise to 60k UTG+1 with 99, the HJ jams for 180k, and the SB jams for 200k. With two mystery bounties and a Top 10 chip count on the line, I call, and see good news, KQ on one side, AQ on the other. The Queen on the flop? Not so much.
I end the day at 421k, coming back to 20k/40k/40k with 49 people remaining. I joined the line to cash in mystery bounties, and noticed that somehow all of the top prizes except for one $50k bounty had gone unclaimed. As I waited, these top bounties slowly disappeared off the board, including one of the $100k’s picked by the person directly in front of me. Just past midnight, I grab a $1,000 envelope, and make the walk back to Caesar’s Palace to claim my bags and check-in.
Day 2 - ClubWPT Gold $5M Freeroll
You would think coming back to 10BB would put me near the bottom, but a majority of the field was sub-20BB and in a similar spot. Adding in a continuation of the extremely turbo structure, and playing down from just 49 to 9, I knew it would be a short Day 2 and because of that, stayed up as late as I could trying to study spots in GTOw. I woke up to a flurry of good luck texts, scarfed down a Cliff Bar I had remembered to grab at CVS after Day 1, and hustled over to the Wynn trying to cram some last minute studying. It felt like high school all over again.
Throughout the tournament I had been pretty outwardly excited, “how sick is this” was something I said a lot. And I heard it a lot back, 90% of the field was recreational players who were thinking the same, and we had seen a tweet that most of the survivors from Day 1 had never had a multi-day tournament cash. Keeping our luck with table draws, of a table of 8 we had 4 full-time pros and a local circuit grinder, including Eli Elezra and Femi Fashakin. At this point, with everyone as short as they are, the cards were going to fall how they were, and anything after this point was gravy.
The table draw placed us UTG, where we look down at a pair of 6’s on the first hand. Only one thing to do. We stick it in, and another recreational player in UTG+1 who barely covers us immediately re-shoves as well. As it slowly folded around, I waited for the bad news, just to see them flip over 5’s.
“I haven’t used it yet, this is my one-time” he tells the table. He gets his wish on the flop, and apologizes profusely as I draw a blank on the turn and river.
“Don’t worry about it man, this was such a sick experience.” It almost sounded sarcastic, but I meant it. A week ago I was in a free satellite with a <1% chance to qualify. We ran pure, and traveled across the country to take our shot. From there, we outlasted 97% of the field for a $5,000 cash, and a $1,000 mystery bounty as a cherry on top. We drew from the consolation drum and unfortunately did not hit our 20% shot at the $10K WPT Championship ticket. And that brought our ClubWPT Gold $5M Freeroll experience to a close.
Rest of Trip
After collecting my payout and throwing it in our bag, I grabbed some In-N-Out for lunch, and headed back to the hotel room to process what just happened. I think there is a world where I get pissed about losing an 80/20 and coming up short, especially a few eliminations from a pay jump. Knowing the nature of tournaments, especially after sucking out early in Day 1, I was really just happy to have made it as far as I did.
I called my wife, and she reminded us we still had ~24 hours in Vegas to make the most of. I googled around, and found NBA Cup semi-final tickets for $10. I have never seen a single second of the NBA, but consulting our brother, he assured me the Bucks were a lock, and I threw $300 on the ML and took the tram over.
After my Stubhub seller never sent the nosebleed tickets, I got upgraded to club-level seats, between a few nice Hawk fans who broke down the differences from the college game. The rules took a second to get used to, but the moment Giannis drove to the basket, the difference in skill and physicality was apparent.
Down 1 going into the 4th, my brother texted me to get a “**** Trae Young” chant going. I have no beef with the man, but clearly every non-Hawks fan did, because that got the rest of the stadium loud. Bucks rally behind our cheerleading to take home the W, and I headed back to Caesar’s for a nap before our evening plans.
When checking-in last night, the receptionist had reminded me I had a free “Diamond Dinner” to use, so I walked to (Gordon Ramsey) Hell’s Kitchen. I’m not a huge fan of his “signature dishes” and decided to check out some of the less-known menu items. The short rib was among the best I’d ever had, the Mac and Cheese was unique, and the "Chocolate Delight” took me back to elementary school, eating a banana moon-pie.
I was also fairly lucky in that Loud Luxury, an EDM duo I had been listening to a lot of lately, was performing at Omnia that night. I headed in early, grabbed a drink, and was in the front row for an absolutely incredible performance. As my friends on the east coast were waking up to start their Sunday’s, I was heading to bed, to catch as many hours of sleep as I could before my flight took me back to real life.
Well, that’s the (rather lengthy) story of our journey to and through the ClubWPT Gold $5M Freeroll. A significant positive of the trip is while I was in Vegas, Caesar’s held the grand opening of their new (Danville) Virginia casino and card room. Six months ago, my bankroll was $2k, the first trip doubling that to $4k, tacking on another $1k in September. Add in the net +$5k from this trip, and I was now somewhat properly rolled to start taking shots at $2/$5 and play regularly with a room nearby. We’ve got two poker trips coming up in August and November, but until then, I plan to throw up a much shorter post about the craziness that was the first few opening weeks of Caesar's Virginia, and a trip to the WSOPC in Cherokee.
Another mid-20’s girl I was chatting EDM with offered an extra spot at her friend’s table that night to see Steve Aoki.
😮
Good thing your ID got stolen, or your wife might be your ex-fiancée.
Rebuying Confidence (December 2024 - March 2025)
This is the last post before catching up to present day, and my next trip to Vegas in ten short days. Why the break from March until now? Well, I’ll cover that more at the end.
Caesars Virginia $2/$5 - Beginners Luck
Off the back of our big score at the ClubWPT Gold Freeroll, there was finally some room to take some shots off the back of a larger bankroll. While we were in Vegas, Caesars finally opened their doors in Virginia.
The opening was…polarized. On one hand, the room was packed with whales, fish, and everything in-between. On the other, Caesars drastically underestimated demand, with waitlists stretching into the hundreds with only 5-6 tables open during prime hours. Eventually management trained enough dealers and worked through the kinks, and the poker room settled into a steady pace.
I said “whales, fish, and everything in-between”, because there were players that seemed to defy the current poker taxonomical classification system. I find myself in seat 4, when a middle-aged man sits down in seat 6, and asks the buy-in. He throws down the minimum, $300, and gets three blacks pushed his way by the dealer. I fold from UTG and look over to see our new tablemate has fully picked his cards off the table and extended them out in front of him, squinting through his glasses.
“Sir, please protect your cards” and the dealer motions around to the rest of the table peeling cards off the felt.
“I guess I bet” he says, sticking out a black chip, and it folds around to the BB, who jokingly asked if anyone was willing to share what the new player had. The BB puts him all-in.
The new player, who we learned goes by Jameis, sticks his other two chips in and notes “Aces are pretty good” flipping over A5o (???), to the BB’s jacks. Jameis hits his Ace on the Turn, and orders a cocktail to celebrate his fortune.
The next hour was a blur, and somehow beginner's luck was on Jameis’ side. Everyone tried to exploit some of the worst play conceivable, but his massive bets were always backed up by the best hand, or a draw that inevitably would hit.
Eventually, big stacks collide when Jameis gets into a big pot with the most mis-reg to ever mis-reg. I’d never seen this guy tip once, dealers or waitresses. He’d sit looking down at an iPad behind his chipstack and watch episodes of sitcoms with noise cancelling headphones. His playstyle was tight, and his egregious tanking made him appear even tighter.
The exact details of the have been lost to my memory, but after he check-raises big on the flop, Jameis made a $800 all-in bet on the turn into a pot of ~$2,500, with a board of K♥ T♥ and two blanks, and the ultimate mis-reg calls with Q♥J♥.
Nobody was in doubt, Jameis dodges the outs, and his low pocket-pair earned him a stack of chips that quickly disappeared off to the craps table. This was just one kind of player who found themselves at Caesars Virginia.
Harrah’s Cherokee - “I’ll collude if I want to”
It’s 5:30 AM on a Thursday, and I load up my car for the 5 hour drive into the mountains of North Carolina. Was tomorrow Valentine's Day, my first as a married man? Yes. Were we closing on our first home on Monday? Also yes. But somehow I had gotten the green light to make my way to Harrah’s Cherokee for two days at their WSOP Circuit event.
Day 1 was wholly unimpressive. I get past late-registration in the $400 Doublestack, before losing a flip and getting knocked out 20 short of the money. Onto Day 2.
I find my way down to the conference center and put down $400 for Day 1B of the Mini-Main. A few levels in I flat the small blind with A♣7♣ against the CO and BTN. The flop comes ATx with two hearts, and the BTN and I both call a small bet from the CO. A heart completes the flush draw on the turn, and it checks through extremely quickly. On the river, a 7 gives us two-pair. With the speed everyone checked on the turn, I don’t think it’s a bad spot to bluff at it. I put out a 75% pot bet, and sit back to wait.
Up to this point in the tournament, the CO had been a problem. He was an OMC, who had some egregious tanks on the flop and all-together wasn’t a pleasant person to play with. Sure enough, he goes deep into the tank. After several minutes, he loudly says “I can beat anything but a flush, and I know you have it.” The BTN quickly folds.
Now, in this situation, I think his proclamation would have helped me if anything, but I did say something along the lines of “in a multiway pot, you can’t discuss your hand”. He tells me he’s revealing information about his hand, so he’d be the only one being harmed.
“Sure, it’s your hand, but by telling him you don’t have the hearts but do have a strong hand, you’re giving him a lot of extra information for his decision. It’s a rule in place because without it there can be collusion.”
The old man loudly declares “I'll collude if I want to, and you can’t do anything about it.” This appears to be the magic phrase that summons any floor person in a mile radius. After an argument with them, he remained unconvinced, and we got back to poker. We later flop quads for the first time live, and bust him after he tries to find three streets with top-pair top-kicker.
A few hours later, on break, I got into a heated argument on the phone with our mortgage lender, who accidentally increased our interest rate by 1% in the closing documents, and tried to convince my wife to sign the documents anyway because “it might delay closing and cause us to lose the house…..afterall, it’s only 1%.” ****ing criminals.
Fast-forward to 114 people left, where 110 get paid. I have 270k left at 3k/5k/5k, about 50% more than the average stack.
I 3-bet A♣ A♦ to 35k in the HJ, and get cold-called by the CO, the only person who comes along. The flop comes T♣9♠8♣. And I bet 50k into a pot of 80k. The CO thinks for a bit, and raises it to 125k. 75k to call and 185k left in our stack, I stick it in, getting snap called.
Sure enough, QJo gets flipped over, and I’m drawing dead when the turn hits the board.
After counting out chips, I discover I’ll have 11k left in the stack, enough to post the BB and BB ante. Now 3 from the money, and 3 from posting the blinds, I joke about my plans to egregiously tank. I quickly admit that it wasn’t something I planned to do, but the table encourages me to take my time and take advantage of it just like anyone else would.
I count to 20, fold blindly, and pray. 112….111. Not quick enough. The tournament goes hand-for-hand as we post the big blind and ante. 1k chip behind.
The biggest pro-tank advocate raises the LJ and it folds around to me. I crane my neck and don’t see all-ins elsewhere. I peel up one card…an ace. “**** it, I call”. The other card is a 3, and I’m up against AT. The flop comes, the turn pairs the board, I stand up to leave, and the river gives us both two-pair for a chop.
“Greg”, this player had nicknamed me after a supposed resemblance to Greg Raymer which nobody else I’ve asked can figure out, “you better now fold any two and take your money”.
There’s a close decision on the next hand, but I fold AQo in the SB and take my min cash. I locked up a $4 profit on the trip, and spin it up to the next pay jump to make another ~$50. After gas, dinner, and a couple bucks we made from our $10 in freeplay…we ended up exactly net even on our first WSOPC trip.
Caesars Virginia $2/$5 - What’s bigger than a whale?
There was another class of player, a sub-species of the whale, whose worth describing. But it needs context.
Why would Caesars build a massive casino in Danville, Virginia, a tiny tobacco town on the border with North Carolina? According to multiple sources I’ve spoken to at Caesars, there are more Seven Star members (Caesars invite-only status) based out of the Harrah’s in Cherokee, North Carolina, (where we played the WSOPC event) than anywhere else including the big Las Vegas properties. The “why” was unclear, but if I had to guess, a lot of rich southerners use it as a vacation destination close to Ashville and the other amenities in the NC mountains. Caesar took a gamble that many of those same players would happily take a shorter trip up to Danville with some regularity.
Well, the bet paid off. Weekend rooms at Danville, when they’re available, are regularly north of $800. And bring in a kind of player I’ve named the Megalodon. There’s one, Jason, that’s the perfect example.
Jason is just below c-suite at a massive tech company. He sits at the largest game in the room, and just punts stacks. VPIP is 90+, will pile money in with anything, and call you down with nothing. I met him at the tail end of one of his punt sessions, where he had donated $7k to the local economy in a few hours at $2/$5. He joked he was a single hand of baccarat from even, and I saw him walking into the high-limit room so I don’t doubt his honesty.
Somehow, Jason had gotten the better of me over ~10 hours of play, something which everyone in the room, including him, found hilarious. I had gotten a rebate, Danville has poker tables where you can gamble on the flop being a straight/flush/trips/etc and after several bad beats he started posting my “ante” for the game, which I hit for $300 once. But I was looking to finally get some of my long lost equity back from him.
The straddle is on at $2/$5, and I raise UTG+1 with black aces to $30. The SB cold calls, before Jason, in the BB, raises it up to $60. The straddle gets out of the way, and I decide with a short-stacked SB, and Jason in the BB who i desperately want to get a piece of the flop, $180 was an unconventional 4-bet sizing. Sure enough, the SB folds, Jason calls, and we see a flop of J♠7♣7♠.
$400 in the pot, and $1,300 remaining in Jason’s stack, I c-bet $225 when it checks to me, and Jason quickly calls.
The turn brings a 4♣, and Jason checks to me once again. In position and bearing a history of showing bluffs when flush draws brick out, I can set up a small enough bet that it would get called by worse should the flush draws brick out. I bet $425, and Jason quickly calls.
Everything bricks out, with a Q♥ on the river. $1,700 in the pot, Jason has $650 behind. Only one move when it checks back to us…right? Then I start thinking of the skeletons in the closet. All of the times Jason has sucked out on me on the river. How bad I had run recently. Did I really want to give away another car payment to his inevitably rivered two-pair? I check back.
Jason flashes us a smile and his hole cards. T♥9♥. I wasn’t getting any more of his money anyway. But I broke the cardinal rule of cash poker, the chips stopped being game pieces and became money that affected my decision making. I picked up a few minutes later as Jason left, and told myself I would need to take a step back and re-approach poker from another angle.
That was the last time we’d find ourselves at a poker table until now. This upcoming Vegas trip brings a new opportunity, to take a step down, get back to basics, and re-earn some confidence that we can grind low-stakes poker without fear we aren’t playing our best.
Interested to hear about the mortgage. Certainly seems unethical, if not in fact criminal, change the rate and pressure your wife into signing anyway.
The kind of thing that tempts one to say, "**** you. We'll lose the house, and find somebody else to work with. "
Interested to hear about the mortgage. Certainly seems unethical, if not in fact criminal, change the rate and pressure your wife into signing anyway.
The kind of thing that tempts one to say, "**** you. We'll lose the house, and find somebody else to work with. "
I wish there was a more interesting end to the story, but they ended up fixing the document early Monday morning and it didn’t delay closing.
We were assured that should we have signed it would have been corrected to the earlier rate we had fixed, but extrapolating an extra 1% over the life of the loan, yeah, it wasn’t worth the risk to take them at their word.
You’re a good writer; I’m enjoying the thread. Thanks!
2025 End of Year Update
After the WSOPC, I moved another hour from Danville, which pretty much killed live grinding. It wasn’t the drive as much as everything else that comes with moving to a new area and buying a house. But I had 3 poker trips lined up in the back half of the year.
Last update, I was about to head off to Vegas for a week with our wife, and if you want the full details, you can look at the live blog here. But a TL;DR is I play poorly, punt some tournaments, and ran hot in cash to make some back. Net’ed out to -$700.
I also made a trip out to Philly shortly after, and in a 36-hour period, ran worse than I ever had in my life at $1/$3. Sets over set, full house over full house, flush over flush, and when I got it in good, they hit their outs. I left that trip down a bit over $1,500.
Randomly I stumbled across someone selling a ticket into the Norwegian Cruise Line Main Event, the $1,150 tournament ticket, and $1.5k credit towards the room itself for…..$800. Somehow that wasn’t a scam either, and the credit covered most of the vacation itself. Admittedly, a 1k was a lot for my bankroll, but at a 30% discount and getting a free vacation out of it, it was a no-brainer.
The whole cruise was gambling themed with events like slot tournaments and a blackjack championship, and outside of Michael Mizrachi (who had final-tabled this annual tournament several times) it was an extremely soft field. By the end of the last break of Day 1 I had built up 2.5x starting stacks, and proceeded to lose 5 flips in a row.
Anyway, bad beat stories over, it’s my first real downswing, and it was bound to happen eventually. But having torched 25% of my bankroll in 3 trips and feeling poor about it, I was in look of something…anything.
Thank Your Lucky Stones!
I grew up obsessed with statistics and poker was a perfect outlet for that. I don’t believe you can manifest luck, and don’t believe in any form of it. But, if my favorite hockey team is in the playoffs I’ll wear the same jersey and drive to the game with the same playlist until we lose. There’s a sense of control that routine can have that puts my mind at ease.
This downswing had taken a shot at my mental. I knew I was at the tail end of variance, and these swings are inevitable. But something had to change, I could feel myself wanting to deviate in spots to give up advantages and play too passive.
My wife’s maid-of-honor is a witch. Was a witch? I don’t know if that’s a title you carry for life. But at one point in life she was in a coven and is very familiar with the occult. We go to the Renaissance Fair every year and the weekend before the Poker Cruise, I dragged her into a witch’s tent and had her and the owner decide on a stone to prescribe me with. $8 got me a small piece of polished turquoise. My first card protector, and hopefully a reversal of fortune.
We got home from the Ren Fair, and saw great overlay on a satellite to a $100, and won the ticket. Figuring I may as well press my new-found luck, I threw my ticket into a nightly, and ran hotter than I ever have before. Sure enough, we binked it, for almost $2k.
I don’t believe in luck. But that stone hasn’t left my pocket for 2 months.
Back to Basics
Before my big tournament win, we had been grinding 10 NL to a lot of success. I wouldn’t consider myself an “online grinder”, but it had been going well, and gave me the volume to highlight some leaks in our play, while also giving the confidence to jump back to live play.
The tournament win gave me the online bankroll to shift up in stakes, and also make me look at dipping my toes into PLO, which I thought would be a fun challenge, but honestly the player pool is so bad we haven’t been pushed towards learning beyond the fundamentals.
Right now online, i spend most of my time in 50 NL and 20 PLO online, but I haven’t completely abandoned live play. A friend from the gambling cruise got me plugged into the local private game scene. So far, we’ve kept things light and low stakes, mostly playing for fun, but the option to move up is always there if I want it.
2026 Outlook
Poker has been such a fantastic hobby and I don’t see myself ever giving it up….but I do want to take a step back. The bankroll has never been higher, I am playing well, but there’s some other hobbies I want to put front and center for awhile.
Thanksgiving - New Years has the perfect trio of low work stress, bad weather for other activities, and poker sites running promotions. We ran hot online this year and I suspect around this time next year, we’ll use the extra hours to get back on the grind and refreshed with some new goals.
It’s not over just yet, I've got a January trip, from the 8th - 14th, while I still have Caesars Diamond for basically free rooms. I’ll throw up a live trip report like last time. Going to try to balance poker with some other stuff I’m trying to check off my Vegas bucket list. Should be a great time.
