Nitty By Nature 7: No Filler (6/6-6/16 TR)
Summer TR season is upon us, which means it's time for another chapter in the annual nit saga.
After endless flip-floppi
DAY FIVE - 6/10
On the heels of several losing days, I opted to cut the Venetian $1100 MSPT from the schedule to reduce downside exposure. I had mentioned maybe playing the WSOP $250 daily, but have also previously expressed my desire to avoid 10-handed poker whenever reasonably possible. With that in mind, I opted for the Resorts World noon $200 instead. Heading out to RW an hour early gave me ample time for the first Junior's visit of the trip, which was a nice way to start the day.
The poker session also started out nicely when a young Euro who looked like the Platonic ideal of "maniac LAG poker player" ran a crazy bluff against me in level one. He opened to 300 from middle position and picked up one caller behind. I called with KJo out of the BB. Flop came 753 rainbow. It checked around. Turn brought the Jd, giving me top pair. I led for 600. Euro raised to 2.1k. The third player folded. I called. The river brought another 3. I checked. Euro jammed for about 20k. I tanked for a short time just to contemplate whether he could ever really have any value here. I don't think overpairs check behind on a flop that connects so well with the BB range. The only thing that might make even a little sense is 77 or 55. I'm not sure he bombs the river so huge if he wants action with his boat. I call and am shown a stone bluff with Q8o.
The tournament today drew approximately 115 entries. We were down to the final four tables when a very active player opened from UTG to 3.5k at 1.5k BB level. I had TT two seats behind him. I might proceed cautiously here against certain opponents, but I had played with this guy for much of the day. He was inclined to play too many hands and chase too much. I raised to 11k. Everyone else folded. He called. Flop came AA7. He checked to me. I can bet here for value and protection, but Ax is never folding. We're likely to be either way ahead or way behind, so I check and risk a free overcard. The turn is indeed an overcard, but it's one that I'm happy to see: a third ace. With three aces on the board, there's nearly no chance that we're up against Ax. AAATT is looking close to the nuts. V checks to me. I bet 10k. He quickly jams a covering stack (I have maybe 35k behind at this point). I snap call and am shown KcQc. We're in great shape for the double, which would bring us up over 100k.
He calls for a king. The dealer immediately puts a king on the river. GG us.
It was about 5:30 PM when I busted, leaving me with an awkwardly long wait to potentially hang around RW and play their 7 PM nightly. Beyond that, I was more than a little disgusted with the beat in the moment. I felt inclined to get out of there, so I marched back to the hotel and decided to eventually play the WSOP $200 8 PM nightly. There was no escaping 10-handed poker on this day after all.
After a couple slow early levels, I went on a modest rush and built the 20k starting stack up to 70k.
With 70 players remaining and 54 spots paid, blinds have become crazy high at 8k/4k. Most players are between 60-120k chips. The one legitimately big stack at the table is using his leverage to win easy chips by opening 50-60% of hands. I have 51k left in MP when he opens yet again from early position to 16k. I look down at AcAh. Sweet. I shove. He tank-calls Qs2s because of the pot odds. Another player remarks, "I folded the exact same hand." I say, "That just means the spades are coming."
I'm drawing dead by the turn. Three spades on the board. None in my hand. GG.
Two tournaments played today, and two brutal bad beats to crush our dreams. Not ideal.
The primary consolation is that I liked nearly all my decisions today and put myself in a position to make runs again. You can only control what you can control. The rest is up to the card gods. They seem to be angry with me at the moment.
The secondary consolation is that these beats are a lot easier to stomach at lower price points. It's rough to take some bad beats on the heels of several cold days, but ultimately I lost $400 on two stupid hands. It's not the end of the world. It's hardly Affleck/Duhamel.
Out of pure masochism and stubbornness, I will try again tomorrow.
You got it in good each time!
Keep doing that, and the rest will take care of itself.
Brutal beats there :( But just keep getting it in good, and results will come. Nice call against the Euro 😀
DAY SIX - 6/11
I hit Grand Lux in Palazzo for an early lunch, opting to try the chicken and bacon melt sandwich. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't recommend it compared to other things I've had there. I'll give it a soft 7/10. For the price, you are better off getting two sandos from the Earl.
After lunch, I decided to take another crack at the Resorts World daily, which cranked up the stakes from $200 to $300 today. The bigger buy-in did not result in a bigger crowd, as there were only about 85 entries in the event compared to 115 in yesterday's $200. With only 9 places paid, a money finish was going to require a final table run. Could I unlock two trophies today by securing the first cash and final table of the trip?
I quickly got up to 45k from 30k starting, but took a huge hit with a big blind special 67 on a 765 board in a raised pot. Middle Aged Guy in MP had flatted an EP open. I had called from the BB. When I activated on the flop with a check-raise to 10k, he jammed for about 15k more. I don't think this player ever has a straight here in a raised pot. He has overpairs like 88-JJ and all the sets. As we block many combos of 77 and 66, there's not much to fear except 55. Unfortunately that's exactly what he had, and I could not find the 4 outer on the turn or river. That dropped me down to below half starting. I eventually ran it back up after a few hours of bobbing and weaving. A JJ > AQ flip brought me up near 90k, 3x starting. 3x starting has been the glass ceiling for me in MTTs on this trip. I've often built up to that high water mark and then failed to find the second rush. That pattern held true today.
With 24 players left, I jammed my last 68k (22BB) from LP with AK over a UTG open and UTG+2 flat. When I jam here for this stack size, my hand is very face up, inviting calls from hands like 88-JJ. However, the opener in this pot had just opened A7o from EP the last orbit and made a bad turn payoff on a wet board. If anyone was going to pay me off with KQ, AJ, or AQ in this spot, it was this player. We have to hunt the mistake for full value, knowing that we are going to end up flipping often.
After a brief tank, she called with JJ and held. GG us.
That pot would've put me on 150k (5x starting) with a strong chance to cash, but that's NLHE tournaments for you. Flips giveth and flips taketh away.
This is going to be a short entry because there's not much else on the agenda today. I'm likely to take the night off from cards.
However, there is at least a little bit of excitement to share. I've gotten some clarity on my summer work situation. The long and short of it is that I won't be playing any WSOP poker in July, including the Main, but should have some extra funds arriving soon to replenish the bankroll. As a result of both of those things, I intend to go pretty hard on the back half of this trip. If the theme of this trip is to seize the day then it's time to grab that mofo by the scruff of the neck.
I will play flight 1B of the Monster Stack tomorrow. I hope to squeeze a Wynn $1100 into my weekend plans as well.
This has been a cruel trip from a results standpoint, but I feel good mentally and am hoping for a turnaround. If I continue to get my face melted, so be it. I've budgeted for max pain and have actually exercised good restraint on that front through the first few days, sizing down at a couple points. Now we go big and then we go home.
😃
I like to dunk on Sbarro, but the reason why I end up eating a few slices every trip is because it's quick and not terrible.
I'm not a vegetarian, but I usually go with the veggie options there.
There was a spinach and mushroom slice hiding under that cardboard.
It was more good than bad. I'll give it a respectable 7/10.
Sbarro is similar to McDonald's in that it's consistent everywhere (not that it's as good as McDonald's). You can count on it being mediocrely edible, even at midnight.
Plus, it's in the places I'm most likely to be playing late at night - Horseshoe and Orleans.
Two tournaments played today, and two brutal bad beats to crush our dreams. Not ideal. The primary consolation is that I liked nearly all my decisions today and put myself in a position to make runs again. You can only control what you can control. The rest is up to the card gods. They seem to be angry with me at the moment.The secondary consolation is that these beats are a lo
Ouch and ouch. I've only played the late Daily Deepstack once, it's a turbo. If I'm playing a Deepstack I don't want a turbo.
BTW, Wynn has a nice daily $200 that had 200 entries on a random spring weekend.
However, there is at least a little bit of excitement to share. I've gotten some clarity on my summer work situation. The long and short of it is that I won't be playing any WSOP poker in July, including the Main, but should have some extra funds arriving soon to replenish the bankroll. As a result of both of those things, I intend to go pretty hard on the back half of this tri
GOGOGO!
The Monster is my favorite tournament. I was going to play the Saturday flight until I got sick. The worst part is having to cancel a comped Horseshoe Executive suite, a rare treat for a low roller like me.
One trick that I've found is I dedicated one of my trading accounts to the WSOP. I started it this winter and banked enough to enter every event that I could get time off for. With a year to save up I might even have enough to lose at playing cash.
Find a bag!
Agree re Sbarro. Neither bad nor really good but always solid. Had a couple of slices at the Orleans.
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Dog, I was feeling same as you yesterday, hoping it turns around for you!
Btw, you played well in a couple spots against me. My polarized 1.5x pot river bet was nuts that time you folded, and you also laid down to a couple three bets and took 1-2 off me over the past couple days. Well played!
Dog, I was feeling same as you yesterday, hoping it turns around for you!
Btw, you played well in a couple spots against me. My polarized 1.5x pot river bet was nuts that time you folded, and you also laid down to a couple three bets and took 1-2 off me over the past couple days. Well played!
Thanks. Congrats on the bink!
Will be coming back to 20 BB after dinner break. Not where you want to be, but spinnable. Got up to 75k a couple times, but lost big pots all-in pre KK < AA and JJ < QQ. I won't complain if they give me the other half of the cooler next time.
Also got put in the blender by a Brazilian online wizard in another big JJ spot. Will try to share the HH eventually.
After returning from dinner, I grinded the stack up from 30k to 40k in the first orbit. It folds around to the CO, who opens to 3.5k. I have QQ. This is promising. I 3-bet to 11k. Active late reg player in the SB 4-bets to about 18k. Nitty player in the BB jams for his last 25k. CO folds and the action is back on me.
I'm not in love with the 5-bet rip from one of the most passive players at the table, but I've already stuck 11k out there and his jam was only for about 25k total. If he ever has hands like JJ or AK here then we have to go with QQ. I wasn't worried about SB, who was in run-it-up-or-bust mode. I rip. SB calls off his last crumbs.
We are in a good spot with QQ vs. JJ (SB) and AK (BB).
Flop brings a king. Another comes on the turn. No help on the river.
BB scoops the ~90k main pot while we win the 15k side pot > JJ.
Got my last crumbs in out of the BB with QT getting three way action on an 876 flop with the straight draw and overcards. Lost to KK.
Frustrating way to go out after 8+ hours of battling, but not much you can do. The holdometer has been seriously broken on this trip. Can't win a big all-in.
Actually very happy with the session overall. I played well and was steadily accumulating chips all day. The problem is that a big all-in collision would always materialize and I lost all three of them (KK < AA, JJ < QQ, QQ < AK). Reverse any of those spots and I would've been in great shape to bag, so I feel like I did well in terms of the parts I can control. The part I can't control (runouts in big all-ins) has been very unkind.
Playing the Monster again today after skipping it last year was a reminder of how great this tournament is. You get to grapple with a wide variety of player types in a great structure. I can't afford to fire it again out of pocket, but I am eyeing that final Saturday flight as a flex option if things go well tomorrow.
The current plan for the final three days of the trip looks like this:
6/13 - RW $400
6/14 - If I cash at RW, I fire Monster 1D here. If not, I likely fire RW $400 again.
6/15 - $500 Salute unless I have somehow played and bagged the Monster
Been a pretty weird trip so far in terms of results, but have been enjoying the vibe and excitement of being here for the WSOP.
Still have a few days left for something good to happen, so let's keep trying.
I'm not going to write a full daily recap like I usually do because I already gave some updates on the main drama of the day, but there are some other things to mention.
Despite bricking the Monster, I did manage to win some money at the WSOP today. My faith in the mixed game prowess of TonySoprano9 delivered a small PokerStake bink.
I know T is probably frustrated not to have run deeper, but it was fun to have a little side sweat today while I was on my breaks. My 1% share of Tony's run will more than cover tonight's Earl of Sandwich. On that note, I have hit 3/3 Earl sandwiches on the trip to unlock the silver trophy. The cabinet is looking pretty empty right now, so we'll take the wins where we can find them. Am I secretly a Tottenham fan?
TROPHY HUNTINGBRONZE TROPHIES- cash a tournament- make a day two- consume a Sbarro slice [X]SILVER TROPHIES- finish the summer in profit from poker- make a final table [X, but not really***]- eat 3+ Earl sandwiches [X]GOLD TROPHIES- bink a 5-figure score- make a day 3- sample the house coffee at 5+ poker rooms [3/5 done]PLATINUM TROPHIES- bink a 6-figure score - make a final ta
I'll also try to detail the difficult hand played against the aforementioned Brazilian online wizard, Gabriel Schroeder. He wasn't a name that I knew going into today, but he joined our table a few hours into the session and quickly made his presence felt with an aggressive play style. His avatar on the WSOP+ app had all sorts of fancy bells and whistles like the gold wreathe and GG Masters emblem. According to Hendon, he has $1.2M in live tournament winnings including a bracelet in the $1k turbo bounty in 2023 and a $400k for a 6th place finish in the WSOP Paradise Main in 2023. This is not the guy you want replacing the rec players at your soft starting table, but that's the beauty of the WSOP. You never know who is going to occupy that empty seat.
I have about 72k at 400/800 blind level a few seats behind him when he opens standard 2x. I look down at JdJc. I'm not thrilled about having to play a giant pot with JJ against a super wizard, but we cannot simply let him run over the table either. If we're not 3-betting JJ against his wide opening range then we're just letting him run over the table with total impunity. I put in a 3-bet to around 5.2k. My hope is that he will just go away, but if we have to play a pot then we have to play a pot.
He clicks it back to around 11k. Great. We have JJ facing a 4-bet from a monster tier player. This should be fun.
I can fold here, but again, that's incredibly weak with a hand as strong as JJ. His 4-bet sizing invites calls and allows us to set mine profitably and potentially just HOLD against AK, AQ, and his pure bluffs. I also contemplate just 5-bet ripping to take the post-flop edge away from him and shut out all his bluffs, but he has another ~30k behind and shoving feels too spewy in the event that it's really QQ-AA. I land on call.
The flop is a pretty good one, 862 with two hearts. He leads for a very small 5k. I see no reason to fold. Raising is an option, but if it's QQ+ then we're just value-owning ourself. With the pot already swollen, I elect just to call. The turn is the Kh. Interesting. AK got there, which is obviously a big dynamic in this spot since either one of us can credibly have that. He checks to me. This can mean many things. It's not beyond an elite player to check here as a trap with a strong hand like AA, KK, or AK. Alternatively, maybe he fears that I hold the AK if he has something like 77-QQ or stone bluffs like Ac5c. This is a spot where we can certainly put in a bet. I'm open to ideas about the correct play here.
In the moment, I wanted to keep the already bloated pot small and just get to showdown as cheaply as possible. Mistake?
The 4h rolled off on the river. ****. 4 hearts on the board, and we don't have one in our hand. Why couldn't it just be a spade?
He bombs the river for about 17k. Now I'm in a very weird spot. I effectively just have a bluff catcher. Therein lies the rub though. This is a top class player. He could literally be doing this with almost anything, from 7s6s to Ac4c. When your opponents are capable of running it, you have to reconsider what constitutes a worthy calling hand. Do you ever call here? I thought about it for a while before making my decision.
Spoiler
My thought process was that although I didn't bet the turn, it's still very possible for me to have something like 9c9h or JcJh instead of the other red J. If these hands are in my range and he's still comfortable bombing the river then it seems like it's also very possible for HIM to be the one with the heart. I feel he can play QhQc like this. He can have AhKx and be trapping the turn. He could have a hand like 99 or TT with heart. Maybe I'm giving him way too much having it credit when all his bluffs MUST bet this river to win, but ultimately I folded. My amateur body language read was that he was disappointed by the fold, but I could be wrong. I could have been wrong about everything the whole way.
I think in hindsight maybe I just need to fire about 11k at the turn to take control of the hand, tax any heart hands, and hopefully open up the check back option on the river.
Still seems like a pretty gross spot to me. It was the one time today when I felt lost in the sauce, and like I might have been totally punked. I'm open to feedback.
After returning from dinner, I grinded the stack up from 30k to 40k in the first orbit. It folds around to the CO, who opens to 3.5k. I have QQ. This is promising. I 3-bet to 11k. Active late reg player in the SB 4-bets to about 18k. Nitty player in the BB jams for his last 25k. CO folds and the action is back on me. I'm not in love with the 5-bet rip from one of the most passi
Take a look at the Landmark satellites. They run them every day, and I think there's a $240 that pays around $2k in casino chips. No tax implications with wins < $5k.
Glad I could help in a small way to complete your earl of sandwich trophy [emoji3]
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Take that $30.17 from Tony, put it on red, let it ride!
Nice writeup DogFace. Not sure on the JJ hand. I appreciate spelling out the thought process. I probably 5x rip pre. If he has AA KK, oops. If not, he probably sees you as an amateur who would only 5-bet AA.
But then again, both you and the Brazilian are orders of magnitude better than I, so you probably played/thought it out correctly.
I'm not a tournament player, but the chip EV solver says JJ can jam preflop the majority of the time, and jam the flop the vast majority of the time. For the fraction of the time it gets to the river, it's a pure fold without the Jh.
It also says that the flop is 100% cbet small for villain, and the he's supposed to check all of his nut flushes on the turn. So it seems like a good fold.
DAY EIGHT 6/13
I haven't been sleeping very well on this trip and I've been feeling very slightly under the weather the last two days, so I wanted to start the morning with a solid meal to help get myself right. I hit Grand Lux in Palazzo again and ordered an omelette with spinach, mushrooms, cheddar, and tomatoes. As Vegas meals go, that isn't completely unhealthy. Recharged from the omelette and coffee, I raced over to Resorts World for another shot at their daily, which was a chunky $400 today.
Would it be yet another gruesome car crash for us on the MTT streets?
My starting table was extremely soft and passive, but I got frustrated by having to make a biggish fold and then tried too hard to win it right back on the next hand, taking an unnecessary bluff spot against an OMC type. In short, I tried to turn raise his double barrel on a 5698 runout. He tank-called QQ. I gave up on the brick river. I knew he likely had an overpair here based on his demonstrated tendencies, as he would not have double-barreled the turn with a hand like AK or AQ on that board facing a late position flat and continue. In other words, I tilted off half my stack here. That's not bad luck. It's 100% operator error. One lesson I've learned from these spots over the last couple years is that when you have value you can fast play and be very greedy because the average villain is just never going to get away from the overpair. However, running bluffs in these spots with limited escape possibilities is just dumb (I had KsJs). With half my stack gone, I played fast for the next few orbits hoping to either spin it right back or re-enter.
Bullet #2 started much better. I hit some boards hard and was able to extract value from similar situations where opponents could not find the fold with big pocket pairs. Soon I was sitting on 120k from 40k, making the second bullet more than worthwhile. 3x starting has been my cursed number on this trip. I routinely get there and never get past that point. With 40 players left and 15 spots paid, I had dwindled down to roughly 95k. It folded to a competent aggro player in the BTN. He opens to 6k. I look down at AK. Always a welcome sight. I put in a 3-bet to 20k. BB unexpectedly 4-bets for about 40k. BTN folds and it's back on me. In a BTN vs. blinds situation we are simply never folding AK here. I'm happy to rip. I get called by AQ.
Flop comes 6Q6 and I get no help on the turn or river. Busto in a 75% spot that would've put me on 210k (7x starting) in great position to cash the tournament and chase the $11k up top. That's been the story of this trip so far. I grind a decent stack and am forced into a huge all-in confrontation. Regardless of what % I have, I lose at showdown. It is tilting, but there's really nothing procedurally I can do about it.
My plan going into the day was to play the Venetian 6:10PM $600 NLHE bounty if I busted Resorts relatively early. It was about 6:00 PM when I busted. I rushed to the Venetian and was able to get seated before the end of level 1. This nightly bounty event is just a higher stakes version of a $200 evening bounty event that they run throughout the year. I'm very familiar with the tournament and have made many deep runs. You get 25k chips and things move pretty quickly because people play crazy trying to win the bounties. It was a swingy session. I had dropped down to around 35% starting stack when I won 77 > 33 AIPF to get back to 15k. What's this? A HOLD? With 12k in my stack, a tilted short stack jams his last 9k from MP. I have AQo. Beautiful. I rip. Covering stack to my immediate left jams behind. Even bigger stack behind her jams over everyone. It's a 4-way all in with my AQo vs. two rags (MP), AJ (me+1), and AhKh (me+2). AJ improbably scoops when she hits trip jacks. I am once again busto in a spot that plays itself.
That brings the MTT cold streak on this trip to 0-for-11, nearly equaling the 0-for-13 lull that I experienced in the middle of last summer.
It is a strange thing to be writing a TR that only serves to document endless punishment from the deck, but that's where we are right now. I'm not looking for sympathy. I've never been shy about posting when things have been going great and I'm not going to hide when I'm experiencing the opposite. The best thing I can say is that I'm generally making runs and putting myself in position to get lucky. I've just been whiffing all the all-ins when it matters. That can't go on forever.
I'm calm about it, but I'm also beginning to run out of time (and budget). I'm slated to leave town on the 16th. Having gone slightly over budget today because of the double bullets into the RW tournament, I will size down tomorrow and play the $250 WSOP daily. I am reminded of an old meme...
10-handed poker? Desperate times call for desperate measures. I will try my hardest to win this silly event.
If I bust before the evening, I will play a $200 nightly at either the WSOP or RW.
Be sure to set your clocks, folks. It's officially summer saver time.
A few assorted points before I head out the door today:
- As I was recounting yesterday's painful bustout from RW, I got the math wrong. 210k would've put me on ~5x starting rather than 7x starting. I promise my math isn't that bad when I am calculating pot odds. I got my wires crossed because the starting stack has been varying at RW depending on the buy-in level. I believe it's 25k at $200, 30k at $300, and 40k at $400. If I'm not mistaken, the structure itself remains unchanged, so you genuinely get a little more play on the bigger $$ days.
- While we're on the topic of stack sizes and tournaments, I was struck by how advantageous late-regging the Colossus seems to be. The late reg is so long that you can jump in there, win two big hands, cash, and bag up chips for day 2. I'm firmly an "in your seat at the start of level 1" guy because I want to get max value for my entry fee and play as much as possible with the worst players before they dump all their chips, but seeing people hop in so close to the bubble made me think it's a great option as well in certain tournaments where the WSOP leaves it open egregiously late for that sweet rake money.
- I haven't been too adventurous with my meal choices so far on this trip. Most of my choices have been motivated by quickness and convenience more so than pure quality. However, I've promised a friend that I will make an effort to try Hattie B's at the Cosmo and report back on the quality. We have something of an ongoing debate about fast casual fried chicken sandwich options. I hope to assess how Hattie's compares to other chain options like Popeye's, Dave's, and Chick-fil-A. From a pure value standpoint, I'm a Chick-fil-A guy whereas my friend is Team Popeye's.
- I wimped out from firing a team at the ODB fantasy, but I did enter ther PokerOrg freeroll to win a Main Event seat. It's an extreme longshot, but my team is currently sitting inside the top 25% of rosters. The squad is $95 Phil Ivey, $26 Tyler Brown, $22 Viktor Blom, $18 Adam Friedman, $12 Maksim Pisarenko, $11 John Hennigan, $11 Jeff Madsen, and $5 David Prociak. Brown has already scored a bracelet this summer. Blom has been crushing and is chip-leading the $10k LHE final table. I'll get a big chunk of points from that. It might be hard to win this thing without Pads or Benny Glaser on your team, but if Ivey can put together a few vintage runs then I might be able to push into the top 100 and make it interesting.
- I seem destined to play the WSOP $250 daily at least once every summer. It was a staple of my early WSOP trips in 2018 and 2019. I was able to squeak out a min-cash in 2018. I bricked attempts in 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024. My first year at the WSOP, it felt like a big and prestigious tournament to me. After getting some reps in at the $1k+ level, it began to feel like the minor leagues. That affected my psychological approach to the event on at least a couple bullets. I didn't treat it with enough respect, got bored, and forced things. I'll try to give it my best shot today and exercise the patience and discipline required to thrive in a nitty 10-handed marathon. I had numerous cashes in the daily deepstacks at the Rio, but am somehow still 0-for-everything at the ParisShoe. Today would be a nice time to find a result.
The Hattie's has been crushed.
On the spendy side compared to Chick-fil-A or Popeye's, but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. I'll give it an 8/10.
They offer different heat levels. I went with merely "hot", which was spicy, but not "my eyes are watering" spicy.
Now we calmly await our fate in the $250.
- While we're on the topic of stack sizes and tournaments, I was struck by how advantageous late-regging the Colossus seems to be. The late reg is so long that you can jump in there, win two big hands, cash, and bag up chips for day 2. I'm firmly an "in your seat at the start of level 1" guy because I want to get max value for my entry fee and play as much as possible with the
Let's hope you remember this for next year.
DAY NINE - 6/14
I haven't been getting great sleep on this trip and that held true today. I woke up entirely too early for my 1PM tournament start time, but that wasn't such a big problem. It gave me ample time to register for the event in Paris, take a leisurely stroll through Bellagio, and check out Hattie's in the Cosmo. After that I still had extra time and energy, so I did a loop through Aria and eyeballed their $1.1k Mystery Bounty, which was carving through its field quickly. Aria was one of the mainstays on my early LV trips, but these days I rarely find myself on the property. I did not play any cash or tournaments there this summer.
I eventually made it back to the daily deepstacks dungeon for the tournament start. As I scoured the tables, I could not seem to find mine. Following the logical sequence, it was not where it should have been. Then it dawned on me: today I would be starting on the "final table", which is set aside from the grid. A good omen for this session?
Things began very well. I ran my 25k stack up near 50k and was still sitting on 40k when the following spot came up. At 500/1000 blinds, Euro Fish opens min in EP. Two flats behind. I find KK in the BB. I elect to 3-bet to 10k. Euro Fish decides this is a good opportunity to shove for 15k more. It folds back to me and I obviously snap. He turns over 55. I like this. The flop comes A87. I like this. The turn comes 6. I do not like this. The river is a 9. I really do not like this. The 60k pot goes to Euro Fish.
I do manage to HOLD in an AA vs. 66 spot a short time later to get back to 25k. On the last hand before the second break, it folds to aggro player in MP. He opens to 2k. I have 99. Way ahead of his range. I make it 7k from the CO. Passive-nitty novice type of player flats from the BTN. The odor you're detecting is me shitting bricks. Everyone else folds and we go head up to a flop of QTx. I am not interested in putting another chip in this pot. I check-fold and his body language seems annoyed.
After the second break, a max late reg player joins our table and immediately open rips his 25k stack from BTN on his first hand. This is relevant info because two hands later I am UTG with AdTd and about 12BB in my stack. I don't know what solvers suggest, but personally I think suited royal flush draws are fantastic bet-fold candidates around 8-12BB even though some will say it's push-fold. The reason is because the min-bet looks so strong that it actually dissuades further action, which often allows you to see flops with hands that can hit them very hard (or miss very hard and let you get away). I min-click it to 3k. Euro Fish flats behind. Late Reg jams. It's back on me. I don't love this spot. If min-bets from EP look strong and Late Reg just jammed over my open then he probably has a real hand. I would likely fold here to everyone else at the table, but I had no data on Late Reg and he'd just ripped for piles on his very first hand. AdTd is a lot of hand against a possible late-reg maniac looking to gamble for stacks and I'm pretty sure Euro Fish's chips are dead money. We don't need anything close to 50% to be profitable here. I call off my last ~10BB, Euro Fish folds. Late Reg turns over AQo no diamond. Unfortunately we cannot suck out and we hit the showers.
Busting at this hour gives me just enough time to scoot down to Resorts World for another crack at their 7PM nightly.
I even have enough surplus minutes to sit down at Mulberry Street Pizza for a pretty good slice of pie. Possibly unpopular opinion: I don't think Vegas is a good pizza city. I consider most of the convenient options to be mediocre, though I haven't tried some of the hyped joints (Pizza Rock for one). In that context, Mulberry Street is near the top of the pyramid. I am sad to say it puts Sbarro to shame.
The session at RW gets off to a rocky start when I make a flush with 6s5s, bet a third of my stack on the turn, and have to fold the river vs. two full houses (they got the money in and showed). I make a good call with bottom pair junk kicker on the river against a suspect barrel and get back to around 80% starting when I lose another chunk having to fold two pair against an unlikely straight (he showed after I folded). I feel like I'm batting above average just to still be in the tournament.
Ironically, once my stack has been crushed and I'm sitting on crumbs, the rungood comes in. I drill quads to win a flip with 88 vs. AK. I open AK UTG, get 3-bet by a strong player, and am too shallow to ever consider folding (<20BB). I 4-bet rip and he snaps it off with AA. Somehow the board runs out a broadway straight for me and I'm on 40k from 25k starting. Sadly, the rest of the session is uneventful. There were 42 entries in this event. I find myself nursing a very short stack with 10 players left (5 paid) and the blinds getting sky high. I keep getting shoves through with hands like AQ, QcTc, and 66. It's a double-edged sword because, while I'm happy to win the blinds and antes, I really need someone to give me a spin at some point so I can double up. It never happens. After another level jump, I end up pot-committed with atc in the big blind with a trash hand (7h3h). SB raises. The math says I need to call any two here, so I call my last 2-3 extra BBs. I make a pair of 3s, but she hits the 5 with A5o and I go out on the final table bubble.
The results weren't there today in either of my events, but I can't think of many spots I'd take back and do over. I think I got what was there to be gotten, which just wasn't quite enough. I'll play the WSOP Salute tomorrow and that will probably be the last poker of the trip. After being a punching bag for the duration of this trip, I will not feel guilty if I get hit hard by the deck.
