MuckPls vs BigWhale - a WSOP June TR

Moved over back here again after a quick nap:

Venetian session earlier:

Sit down at a new table with $300, dealer opens it and asks if we want to start with a PLO bomb pot. Of course! I have JT87 and flop a full house on the top board of JJT and flop an open ender on the bottom one which is something like 652r or something like that.

Long story short we get it in for stacks 3 ways. Turn on top is an A, turn on bottom pairs the 6. River on top is a brick and river on the bottom lands my straight with a 9.

Player one shows AJ for higher full house on top and player two shows 99 for a full house on the bottom.

Reload. 2 hands later I 3-bet AA on the button. Flop is K72r. I cbet he calls. Turn is a brick and we wager all of our money. He calls and asks if I have aces and I say yes and he says don’t worry you are good. Until the K lands on the river and I do worry. I worry a lot as he shows KJo.

Reload again lose another 100 or so and just decide to leave. $700 in 10 minutes.

Walk over to high limit and rip $3000 on blackjack, probably won like 2 hands in 2 shoes?

Walk over to the host desk at the Venetian to ask them about comps and they say they sadly have nothing to offer me as I have only lost $8000 in 3 days. Just wow…

Gonna stay at the B for a full buyins worth and if it goes south then I’m taking a few days off from everything.

Tomorrow we are moving to Excalibur and I plan to go and tier match at Fountainblue for example for the $150 food credit and $150 spa credit.

Packed it in with KK in a $1100 pot 3-way. One of them had AA and I didn’t win. 5 minutes later my last 200 went in on 9 high board with two hearts vs TT and I didn’t win that one either.

Taking a day or two off but yeah, no hope for this TR either.

That was me. No apology necessary. I’d been card dead most of the time too so at times I was trying to see cheap flops. I was already wondering if you were BigWhale based on observing your play along with your accent. Your 3-bet sizing looked familiar. lol. Normally, I’d 4-bet or fold on that hand but I figured I’d just cold call and evaluate post flop.

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Crap! Forgot to do MGM status match to CET Diamond. Not that it matters, I had to cancel the rest of my trip anyway.

Some days it's very hard to update this thread, and today is one of those. Both because I am dead tired now, but that is not the only reason. I most likely played like a complete imbecil today, and although that is never fun to write about I will try to make a quick summary of why I think that.

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I went over to The Orleans to play their $300 'Monster Stack', but as mentioned in my previous post I had to late register a bit. I came in with 30,000 chips and blinds at 300-500-500, and took place at a table that at first glance looked very good (read: fishy).

After folding a few hands I find 77 in mid-pos and raise to 1200. A very fishy OMC calls on the button, and we go heads-up to Q-6-3 two diamonds. I bet small for 1000 to get value from flush draws, 6x and small pairs, and opponent calls. Turn comes another 6, which is not my favorite so I check it. He bets 2000, and I think a bit and decided to call once but to fold river if he bets again.

River is however another Q, and after I check he now bets 2000 again. The guy looks like someone who would never bluff, but for such a price I got too tempted to see what was going on. I call, only to get shown QTo for a full house. I should have known, and possibly even folded turn.

I also raise AQo to 1200 two hands later, but get three callers and a very bad flop in T-9-6. So I have to give up that one as well, and just like that we are down to 20,000 chips at the first break.

After the break I tread water a bit, winning 1-2 small pots but also lose some. The table then breaks, and I get a new one that also looks very favorable. There seemed to be a fair bit of OMC-regulars from The Orleans in this event, which obviously provided very soft tables overall.

My first hand at the new table is when I raise 88 from UTG to 2500 (at 500-1000-1000) from UTG, but get calls from EP1 and a fish woman on the button. We see the K-6-2 flop, which is not terrible but I chose to check it. The plan was to check-call once, however the Asian player in EP1 immediately bets 6000, which gets called by the woman. I have to fold then, and the Asian wins the hand with KQo for what it's worth.

Then a new hefty guy in his 40s (maybe?) raises to 2500 from hijack, and I have 77 behind him. I am down to 13500 at 600-1200-1200, and this guy have been active enough to where I think I need to go with my hand. I jam all-in, and get a tank-fold from the raiser.

Ryan DePaulo would appreciate this stack picture:

A few hands later we find a big hand in AKo from EP1. I make it 2500 and only an OMC in BB calls the raise. The flop is above average, with A-Q-5. He checks, I bet 2000 and he calls. Turn comes another A, and after he checks I have to keep my sizing in check to continue getting called by Qx. So I only make it 3500 (into 10800), and he calls one again.

River comes a 9, and after he checks I only have one move left. I jam for my remaining 10500, and after thinking about it for 30 seconds the opponent makes the call. I table my hand, and he shows Q8o for just a pair of Queens. Well, that was easy!

I win a small pot or two more, and then I raise AQcc to 3000 (minraise at 1500 bb now), before the Asian to my right jams it in for 21k. The whole motion of which he jammed really gave away his hand strength, so I have a very easy call when it comes back to me. He has 66, but we flop a Q and win the flip after the board runs out safe afterwards.

We have a stack of 75k then, which feels great after a sluggish start. But unfortunately I couldn't build on it and became very card-dead for the next few levels. When we arrive at 1500-3000-3000 (last level before re-entry), I am down to around 50k after having posted my BB. That is the prelude for one of the weirdest hands I played in a while.

For this hand we are only 6-handed after some recent eliminations, and it folds to an OMC with a big stack on the button. He holds his cards in a motion to muck, but then stops himself when he realizes there are no raise in front of him and that the chips in front of me is just my Big Blind. He then changes course and limp for 3000. It was very obvious that he had a very weak holding here, one that he was originally ready to fold to what he believed was a raise.

This creates a very profitable situation for me, especially because I don't think he knows that I noticed this. I pretend to look at my cards and make it 13000. One could say I could just jam here to make it easy, but in my defense I didn't think I had to. Plus, just in case he was doing some absurd reverse tell, I wanted to give myself an escape hatch.

He thinks for a while but eventually decide to call my raise. Ouch, not quite what I wanted to see, but ok. There should still be many flops that we can move him off his hand. The dealer spreads out 3-4-7, and my hand is 52o. So I have actually flopped an open-ender, and with the pot being 30k there is no need to get fancy here. I jam for my remaining 37k to promote fold-equity, and in worst case I have equity when called.

Once again he goes into the tank for a while, and I am praying for him to fold so that I can pick up this pot and don't have to show my hand. No such luck though, he eventually slams in some chips to call me. I couldn't help to make a comment once he did that (I said something like 'you were going to fold pre, what on earth are you doing?', before tabling my hand. He shows 64dd, which is a pair and a gutter and blocks some of my outs. And he obviously holds up on 4 turn and 9 river.

I frustratingly leave the tournament area as soon as I can, very conflicted with myself regarding this bustout. On one hand I was right; he had an extremely weak hand I am very unlucky to not win the pot here. If it comes K-J-5 for example, we can easily get a fold out of him even without having to risk our entire stack.

At the same time it feels a bit silly to bust like that with five high, and a part of me wonders if I should just have checked and waited for a better spot. I usually know what I am doing when I get short stacked, and maybe that would have been a better route to take rather than banking on that this massive fish is able to find a fold.

People smarter than me have however said something about this recently:

https://x.com/ChancesCards/status/193500...

After chilling back in the room for a bit, I decided to head out to Aria for a cash game session as the waitlist did not look terrible. I had to wait for a little bit, but got a seat within 20 minutes and bought in for $400.

I won a few small hands in the beginning at what seemed like a fairly tight table for the most part. That said, some big pots did pop out of nowhere as well.

But after being up around $45 early, it quickly went downhill. I tried to flop sets with 44 and 88 without succeding, and also lost one or two more tiny puts. So I am about break-even for the day when a huge hand takes place.

It starts with a tight player limping in from early pos, before an active black guy (who did not stay long) makes it $11 on the button. I have KK, and 3-bets to $45. The result is not what I expected, as the limper cold-calls the $45 while the original raiser folds. I definitely take not of the fact that he originally wanted to see a cheap flop, but now suddenly have a hand worth cold-calling a 3-bet with. In short, I don't think he is very strong.

The flop comes 4-6-8 two spades, which I didn't like at all since it can easily have improved some of his range (44 and 66). That said, he could also have hands like 87s or similar, or even stuff like K8s (the 8 was not a spade). My first instinct was actually to check the flp, but ultimately I decided to bet out $40 for value. He check-raises to $145 and I am put in a quandry. He has around $200 back, and I wish I had thought this one more through. But what happens too often in these spots is that I assign people too wide ranges and start thinking 'maybe he has a flush draw' or 'maybe he limped TT and thinks it's the nuts'. And obviously also that I get brain fog simply from having a big pair.

So yeah, I stick it all in like an idiot and he snap-calls. Turn comes 3s and river Js, so I actually back into the second nut flush! That's gotta be good right? Nope, he has 75ss for the flopped straight and turned straight flush. With how straight forward this guy was postflop I really should have known, and gotten away from it once he raises. Or gone for a check-call line, which was my first instinct as mentioned above.

I reload another $300 and I am in the game for $700 now. Not a good feeling, especially since I was starting to get tired and the game was overall pretty tight. I won some hands here and there, but definitely lost more than I won. None of the hands are too interesting really, just random small or medium-ish pots without any super complex decisions.

Which brings me to the last hand of the session, where I finally pick up AKo (red cards) after being card-dead for a long time. I raise to $12, and get calls from the lucky straight guy (who just won another huge pot after calling a big 3-bet pre with 64ss and flopped a straight), and a miserable middle aged tight Asian grinder with headphones.

So we go 3-ways to K-T-7 two clubs, and after it checks to me I bet $20. The guy behind me + the Asian calls, and then BB.. wait, where did he come from?.. folds his cards. We were actually 4-ways to the flop, which makes my bet of $20 into $49 a bit small in my opinion. Especially given how many inferior hands can call on this board. Could have easily gone $30-$35 here.

Turn is another club (2c), so there is now a flush here. I decided to check, and after I do so the straight-guy bets $30. Asian calls $30 and it's back on me. Definitely have to see one more here with TPTK, although I don't have any flush blockers. That said, the sizing felt a bit weak-ish to me.

River comes another T, which worried me for 0.5 seconds before realizing that no-one should have Tx here as played. The idea of leading river briefly came to me, but I was way too tired to properly considered it. So I just checked, and the other two checks behind. I win the pot as the straight-guy only had KJo and the Asian mucked.

Yet again another horribly played hand, first where I don't notice the fourth player in the hand and bet too small. I also think that leading this river would be quite interesting, and it frustrated me to no end that I didn't think about it properly at the table. I knew something was up with that small sizing on turn, and I should have thought ahead and realized that I must prevent river from checking around. Something like $50 here could for sure have gotten a call from KJ, and if I get raised it's a rather trivial bet-fold.

In all honesty, I was way too tired and should have left the game sooner. But it's very hard to get out of that chair when you are stuck, compared to when you are winning. In total I lost $320 USD (practically all from the KK-hand) after 3h30min of play. Definitely not the right stuff:

No energy to update the depressing stats now, I will do it tomorrow. But it's just so bad that I cannot go a single trip without making such ********d decisions. My opponents are so predictable that I can easily find some explotative folds with big pairs, and I cannot miss out of value and just play AK scared like they would.

Hopefully tomorrow (read, later today) will be better. Now I am going to sleep as I am completely exhausted.

Edit: If any typos, sorry, too tired to spell check.

We are officially homeless! That’s the downside of sharing a room with a PLO player who plays from afternoon until early morning. We are on diff sleep schedules and as I wake up he goes to bed.

We have the room until 1pm and then he is checking into Excalibur while I’m (hopefully) playing the Orleans $200 at 11. That highly depends on the Aria session however.

Until then breakfast at Primrose:

Just doubled at 1/3, more than doubled actually, so mission accomplished. Firing the tourney at 11 at Orleans:

It seems like it was worth a shot, both pre-flop and with how the flop connected. If you win it pre-flop or at showdown, you probably feel great about it.

In a weird way, it wound up being a bit of a cooler. I wouldn't dwell on it.

85-90% of entries in a given tournament result in winning $0, so it's normal to crash and burn from reasonable decisions.

Quick hit at the Orleans. It’s not a hand pay but I’ll damn take it!!!

I'm curious why you guys choose Aria for NLHE, even the lower stakes? Seems as if there are so many better options for fish. I used to play PLO there all the time, but now that we have Wynncore and Venetian (and possibly others for PLO), I doubt I'll go to Aria often. Just too many grinders. Maybe during WSOP it attracts more rec players?

Rookie mistake. You should've gotten a players card. That hit is probably worth at least a couple free nights.

I can’t really answer that, for me it’s just my favourite room. It plays deeper than Bellagio, it’s close (we always stay at Park MGM) and the hours I usually play it’s absolutely full of fish.

I do play a lot at the Venetian tho, but my main game is and probably will always be Aria.

I did have a players card in

Yeah, the picture says Please insert your card.

For one thing, it's much cleaner than the Bellagio. Bellagio has been a pig sty the last few times I've played there.

Some sick sht right there. One of those hands that proves a) the machines are alive and b) they hate you.

Anyone who ever wonders why they should never, ever ever ever ever play if they can't afford a full bet just needs to live that pic, once.

I know and I literally never ever do this. Except this time. And this time it ****ing lands…

Spoiler for when I get time to post again:

That looks to me like a GREAT night at an uncapped 1/2 game at the Nugget!!

we've all been there bud - tired, bad plays, running bad too. You're a good player. Stay aggressive and BELIEVE

You must have felt right at home there. 😉

Here is yet another spoiler:

Writeups coming later today.

Where were we?

Oh yeah the UX that didn’t work out. After that I went to meet up with Mr PLO who had just checked out of our room and we checked in to a Staywell renovated room at Excalibur. Despite how bad everyone says it is, I think it’s actually quite decent:

Bad pic as it was dark. Nothing special really but it’s ok for 3 nights.

I crashed immediately and slept from 3 pm to midnight and got into an Aria game pretty much straight away.

In for $500 out for:

Table was bad and I was freezing, was under the tv table which has the AC over it so u decided to just call it and move over to the Venetian.

Fun story: while walking back to Park yesterday I saw a very young girl (must have been 25 maybe) with a super cute amstaff next to her. I usually don’t give money to people on the street but the dog got to me so we talked for a while, I petted the dog (man i miss my own dogs) and gave her some money.

When on a losing day or week it helps to take a step back and realise how much worse people have it…