The Summer Wind - A WSOP Trip Report …… and beyond!

Wishing you serious run good!

Run it up!

Borgata Big Big Buy-In Series
Day Three - Monday September 8th

11:15am restart today for day 2 of the HORSE and it turns out there was a re-draw and we only have 11 players remaining.

The draw for the game sees us staring on Razz so we have probably the bloodiest two games in the mix in Razz and Stud first up.

It doesn’t take long before we’re down to 9 players. The final table will be 8 handed, or will it?

A player busts at the other table and we have a big hand developing on our table which sees another two players eliminated. I told you these games were bloody! In less than 2 rounds we’re down to only 6 players and we now combine onto the final table.

While all the drama was going on I didn’t see a hand and ante’d away so will start the final 6 with only 45k. The shortest stack by far.

We draw for the game again and will be starting on Hold’em. I have two free hands before I’m the big blind; Rags. Fold, fold.

Now I’m the big blind and it’s folded around to the small blind who raises of course. I look at my hand and am extremely happy to see A-A.

I 3-bet, villain calls and calls my bet again on the flop. On the turn I have just 9k left which villain calls. He has A-4 and there’s a 4 on the board but no disaster on the river and we have a full double up.

Another player gets eliminated and we’re on the stone bubble now with 5 players remaining.

I pick up a pot in Razz and as we cycle through the games and return to hold’em another player has become really short.

The short stack raises all-in pre and it’s folded round to us in the small blind. I look down to see 8-8 and 3-bet hoping to isolate, but the big blind comes along.

Flop: K-8-3

Hello set! We bet and get called by the villain in the big blind on every street who had a King.
The all-in short stack actually flopped the nut flush draw which happily didn’t come so we’re now in the money. Cha-ching!

I get nothing in the Omaha round while Chance Kornuth gradually increases his chip lead.

Then I play a big 3-way Razz pot with the other 2 players left. I dont remember the exact runout but I make a 6-5 on 6th street at which point one of them folds, but I get called on 6th and 7th by the other.

We go on break and I now have an average stack.

After the break Chance ups a gear and is running over the table. He eliminates the other two players and I find myself heads up with him out-chipped 200k to 1.1 million.

I scare him a little as I claw my way up to about 550k when we play the following hand in hold’em.

He raises the button as he has been doing every hand. I have Q-Q and 3-bet which he calls.
Flop: A-K-7 all spades.
One of my queens is the spade so I have the nut flush draw and maybe even still the best hand as he’s been opening any two on the button.
I bet, he calls.
Turn: An off-suit 5
I check, he bets, I call.
River: An off-suit 9
I check. He bets. Knowing he’s more than capable of bluffing in this spot I have to make the call and am shown the bad news.
2-7 both spades for a flopped flush.

He chops away at me through the full rotation of the games and I have little to play back with and we arrive back to hold’em again.

He opens the button. I have K-T which is a monster after all the trash that I’ve been getting and decide to take a stand with it. I 3-bet and he calls.
Flop: 8-6-2
Not great but I’m commited. I bet, he calls.
Turn: 3
I only have half a bet left so put it in, which he calls.
9-3 aaarrrggghhh. I was good, but he hit the 3 on the turn.
River: 2
No help. GG.

We gave it our best shot and just come up short. Chance obviously is a great player, more well known for hold’em, but plays the other games nearly as well.

Some 2nd places I’ve been disappointed with, but can’t say that about this one. With my chip stack both at the start of the day and at the start of the final table I definitely out-kicked my coverage this time.

Consolation prize:

It’s not all mine. I sold 30% of my action on pokerstake and I know at least two forum members had a piece. You’re welcome.

It’s only 3pm. Nice to be done with a tournament day so early, but what to do now? Chance jumps straight into the milly guaranteed hold’’em event but we opt for a more leisurely afternoon here:

And get some rays outside here:

Before rewarding ourselves with a nice dinner at B Prime:

A delmonico cut steak with fries and a half bottle of Malbec. Very tasty, but no room for dessert.

After dinner I watched MNF in the bar.

Not been the best start to the season bets wise for me. I had Baltimore last night and Chicago tonight. Both of them were up two scores in the 4th quarter and ended up losing.

On deck tomorrow:
$2,500 9-Game

congratulations! great to get a deep run and a good collect. not much you can do when the best player also runs the best - 2nd is an excellent result

that meal looks delicious too. I'm a fan of the Catena Malbec and certainly by Australian standards, $29 for a half bottle is very good value for a restaurant

Congrats! Epic run at the end.

Well done!

nice hit!

Congratulations on the score. Great run-up from bottom stack!

Awesome. Great job!

Always fun to follow your deep runs. Congratulations!

Foul deck! Chance couldn't have had 2-7 spades with the 7 of spades on the board.

Great run, though! Was a nice read this morning.

Borgata Big Big Buy-In Series
Day Four - Tuesday September 9th

A 10:15am start today for the $2,500 9-Game and I have to say I like starting at this time.

Unfortunately it was one of those days when nothing went right.

The tone was set early when I was dealt an 8 perfect pat in 2-7 and 4-bet capped it pre against two other players who drew two and one respectively. The draw two got there and made a 7 on the last change.

Random pic from the lobby.

I was down to about 18k from 40k starting when I opened from the button with QJ97ss in PLO. The small blind 3-bet (obvious Aces) and I called looking for a spot to double up.
Flop: 7-6-2r
Villain leads out for the pot which is all my chips. I’m committed and getting the right price to call against Aces. He does have AAxx
Turn: Ace - leaving me drawing dead and ironically I did hit my two pair on the Q river.

That was towards the end of level 8 and I decide to have a break and get something to eat before max late reg’ing a 2nd bullet.

Food court pizza for dinner.

I’m really card dead on the 2nd bullet until I play a big pot in Stud making a flush on 6th but villains Aces-up improves to a full house on 7th.

Only 90 entrants meaning an overlay of $25k.

Im still grinding out my short stack on level 13 and make a stand with a pat J-6 in NL 2-7 single draw.
Villain opens from the hijack. I 3-bet all-in from the BB and villain calls.
I elect to pat the J-6 and when villain pats behind I know I’m dead. He shows a Ten. GG.
I rabbit-hunt a Queen so it wouldn’t have made a difference if I drew.

So a frustrating day and again we’ve fired 2 bullets in a more expensive tournament which will eat up nearly all the profit. [emoji30]

After I bust I grab the last seat in a $40 / $80 mix cash game. The mix is The Bros. Or:
Triple draw
Hold’em
Eight or better stud
Badugi
Razz
Omaha 8
Stud

There’s not really any bad players on the table so it’s hard work.

To encourage mix game players there is a special rake this week. A time collection of only $1 per player, per half hour. Can’t say fairer than that!

We book a small win when the game breaks. +$200 after 4 hours.

They’ll probably be some bigger mix games tomorrow, hopefully with some fishies.

nice to finish with a small + but sounds like a grim day

Borgata Big Big Buy-In Series
Day Five - Wednesday September 10th

No more tournaments, time to grind out the rent money in the cash game streets.

10am start. I love it. Same mix as last night (T.H.E.B.R.O.S.) but playing $80 / $160 today.

There are 12 of us for the start so we draw two tables of 6; a main game and a must move game. I draw the main game, but the tables look about the same to me in terms of skill level and how good each game is.

All the players from last night are present as well as some new ones who turn out to be good action players.

Random shot of the exterior of the restaurant where I had dinner the other night. (I’m filling as I didn’t take many pictures today)

Neither did I make any HH notes sorry. Note to self, must do better for the trip report.

I don’t think I could play much better however. I brought my A game today. Maybe I only deserve a B in Razz but in everything else I was A or A+ today.

And that’s not to say I didn’t make any mistakes. I butchered a small and a big bet in a multi-way O8 pot by betting the button with top two on a draw heavy board when it was checked round to me, but it’s hard to play 10 hours with zero mistakes.

Stacks and towers of checks I can’t even see over.

In for $8,000. Out for $15,400. +$7,400 after 10 hours.

Today was supposed to be my last day but as it seems the mix cash games will be running for at least the next two days I extended my stay and changed my flight to Saturday.

I also need to mention Kellie the Poker Director here who is doing a great job.

I remember Borgata back in the day when the high limit section always used to be full on weekends and she’s doing everything she can to try and get it back like that.

$1 special rake promotion, actively courting the mix game players, discounted rooms and tonight we even had a buffet brought into the poker room for us with sandwiches, fruit, cheese, chicken fingers and cookies.

Sorry no picture. Hungry poker players and free food means it doesn’t last long. I was in a hand when it was uncovered and by the time I finished the hand everyone was already attacking the spread.

THAT is a tower of power!

Yea I was going to try the Italian restaurant here but the game was good so didn’t want to leave, and the free food was also really good so no need. Saved me at least $100 I would have spent on dinner.

That's a lotta chips.

It looked like more than 15 grand.

I think that picture should be your 2+2 avatar

Any chance of getting just a razz ring going for a little while this weekend?

Probably slim to none. Do you know of anywhere that spreads only Razz?

people in your situtation might consider squirreling some chips away before structural engineers are required to be involved

Borgata Big Big Buy-In Series
Day Six - Thursday September 11th

So here we are still at Borgata. The 5 day trip has been extended to 7 days. Will it prove to be a good decision?

I go down to the poker room at 10am again expecting to start the Mix game, but it’s an older crowd today and they started playing $80 / $160 O.O.E. at 9am and the table is full [emoji30]

O.O.E. In case you were wondering what the two O’s stand for (as I did the first time I heard of it) is just two rounds of Omaha 8 and one round of Stud 8, there isn’t a third game. The reason being that O8 normally has more action than Stud 8 (and that’s certainly the case the way they play it here) so people want to play more of that game.

Borgata lobby. (Filler pic)

There’s eventually enough additional players to start a 2nd game which is a must move. No THEBROS today but I’m happy enough to play OOE.

It’s just as well we got a 2nd game because a seat didn’t become available in the main game until 5:30pm.

The must move game was 5 and 6 handed for the most part which suits me, I like playing short handed.

There’s one very aggressive guy doing a lot of 3 and 4-betting. I tangle with him early and often and get the best of him more often than not.

Again I didn’t make any HH notes as the game plays very quick short handed and I didn’t want to miss anything by taking notes, but my architects and builders were being put to work again today.

The restaurants at Borgata don’t open until 5pm by which time I was really hungry and the game had increased to 7 people so I felt I could go and take a break to eat dinner.

I opted for the Italian restaurant Angeline tonight.

Bucatini with short rib ragu and a side of garlic bread.

And tiramisu for dessert.

Reasonably priced (for a casino restaurant) I thought.

A really nice meal. The pasta was so good I almost ordered another portion.

When I got back to the poker room my chips had been moved to the main game, and it was an interesting game to say the least.

Most of the Omaha 8 pots were 3 and 4-bet and multi-way with 3, 4 or even 5 players. A real action game with huge pots.

I lost a couple of big pots, got half of a couple of others. Big swings. An old guy next to me scooped a pot that had about two racks worth of chips in it. ~$4,000

I really didn’t win much in the main game and being ahead nicely from the must move table decided to book the win and go and watch TNF when it started.

In for $8,000. Out for $11,900. +$3,900 after 9 hours.

A little action on the game. Not been running so good on sports lately so dropped the bet size down to $500.

I didn’t feel like watching it in the bar so retired to my room to watch it in bed.

My structural engineers build better pyramids than the Egyptians. [emoji23]

very nice win and decision to stay longer. Will you extend again is the question?

also, will you be there at 9am tomorrow to get in the main game?