Gray-haired poker TRs: Living the WSOP dream

Post #1, welcome to 2+2.

From a few posts back….i actually fold AJo UTG and UTG +1. Really dislike it as a hand as you can’t call a 3 bet and it’s very difficult to win a big pot with it.

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Interesting. My A-Jo and K-Qo UTG kept getting 3-bet all throughout the WSOP. Prior to your post I had been considering whether I should just be folding those hands from the opening gun. I was wondering if that was too nitty, but I think there might be something to simply avoiding the spot in the first place.

I think it depends on the table and whether there are many people capable of 3-betting, but I agree that AJo can be folded from UTG quite often.

I’d much rather open all the suited Aces and the better suited Kings. Far more post flop playability

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WSOP 2026: (June 12) $500 Colossus NLHE, Day 1C (Part 7 of 9)
A disagreement over what constitutes an over bet gets a bit contentious ... “That’s all right, I’ll keep winning the small pots versus you, you’ll keep winning the big ones.”

Level 8
600/1,200/1,200

Aqua gets Raiders all-in pre flop in a clash between similar stacks. Aqua has J-J. Raiders has K-K. There is a Jack on the flop, and Raiders is history. The deck loves Aqua whenever it is for significant chips.

Tony Robbins keeps betting 1.2 times pot. After this has taken place numerous times, Full House refers to it as an “over bet,” which of course it is. Tony Robbins insists it is not an over bet. Full House folds to the jumbo-sized bet in this particular hand..

Tony Robbins shows a Jack on a J-7-2 board, and he says, “Why wouldn’t I bet my Jack?

Full House replies, “You can, but it is an over bet.”

Tony Robbins grows agitated, and he extremely sarcastically rages, “Thanks, Coach.”

While I agree with Full House’s point, I am also thinking to myself, “Please don’t tap the fish tank.” I have no doubt that Tony Robbins is going to implode at some point. Calling him out on his -EV plays will only make him play better.

Another annoying thing about Tony Robbins is he never posts his blinds. Never! The dealer always has to remind him to do so, Tony Robbins ignores this, and the dealer always has to tell him to do so a second time before this buffoon finally complies.

Fiji, who lost a big pot earlier to Full House, now wins a small one from him. Fiji good-naturedly jokes, “That’s all right, I’ll keep winning the small pots versus you, you’ll keep winning the big ones.”

A new player arrives in Seat 7 and says he just came from the Normandy room. I dub him Escape From The Normandy given that room’s small-time feel.

Escape From The Normandy opens the betting from UTG. I have A-J. I keep getting A-J in uncomfortable spots. I have been folding A-J to UTG opens, and I do so here.

Tony Robbins continues with his strange, massive over bets. Someone opens and Tony Robbins goes all-in for in excess of 10 times the opening bet. His opponent folds. Everyone at the table is surely thinking the same thing, which is we all hope we wake up with a big hand when Tony Robbins blows up.

End of level 8: 55,600 chips.

You can call him Ishmael.

/Moby Dick

WSOP 2026: (June 12) $500 Colossus NLHE, Day 1C (Part 8 of 9)
The table irritant is getting on everyone’s nerves ... The table irritant gets mocked ... The table irritant finally busts

Level 9
1,000/1,500/1,500

I am dealt As-Qd. From UTG, I bet 4,000. Full House calls. The flop is Jd-9d-7d. I have not made a hand, but I am drawing to the flush. I bet, Full House calls. The turn is 2h. I strongly feel that Full House thinks I do not have a multi-barrel bluff in me, so I bet again. Full House folds. I have 67,600 chips.

Two players limp (including Full House). Tony Robbins announces he is going to raise, but then he mockingly says to Full House, “But I don’t want to raise too much. How much is OK? I don’t want to get yelled at.” Whatever he raises (I didn’t write it down), Fiji makes the call. The flop is 7-5-3 with two hearts. Tony Robbins goes all-in. Fiji tanks. He desperately wants to call, but he can’t bring himself to do it. He tanks some more. Finally he folds, putting his cards toward the middle of the felt, and he says to the dealer, “Take it before I change my mind.” Fiji says he folded A-K.

I am in the small blind, and it folds to me. I have A-3. I just complete my blind, hoping to induce a bet from Fiji in which case I intend to raise light. Instead, he just checks. The flop is 10-J-Q. We both check. The turn is a 4. Check-check. The river is a 7. I bet, and Fiji folds. I have 70,600.

Tony Robbins is getting on everyone’s nerves. Besides the absurdly massive over bets, he talks a lot of nonsense. He claims he finished in something like 83rd in a WSOP event last night. Upon hearing this, Fiji needles, “How many entrants, 88?”

Tony Robbins seems oblivious to the fact that he is being mocked, and he says, “I made a big mistake or I could have been somebody.”

Normandy goes all-in with Q-5. I know I just wrote that Q-5 has been a really lucky hand for me, but voluntarily going all-in with Q-5? Tommy Bahama calls kind of lightish (maybe it’s OK) with K-Q. Tony Robbins calls pretty light with K-Q given there has already been an all-in and a call. I fold A-3. Fiji is pained, but he folds. Samoa is pained, but he also folds with what he will later say was 7-7. The board runs out Ah-9j-4s-3s-4d. I would have turned two pair, although my second pair would have been counterfeited on the river. Tommy Bahama and Tony Robbins chop the pot with their unmade, King high hands. Fiji is clearly annoyed by what he is seeing.

Tony Robbins keeps betting pot + before running into Aqua who has a huge hand. Tony Robbins loses a big chunk of his chips. Aqua, for her part has played like 4-5 hands of note all day so far. She seems to have a talent for having huge hands when her opponents choose that particular time to implode. She has a ton of chips.

Tony Robbins goes all-in with K-10 from UTG. It folds around to Full House who calls very light with Q-J, but I think it has become personal for him, and he wants to bust the annoying Tony Robbins. There is a Q on the flop. Tony Robbins does not improve and the player who has thoroughly annoyed everyone at the table busts out of the tournament. I am tempted to jokingly suggest that the rest of the table take a moment for a group hug. No one says anything about the demise of Tony Robbins. We are just relieved he is gone.

A few players bust and are replaced by strong late-reg players. The table has become very, very difficult and very, very aggressive.

End of level 9: 66,500 chips.

We go on break. TJ is not at our traditional break area, so I text him. He has busted, and he’s now playing cash.

AJ/AT/KQ/KJ don't mesh well with the big bet aspect of NLHE. We still have to play them from the mid-late seats and they are very powerful short-handed and short-stacked, but I agree that we must tread lightly. However, ranges shouldn't be static and should change not only depending on our seat, but also the quality of players around us. I will often open these holdings from as early as UTG if the table is weak pre-flop (not 3-betting enough) and post-flop (folding too much, not floating, no light calldowns). At a tough table, I would strongly consider tossing a hand like ATo in the first seat. Any suited Broadway is always an open though.

Something to consider is having no limping range when you are not in the SB, as in some of these HHs you are still limping pairs when first into the pot, which gives away a lot of information about the strength of your hand and makes it easier to play against. Think of it like a baseball pitcher where ideally the curveball and fastball look the same coming out of your hand. The good players are going to notice these things and adjust accordingly. I would advocate always coming in for a raise if you are the first one into the pot, with the exception of some SB spots where the dead money and wide ranges change the dynamics.

In the early levels when we are very deep, there is no real risk in bloating the pot with something like 55 or 77. Playing them for set mining alone is missing a lot of their value. We should also sometimes be opening hands like suited Ax and suited connectors for the opposite reason of why hands like KJ and AT are trap hands in NLHE. In big bet, high card value drops while coordination becomes more important. With no betting limit, the potential to make a durable hand is especially important. In LHE, the opposite often applies.

WSOP 2026: June 12 $500 Colossus NLHE, Day 1C (Part 9 of 9)
I have enough big blinds to show patience ... I do not show patience ... I play 9-9 very, very badly ... The concept of uncomfortability

Level 10
1,000/2,000/2,000

While we are waiting to be allowed to go to our tables, the lights in more than half of the room go dark. The problem is quickly fixed, and full lighting is restored.

A new late reg player has joined the table in Seat 7. For some reason I check my WSOP app (which I rarely do since I’d rather size up a player’s style by how I see him play rather than what his history shows), and see that new guy has 60 career WSOP cashes in excess of $1,200,000. I dub him 60Cashes in my notes.

I write in my notes, “33 BBs. Plenty of play.” Unfortunately, I do follow this directive. What happens is a hand I am not proud of, but I have always been honest in this thread, even when it makes me look bad. Let’s see if I can play the hand poorly. I play the hand poorly.

Samoa opens the betting from early position. It folds to me. I have 9-9. I am at a loss for what to do. Clearly I can’t fold. Do I just call? It seems highly unlikely I will like the flop.

Do I raise? If I do and Samoa re-raises I suppose I can fold. But bleeding chips when the blinds are starting to be troublesome (not really but that’s what I was thinking) is not desirable.

Do I go all-in? This would be a way too big, Tony Robbins style over bet. On the one hand, going all-in so big certainly does not look like A-A or K-K. But if I do go all-in, my table image is that I would only do so with a huge hand. Samoa has been at the table for long enough to know this. Plus, I have not played a lot of hands in a while, so he will have to give a shove credit.

I decide the only thing I am comfortable with is a shove. Force him to make the difficult decision. Put him to the test.

I also consider what he could have. There are a lot more combinations of A-K, A-Q, A-J, A-10, K-Q, 8-8 that could have opened than there are over pairs to my 9-9.

I also factor in the fact that other than Aqua (who has been smashed by the deck in 4-5 enormous hands when her opponent either lost their mind bluffing or was coolered), the table has become extremely reg heavy. And the reg players all seem really good. I mean, I’ve been dealing with a former WPT champion to my immediate left all day, and now most of the rest of the table seems to be of similar caliber. I need to accumulate chips if I am going to be able to survive the onslaught of aggression that has taken over this table.

If Samoa has A-K that would be great. A coin flip. If I win the coin flip, I will have a strong chip stack which will give me a fighting chance against what has become a really strong table.

I decide that I am targeting A-K or A-Q in which case I am embracing the variance of a fair fight pre flop for the simple reason that this table seems so tough. Flip for it all because of the caliber of the table.

I am thinking of my tight table image, and then I remember something I typed in to the very bottom of my trip schedule before I head to Las Vegas, which was, “Shove light, call tight.”

I go all-in. I’m not arguing now that this was the right move. I am simply describing why I did what I did.

Samoa does not seem excited by this turn of events. He tanks a bit. He asks the dealer for a count. Tanks some more. Is it possible this insanity actually might work?

It is not possible.

Samoa calls and turns over J-J.

I can see out of the corner of my eye that Fiji does not approve of the move I just made. I’m way behind. For a change I have gotten it in bad. Well, I’ve been getting run over when I start ahead in these situations. Maybe it’s my time to get lucky. It’s not my time to get lucky. There is no 9 to save me from this mess I’ve made, which looked something like this when I made my overly aggressive mistake ...

I’m out, and I have no one to blame but myself. I got it in bad and paid the price. On the other hand, I didn’t go out playing scared. I went for it. I went for it in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and for way too many chips. But I went for it boldly. Stupidly, perhaps. But I’m not waiting to have the nuts, which must count for something. Is it growth? Maybe a little bit, but mostly I think I need to write this one off as an ill-conceived bluff. Still, if it had worked ...

As I think about it, yes, I did not play scared. I went all-in and put the decision to my opponent. Nothing scared about my play. I fearlessly let it rip. Or, am I missing the big picture? Maybe scared or not scared is not the right way of looking at it. Maybe the issue is comfort or discomfort. In the currently running Inside The Mind Of A Pro series that is following Leo Margets run to last year’s WSOP Main Event final table, there is an episode in which she is strategizing with Adrian Mateos on the eve of the final table.

Mateos says, “You need to be comfortable in uncomfortable spots. You need to put yourself in spots where you don’t feel so secure, because it’s going to happen. You cannot avoid every tough decision.”

Easier said than done I think to myself.

They are discussing a hand leading up to the final table in which Margets opened 9-9, and she folded way too quickly to aggression by Michael Mizrachi.”

Margets says, “I just don’t like that I didn’t take the time. It was an uncomfortable moment. I folded too fast.”

They discuss her fold, and Margets says, “For the comfortability thing, I would rather bust in a bluff than having to call.”

Bingo! That’s exactly what I just did bluffing with 9-9 to avoid having to make a decision of whether to call with 9-9.

Mateos says, “You need to be confident about busting in every possible way. But you need to have these weapons in your arsenal. I mean, if you are only looking for a big Queens against Ace-King flip, okay it’s fine, but you will miss a lot of money. So, the thing is, why do you fold nines so fast there? Is it more technical thing because you think it’s a fold and you decide quick, or is it more like, I’m afraid of busting that way?”

The team Winamax coach Stephane Matheu interjects, “Or third option, you just didn’t like to be uncomfortable and you just said, ‘Okay, I get rid of the uncomfort.”

Margets says, “In retrospect, I thought about it and I think I would have folded (even if she took more time to decide). But I decided to get rid of the uncomfortability too early.”

OK, so I’m not alone in having difficulty with the uncomfortability of 9-9. I desperately did not want to be faced with a later decision to call a big bet with 9-9. So instead, I jammed too fast to take the uncomfortable decision out of my hands. I recognize this. I’m just not sure what the right play was with 9-9. And that leads to my even bigger problem, which is a lack of volume dealing with this type of hand.

More than anything, I think my inexperience showed. I think my inexperience with how to play 9-9 made me go bat-sh*t crazy for everything when my hand called for me to play a small pot, not a massive pot. When you don’t know which option to take, perhaps the riskiest option is not the best option. Still, if villain had A-K and I were to win a coin flip ...

To salvage something of the day, when I later get hungry I decide I should eat somewhere on my list of must visits for the trip. The choice is obvious. Not fancy. Obvious.

I go to Earl of Sandwich and eat my traditional The Original 1762 (roast beef, cheddar and horseradish sauce) plus a piece of strawberry cheesecake.

I get a text ...

TJ: Still in?

Me: No, I picked a bad spot to get overly aggressive and ran 9-9 into J-J.

T.J: It happens

T.J. Firing again tomorrow?

Me: Yes

Me: Are you?

T.J.: Yep

Enough said. Time to turn the page. Next.

oof, yukky way to go out, but I am not sure it's some huge mistake. It's an interesting spot for sure

at 33bb I think a flat is probably best & then if there's a raise behind you & original raiser shoves you can fold, if he calls you're probably getting setmining odds and if there's a 3 bet & original raiser folds you can choose to flat, fold or back shove (which would be hella strong)

I think I prefer a shove to a 3bet/fold because a shove is folding out a ton of hands you're flipping against (A10, AJ, KQ, KJ K10 etc) with & perhaps some you're behind eg 1010. Whereas if you 3 bet and get shoved on you really have to fold.

& as you rightly say, if you win a flip then you are setting yourself up very nicely with a big stack.

also to echo what you wrote in your journal...way better to make an aggressive mistake than a calling one.