thanks lupe

we just might be okay, after all
sun gon' shine on these days

Main Event day 3

So, for the combined sake of catharsis and completeness, here's my day 3. Start with a brutal table and play 3 hands badly, grinding my 225k stack to 165k. The second table was an absolute dream. I wasn't sure what I'd done to get a super soft table with position on 3 seemingly fishy players but here I was, ready to get barbecued by them.
Seat one, old fish, seat two, Spanish fish, seat three, tight predictable younger European kid (yes, I know, highly rare fish). Anyways, I get back up to 200k without really seeing a turn then the wheels fall off. The euro kid obviously came from a sit'n'go background. He kept all-in shoving over opens, open shoving the small blind with a 20bb stack, etc. So this really aggressive french player opens in early position (he's got 50% of all hands here), the kid shoves 40k on the button (playing like 800-1600)I have AKdd in the small blind. If by calling I fold out the french guy I create a 16k overlay in the pot and I'm flipping or crushing this kid's hand. He never balances his range by doing this with AA and KK. So I call because I think it looks stronger than over shoving 200k in the middle. So french guy puts on an act, folds, I flip vs. 99 and lose the 100k pot. So I'm down to 150k or so. The fishes start limping and playing a lot of hands so I start the isolation fest vs them and they just kept hitting!. They limp, I raise, they call any amount, I bet the flop, they call, the best bluff cards come on the turn, I bet, they call, river changes the board none and they donk, it was just silly, like torture watching these three.

The next big hit came a while later, I was getting smacked in these pots by the Spanish fish then he makes quad jacks on my full house. That's frustrating, lose 35k on that hand (he should have busted me the way the hand played out). So I'm back to like just over 100k at this point. Really sick run on this soft table. I've been super aggressive on this table which was different than the first two tables but i think it was right vs these guys, i really think it was optimal vs. these opponents and I think that more times than not, I end the day with 400k on that table.
Anyways. a few more silly things. After dinner I get back and have 150k b/c I bluffed the last hand before dinner all in with Ace high and won a big pot. So with 150k playing 1500-3000, I open AA, get 3bet by a 60k stack, I shove, he folds. What are these guys 3betting over 20% of their stack with and folding vs. the most aggressive person on the table. Bananananananas. (done for effect and lack of spelling).

So I open AQ next hand UTG, old fish flats K9off on the button, BB calls. QJT rainbow flop. I bet 17k into 49k. Fish goes all in for 65k total. The numbers may be off slightly but I took enough time with it. I figure that he's got a number of hands here after watching his play. The explanation is long and boring but I thought that I probably had about 33% vs. his range here and I was laid the right price at the time and I called, I couldn't snag one of the last K's. I lose another monster pot in a semi-cooler cause he can have the deck here. Vs. the range I estimated now, I have 52% equity but I doubt he plays the whole range the same way so. So I have 80k. I open AJss in the cutoff, I get called by this kid who's a superstar in his world of poker. Didn't speak all day but acted a bit like an ass at times. Anyways flop is T64 with two hearts. He checks, I check because I can't stand a check-raise here. Turn is a K and he leads. I don't think he has a king at all, either way I can pull him off a lot of kings on the river. I call with ace high planning to shove all rivers. Jack on the river. Shit, plan has to change, he checks, I check with value now. He shows AQ for the nut straight and I muck. He loses that pot 100% of the time if the river is any other card. I get value out of a river Q and he bet/folds to my allin shove if a blank falls. Here's a hugely unlucky river, he's got 3 outs for this pot and he's bet/folding almost always on the end vs. my stack size.
So, I have 74k or so with the blinds coming around, I find JJ utg and open, get three bet by the same kid, I shove, he calls with QQ and I'm out. Being so aggressive and active, I can't fold here and still have a shot at a deep run. Just sucks he's got QQ and not the TT/AQ/AK that he'd do the same with. I go out near the 880 spot, 640 get paid.

Bad world series, I haven't done the entire accounting of it but it won't be pretty for sure. I wish I played my own money in craps last night, lol... we stomped out the Wynn Encore's craps table for 4 hours!
If this entry seems scatter-brained it probably is, I'm playing a few PLO games on stars so I apologize.

Hope everyone's well. Leaving in the next few days I imagine.

World Series Of Poker = Busto

From 225k to busto on today's final level of play. I think there were roughly 915 left when I busted after 28 hours of main event play. No money, no luck, no cards, no good today. :)
I'll leave the stories for later but today is the most frustrating day of my poker years. I almost got a penalty once, lost a 200k flip, Made one terrible terrible play, had a great table. RRRRRRRrrr, so many fish. The biggest fish from Spain I've ever seen was on my table and I couldn't do anything about it. He just kept flopping sets.

Anyways, I think I'm going to stay for a few days, finish up here, wire what's left of the $ home and lick my wounds back in Canada.

Main Event Day 2B

So I had a strange day 2. I showed up and say Thom Wetherman, a great guy and one time bracelet winner (Pot Limit Hold'em), and also the 5th place finisher on the final table I made last year. So I know Thom and his game pretty well. Also, beside me was Sean Buchannan, 'Buck21/Buck99' from online and a good friend of the Vancouver guys we've befriended since being here. So two guys who I feel play really well. I think to start the day I was the chip leader of the table with $120k and I ended the day second in chips for that table with $225k (Thom ended with 241k). The only three left from the start of the day on that table were Sean, Thom and I.
I played pretty standard. ABC123, jackson 5 for the 8 hours. I tried to play a wide range when it was folded to me but I really knitted it up if the pot was opened ahead of me. Applied the cash game move of 3betting the total nuts and absolute air, 57,25,K4. I had no big hands but KK and it was folded around. Three big hands won my chips for the entire day.
Hand 1: Buck21 opens utg+2, I flat 88 next to act, the BB defends. Flop is AQ2, checked around. Turn 8. BB leads, sean folds, I call. River Q, BB bets, I shove, he calls with 222QQ. I turned a higher set and coolered him off (I'm up to 155k).
Hand 2: I open JTo in the cutoff. Tight new old guy calls in small blind, BB calls (young asian pokerstars kid). Flop is J89. SB leads for 3k into 5k, BB calls, I make it 12k (mistake by me). SB calls, BB calls (read: woops). Pot is now somehow 40k. Turn is a J. They check to me. Now, i think the SB hand is a bigger J alot of the time, maybe he has 9T,8T,JT or a full house now but I think he shovels his stack in on the flop. The BB definitely has a draw still. Now, I can check the turn because really, the only bad card for me is a chop if I'm still ahead with three jacks. I'm never drawing dead but I can't foresee me getting called by worse. Either way we now have a 40k pot which is huge for this time of the day and it's checked to me. I decide I'm ahead enough given the turn action, I bet 20k, the small blind thinks for a while and shoves, the BB folds. I don't like it and feel like I have the worst hand but call the extra 15k and he says, 'Do you have a Jack?'. I laughed and said oh, why yes, he shows me AA !!!!!. Wowzers. I win, up to 200k or so.
Hand 3: Tightish old guy with wife on rail right behind him, opens in early to mid position. I call with AJof spades in the small blind. Flop is AT5 rainbow with one spade. I check/call his 1/2 pot bet, not knowing if I'm ahead or behind. Turn is a 9spades. I check and he bets 7500 into 12k. I know think that I'm behind here a lot but he's got 40k or so behind and if I can get 20k or so on the river if I hit a J or a spade I don't mind it. I'm ahead a non-zero % of the time, with 12 wins (28% to win) vs. AK or AT than it's not horrible. If he has a set he's paying a river spade for sure. So I call. Pot is 27k. Bink on the end, 2s. I bet 20k, he calls. Wierd thing is he rapped the table when I flopped my Ace so I dunno, I might have been good, I don't know how good/bad he plays, he was a bit unpredictable with values the whole day. Running great obviously, getting paid for sure. So those 3 big hands I end the day well above the 80k or so average with 225k.

There were only a few spots I got active with air. 3-4 3bets with nothing. I 3bet buck and got shoved on, had to fold QQ because we're so deep. I lost chips on two weird hands on day 2. Here they are.

Hand 1: I open 56hh in early position and the small blind calls. Flop is 5d 7s 8s. He checks and I check. Turn is a 9s and he bets 4400 into 4000. I call with my straight. River is an Ah. He now bets 19k into 13k. I think for a few minutes and fold. I don't know if I folded the winner but I feel like I may have given his actions the rest of the day. I do have the worst straight and no flush but this overbet is strange by a seemingly weak player... he might be on level one thinking, he raised, checked the flop, flop is low, he has missed, I bet bet and win. I don't know.

Hand 2: 4 way pot, I call in BB with QTdd. Flop is J96, flop gets checked. Turn is a 7, I lead, Thom calls, everyone folds. River is a 7, I bet 9400 into 14000, he calls with 8T for a turned straight. He played the hand great by flatting the turn and allowing me to bluff the river. Great play vs. me. I lose 15k on that hand.

All in all, so much more to go. I think there's a little under 2000 remaining from 6500 or so. Money starts at 680 but we're not here for a min-cash. I'm planning on playing solid, I think that it takes very specific situations where cash-game aggression is optimal vs. weaker players and so far I see so many value mistakes that opening light and keeping pots small has worked very well. We'll see though, ready to change it all up if need be. My table tomorrow is not good. Three guys with over 800k in tournament winnings including Alexander Kostritsyn who I played the plo with and have become fast acquaintances with. He's on my right though thankfully. He plays fast and we have both over 200k. Hopefully Day 3 goes smooth like 1+2.

Main Event Day 1D (yesterday)

Main Event turned players away yesterday. An estimated 600 willing participants got turned away as Day 1D reached capacity. Unbelievable that people , 600 people, waited to register on the last day. Many big names got denied I imagine, not that that means anything more than the average tourist getting turned away, but for grinders to miss this event is mind-boggling. Anyways, the structure for this event is unbelievably slow. 2 hour levels, start at 50-100 and $30k in chips, 300 big blinds deep. My table was a nice mix of fish and over aggressive younger players. I messed up a lot at the beginning, trying to be aggressive. I dropped in the first two hours from 30k to around 21k. Then on the break I switched it up a bit, decided I was going to play a lot more abc, a lot more passively post flop and allow the fish and aggressive players to take the lead. Anyways, I don't know if this was completely optimal or if I just ran super hot (which I really did, I held a lot of hands and hit hard) but I ended day 1 with 120,000 which is well above average, maybe a top 50 stack, maybe top 25 in the whole field.
Don't get me wrong, ABC and standard but I hit and the table played poorly vs. me.
Here are a few true stories :).

I have 21k, I open JJ from the cutoff and this aggressive good Brazilian kid that played 25-50 nlhe cash with Andrew in europe 3bets me from the SB. Folding is worse than calling, 4betting is worse than both. I call. Flop is QcJs4c. He check, I bet 1/2 pot, he calls. Now my range here is all broadway, QQ,JJ,TT,99,88, I guess all pairs to 22 and the odd AK. The range is so wide because I'm in position and we're deep and he knows I know that he's 3betting wide. Anyways, he check calls. He's most likely hands are AQs/o, AK, AA,KK,QQ,TT flush draws with suited connectors although I think he takes the lead with those and his air balls so I sort of disclude the air. Turn is a Q (I know, I hit hard today). He checks, I bet 1/2 to 3/4 pot and he calls. Now I think he has squarely TT,KK,AA or AQ. No other hands to be honest in my opinion. So anyways, river misses the clubs and he checks. The pot is somewhere in the area of 10-12k. I bet 10k after a long deliberation. He calls pretty quick and shows a Q. Yes, huge cooler for him. He's going to lose a lot on this hand no matter what. That's how I got to around 35k. I chip up to around 45k without a whole lot of messing around. The vs. the same kid I tricked him into giving me 2 huge streets of value with my AJ on a 24JKA board. He had JT. So up to 55k.
Now the donkey gifts. I open AK utg, get called by both the fish at the table. Flop is K44 two diamonds. BB checks, I check, fish checks. I decide that I fold too much out here and I'm really not worries about any cards. Turn is J of diamonds. BB bets, I call, fish folds. River is a K. BB bets, I raise to 5400, he calls with AJ!. I guess I can be bluffing here but the river's the worst bluff card in the world. Anyways. up to 65k or so.
Next gift. I open AK utg+2. The fish calls and one of the aggressive kids calls on the button. Flop is Ad Qd 4c. I checked, fish checks, button bets. I call, fish calls. Now here's a wierd spot. I have the best hand. The button could have a huge draw and he can have a good hand and he can have total air. Either way, I'm out of position and he's over aggressive and I fold too much out if I take the lead. Turn is a 6c. I check, fish checks, button bets 1/2 the pot again. We both call. River is a 2h. I check, fish checks, button bets 1/2 the pot (pot's like 12-15k now). I call, fish folds. Button shows 7high. Cool. Terrible bet sizes, terrible stabs. Whatever, GIFTS! :). Thank you cardrunners.
So I have 77k by dinner, well above average, table chip leader. Now there was one really strong player in my opinion at the table. We totally stayed out of each other's way. I think I played 2 hands with him in 8 hours. He picked on the over aggressive kids, I picked on the fish. Life is good. First two hours after dinner I grind up to 82k then I get lucky. I open QQ utg, get flatted by a new kid who's medium stacked but knows what the flip is going on. He has 77-JJ here almost always, maybe AQ. Then the Brazilian kid who has 18k to start the hand 3bets me to 4k. I think for a while and decide that I've got 4bet here, he's got a lot of hands here in my opinion. I make it 10k, kid folds, he shoves. I suck. He's got AA,KK and AK here. Maybe the other two QQ. Anyways, I call it off he shows AA, I flop quads and win. I don't think it's too bad because of my stack size at the time but it's marginal vs. his 5betting range. Anyways, up to 100k. I scoop a few more pots but miss some value on a few more big hands during my deck hitting run. I end the day with 120k, should have gotten up to 132k I figure if I bet-size a bit better. We played 5x2hour levels. We play 4 more tomorrow on the combined day 2. I figure the money bubble will break sometime late on day 3 if we all get there.
Andrew played amazing, ended the day with 45k on a super tough table. He avoided getting broke with a set vs. a flush and KK vs. AA. Simply amazing poker. Wes is up to 82k, Derek has 26k. All my pieces are alive. I have 3% of wes, 2% of Gibb and 5% of Andrew. Both Wes and I have 45% of ourselves.
Anyways, hope the hot run continues, long way to go yet. Glad the beat down elevator let up for a day.
:)

the last few days, shot taking and name dropping...

So tomorrow I play Day 1D of this year's main event. Andrew, Wes, Ian, Pat Pezzin, Anh Van Nguyen, you name it, all of the people I know and speak to down here regularly are blasting tomorrow so it's a big day for the Canadian contingent. The last few days we've all just been playing a combination of live and online cash games. Andrew and I took another shot at the two fish that have been playing large limit mixed games online at the $500-1000 games. First session went great, won just under $30k, second went poorly, netting us loser roughly $25k. Then I got banged up in my normal online games and some 30-60 Omaha8'better short handed.
Yesterday we all went to the Bellagio to play, I was all set for some $10-20 no limit hold'em, stress free game. Then Bobby Belande wanted to start a mixed game, 300-600 Omaha8/better, Stud 8/better and Triple Draw. Before I could get up from the table (where Andrew and I were eating), he throws $20k in flags down and I play for 8 hours. The game started really good, Belande's a spot in any game, Toto Leonidas who's A game I imagine is great, he was playing his C in the beginning, and newly-crowned bracelet winner and Rio-barred Thaang Luu who was really live that day, Mike Mizrachi and Chad Brown. Like I said, in the beginning a great lineup. I was up for most of the day, 2-5k and then I lost a 12k pot to Thaang Luu who promptly quit the game (I have A499ds in a 6 way O8 pot, flop was 69Q, 6, 7, Thaang had QQxx) and then I lost back to back Triple Draw hands vs. him, getting him happy/unstuck/and out of our game. The game broke shortly after he left. I lost $12.5k. Went for dinner and got 6k back after in the $10-20 no limit hold'em game. This game's tough, there is a lot of variance in triple draw and in these live games, not that many hands per hour get played so the lineup has to be good for it to be a worthwhile shot. This table was great, the games set-up well for me. Just another bad day.
Pretty rough summer when you look at the shot taking stuff. I mean $300-600 up to $500-1000 have all gone terribly, losing almost every session. After thinking, reviewing and focusing on our opponents, there's no way we're (Andrew and I) underdogs to them, being critical, say we're break even with them, how bad do you have to run to lose 4/5 or 5/6 sessions in a break even or +ev spot. Anyways...main event's here and we'll see how we all do in that. I've been told that the live no limit games aren't always this good so I should soak them in while they're here. Perhaps next wsop a better idea would be to just straight play cash games and stay away from all but the main event. Hard, really hard to have a bad summer in these games. Wes, who has ATTACKED the 10-20 games, is up big and thinks +$2k-4k per day is not out of the question. I really believe that you'd need to play just as long online to make as much and it might not be possible to play that volume online (12+ hours a day at 10-20 nlhe vs. very good players). Keep in mind that's almost 4x as many hands. The play in these games is roughly comparable to $1-2 online I'd say. Anyways, I'm thrilled Wes is winning, someone in this house has too :)

turbo updates

Since the last update a few interesting things have happened. First, congratulations to a friend of mine from the Waterloo area, Sean Furfaro for making the money in his first wsop tournament, it looks like he may repeat that in his second today (both large field no limit hold'em tournaments). Secondly, Andrew ended up finishing 44/2800 in that tournament the other day. He was slightly disappointed in the spot he got it in with but he dodged a massive bullet earlier with AK vs TT and QQ which he would have lost so he was on a freeroll of sorts after that. Congratulations Andrew on the first cash of many, I still feel like there's a massively deep run in him this trip (since the main event's the only thing left for us, I'm excited).

I played the $1500 Stud 8/better and I was rolling the first few hours. I got up to $14,500 from $4500 even with running a AKJT7 flush into a royal flush when two guys made lows (meaning that we needed to punish the lows so I lost the absolute max to his royal flush). Then the great table I was on broke and I got moved to Barry Greenstein's immediate right. I've never had the opportunity to play with Barry but I had met him last year through Pat Pezzin really briefly. We ended up taking a bunch because he was on that final table with our buddy from Vancouver in which he won so conversation jumped off from there. That didn't dissuade him from scooping me in 3 pots and crippling me back to starting stack to end the day. In stud 8 I feel the game has some interesting nuances and I do feel it's one of my better games. The hands I ran into Barry's were, I open (3Q)Q in the steal spot and he 3bets with (xx)J. I ended up folding to what was his buried KK on 5th street, saving some important bets. Then I defended vs. his (xx)7 open with (5d6d)2s. I peel off the Jd Qd 8c so I have a 4flush and a 4 to a bad low vs Barry's board of xx769A. Since I have to really live diamond draw to beat his possible Ace's up and if he's just got a low I may have a live 8,5,6 for high if I can pair up and perhaps he's got another big pair in the hole in which any baby diamond might scoop. Anyways, I pair the 6 on the end and essentially crap out the hand and he bets in the dark on the river. Now interesting thing is it's hard for him to dark bet any high hand unless he's got a full house or flush (both highly unlikely on his board) so usually this is indicative of a low, so I call with the 66 hoping for half and sure enough barry shows me his made 7 low (started 24 buried for a 2476A) but on the end he paired his 6 of course so his Ace kicker plays and I get scooped. Beautiful and perfectly understandable for me to lose this hand to close the day out. Again, though I had cased the hand well enough but can't win a crucial pot in this event. I end up coming back for day two with a really short stack and I can't win my all in with 688 vs 7KK which is a 44% dog in a Heads UP showdown. Anyways, go out in 100 or so which isn't close to the money. Just can't get it going right now. Barry (who's book I've read a few times and who I think pretty highly of as far as a person and poker personality) was really nice and engaging and more than happy to shoot the poop for 2 hours pretty much non-stop. I really enjoyed the opportunity to play with him and bump heads, the scoop will be on the other foot next time.

So I am done with the preliminary events of this world series until the main event. For an overall accounting of it, excluding the main event that I've registered to play day 4A on Monday, I've played 15 events this year costing $32,500. I've cashed for a bit over $15,000. ($42,500 with main). If I had puckered on past the bubbles on those 3/4 that I was 20 or so out of the money it might have been like 22,500$ in cashes. If you take into account expenses and then online winnings and live cash winnings since I've been here, I think I'm no more than $5k winner since this all began. I've been winning on full tilt and the freeroll in the main event leaves $12k in equity still out there. Hopefully I can at least cash in that and have a small winning wsop.

For the first time this whole trip I can convinced to play a life cash games session last night. Andrew was all amped to play 100-200 at the Wynn last night so the three of us (+ Wes) went over there around 8pm. Andrew and his buddy Steve (Zugwat on stars and ftp, total nosebleed HU no limit specialist) were on the list for the big game. In wait we decide to start our own game. So Andrew, Zugwat and I started a mix game of 2-7 No Limit Lowball ($25-50), 2-7 Triple Draw (100-200), PLO ($25-25) and No Limit Hold'em ($25-50). We played for 4 hours or so, Andrew won big, I lost $300. I tried a reckless bluff in Triple Draw as a result of being card dead and somewhat frustrated, ended up getting snapped off :). Anyways, Around 1am I joined Wes at 10-20 no limit holdem in which we decided to swap 25% before we left the place last night. Long story short, I won $3800, Wes won over $13k. Andrew jumped in the $25-50 5k capped PLO with Steve Yea, Elky, John Duthie and a few others. He won that session too. Good night for the team, nice to stop the beat-down elevator for a bit.

I think some more live cash will be the plan this week before closing this thing out with the main event. Jay-Z's coming to the Palms on the 2nd as well, pretty sure we've got tickets locked up for that as well. Time to have some fun before this trip's over. Hope everyone's well.