Gray-haired poker TRs: Living the WSOP dream

Seems you are off to a great start! (eventually).

Quick note about above, hopefully no-one goes into GTO Wizard and arrest me on this one 😀

But when there is an UTG raise and an UTG+1 call, many people think "oh, they must be strong so I will just call with my AQo or AJo". While in reality these two hands probably becomes much more of a fold even in position. Or an occasional 3-bet, which you are obviously incentivized to do with a 'dead' caller in between.

But for this situation, depending on the profile of the UTG-players, I would probably mostly fold AJo here. And I am not just being results oriented when I say that.

Yep, I fold AJo pre in that spot too

Tbh I don’t open AJo from UTG and sometimes UTG+1 at tough tables so I definitely wouldn’t be calling a raise and a call

I completely agree with your analysis. I should have folded pre. Unfortunately, my mindset was it's another Ace with paint (albeit on the low end of premium status), I've missed the flop twice with A-Q, let's try it again with A-J, because sooner or later I'm due to connect with a flop. Alas, I did connect with the flop, but given the strength of UTG and UTG+1 pre flop, I don't actually know where I am even when the flop hits my hand. Which of course got me in trouble and lost me a bunch of chips. So yes, this is being results oriented, but it also shows exactly the kind of trouble calling with A-J pre flop in this scenario can get me into.

Flopping Fantastic ... Turning Terrible ... Rivering Ridiculous
MSPT, Potawatomi Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 7:00 p.m. $250 NLHE tournament trip report (PART 4)

Level 8
1,000/2,000/2,000

A key, roller coaster hand in my tournament takes place. I have J-3 off suit in the big blind. Two players limp. I don’t have much of a hand so let’s see a free flop.

The flop is J-7-3 rainbow.

Holy big blind special! I have two pairs. I bet. One player folds. The other player just calls. I am envisioning a multitude of chips coming on my way.

The turn is a 7.

This is a terrible card for me. My second pair just got counterfeited. I still have top pair, which might be good. But it no longer has a stranglehold on the hand. I opt for pot control and just check. Villain bets. It’s possible he now has me beat, but he could also be bluffing once he sees me slow down. He may have a 7. He may have a jack that now outkicks me. I can’t fold top pair at the first sign of a scare card. I call, and I’ll assess after the river.

The river is a 9.

I check. Villain bets. Villain has been a steady player to this point. I probably should have given greater consideration to folding. Instead, I stubbornly cling to my pair of Jacks, and I call.

Villain had 7-9. Full house.

What a brutal turn and river. I was way, way, way ahead after the flop. I’m kind of surprised he called my post flop bet with just middle pair given my table image. On the other hand, I showed no aggression pre flop, so he obviously thought middle pair might be good. Then he turned trips and rivered a full house. Sucks to be me.

That’s going to leave a mark. The player to my right who has been very friendly and talkative to me offers encouragement. “Just a flesh wound,” Mr. Encouragement says.

It feels like more than a flesh wound. I just lost almost half my stack. I have 34,000 chips. I was sitting pretty with 63,000 chips before the hand. Felt good. Didn’t last long. Still, Mr. Encouragement is right. I’m still in the fight. I have 17 big blinds. That’s plenty of time to still make a run.

Damn turn card. Stop it, I scold myself. Put it behind me. Make good decisions. Don’t give up.

Pep talk complete.

When I am on the button, I am dealt A-8. Two players limp. I raise. They fold. I have 36,000 chips.

End of level 7: 31,500 chips

The blinds are becoming a problem ... I widen my starting range ... I get one premium hand ... It’s announced that 27 get paid
MSPT, Potawatomi Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 7:00 p.m. $250 NLHE tournament trip report (PART 5)

Level 8
2,000/3,000/3,000

The blinds are getting problematic, and by problematic I mean brutal. I decide that in order to stay ahead of the blinds from a chip stack perspective, I need to open up my playing range. My table image is still very tight, so I think I can get away with betting a bit light. I’m not going to go insane, but I am going to open up my game.

I am dealt A-8. One player limps. I go all in. Everyone folds. I have 40,500 chips

The blinds hit me, I have nothing playable and there goes 8,000 chips. I am down to 32,500 chips. I have Ac-2c. I go all-in. Everyone folds.

I am dealt 7-7 in middle position. I open 3x from middle position and everyone folds.

End of level 8: 48,500 chips.

The re-entry period is over. It is announced that there were 268 entrants in the tournament, 108 players are still alive, and 27 will get paid.

Level 10
2,000/4,000/4,000

I am dealt Q-Q. Finally, a real hand! I could just open with a standard sized bet, but I think that will look too strong. I think if I go all-in for 12 big blinds it will look like I am simply trying to take down the pot without a fight. I go all-in and hope someone calls a bit light. Everyone folds.

The tournament is down to 81 players.

I am dealt A-7. I go all-in. Everyone folds.

Even though I win two hands this level, I am simply treating water because of the huge blinds.

End of level 10: 49,500 chips.

I make a bold play
MSPT, Potawatomi Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 7:00 p.m. $250 NLHE tournament trip report (PART 6)

Level 11
3,000/6,000/6,000

We are down to 72 players.

I am dealt J-10. It folds to me in the small blind. The table has been folding to me every time I have gone all-in. They are giving me too much credit for way bigger hands than I have actually had (Q-Q being the exception). J-10 in the small blind. This is a spot. I go for it way lighter than I would have been willing to do six months ago. I remind myself, this is a spot. Take it. Take it!!! TAKE IT!!!!!!!!!

All-in.

The big blind tanks. It will suck if he has a hand and knocks me out, but I still tell myself that going all in for around 8 big blinds with only one player still to act is the right move.

Villain tanks some more. Fold, damnit, fold!

Villain folds.

Phew. I live to see another hand. I am pleased with myself. I think making this move constitutes progress. Ac-2c earlier and J-10 here show that I am not simply waiting for A-A, K-K, Q-Q or A-K when the high blinds necessitate getting more creative to keep from blinding out.

I get it in great against Annoying Wine Drinker... I almost get knocked out by the power of 9-9 ... The Butterfly Effect
MSPT, Potawatomi Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 7:00 p.m. $250 NLHE tournament trip report (PART 7)

I am dealt A-Q. There is an opening bet and a call. I go all-in. The player who opened calls. The player who called the original bet folds.

Villain is a player who joined the table a couple of orbits ago and has me covered by plenty. He is drinking wine and I’ve found his table chatter to be annoying. Fortunately, he has been at the other end of the table, so he has been easy for me to ignore. Well, he has my complete attention now.

He turns over A-7 off suit. I didn’t expect him to be that light. I have him dominated. His seven is still live, however. We both miss the flop. The turn gives him an inside straight draw. The river is harmless. Lots of chips come my way.

Mr. Encouragement whispers to me, “You want that player to stick around at our table for as long as possible.”

Translation: Annoying Wine Drinker will call off his chips light.

Mr. Encouragement continues: “I was rooting for you. I got a little nervous when the board got kind of straighty.”

The player to the right of Mr. Encouragement said he folded 9-9. He said he would have called my all-in, but when Annoying Wine Drinker called, he decided he must be beat and folded. There was a 9 on the flop. If Annoying Wine Drinker had folded like he should have, the power of 9-9 would have sent me home. Like I wrote earlier, 9-9 has been flopping sets all tournament long at our table. Amazing. One player’s poor decision has The Butterfly Effect of keeping me from busting.

Betting the scare card ... The table continues to give my bets too much credit ... Down to 42 players, 27 get paid
MSPT, Potawatomi Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 7:00 p.m. $250 NLHE tournament trip report (PART 8)

End of level 11: 111,000 chips

Level 12
4,000/8,000/8,000

I am dealt 6-6 in the big blind. Two players limp. A case can be made for me raising, but I just got healthy in chips. I am at exactly tournament average. I decide to play it cautiously. If I hit a set, I can win a monster hand. Otherwise, I’m not looking to go crazy. Maybe this is too cautious, but that’s what I was thinking.

The flop is Q-9-2 rainbow. Nothing to get me excited. However, it goes check, check, check. This is interesting. Do I stab at it after the turn? If it were just one opponent, maybe. But against two villains.

The turn is a 9.

Then something interesting happens. I am supposed to be first to act, but the player who is supposed to be next to act checks out of order. I don’t think this is an angle shoot. I think it means he is uninterested in the pot.

I decide to rep a 9, and I bet the scare card. If someone raises, I am done with the hand, but I have enough chips to try to steal the pot. I see opportunity. I bet. Both villains fold quickly. The table continues to give me credit for having IT. Even when I don’t have IT.

I have 142,000 chips.

There are 63 players remaining, 27 get paid.

End of level 12: 142,000 chips

Level 13
6,000/12,000/12,000

I pay the blinds, get dealt rags and have to fold. Just like that I am down to 112,000 chips. Aggression is mandatory at these blinds if one is to avoid blinding off. It might lead to getting knocked out with a hand that is not a premium, but that has become the cost of poker.

I am dealt K-10 in middle position. It folds to me. I have K-10. It’s not a premium hand, but it’s a pretty good hand. Plus, we are seven-handed at my table.

I go all-in.

I’m hoping to simply win the blinds without having to go to showdown.

Everyone folds. I have 141,000 chips.

It doesn’t take long for the blinds to hit me again, I get dealt garbage and just like that I’m back to 111,000 chips.

There are now 42 players remaining. The money bubble can sort of been seen far in the distance, but I suspect we are not that close. No way I can simply fold my way to the money. The blinds are simply too voracious. I’m going to have to win some hands to get there. I probably need to win a hand that goes to showdown to have a shot at cashing.

End of level 13: 111,000 chips

The blinds are insane ... The small blind goes all-in for almost all of my chips, and I have Kc-Jc
MSPT, Potawatomi Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 7:00 p.m. $250 NLHE tournament trip report (PART 9)

Level 14
10,000/15,000/15,000

That’s a pretty big jump for the small blind (from 6,000 to 10,000), I think to myself. Whatever, it’s the same for everybody.

My table is still seven-handed, although I think that might be a handful of knockouts from changing since there are 40 players left.

I am in the big blind, which takes a chunk of my chips before I even see two cards. I am dealt Kc-Jc. It folds to the small blind. With every fold, my K-J suited looks stronger and stronger. Mr. Encouragement is the small blind. I barely have him covered. He goes all-in I do not think he has a monster hand for a few reasons. Mr. Encouragement likes to show cards and talk about the hand. He doesn’t show often, but he has shown his hand periodically when he doesn’t have to, because he wants to talk about the hand. Twice when it has folded to him in the small blind, he has just checked pre flop and I just checked back with garbage. Then he won with a bet after the flop and I folded at which point one time he had 10-10 and the other hand he had a big Ace. He tells me he was hoping I’d see his check and try to bet light at which point he’d pounce. Two other times when he bet my big blind and I folded, he showed an Ace, but not his other card, which I suspect was weak.

So, if he had a huge hand, I think he’d just check. He should have no expectation that I’d call a bet very light. I think from what he has shown and from the way he’s played all tournament when I have seen his cards at showdown where I was not involved, I suspect he has something, but not a monster. I think he goes all-in in hopes of stealing the blinds with a weak ace, a K with a medium kicker, suited connectors, a low pair. I’m ahead of a lot of that. Even if it’s a weak ace, while I’d be behind, I won’t be that far behind.

I’m think now is not the time to wait for A-A, K-K or A-K. With the blinds being so insanely high, I have to find a spot for a double up if I have any hope of making the money.

If I fold here, I’ll be down to 81,000 chips. Then I’ll be in the small blind, and if I fold that I’ll be down to 71,000 chips. That’ll give me one orbit at what is currently a seven-handed table before I’ll have to post another 40,000 chips in blinds.

Yes, I would rather be first into the pot with K-J suited. But I am facing a small blind all-in from a player in the same boat as I am in terms of stack size. Even though I have loosened up my play of late, I have not had to show a mediocre hand. Mr. Encouragement has every reason to believe I will not call light. This means he could be pushing the envelope with his open.

Another consideration is there are two relatively new players at the other end of the table with really big chip stacks. They do not have enough evidence yet to think that my table image is tight, so they are more likely to call my future all-ins, which will make it more difficult to steal blinds moving forward.

I factor in all of this. Do I call off almost all of my chips with Kc-Jc? It’s a good betting hand with my chip stack. But is it a good calling hand? It could very well be a better hand than I will see in the next orbit before the blinds come around yet again.

I take my time. The table is patient with me. I make my decision.

I call.

Mr. Encouragement moans, “Noooo” and turns over A-7 off suit.

He obviously believes I have a bigger Ace or a pair that is higher than 7-7.

“You’re not behind,” I say and show my Kc-Jc.

I do not improve. I’m down to 11,000 chips and I have to post 10,000 chips in the small blind. Earlier in the tournament Annoying Wine Drinker faced this exact situation and folded pre flop. He saved one chip, and he actually ran his chip stack back up to a decent amount before getting knocked out. Still, I think that was the wrong move. I’d rather need to get lucky, and if I do I’ll possibly have 33,000 chips if there is an open and it folds to me. Whatever I’m dealt, my remaining chip is going into the middle.

Before the hand is dealt, I turn to Mr. Encouragement and ask about the just completed K-J versus A-7 hand, saying, “Would you have called if you were in my shoes?” I ask because he has shown he likes to discuss hands, I think he is a thinking player, he seems to like me, and I’ve got one foot out the tournament so I’m no threat.

Mr. Encouragement quickly says, “No, I would have folded.” We don’t get to engage in any further discussion because the next hand is dealt. (I will get into this more in a future post)

Down to crumbs, my 6-4 is up against K-K ... the flop comes and now I have outs
MSPT, Potawatomi Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 7:00 p.m. $250 NLHE tournament trip report (PART 10)

I’m in the small blind, and I squeeze my cards and see 6-4 off suit. Not what I was hoping for. Still, for the reasons I already mentioned in my previous post, my one remaining chip is going to go into the middle when the action gets to me.

A player opens the betting, it folds to me and to heck with a chip and a chair. I toss my lone chip in the middle.

Villain has K-K. I have 6-4 off suit. Talk about killing an ant with a hammer.

The flop has a 6. Mr. Encouragement is in my corner, and he says, “You’ve got a pair. You still have a chance. You’ve still got outs.”

I don’t find any of those outs on the turn or river, and I’m out of the tournament. Mr. Encouragement gives me a fist bump, as does the player to his right, as does the player to my left. I say, “Nice playing with you guys,” and I get up and leave.

It’s 11:45 p.m., and I have an hour drive home. Normally, I’d be inclined to stick around and watch the tournament play out, but the 60-minute drive home convinces me to leave the tournament area and head out.

I find my car and try to head out, but I am deep in thought about the Kc-Jc hand and twice I miss the exit turn. I finally get out of the parking structure and there are a bunch of quick turns according to GPS, and a couple of times I miss my turn because I am playing back the Kc-Jc versus A-7 hand in my mind. As for the drive home, I don’t remember anything about it. All I could notice was the K-J versus A-7 hand playing in an endless loop in my head. Next thing I know, I am home.

Still thinking about K-J suited versus A-7 off suit.

Post mortem
MSPT, Potawatomi Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 7:00 p.m. $250 NLHE tournament trip report (PART 11)

Let’s talk some more about the second-to-last hand of my tournament when I was in the big blind getting low on chips and I called off most of my chips to a small blind shove.

I had Kc-Jc. Should I have made that call? I put my opponent on a weak Ace or a small pair. He actually had a weak Ace. He had As-7d off suit.

So, let’s run it through a poker calculator. My Kc-Jc is supposed to win 46.07% of the time. It’s a coin flip.

Let’s compare that hand to a hand where it is a more traditional call. Ac-Kc versus Qs-Qd. I don’t think anyone would dispute making a call with A-K suited. Well, the Ac-Kc in this scenario should win 46.02% of the time.

The two scenarios are virtually identical mathematically.

I get that Kc-Jc feels less standard, but given my read on the situation it turns out my odds were essentially a coin flip. I felt I was at a point in the tournament where I had to embrace the variance of a coin flip if I wanted to have any hope of getting to the money. Heck, if I was in a situation where I was a 60-40 underdog, I think it would be worth making the call because 40% of the time I win a huge pot and have a strong chance of making the money and perhaps running deep. If I instead folded, waiting for a monster, there is a high likelihood that a big premium hand never arrives before the blinds come around again and decimate me.

It's like the famous Amir Vahedi quote:

I’m curious what LVL thinks about my Kc-Jc call for almost all of my stack. Give it to me straight. I don’t mind criticism if you disagree with my thinking or hate my play.

This is now three MSPT tournaments that I have played in the last six months. Every time I got this near the money bubble or even closer. I believe every time I did it on a single bullet, although I can’t say for sure (I’m too lazy to find the past MSPT tournaments in the thread).

In this most recent MSPT tournament, I think I did surprisingly well. I lost one-third of my starting stack in level 1 (mostly by misplaying A-J against UTG and UTG+1 who showed pre flop strength) and then went card dead for quite a while. I stayed patient and did not do anything stupid when the cards simply were not there.

Eventually I built a nice chip stack. Lost a bunch when I went from way, way ahead on the flop to way behind after an unlikely and crushing turn card.

Then the blinds started getting really, really problematic. For a long time, I did a really nice job of picking spots to be aggressive and staying just ahead of the blinds. The table wanted no part of me for quite some time when I picked up the aggression. They were giving me way too much credit and kept folding. That emboldened me to go all in even wider than I had been, my moment of pride being when I went all-in with J-10 from the small blind of an unopened pot and got the desired fold.

As for the K-J suited hand, I am at peace with the decision. I’ll await what LVL has to say about it.

The biggest reason I am happy with how I played (with a couple exceptions, obviously no one plays perfect) is the fact that this was a pretty turbo-ey structure. Levels were only 20 minutes long and I think some smaller possible increases in blinds were skipped in order to have a tournament that does not go all night and day. I understand why they structure it how they do.

That said, this is not a structure that is good for me. I do better in deeper, slower tournaments. So, to make the top 15% is pretty good given the NASCAR fast structure is terrible for my style. And I did it on a single bullet. No, I’m not asking for a participation trophy. Bubble Boy earns the same thing as a player who busts on the first hand of the tourney. Bupkis. Not a damn nickel. I get it. I outlasted every player from my original table except for Mr. Encouragement, which still gets me ... checking ... checking some more ... nothing!

But to put it in perspective, the WSOP pays the top 15%. This MSPT tourney only pays the top 10%. If this tourney paid 15%, my 40th place finish would have been right on the bubble, and in that case maybe I fold K-J suited on the bubble and try to coast into the money (not entirely sure, but probably, and that’s an altogether different discussion for another day).

The difference between making the top 15% and the top 10% is a tract of real estate I have found myself in quite a bit when I’ve played live. That extra 5% is really tough to navigate. At least it has been for me. That’s why I think the WSOP paying the top 15% of players is brilliant since I think amateurs/recs like me are more likely to spike a cash, which keeps bringing us back for more.

As for a review on the Milwaukee Potawatomi Casino, the casino seemed more full, more vibrant than some of the other Midwest casinos I have seen. The sports book is great. Lots of seating. Huge screens. Decent food. The banquet hall type room that the tournament was held in was very nice. Had more elegance than some of the WSOP Circuit rooms I’ve played in in Illinois and Indiana. As I’ve found in other MSPT events, the dealers were all good and in some cases nicely personable. Bathrooms could more than handle the poker crowd. Unlike so many poker tournament settings I’ve experienced, this room was not an icebox. If anything it was just a smidge too warm, which is far more desirable than freezing to death. The only mini complaint I really have is they needed to update the number of players remaining since the prior update a little quicker. For the most part, the updates were every time nine players were eliminated. Right when I got eliminated, an announcement was made as to when hand-for-hand play would commence, so I suspect they updated the number of players remaining more frequently when it really mattered (although I did not stick around to say for sure). The local players seemed to know a lot of the other players. The players at my table, with one minor exception, were all friendly and just the right amount of chatty.

Well, that’s all I’ve got from MSPT Milwaukee.

Next stop: Florida.

KJs seems like a very trivial call there in the BB on those stack sizes. For <10BB effective, SB can shove a huge range profitably.

https://pokercoaching.com/blog/push-fold-charts/

PokerCoaching Blog -

Push Fold Charts

If we assume live players are going to be much tighter than optimal then we probably still need to call any two cards T+ and probably some better jacks like J9, J8. I think I'm probably tanking Jx there and calling any good Qx, Kx.

When your stack is small, the dead money in the pot lays you an incredibly friendly price to gamble. We have to radically adjust our notion of what is tight and loose. KJs is a monster hand in this situation.

Against a 20BB shove, the math would be a lot different and we'd have to play a lot tighter.

Against two limps this seems like a no-brainer shove. We have a ton of fold-equity here, and that's even before considering your probably tight OMC-ish image. Even someone like myself, who is desperately trying to hide the fact that I am getting old AF (and try to look younger), have a ton of fold-equity here.

The KJcc call in BB versus SB jam seems completely standard, so I don't see the need to beat yourself up over that. Unless the opponent was a gigantic nit that would never put his chips in without a good Ace at a minimum, you have a very good spot at hopefully doubling up. A half-way decent opponent would do this with any pair, with hands like QJ and JT (like you did earlier) and some worse Kx. And if he happens to have a bad Ax hand, you are still close in equity.

The 66-hand above is the one big mistake IMO, because you just lost out on winning 20k from the blinds + 2 limpers = 36000 chips. These chips would have come in handy, and even given you a better chance at a comeback instead of having been descimated.

I believe that because you get to play so few live tournaments you simultaneously probably make two opposing mistakes (and I don't mean this in a bad way, it's natural):

- You don't have enough experience with short stack play, and your thoughts seems a bit panicky when you get short. Just let the cards come to you, and if the right spot to jam comes when you have 12, 9 or 5 big blinds, that's just up to randomness.

- At the same time you probably want to savor your experience and stay in the tournament for a while, which means you miss great spots to be aggressive, like the spot with 66.

Agree with others that I'm calling it off with the KJ suited hand, even if I pause and grimace before doing so. From purely a mathematical perspective, you're calling 85K to win 130K (his 100K, your 15K BB, & your 15K ante), so you are getting just over 1.5-1 on the call. To call profitably, you need to be 40% or higher to win the pot. As you've noted, you're 46% against his specific hand, and I'd guess that you're even higher against the standard SB shoving range with 6.7 BBs. Granted, there's the risk of elimination (or in this case, getting woefully short) which is a factor to consider as well, but I am confident that you made the proper decision, which is all we can do.

All excellent points.

On the 6-6 hand, I did consider ripping it in but I couldn't/didn't pull the trigger. In real time my thinking was, "Busting with 6-6 pre flop would be bad." I've got to stop thinking like this. What I should be thinking is, "This is a great opportunity to win a bunch of chips without ever seeing a flop."

If I played a lot more volume I think it would be much easier to make this kind of aggressive move. If it failed then I could simply move on to the next tournament, and it's no big deal. But given that I only play a small number of tournaments it is more difficult for me to take such an aggressive line since if it fails I'm out, and then it is a considerable wait until the next time I get to play live.

And yes, guilty as charged, I do tend to want to savor the experience of staying in a tournament.

I still need work on not being so emotionally tied to staying alive in a tournament to the point that I miss important spots.

This is an easy shove. Than again I am a big believer in fold equity. At a certain point in any tournament it is a use it or lose proposition. Once you don't have it you have to have the cards and they are harder to come by.

And the KJs was an easy call. My chips would have almost beat his into the pot 😀

Great tournament writeup! I just can't remember all the action to report back so my reports are always lacking.

Curious as to the field sizes at Potawatomi? I actually considered making a trip up there but we have WSOP in Hammond next week which is more convienient. I would make a Milwaukee trip if they have regular tourneys but they don't.

Pocket pairs are going to be the best hand pre-flop most of the time. Playing the small-medium pairs solely for set value is leaving meat on the bone. We're only going to make a set about 1-in-8 times, and even when we make a set, our opponents may not have anything strong enough to pay us off. Playing these hands faster gives us three ways to win instead of relying on that unlikely scenario. We can win pre-flop, we can smash the board, or we can represent scary flops that favor a pre-flop aggressor like Axx, Kxx. We also become tougher to range and tougher to play against.

If we're in a spot where one (or more) players have shown a lot of strength then we can consider simply tossing the likes of 6-6, but in uncontested pots we typically want to take control. We cannot fear the messy board and the uncertainty that comes along with that. We have to embrace the uncertainty because poker is played in those margins. Only the softest games will allow players to just nut peddle and get paid off.

Here's something I've observed from dabbling in low stakes cash games the last few years. When there's a high hand bonus in the game, a lot of players will play very passively and try to see flops as cheaply as possible to lock up the high hand. What they don't realize is that by playing so passively and surrendering so many thin edges, they are giving up more equity than what the high hand is worth. Someone playing aggressively in this climate is going to win more money by taking the small-medium pots than the guys who are playing politely, waiting for the clean spot where they make a monster.

They may win a $200 high hand every once in a while, but how many $15 pots did they surrender before that?

The same applies in tournaments. Extraction is important, but don't let perfect be the enemy of good. If you can bet and take it with marginal cards or win a small pot uncontested, that can sustain you until the coolers arrive.

I played in the 7:00 p.m. $250 NLH tournament (Event 3). There were 268 runners.

Day 1A of the $400 Mini Main (Event 1) had 483. Day 1B had 639.

Event 2 was the $400 PLO which had 132.

Event 4 $400 Mixed PLO NLH had 124.

Event 6 $250 NLH had 313.

Above info from: https://msptpoker.com/pages/Magazine.asp...

Decent! I may be interested next time they have those events! Next week in Hammond I am most likley playing in the $500 mini main and maybe(?) the 40/40/40 (40K stack. 40 minute level. 40+ years old, $400). I would play in the $400 double stack but I have to go to a birthday party (mine!) instead.

Good luck.

MSPT is scheduled to be at Potawatomi 3-4 times per year as i understand so there will be plenty of opportunities

Aren't the host fees roughly the same as the resort fees anyways? When I try to book that's what it seems to me.

Not sure what you are referring to. I don't see a host fee on my reservation (nor do I recall such a fee in the past). There is a flat rate per night, which is reduced by 15% because of an early bird discount, plus 10% for taxes and fees (I would assume that 10% is mostly/entirely for taxes).

All of this, and why I think your game would actually benefit a lot from playing cash. All of us who've played a ton of cash have 10k, 100k, 1 million hands of experience either playing these hands aggressively and routinely taking down pots, AND/OR experience watching people play passively. With very, very rare exceptions, passive play is losing play. I don't care what format we're talking about or what game.

I think I said the following to you after the last WSOP, and like last time I don't mean anything insulting by it, but to my eye you play very scared. You've now posted many examples of how your aggressive play has worked out for you, yet it still seems to surprise you. The more you get used to it the more effective it'll be, that 66 hand for example CANNOT be a hand where you hem and haw for a min then decide to rip. You'd never do that with a premium and everyone knows that (unless you're somehow the master of disguise and hem and haw on trivial decisions too). So at speed, if you hesitate from your normal even a microsecond, your opponents will pick up on that. Get used to sticking the money in with confidence, be it 66, AA or even a pure steal.

The J3 hand is another example of you playing scared- you check the turn fearing the worst, but then you call your opponent's bet anyways? That hand should be over on the turn one way or the other- keep betting, check/fold, doesn't matter, but check call is "I'm scared, but I had a hand on the flop and I'm also scared to make a bad laydown".

Last bit- I think I also said your opponents should fear YOU. You're the wild card, the independently wealthy person who is playing for fun, not food. You could have anything and busto 100 tournaments and it's not going to affect your life. Seize that opportunity. As you know, good cards just don't come along in hold 'em that often. Make them guess what you have.

The more I think about it, the more I think there's real value to you subtly letting the table know you literally could care less about the result. Wild card opponents such as "obv rich, but obv knows how to play too" are tough to play against. You're not a fish and you make good decisions BUT this could just be the hand where you decided to get tricky bc WTH, there's a big game just around the corner that you care more about.

I'm not sure how far you want to take that. I take it flashy jewelry isn't your thing- maybe faking taking a call every now and then where you casually discuss multi-million dollar writeoffs like they're commonplace? A little douchey, but personally I'd be far more afraid of an opponent like that. You've got the "obv knows how to play" part down already, so you should still be able to get respect at the table, but you'll be able to pull moves that an OMC never would be able to.