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

Run well, my friend.

Bring a small Hormel Compleats and ask the stew to pop it in the microwave for you.

I walk to the casino. It looks good with the sun going down. One of these things is going to look awesome on the Vegas strip when it’s finished.

Oh no, where's the rest of it?

Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open
Day Two - Wednesday November 19th

So we were up early today and did elect to fire a bullet into the first flight (of 8 possible) of the opening $400 NLH tournament that has a $2 million guarantee.

I even turned up on time for the start, just to get the most amount of practice in, which isn’t something I’d normally do as the blinds start so small. 1st level is 100/100 with no BB ante and then 100/100/100.

Interesting spot early playing 100/100/100 with 20k effective stacks.
UTG + 2 opens for 400
SB raises to 1,400
I’m the BB with T-T and make it 4,000
UTG+2 folds and SB makes it 16,000
I let it go as SB has been the tightest player on the table thus far, so as played I think it’s a fairly easy decision, but early in the tournament would anyone take a different line and only call the 1,400 raise in the hope of flopping a set and maybe getting a full double?

Filler pic. This is the Oasis Tower and pool area.

My exit hand I open from late position with A-8s and get two callers.
Flop: 5-7-8r
I continue and they both call.
Turn: 2 (now flush draw on board)
I bet 6k into about an 8k pot.
The villain in the BB goes all-in for about 30k
Other villain folds
I’ve seen the villain play a couple of draws aggressively already and that’s what I put him on.
I make the call. Villain just covers me.
My read is good. Villain has 5-6 for a lower pair and open-ended straight draw.
River: 6
Villain makes two pair.
GG

I’m happy with the way I played but elect not to re-buy.

With the appetizer out of the way, time for today’s main course. $600 PLO

In getting lots of good hands to start but not winning any of them. I bust the first bullet before the end of level 1!

Normally I take a little break before re-buying but I liked my table and re-bought straight away in the hope of getting the same table which luckily I did and was able to win my chips back before I got moved to open a new table.

I’ve never really been a card protector guy but my son gave me this so I’m rolling with it. It’s supposed to be Dracula’s hand. Hopefully it can scare the chips from my opponents.

From the 20k starting stack I had 45k at the first break, albeit on the 2nd bullet, increased steadily to 75k at the end of late reg and had 140k on the 3rd break at the end of level 12.

Good turnout with 125 entries making for a decent prize pool with $16k up top. No dinner break today with it being a 2pm start.

We’re soon down to 17 players and on the bubble. Hand for hand only lasts 3 hands as someone is knocked out on one of the other tables and we re-draw for the last two tables halfway through level 16. I still have around the same 140k. Avg. is 156k

End Level 16: We have 200k. avg is 166k with 15 players remaining.

We make the final table of 8 midway through level 19 (6k/12k/12k) We have 300k. avg is 312k. Chip leader in the 2 seat has about 800k

The two short stacks get knocked out and then people start talking about a chop as stacks are pretty even apart from the chip leader.

I’m not really a fan of chops with this many players but as everyone seems keen to chop I don’t object and we look at the ICM numbers.

This was what they worked out to and everyone agreed. Mine is the 3rd place amount.

I mean part of me wants to play on for the trophy and the glory, and a potential bigger payout, but then the other part of me realizes that the official 6th place payout is only $3,400 which someone is going to end up getting if we play on. With the deal I’m pretty much getting 3rd place money anyway.

I guess my conservative/sensible/boring/responsible side won out. Damn, I hate it when that happens. Where did the f**k it, YOLO, I want the trophy guy go? I need to get him back [emoji23]

On deck tomorrow: $600 Omaha 8 at 11am with the afternoon flight of the opener for backup if the O8 doesn’t go well.

Congrats on the cash. In my experience, people love chopping and sometimes the deal just looks too good to pass up, even if we want to play on.

3rd place money seems good.

Also think it's good vibes to start the trip with a healthy positive result in one of the early days.

Yeah, I think we just flat here. Do people have light 3-bets? Yes, but not necessarily early in the tournament from the SB against a UTG+2 open. Absent reads, SB just has a very strong hand here most of the time (JJ+? & AQ+?). TT isn't a good multi-way hand, but early in the tournament with huge implied odds, I actually don't mind flatting here and inviting UTG+2 into the pot. We can get away from most boards with minimal trouble.

I surprised myself in a tournament at the Venetian in August by 4-betting TT pre, but the situation was that it was vs. two tough regs (wider ranges), the initial open came from MP (weaker than UTG+2), and the stacks were shallower. Folding felt too tight and flatting felt too vulnerable, so I popped it up to a nearly committing amount. Luckily the 3-bettor folded after some grumbling.

Every situation is different, but I don't necessarily like to play 99-JJ super fast into what I perceive as a very strong range. You fold out worse and get action from better. Position, history, reads, image, and no. of players in the hand are all very relevant though. As stated, SB raise over EP open looks strong absent reads.

If this was in the BB vs. a BTN open and a SB 3-bet, we can assign wider ranges and play the hand faster.

Nice start to the trip. Congrats!

Can't blame you for the chop. Starting off the series strong, keep it up

Great start to the trip.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Congrats on the FT and the nice cash! 😀

I hate cold-calling 3-bets as it just makes your range very face-up for any competent player (usually 99-QQ and maybe occasional AKo or AQs). So even if you hit a set you might not even get that full double against someone aware. I actually like the way you played it, and would probably have taken the same line myself.

That said, I am probably overestimating your opponents here in a $400 tourney, and flatting is probably reasonable even though hand becomes very difficult to play 3-ways on something like 9-5-3 or similar low & non-threatening boards.

Playing on generates better TRs, so I think you have to refuse future chops

Congrats! Obviously no Series scoreboard happening this time around.

I’ll bear that in mind for next time [emoji6]

Yea, no leaderboard this time unfortunately. Would not have done the chop had there been.

Still, a nice cash, Tony. Thanks again for sharing your travel and poker adventures.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open
Day Three - Thursday November 20th

I discovered an added benefit to doing a chop. When I make a final table and play it to a finish, no matter what happens I can’t sleep. If I win it I’m buzzed from the win and can’t sleep. If I don’t win it, I’m thinking about if I could have done anything differently and replaying hands in my head and I can’t sleep. Last night after the chop I slept like a baby, which is good as we have an 11am start today.

With the later start yesterday it was 1am when we chopped 6 ways, so if we would have played it out it would have been a 3am or even 4am finish, which was another consideration for some of the players.

Onto today’s Omaha 8 tournament and my starting table is full of donkeys playing absolute garbage hands, but they keep out-drawing me. The first bullet bites the dust shortly after the first break.

I take a walk for a while before firing the 2nd bullet in the last level for late reg. I get the same table and still can’t win a hand. Busto.

Onto the two card game and we don’t fare any better. After a couple of hours of treading water we get it in pre with T-T vs A-K and a short stack who came along with J-6.
Ace on the flop. GG

That’s two bullets fired in the opener. I’ll allow myself just one more either tomorrow or Saturday.

So -$1,600 for poker today. Can we recoup in sports?

We let Atlético Nacional do the heavy lifting.

They win 1-0 making these all winners and we’re now even for the day.

The sportsbook is pretty crowded.

Didn’t really have an opinion on the side for TNF but liked the Over a little which I bet earlier in the day.

After watching the first half I added the Texans moneyline at halftime when they were up 4 and receiving the 2nd half kickoff.

The total closed 44 so we got a good number and with 36 points in the first half it looked like a winner, but that Texans D is tough. They sack Josh Allen 7 times and there’s only 6 more points in the 2nd half.

We do win the bigger bet on the Texans though, but not without a sweat until the end.

I’ll take it. Recouped today’s tournament buy-ins and added a nickel on top.

On deck tomorrow: $600 HORSE but it doesn’t start until 2pm [emoji30] I might try a smaller PLO cash game for a couple of hours first.

Recouping your poker losses at the sportsbook seems like a waaaaaaay more +EV approach for you than trying to do so at the blackjack or craps tables.

I enjoy the fact that you find winning bets across multiple continents in your TRs.

Trying to hit one from Oceania as well [emoji23]

Not that Americans would be much interested, but crickets greatest rivalry was renewed last night with the start of the Ashes series.

Slight advantage to England after a crazy first day in Perth that saw 19 wickets fall. The ticket doesn’t state, but the bet is for just the 1st Test, not the Series.

Insane first day at the cricket!

Also a great first few days for you - keep it up!

Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open
Day Four - Friday November 21st

So I did play a $2-$2 with a $5 rock PLO cash game this morning.

On about the 3rd hand that I vpip’d this happened.

I raise to $20 with AT96 with the AT suited in spades.
I get 4 callers
Flop: 9-6-4 with two spades
I bet $50 and get two callers
Turn: J completing the spade flush. (We have the nuts)
I bet $200 and get 1 caller
River: 2 (another spade)
Villain has about $200 left so I put him all-in
I show what I think is the nuts.
Villain has Q-5-3 all spades.
I think he just has the Queen flush but when I look at the board again I see that the 6-4-2 are all spades.
He was calling me down with the queen flush and hit a straight flush on the river [emoji30]

I grab my phone to take a picture but before I can snap it the dealer purposely mucks the hands and the flop.
WTF are you doing? I ask the dealer
Let me take a picture
We don’t allow pictures here he says all proud of himself.
WTF ?
This tilted me more than the beat.
I cursed at him in Spanish under my breath and immediately racked up.

So I’m afraid there’s no picture to go with this story thanks to the prick of a dealer.

Filler pic of the hotel instead.

I went to grab lunch in Rise (the 24/7 cafe here) and had to look hard to find any roast beef on my open face roast beef sandwich. So really not having a good start to the day.

With the short poker session I still had an hour to kill before the tournament so I played a little pai gow not really doing any damage. Down -$40 when it was time to saddle up for the HORSE

We had a steady opening two levels increasing the 25k starting stack to 60k at the end of late reg. Nice to be only in for one bullet.

A smaller field of only 62 entries today but still a few sharks in there, most notably in the shape of Phil Hui and Jerry Wong.

I had my stack up to 90k before regressing to 50k at end of level 12

Level 13: 4k - 8k limits

Won a nice Razz pot making a 7 against an 8

Won a nice Stud pot with 444

Level 14: 5k - 10k

Lost a Stud 8 pot starting 2456 then bricked out

Won a Stud 8 pot making 6622 no low

Now we have 120k. Avg is 90k. 17 players remaining

Re-draw for last two tables

One of the good guys. David Shmuel and his dog Bunny.

Level 15: 6k - 12k limits

Won a nice Stud pot with KKK vs JJJ

Level 16: 8k -16k

Reach final table of 9 and on bubble

We’ll start it with 240k. Avg is 172k
Hal Klein big chip leader with 500k
David and Bunny to my immediate left with chips could be a potential problem.

The draw for the game results in us starting on Razz

The short stack busts on the 4th hand and we’re in the money.

We don’t get any playable hands in razz

Break at end of level 16. We have 200k, avg is 193k, eight players remaining.

Level 17: 10k - 20k limits

Stud: I knock out the short stack in 8th. I bring it in with the 2, everyone folds round to him and he completes with a K. I defend his bets with 22 all the way to 5th when he’s all-in. My 22 is in front, he has over cards, but it’s gg for him when I catch a 3rd deuce.

Lose one in Holdem. Button opens, I 3-bet A-Js and check call the 5-6-8 flop.
Turn: 3. I check call
River: K
I check fold

60k lost in the hand. About 1/3 of our stack.

Lose more bets in another Holdem pot to same guy. A-3s vs A-2. 2 on flop.

Level 18: 12k - 24k we have 150k avg is 258k, 6 players remaining

Omaha 8: call a raise in 3-way pot with TJQK and have to fold on all low flop

5 players remaining. Now we’re the short stack.

We bust in Omaha 8 having played A235 and A246 in back to back hands with no lows to be seen.

Guy to my right took pretty much all my chips. Never seen or played with him before but he ran like god against me.

5th place for $2,255

At least we were only in for one bullet today.

On deck tomorrow: $600 Mixed PLO at 11am and if that doesn’t go to plan will fire a bullet into the last flight of the opener at 5pm.

Sick beat on the straight flush. Ouch. Congrats on the cash.

Nice work. In the tournament format, do you play each game for an orbit or for a set number of hands? Where I play locally, cash, it used to be 6 hands per game, but now we've switched to just changing every time the button hits seat 1.

What/where is this place?

Congrats on nice finish.

I've been on the other side of that straight flush hand at least twice, and didn't know it until the rest of the table went a little crazy, or the dealer pushed me the pot. I keep telling myself to pay attention, but the guy I'm talking to doesn't listen.

I’ve twice lost to a straight flush in Holden while holding quads. The bigger beat was that neither time was I playing in a room with a BBJ

In tournaments it’s always a set number of hands.

Staybridge Suites, where I always stay when I come here. It’s about a 20 minute walk to the casino.