March Madness! 3/19-3/24 TR

Agreed. Was glad I gave it a try but even the non-regs were a lot better than your average 1/3 Holdem players.

Made it to dinner break again but somewhat short stacked at around 15BB. Have a tough table with two good players both to my left and right. Went to visit the Earl of Sandwich and got some pastrami for some extra rungood:

Achievement unlocked... we got a cash!!

We order a beer to celebrate, and the waitress mistakes someone else's order and brings two. Guess we're double fisting...

Hanging on with just over 10BB, 9 eliminations before we bag for Day 2. I am satisfied at this point but hoping we can get a double up to have a chance to make it.

The eliminations come quickly but unfortunately we are out, just 3 spots from bagging. We are able to stay afloat by shoving QTo from UTG+1 and then AJo in successive hands. In the second one, the Russian player on my right tanks for a small time before folding. He told me later he folded the same hand!

Then next orbit an older gentleman opens from MP, and we elect to flat with QJo in the BB (~14BB effective). We then check-jam his flop bet on J75r. "OK, I guess I'll gamble" he says as he calls and we're up against AKo. Sadly unable to hold as he spikes an Ace on the river. That would have been a opportune double up but still grateful to have cashed. There was just one elimination to bag as I waited to cash out.

Now, we have a decision to make: now that we're exactly back to even, do we fire a third bullet on the Mini Main tomorrow? Or do we try a change of venue for the $600 Wynn Millions 300k Guaranteed?

Congrats. What event was it?

Congrats on the cash. Those Circuit tournaments are always tough to bag with the low % who advance.

Your call on tomorrow, but I always enjoy the Wynn. I know what I would do!

WSOP Circuit Mini Main at the Horseshoe

Thank you! Only 5% were supposed to move on (15% cash) but due to lower than expected turnout they raised it to 10% for both days I played. Since I'll be playing the Monster Stack on Sunday I'm leaning towards the Wynn tomorrow. Tried to find information online as to how many entries there were and expected prizepool but couldn't find anything. The guarantee is higher than the Mini Main.

Ah, I looked at PokerAtlas first but somehow missed that info. Wondering if there will be any difference in overall player caliber.

Great job cashing!!

Somehow after all that tournament play we end up at the Venetian playing 1/3 until 5am. It was a bit of a wild ride, and we get stuck early after missing a NFD three ways and then having kings cracked by jacks on a somewhat scary board. We are down 200 off a 300 buy in and add it back on to go in for 500 total.

The game was not particularly good to start, and was starting to break after three Frenchman friends all leave together. We eventually combine tables with another, and a couple of splashy locals come in. One is a young guy to my right, who is a huge loudmouth but actually quite funny, and very loose. We have some great banter along with the guy to my left, and from this point it is probably the most fun I've ever had playing 1/3.

We slowly make our way closer to even after getting 33 in the BB in a multiway limped pot. A monotone flop is checked around, then a 3 comes but puts four out to the flush. We call a $5 bet just to see another and the river pairs! Guy to my right leads out for $25, and he doesn't like to fold so we pop it up to $100. He calls quickly and says "boat is good".

Then this hand happens, curious for feedback: A young guy (who we have no reads on) opens for $10 in the HJ. We call on the button with 78cc and the flop comes 569ddd to give us a straight but a possible flush on board. The raiser leads something like $20 (one other caller), $40 on an Ace turn, than slightly overbet jams river. I make a crying call, hoping we are up against something like Aces/AK/set, but are given the bad news as K2dd flopped a flush. The exact hand is a bit surprising but overall result is not. Is calling off too loose here?

With that we are down to just $150, but get a nice double up. The guy to my left is encouraging straddles, and I do for the first time ever in a cash game. We are rewarded with kings, and manage to get it in pre vs 9s to double up! We then finish the opponent off in another hand where we flop broadway multiway with QTo. River pairs but he jams a weak ace for something small like $25 and we are good.

From there the game gets rather passive and we win a few more and scoop a small bomb pot to finish up $35! It is quite late and we have had several glasses of champagne so we should call it a night. Sleep in until almost 11 and we are en route to the Wynn for the tournament.

My first thought is that this should be a 3-bet pre HJ vs BTN. You are on the button and hand plays decently post, but probably better to get it heads-up in position and drive out potentially higher flush draws from the blinds (obviously we want them out of there with something like Q5cc or similar).

As played it's very hard to get away, although he is showing a lot strength by betting again on the turn into two others. But it could obviously be a hand like AA or AK with Ad who feels that it's ahead and can continue to go for value.

Interesting - good point, I should have considered a 3 bet. Given the table dynamics, that probably would have just ended the hand right there. Would have been easier to assign a range if called then too.

We are on break 1 of the Wynn Millions, hovering around starting stack still. The TD says they do not expect to meet the guarantee and are looking at an overlay. Overall player quality is a step down from the circuit events so I'm happy to be here.

Great report so far - keep up the good work.

And lol @BigWhale - I shudder to think where you get your scientific information from but NASA is a good start if you want a more scientific source of information.

https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/evidence/

NASA Science

Evidence - NASA Science

6/20? Do I need a time machine to play Flight C?

by arcdog m

Great report so far - keep up the good work.

And lol @BigWhale - I shudder to think where you get your scientific information from but NASA is a good start if you want a more scientific source of information.

https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/evidence/

NASA Science

Evidence - NASA Science

LOL, NASA is anything but scientific and impartial.

I am in flight C currently, there are two per day. The later one is a turbo.

As for the tournament, we are at the end of late reg. It's been one of those days where your stack runs down quickly after missing every flop, c bets getting called when you don't want to, etc. I am quite tired after two days of little/poor sleep so would have been ok if this was one of the times to go out early.

However, the cards have other plans. We blind down to 10BB and win a flip vs KQo with JJ. Then down to 12BB we shove over an active CO open, BB reshoves and we win another flip with AJo against 33 when the board runs out with two pair to counterfeit! Still under starting but have some life. I don't know how many flips we can continue to win so hoping we can win a pot the conventional way now that I have more to work with.

So far I do really like the Wynn poker room, comfortable table and chairs. The dealers run quite a tight ship, head and shoulders better than WSOP.

Sure enough, the next flip is the one to bust me. My BB gets raised by the button, similarly sized SB shoves, and with 99 we gotta stick it in with ~15BB. We are up against JTo which hits a ten on the flop. We are left with 500 chips left and have a chance against 4 other players with 98s after flopping top pair and an inside straight draw! Sadly there was also a flush draw and an MP player who opened something like T4s takes it down in a massive 3 way all in on the flop against everyone else.

As we walk back towards the Flamingo, we have an idea: it is early enough that maybe we should go re-register for the final flights of the Mini Main? The regular flight is on dinner break so not worth it, but the turbo has just started. I feel like it's against my better judgement, but we came to Vegas to play so we go register! One reservation I have is that this flight will have an above average amount of circuit grinder pros though.

My fear is confirmed when our table is assembled. The guy two to my left has two online circuit rings. Then shortly after, veteran Terry Fleischer (3+ million in overall winnings) shows up, wearing a very visible circuit ring on his finger. He is two to my right. The rest is your average crowd of recs like me and we take down a few pots early.

However, the blinds are going up quick and we will be in push fold mode soon. We have about 22 big blinds left and 3 bet Terry's 3x open with AQo on the button to 8BB. He calls and when checked to on a K57 board, I'm a bit stuck on what to do. I feel like he's the type who is going to checkraise small c-bets a lot, which will leave us even shorter after folding. If we jam, there are probably a number of kings and pairs in his range that will call and have us at a disadvantage. If we check to see another card (which I opt to do) it seems a little transparent that I am weak and my hand is kinda face up. The turn is a blank and we get put all in and fold.

We are eventually down to 10BB when the following hand comes up: in EP, Terry limps and we come across 99. In my head, alarm bells are going off - it seems like an obvious trap to try and trick the recs with exactly AA. He's not that short (20BB+) and limping from EP like that is very suspicious. If he is balancing with weaker hands, it is a mandatory shove though and I convince myself I shouldn't see monsters under the bed and just go with it. Once the woman to my left calls though, I instantly know I'm likely cooked. Terry asks how much, Hollywoods for a second while holding his chipstack and eventually pushes. She was more or less committed anyways, but snaps and turns over kings. Predictably, Terry has aces, but they get cracked as a king rolls off on the river! It wasn't meant to be for me though and we are out. As I was leaving, I felt rather foolish for falling for what seemed like an obvious trap, but if he wasn't in the hand I would have just run into the kings anyway.

We shake it off as it would have taken a bit of luck to run deep in the variance heavy turbo structure anyway, plus we had a good two runs the past two days. Time to reset and get ready for the Monster Stack tomorrow! After dinner we will probably play another round of 1/3 at the Venetian again, hopefully a much earlier bedtime tonight.

I wouldn’t beat yourself up over it. You started with a pair already, all the way up to NINES even, with 10bb.

Seems completely standard to shove over ANYone’s limp, from any position.