Well I'm happy to say that for the most part I stuck to my plan, and the good news is it worked like a charm. I played in seven tournaments and cashed in four of them, for a grand total of $920 in pure profit - which is my best Vegas bender on record. The number would have been over $400 higher had I adhered entirely to my plan - I played in two larger buy in tournaments and failed to cash in both.
But in both larger events I played well, and in fact I bubbled in the second event, more on that later - so in hindsight I don't really regret deviating from the plan.
Thursday night I arrived and took the very first Uber of my life from the airport to Harrah's.
 |
| Harrah's - home of Buck and Winnie. I love this so much. |
I wandered up to my room at about a quarter to 10 and was all set to get a good night's rest, but as you all probably know there was a gambling itch I needed to scratch, and a tournament just so happened to be starting in 15 minutes right downstairs in the very hotel I was staying at.
Harrah's 10pm tournament, well, all their tournaments actually, are positively terrible in structure and in rake. 27% juice plus 20 minute levels that literally double with each step so tournaments are all done in about 3 1/2 hours. Just what I needed though if I was to start at 10pm and have any chance at being coherent the next day.
I figured this was just to get my feet wet, to shake the rust off and to have some silly fun. I sat down right into the middle of a heated conversation about the NCAA brackets. Yes, I was in the right place.
In an effort to avoid sounding like a broken record - I will state this once here, and then at the end of this post.
SOFT PLAYERS > GOOD STRUCTURE
PERIOD.
Everyone was limping. Everyone was passive. Everyone was weak.
There was not one regular at the table, or at the next table when mine broke. I was in poker heaven. Except I'm guessing in poker heaven the chips don't look like this...
 |
| So nasty. |
There were other similar hands over the next hour and by the first break I was the chip leader in a tournament with 54 entries. Then the blinds got absolutely preposterous and I had to get it in light a few times as people were shoving left and right and even by opening a pot I would be committed to call. A few times I hit and busted people, a handful of times I took a hit.
A super active player let it rip for the umpteenth time and I found an easy call with AJ, he of course had AK which held. This was my first substantial hit, and two orbits later I was under 10 big binds. I woke up with 1010 and got it in, unfortunately my opponent had queens which held. Now I had 3 big blinds.
I stuck my chips in when I saw one ace and got 3 other callers! The board ran out all low cards, with everyone checking it down of course, including two sixes, I didn't know what sort of shape I was in until I turned up my kicker, it was a six. Quadruple up baby!
Now I had 12 bigs, which was a lot for the table, though I still wasn't the chip leader. They were only paying 3 with 6 of us remaining.
The very next hand I got it in with AQ and ran into AK, but a queen popped up as the middle card in the flop and held. Now I was the chip leader by quite a bit, the fellow I sucked out on was crippled and out thereafter.
Then another player busted on the very next hand that I wasn't in, a short stack collision.
Someone proposed a bubble safety - I looked around and saw everyone was about even, but I had a two to one chip lead over all 3 of them. So I said this -
"I'm good with that. But what if we just chop it evenly right now? We each get $290. There's only 45 big blinds on this entire table right now."
The other players looked at each other, a bit stunned. In turbos I always make it routine to use my phone calculator to know exactly how many bigs are on the table and what an even chop will bring everyone. One by one the other guys nodded in agreement. It was a great deal for them, especially I knew because they were all tourists who played passively and had all been simply waiting for big hands and folding way too much. It was also a good deal for me, as even though I had 20 big blinds, in one or two bad hands I could be out with nothing but my money back.
So we all shook hands and collected our monies, I toked $10 and went upstairs to bed. Already in the positive! It was great to get that out of the way so quickly. It was 2am.
********
The morning came early and I was up with the sun despite my short hours of sleep. My good friend A8Fold was arriving soon and we had agreed to meet up at the Aria for their 11am $240 tournament.
 |
| Similar to Harrah's - NOT. |
So she stood there for literally a minute. Then she screamed at the floor across the room "Lonny you ready?" Pause. "Are you ready for tournament players?" Pause. She stood there popping her gum for another 30 seconds or so. Finally she took my money with a sigh and nary a smile in sight.
Normally not worth mentioning - but it was very out of character for Aria. Thankfully everyone else I encountered was the usual friendly and top notch efficient.
I chipped up early and was very comfy at my table. Once again the topic of conversation was pretty much all basketball. Bettors were starting to feel the pain of busted brackets and I was hoping they would also feel the pain of the back o' me hand. Hey, it's a poker metaphor ok? Also it was St. Paddy's day.
This was the tournament where I took the most detailed notes so here are 3 interesting-ish hands.
With blinds at 50/100 and my stack at about 80 bigs I raised from the high-jack 3x with 9d10d. The big blind had just sat down, a younger fellow with dark sunglasses and a surly demeanor, and he defended.
Flop was 7h8hAd. With 650 in the pot he checked and I c-bet for 500. He flat called. Honestly it's so silly to see someone scowling behind dark sunglasses in a $200 tournament. I couldn't help but chuckle inwardly.
Turn was a great card, the 5 of diamonds giving me a flush draw to go with my open ender and giving him a chance to hit the bottom end if a ten or a six came. He checked I bet 1500 into 1650, he - wait for it... check raised me to 4500! If I called I would have invested 6800 with less than 1500 behind. It was a fold or jam moment, that I didn't think too long about at all. I got it in and he snap called frighteningly fast.
He had 68o, he had top pair and he also had a six which was one of my outs, and a 9 was no good for me as he was open ended. Still, there were 13 cards I could hit (I think) and the river was one of them - another 6 to give me a higher straight. He looked disgusted. I happily raked the chips.
I'm okay with my line, I don't think there's any getting away from that turn regardless of how deep we were to start when he bombs it with the check raise. There is some argument for me checking back the turn for a free card, I don't know how good he was but I suspect (to be entirely results oriented) that I wouldn't have gotten much value on the river.
So I had double up and the future was bright.
The next hand of note took place on the next level - 100/200, I had over a hundred big blinds. Middle position player opened for 3x, the cutoff called and so did I on the button with Kh10h. The big blind defended. Flop was 10d 6h 4c, the big blind led out for 1000, there was 2500 in the pot to start. All folded to me, I called. Turn was a 3 of hearts, big blind led again this time for 1500 into 4500, a terribly undersized bet that reeked of weakness. I called again and the river peeled off a beautiful 8h. With a 7500 pot the big blind shockingly fired a third barrel, this time for 8K! I didn't take long, just a beat, but I jammed the rest of my stack in - I had him covered, he had another 8 thousand behind after investing 10500 so far, I figured there was no way he could fold. I was wrong. He let it go and I scooped the pot.
 |
| No grime on these bad boys. |
With blinds and antes at 50/200/400 UTG+1 threw out a 1K chip but forgot to say 'raise' and so he found himself with 4 callers, myself included in the SB with KQo. A king and two rags hit the flop and he took me to value town on all three streets, his bets were pretty thin but I for sure should have gotten away from the river bet of 5K - absolutely terrible call by myself. All the pieces of the puzzle were there, I just didn't think to put them together. The player had been super inactive, he was clearly recreational and not angel shooting with his 'oops I meant to raise' call, and the sizing was a very big indicator of a good but not great hand on each street. I called with top pair, but with a 10 kicker, there are so many ways he could have AK or AQ there, not to mention the AA that he actually had.
Levels at 75/300/600, with 60 big blinds or so, active player UTG+2 opened for 2.5x, I called on the button with JJ, both blinds defended. 7K in the pot. Flop was 466o, UTG+2 c-bet 3500, I flatted, both blinds folded. Turn was a 10, opponent flicked out a 5K chip. Here's where I took a read and made the call, based on him being so active, and now getting almost 3 to 1. River was another 10 and he whipped out another 5K chip. So tiny I had an easy decision and quickly said call, expecting to be good and fast rolling my JJ. I was good indeed, he showed 99. A relatively easy hand for me, in which I based my decisions about 80% because of his sizing and the other 20% because he had been so active. Again, if a rock had taken this same line with me, I probably still would have paid off his AA, KK or QQ only because the bets were so small. I look forward to the day when I can sniff out strong hands that are backed by weak and small bets, but these days I am pretty helpless in the face of bets that allow me to chase draws and see the next card for cheap.
By this stage in the tournament nearly all the soft players at my table had busted or moved, and I was surrounded by capable every-days. I was forced to tighten my range of hands, because I knew getting tangled up with speculative holdings, even in position, could very quickly see me spewing off chips. So naturally, when I shifted gears to be more selective, I became massively card dead. Finally I caught a pair of jacks. I raised it from the button and the big blind, a brand new player at our table - a woman with a massive stack who had just sat down - flat called me. The board came 8x8 and I c-bet. The turn was a blank, and I really wanted to value bet her hard because I had quickly sized her up as a fish based on her demeanor and chip handling. She sighed and called my sizable c-bet rather quickly. A bad sign, I knew I was being Hollywood-ed. I knew I was in trouble when she carved out 20K and slid it forward, about a third of my remaining chips. This was going to suck. I winced and paid her off - she rolled over quad 8's.
Boo. Getting over 2 to 1 on the call I was incapable of letting it go. Again, in hindsight, all the signs were there that should have let me get away with less damage.
An orbit or so later I woke up with QQ. MP raised, the highjack flat called and I 3-bet from the cutoff. MP shipped it and the high jack snap called. Crap. The highjack had been very inactive, even as the table had ramped up the aggression overall. A voice deep inside me told me I was no good. I let it go. MP had 1010, the highjack had KK. Yay me.
From that point on though. it was down hill, I had gone from 60 to 35 blinds in one hand and after my 3 bet with queens I rapidly got grounded down into a shove or fold stack. I got through a couple of times, and then I got snapped off by AA. Good game me.
So the day wasn't a total loss. I had played for 4 1/2 hours, and for the most part had done fine. I was pretty mad at myself for a handful of hands, especially paying off AA on all three streets, but I resolved not to sweat it. The Mirage, aka The Timewarp, was next.
Up until after the Aria tournament I had been shooting short videos of myself during breaks, giving updates to my future YouTube audience on a channel that right now only exists in my mind. After I busted the tournament with no money to speak of, I decided that I would blow off the video shooting after all. Not because I had failed to cash, but because I had come to realize that shooting video and eventually editing it is something that I have been doing my entire adult life, as it is my job, and I didn't want to work on something that felt like work on what was supposed to be a mini-vacation. Still, I love watching poker vlogs these days, there are some truly great ones out there - maybe someday I will really go for it and finish what I start in documenting a poker bender. Maybe. In the meantime, here's one of my favorite vloggers, Andrew Neeme - filming on the same weekend that I was in Vegas, and showing off the Monte Carlo before it it goes away forever.
I settled into my chair for the 7pm Mirage, there had been time to grab a quick bite at Earl of Sandwhich on the way back - no line and my favorite "The Original" a dope ass sandwich that tasted hella good. I was ready to go. It wasn't until the first player at our table busted out that I realized that once again I had inadvertantly entered a bounty tournament. Bleh. The last time I played this tournament I had recouped half of my buy-in back. This time I hoped to do more.
I was off to a good start on the very next orbit - my twitter feed documented my progress.
1st bounty. #rockintheturbo pic.twitter.com/MzVg8CQDfq— Christopher Manzoni (@PepperStChrisM) March 18, 2017
Numero dos. #halfwaythere pic.twitter.com/lDYMZnHllf— Christopher Manzoni (@PepperStChrisM) March 18, 2017
Hat trick. #25fromafreeroll pic.twitter.com/VaW3ekw85n— Christopher Manzoni (@PepperStChrisM) March 18, 2017
Free roll baby. pic.twitter.com/8GZiwB7Fsl— Christopher Manzoni (@PepperStChrisM) March 18, 2017
I played exceptionally well, and yes, the Mirage lived up to the nickname I've given it. It was indeed the Timewarp, even as the evening wore on - the table didn't fill up with regulars, it was more and more recreationals, and most of them had been drinking. There was one guy who was clearly at least a semi-pro. We both avoided each other as much as we could. When I three bet him I made sure to show my KK. When he did the same he flashed me AQ. There was for sure an unspoken mutual understanding between us. Why go to war with another tree when we could both pick low hanging fruit all around us?
The final table approached, and then we were there. I was the chip leader, but took a hit when I got it all in pre with KK vs. 77 against a stack about half my size - yep, he spiked a set on the flop.
So I was down but not out. Back to the grind. Turned out, it wasn't a grind. The very next hand I looked down at 22 in the small blind. I limped, as four others had as well. I flopped a set and check called the flop and turn against a single opponent and shipped it in, a perfectly sized 3/4 pot bet on the river. My opponent looked deep into his soul and found a call with top pair Jack kicker. Well done sir.
Time marched on, but even as blinds escalated to absurd levels and the pressure mounted to make the money, I didn't panic. I truly did not give a shit about a min-cash and was still able to exert pressure by three bet shoving in a couple of good spots to apply pressure and pick up dead money.
41 players, they were paying 4. Normally I would mention a bubble safety at 5, but the 'pro' managed a double knock-out and we were into the cash. I didn't bother to mention a chop because he had about a 2 to 1 chip lead over the rest of us. We played for a bit, and someone mentioned that maybe we should just get our bounties back. Actually, it was the dealer. Good idea! The 'pro' said no.
All good. We kept going, eventually I got tangled up with the big stack and managed to put a considerable dent in it when my small flush draw got there on the turn and I check-called two streets of tasty value from his weak probe bets. If I had been a pimp I would have check raised him, but I'm a bit chicken shit in getting thin value sometimes.
So now was the moment. I was well prepared. "There's 38 big blinds total on the table right now. In five minutes there will be just over 30. How about we look at numbers for a chop?" The two short stacks were excited. The pro's response? "I'll take first place and the rest of you divide up the remainder." Back in the day I might have agreed to this. But he didn't have a 2 to 1 chip lead anymore. He had about 5 more big blinds than I did. "Let's just play." I said.
At this point we played, but one of the short stacks, in tandem with the dealer oddly enough, kept chirping about how it was all bingo at this point and that we were flipping for hundreds of dollars for no reason. I couldn't help but agree out loud more than once.
Then big stack took a hit from one of the shorties, the very one that had been chirping, and I was the chip leader.
"Alright, I'll chop just so I don't have to hear it any more." Really? I thought to myself. "Okay sounds good. We get $575 apiece including our own bounties if we divide it evenly. I'm happy to do that as this could all go away in a hand very easily." He sighed, rolled his eyes, and agreed. The other two players were ecstatic and we divvied up the monies. Grand total for me with five bounties total - $650.
Three tournaments - two cashes, including one for first place, at least in my mind, I count it as first if I have the chip lead when play ends!
— Christopher Manzoni (@PepperStChrisM) March 18, 2017
But truly, it was anyone's tournament at that point, luck would be heavily involved if we had continued.
So A8Fold, who had decided to play cash games, and I went to the burger place in Mirage to celebrate. I had a salted caramel shake that kicked all KINDS of ass. Good times.
I crawled into bed about half past midnight - exhausted but ecstatic to have binked such a nice score. Images of flops and rivers filled my head as I drifted off to sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment