Reality Check

Something to think about - I've always taken the opposite approach to most recreational players when selecting a tournament.

The flatter the structure, the more chips you get, the longer the levels, the higher the buy-in - the more likely you are going to find yourself up against experienced players, either semi-pros or true professionals.  This is not a positive EV (Expected Value) equation.

When I look at the WSOP schedule, for example, the Monster Stack event doesn't really appeal to me as much as the smaller 1500 and 1K events, because I understand that deeper blinds, more chips and longer levels put me at a DISADVANTAGE, in the long run against more experienced players.  Most recreational players feel the opposite.

They want tons of chips and long levels and hundreds of big blinds to start.  If I'm up against other recreational. / home game players, sure a deeper structure will probably give me an advantage.  But if anyone like me who only plays poker on the weekends and has a full time job outside of the game, thinks they have an edge in something like the Monster Stack where some of the best tournament players in the world are congregating, along with hundreds of other full time professional players, they are kidding themselves.

There is a very real skill gap in this game.  I saw it first hand on day 3 of the Main Event.  Days 1 and 2 were a dream, both of my tables were loaded with fish.  The one decent tournament professional I faced on day 1 I coolered when I woke up with AA and he had KK.  Then day 3 hit like a hammer.

There was one older recreational player at the table, I was better than him.  Every single other player at that table was either making their living at or seriously supplementing their income in poker.  I was the sucker, and this was painfully obvious after a few hours and a dozen hands or so that saw my stack cut in half, not by bad luck or bad cards, but by simply being outplayed.

It was sobering, but not surprising or shocking.  It wasn't discouraging either - it was actually weirdly reassuring.  Poker truly is a skill game, and the harder we work on it, the 'luckier' we are bound to get. If I was playing tournaments every day and had to live off of my winnings, I know I could be right up there.  But since my time and resources are limited to a point, I need to be completely honest about myself and my capabilities.

Deeper structures and higher buy-ins are not what I should be looking for.  I would much rather have a fast structure with a low price point and a high guarantee - like last Sunday's event at the Bike.  $240 for a 100K guarantee prize pool and it was a one day event, now that is just perfect!

These Quantum multi-day things that allow Day 2 entries for 4K, these are a TERRIBLE value for a recreational player.  You are going to shell out a couple hundred bucks or more to play for 10 hours and then squeak into day 2 with a small stack only to sit down with fresh as a daisy tournament professionals (because they didn't have to grind all the previous days) who have newly added big stacks and they are licking their chops in anticipation of pillaging your stack.  No thanks.

Give me a turbo any day.  Let me 3 bet shove my 20 big blind stack and get lucky against a pro who has no defense for such a play but to fold or call and pray.  The other advantage of a fast structure - drunken amateur cash game players.  My best results by far in Vegas are in these 3-4 hour low entry turbo events late at night.  Over five years I've played in dozens of tournaments at T.I. (now sadly they just closed their poker room).  $65 tournaments, over in 4 hours or less.  My profit at T.I. was $219 an hour.  I've never approached anything like that at the Aria dailies or the Venetian Deep Stack events.

If you're going to give me a 'deep' structure, it has to be for a low price point - not because I can't afford the occasional 1K event, I'm blessed in life to be able to have that kind of money to spare once in awhile, but because lower entry events see lots of recreational players.  Binion's and the Golden Nugget run low price point series with good structures and much more importantly - soft fields.

But if I'm at the WSOP, I'm avoiding the Monster Stack, the Marathon, the 1K Double Stack or any other format that gives an edge to professionals.  I'm seeking out the 1K 3 day events and especially the Colossus, probably by far the best value for the money of any tournament ever.

Yes, the Main Event is an exception because it's the greatest tournament on earth and I wouldn't trade that experience for anything and I would love to go back - but other Super Deep events, if they truly are deep, are more likely to attract people who make a living at this game and are counting on people like me to show up.


EDIT:  Here's a video from 2 years ago of me ranting a bit on this subject - not sure if I already put it on this blog, but here ya go.

Bucket List - CHECK.

Never in a million years did I imagine I would be playing in the greatest poker tournament on the planet at 47 years of age - I figured it would likely be another 20 years or so before I scraped together the 10K myself and ponied up for an entry.

Well, fate had other things in mind a couple months back when I won a little satellite among friends in my garage - turns out I was Main Event bound WAY ahead of schedule.

On Sunday afternoon, July 1st 2018, I checked into the fabulous Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, and by fabulous I really mean that the Rio is kind of a dump these days - and made my way down to check out the scene.  As with many years before, there were plenty of things to see.

I checked out my table for Tuesday (right on the rail in the Amazon!), I checked out the mother ship and I checked in at the cage and registered for the 4pm Daily Deepstack.   This tournament I had played before, it had a big blind ante which was fantastic.

 After entering the Main Event a month ago for a whopping 10 G's, a $200 seemed a little silly.

Speaking of silly, you may have noticed that the tournament ticket above says it's in the "El Burro" area.  And what, pray tell, is "El Burro"? You might ask.  Clearly it's meant to mean if you are playing in this tournament - you are The Donkey, right?

 No, actually it's Guy Fiere's restaurant right next to the Casino in the Rio, which also is right next to a makeshift poker playing area.  Right up against the smoke and noise of the Casino floor.  Good times.

I sat down and quickly ran up a stack - I was easily the best player at the table.  The only other two capables were to my immediate right.  Sweetness.

The hours passed fast, and the good news was, though we had to contend with the chaos and commotion of the Casino, we were close to the potty so I could actually go in between hands.  Yes, we were that close.



Then the 1st of many brutal beats that would continue through this Sunday night and all through tomorrow Monday unfolded.  I 3 bet chunky with AA and got 2 callers.  One guy for a third of his chips.  I knew I was jamming no matter what the flop was bringing, but thankfully it brought an Ace. I jammed and the first guy folded and the 1/3 of his stack dude tanked and then found a call.

The board had 2 hearts, he had 2 hearts, one of them the case ace.  The turn was a bright red heart and just like that I was a shell of what I had been.  Blech.

I resolved in my twitter feed that this would be the very last bad beat tweet ever - and I also resolve here that I'm not doing the nasty bad beat thing in my blog either.  It's a waste of time and energy and doesn't bring anything interesting to the discussion of poker hands.  Of course if the hand involves interesting decisions, I don't mind sharing it, but this stupid hand played itself and my opponent was stupid so who cares.

Eventually we moved to the Pavillion - it was a thrill to play in the big room with a ton of other grinders.

After about 20 minutes I busted in a very nasty fashion that I will not share.  And then I was off to bed.

Monday was day 1 of the Main, but not for me.  I was off to Binion's to rest and reflect and play a little pokers with some nitty home gamers.

I toured Binion's before I found the poker room (they've moved it, yet again, this time to a very low traffic area.). The tour was really nice, found some really cool old photos on the wall.

The history of the WSOP is really something else - I won't go on at length here, but that the World Series of Poker turns 48 this year, and so do I, was not lost on me.  The Main Event really was the very first tournament, and it still is the greatest on the planet.

Unfortunately after my inspiring walk-around, I sat down to a single table with 5 other players.  5.  Total.  Meh.

I wish I could say it was a lot of fun anyways, but it wasn't.  Again, I was suffering the same syndrome I had the night before - taking a hundred dollar tournament seriously was very difficult with a 10K Main Event looming in my future.

Worst of all - everyone at the table was at least 10 years older than I, and VERY slow and VERY much full of themselves.

I was first to bust - again, with a crazy disgusting bad beat (this time runner, runner) that I won't bother to recount.

I got back to the Rio and had a great time soaking in the scene, and then this thing walked by me...

Because poker players are 5 years old.  Perfect idea for an area where no one under 21 is even allowed.

Yeah, I was ready for bed - though it was tough to sleep with visions of glory and a deep run in the Main drifting through my head.

I awoke early, despite not having fallen asleep until 1am, and then had to bide my time for a bit before descending to breakfast and the lovely overpriced and over portioned Hash House a No-Go.

With my belly aching from all the carbs and a food coma setting in, I rambled off my thoughts about the upcoming day...

And then it was time to Shuffle Up and Deal!   John Hesp (google him if you don't know his story) kicked things off for Day 1B.

I will confess, I was shaking like a leaf when the cards were in the air.  I was in the FREAKING AMAZON ROOM PLAYING IN THE MAIN EVENT!!!!

Biggest starting stack in poker!  (Almost)

But then I dragged a pot, and another one, and the nerves crazily melted away.  This was poker, I knew how to do this.

My table seemed reasonable, but there was one dude 2 seats to my right who had his mouth stuck on the rapid-fire-talk setting and didn't show signs of shutting up any time soon.  He was nice enough but really,  I knew it was going to be a long day if he kept up this level of chatter.

He also liked to play most hands - like literally 60-70% of them which is pretty insane.

I decided early on that I didn't care that he seemed to know what he was doing - I didn't care who he was, I wasn't going to shy away from raising his big blind with decent cards and I wasn't going to be afraid to fire afterwards even if I missed the flop.

Turned out, I found out later, this was Valentin Vornicu, the record holder for WSOP Circuit Rings with 12 titles to his name.  His nickname is 'Master Blaster' and he lived up to it, with his aggression and non-stop chatter.

He took a hit to his stack a couple of hours in, and his chatter actually did abate just a bit.  But then he grinded back up.

I was hovering around my starting stack for much of the first half of the day - I didn't mind.  I knew I was still crazy deep and was truly only thinking about making it to the next break and not worried at all about how long we actually had to go.

And then - a manna from heaven.

Valentin had been active, and so had I.  I had 3 bet him a couple of times, once with AK and once with one of my 'rag' 3-bet hands 10 8 suited (I do balance my 3 bet range in case you were wondering) - so he wasn't surprised when I did it a third time as the third break approached.  He calmly cut out raising chips and slid them out for a cold 4 bet.  Like all of these guys, it was a small size relatively.

I double checked my hand.  Yep, they were still aces.

I pondered carving out a 'standard' five bet, an undersized re-re-re-raise 5 bet, but then figured I might as well jam as it would look a bit less like aces; like maybe AK or QQ or KK or some such.

I pulled the trigger, he took a breath and pushed his chips forward.

I have to say, I was surprised that he was so distraught at seeing my AA against his KK.  Even though we had both started the hand with 100 big blinds each, and he had me covered, this seemed fairly standard.

My bullets held and I stoically (on the outside) dragged the chips.

Yay.

Valentin took it, well, not like a pro.  He belly ached a bit, as any amateur typically would (myself included on a bad day).  He was out less than an hour later.

And then before I knew it, it was dinner break!  Yay!   Only four hours of poker left after we got back at 7pm.

When I got back we had a new player sit down to my immediate right - the one and only Main Event Champion Mr. Jamie Gold.

I have to say, he was everything I expected.  He played more hands than Valentin, and he talked just as much - but in the Jame Gold style that we all know and well, some of us love.  Me, not so much.

Actually it was kind of sad.  His girlfriend or wife or whatever stood on the rail the entire time, which always makes me wonder - that literally is like watching paint dry.  I wouldn't want to be with someone who was capable of watching ten hours of poker without commentary or hole cards.  Something's not wired right in that person.

Anyways, I will say, Jamie was a very nice guy.  He was kind to everyone, and never needled or was nasty in anyway.  I honestly enjoyed playing with him.  I dragged a couple of pots from him, in hands that he misplayed.  I was able to bluff him off what turned out to be bottom 2 pair.  I just shrugged and said 'Yeah, that was a bad run out for you' as I took the pot.  He nodded in agreement "Yeah, that's just the worst river ever".

And then he busted out.  Someone not in the hand was calling for the ESPN cameras when Jamie was all-in, Jamie politely asked him not to do that "I really don't want them over here if you don't mind..." As I said, really a very very nice man.

And then he was gone.

Yes, he did a scummy thing by not paying his backer in 2006.  But really, I have a tough time being duplicitous with people.  I felt kind of bad for him, he was super super kind to people, why hold on to anger in my heart, especially if I wasn't going to express it to him face to face?

Well others at the table had no problem tearing into him - AFTER he had left.

I just shook my head.  Just a bunch of chicken-shits who didn't have the balls to tell Jamie what they thought of him to his face.   That's not me, that is NEVER me.

Looking back on my day 1, sitting here and writing it out, I had remembered very little of hands and hour to hour play.  I remember quite vividly my mid-day double up gift of AA vs. KK.  But now looking at my twitter feed, the double up gave me about 100K...

Taken right after my AA held against KK.

Turns out, according to my twitter, I played a lot of other hands on Day 1, including a big pot against a mouthy Brazilian that I busted when his back door draw failed to materialize.  The picture before this one, of the bigger stack, was taken right after that hand.

And this was taken when the day finally came to an end.  Time for sure slowed down as the bag and tag approached.

I was heading into day 2AB with 185,000 in chips!  Hey, I earned a lot of those chips!  They didn't just fall into my lap!  Plenty of value betting and bluffing as well.  A job well done, a tremendous day!

But my day 2 wasn't the next day - that was Day 1C, traditionally the biggest day of the Main in terms of entries.  And it sure was.  This Main Event was to be the second largest in history, with only Jamie Gold's Main Event in 2006 having more players.

I hadn't fallen asleep until will after 2am, so I was able to stagger down just in time for the opening festivities for day 1C.

This guy kicked it off...

Yes, that is the man - Chris Moneymaker.  In my opinion it's absurd that he's not in the Poker Hall of Fame.  Yes, I get that he's not some great pro - but no Chris Moneymaker, no poker boom - or at least not nearly as big of a boom.  Thems just the facts.  He belongs in the hall, period.

And then I was off to play poker - but I had zero interest in playing No Limit Hold-Em, after 10 hours my brain needed a break.  So I opted for the next best thing, or maybe a better thing - the Stud/8 - Omaha/8 noon tournament at the Orleans!

I laughed, I cried, I kissed $80 goodbye, but I had a good time (for the most part) and killed five hours without getting anywhere near the money.   I did get to experience some kick ass dealers....

And a whole lot of fun playing something else besides Hold-Em.  Plus it was $80 so who cares.  I was happy to get sucked out on, as long as I had some run good left over for day 2!

On my way out I treated myself to my favorite dish in Vegas - Linguini with Clams at the Orleans Oyster bar!  Now that's my jam!

Sooooo good!

Best of all Orleans also has one of these, a relic from the past that makes it super easy for kids to get their smokes!

Convenient Cancer!

Anyways, went to bed, fell to sleep surprisingly early, midnight I think, and then was up and ready for battle!

Cali recommended protein for the day - it worked!

What's in the locked bags?  Oh yeah - chippies!

Dealer's don't forget to pick up your cards. 

Waiting for the tables to open.

Big as I remember it!

Day 2 would start (and end) in the Pavillion.  My table draw was OK.  I didn't recognize anyone but the Hendon Mob web page told me a guy two seats to my left had over 3 million in tournament winnings.  He was the only legit pro at the table.  Good news was, I was second in chips at my table and he wasn't the chip leader.

The other guys (and it would be only and all guys for my entire Main Event journey) were light weights comparatively, semi-pros who had a fair amount of winnings but not necessarily great results in tournaments.

Every table in the Pavillion filled with Main Event players.  #spectacular #chills

I treaded water through most of the first half of the day - I had a river bluff called by the 3 million guy with Ace high, that didn't feel so good.  I was a bit more timid about blasting with air after that, for awhile anyways.

After taking a hit on my busted bluff, I slowly grinded back to where I was.  Then before the second break I got tangled up in a hand in position against the oldest guy at the table.  I emptied the clip... and it worked.  A triple barrel bluff with zero draws or equity, and it got through.  He showed top pair.   Blood pumping, confidence restored.

Then another hand, different villain.  Again I had to win chips with nothing.  He check raised my c-bet on a very dry board.  Fishy, so I called.  He checked the turn.  I checked back.  He checked the river and I bombed it with King high.  He folded.

All day it was like this - I couldn't seem to hit a flop to save my life.  Good starting hands were also in very short supply.   Then we had a weirdly timed dinner break - at 330!  Logistics are hard, I get it.  Must've been because of ESPN's broadcast.

At any rate, after finding and devouring a lovely tray of sushi in the poker kitchen, I got back to our table only to have it break.  I was okay with this as the new table across the room seemed to be all amateurs except for one 22 year old who seemed completely insane as he was playing literally every hand.  He was also on my immediate left.

Thankfully, he turned out to be one of those crazy assholes who actually doesn't know what he's doing.  He was gone in under 90 minutes from the time I arrived.

And then I got AA.  And the guy with a good amount of chips who had replaced the crazy guy woke up with KK and it was deja'vu all over again.

The chips went in and my aces held, holy shit!

I was now up to 270K, not quite a double up as I had him well covered.  But what a gift!

Again, my twitter feed reminds me that yes - I was lucky, but I also did a fair amount of leg work to accumulate on my own.  With my newfound ammunition I managed to grind up my stack even higher, finishing the day with a top 1% stack in the field - 344,800!

Big sack!

And once again another incredible day was in the books!  I know I sound like a broken record - but I didn't sleep much!

The next day was day 2C, which didn't involve me.  I still made it downstairs in time for the kickoff, and enjoyed myself for a bit watching this guy...

Yes, that's the poker brat.  The first shot is from his day 1C, the second shot is from day 2C in the late afternoon.  I sat right behind him in line with the tv cameras, and my wife (who has a 20 year career in television, frequently working with big celebrities) was super excited to see me on the broadcast.  She's so adorable sometimes.

Anyways, before I made my WSOP TV debut I had gone to the Orleans, not to play cards, alas no mix games were scheduled, but to take in a flick.  The amazing Ant Man & Wasp was everything I'd hoped it would be, simply awesome!

And before I knew it, the day was at a close.  I got to sleep at a reasonable time and then in the AM I was ready for day 3!

Day 3 we were back in the Amazon - and this table was different then the previous 2 days.  No names I recognized, no crazy results on Hendon, but I could tell right away that at least half of them were serious tournament players.  One guy in particular who had finished fourth in the Monster Stack this year was simply awesome to watch as he worked.

I wouldn't say I was the sucker at the table, but my considerable poker ego put me squarely in the middle of the bunch.  Realistically that means I was probably 7th or 8th at the entire table of 9.  Now that doesn't mean I was light years worse, but I was on the wrong end of the skill gap.

It didn't mean that if I caught cards I wouldn't be able to chip up - unfortunately my day 3 was just like my days 1 and 2 in terms of run good, with the notable exception that there were no AA vs, KK gifts from above this time around.

So instead of being able to tread water, or grind up, this was the day that I fell back considerably in chips.  I didn't have any giant pots that I lost, I simply lost a lot of little ones.  I also won a few small ones too - so my plan of playing small ball worked well enough as it did prevent me from going broke.

It was also tough on me not just because I lost half my stack or so - it was also difficult playing with a bunch of robots.  On the one hand I understand and respect the folks who supplement their income or actually make most of their income in this game. It's a very tough thing to do, especially in tournament poker and I give anyone who does it a lot of credit and respect and a wide berth of understanding to do what they have to do to reach a high level of success.  I get it, you're not at the table to make friends, you're not playing this game to have a social experience - the money is the top priority.  This is fine and completely understandable.

On the other hand, it's tough for someone like me who plays this game as a hobby because he loves it - to put up with half a dozen stone faced robots for 10 straight hours.  I certainly don't go through life behaving this way, and I wouldn't want to have to do it in my place of work.  No joy, no self-awareness, nothing but numbers clicking away methodically in my head.  Wow, what a sad sad way to experience the game, and what a frankly unappealing way to make a living.  No thanks.

So I was bummed a bit as the dinner break came and went, this time at a very reasonable 7pm.

But I perked up as the days end drew near, I still had 40 big blinds and making the money was in sight.

I won't say that I shut things down, but after getting spanked enough times during the day when I was forced to get creative, let's just say that I didn't go looking for trouble.   After almost 3 full days of poker, 30 hours total, I wasn't about to bust before I got a bit of cheddar.

It was uncertain what was going to happen first - were we going to get into the money or end the day?

Turned out, because we were so close, the plan was to keep playing even after the fifth and final level of the day if we hadn't made the money.  And that's exactly what came to pass.

20 minutes after we should've bagged and tagged, we kept playing and entered hand for hand play.

After a couple of close calls, this finally happened...

And so we were into the cash.  I was disappointed not to have spun up my chips - but I was also elated to know that I was going to get some money after 3 days of work and my boys back home were also going to get back some of their investment.

Sleep came quickly this time around, and I was up before the sun to give my ramblings before battle commenced.

Turned out all that introspection was fairly pointless - I busted on the very first hand of day 4.

Actually, it was the 2nd hand, the first hand that I played.

I had to fold my big blind on the first hand with rags.  The second hand I looked down at AQ on my small blind and stuck it in.

My opponent, Jake Schindler (world class high stakes pro and tournament beast) woke up with AK, which held and that was that.

Of course it wasn't quite that simple - here's the official write up of the hand from WSOP.com

Now I know if you are a poker player, you can very easily read this to be what we know as a 'punt' for all my chips.  In other words, the argument could be made that I lit thousands of dollars of equity on fire choosing to ship AQ as a five bet with zero fold equity.

Yes, and no.

I honestly don't hate my play here as much I would've if I was in a vacuum against two random opponents.

Both the 3 better and the 4 better here are both capable of pulling these bets with a range much wider than a recreational player.  If someone like me always has JJ+ or AK here, someone like Jake can also certainly have 88+ AQ+ as well as suited broadway cards.   I'm not exactly at the top of his range, but I'm not necessarily completely crushed by his range either.

In any case, I had to make the walk of shame for a lovely 15K payout.

I was sad yes, but I knew the sting would fade in time.  And indeed it had as I drove out of town - checking out a day early and making a bee line for my wife and daughter who I missed very much.

And so that was it - my Main Event experience had been not quite everything I had hoped for, but certainly far better than it could've been.  I was so grateful to make it to the end of not one but three days - and to cash was just a fantastic dream come true, truly.

I'm at a bit of a loss now as for what to shoot for in the WSOP next year.  In a very real way, every other tournament seems kind of sad and small in comparison to the almighty Main.  When I walked in that door for the first time on Tuesday July 3rd for day 1, the atmosphere was unlike anything else I've ever experienced before.  It truly was electric in that room.

I am so so grateful that I got to experience just that - walking in there and then realizing that I was going to get to take part in what everyone was so excited about!  It was the poker thrill of a lifetime.

That I got to keep playing day after day, and actually finish in the top 15% and get paid for my efforts, it's just hitting me right now as I write this what a truly remarkable and special thing that is.

Wow!

I have been truly blessed in this game ever since I started playing it seriously over a decade ago - this Main Event experience was a culmination of that, all my hard work and effort and enthusiasm rewarded.  I am humbled and utterly thankful beyond words that I went on this adventure.

I am excited at the prospect of adventures to come, but I know if I never get the chance to do this or go this far again, I'm okay with it.   

This was truly an event for the ages.

Early results...

Well I already deviated a bit from my plan in the post below - I was only able to play on one day of the WSOP during my Grand Canyon vacay with the fam, and on a Thursday no less.

The Colossus was still a day away, so it was time to sign up for the 1pm $250 Daily Deep Stack.

But first there was business to take care of...

That's right, because we were driving to Vegas it was a lot easier to deal with carrying 10K than it would've been on an airplane (I would think anyway).  So I sauntered up to the cage and bit the bullet!

The lady was nice and she did indeed count the bills by hand, then had her supervisor come over and count it again.  Then I got this...

I've got a Golden Tiiickeeettt....

And as you can see in the pic, I also sat down for the Deep Stack.  Many on social media were confused and thought that the Main Event was starting!  Nah, just a different tournament that cost 2.5% as much as the Main does to enter.

Maybe it was because of such a HUGE price difference that I felt like ZERO pressure sitting down in the Pavilion room at the Rio to splash around in what is essentially a glorified turbo that just happens to have the WSOP brand name and a nice chunky five figure prize up top.

So splashed it up I did.  The table was favorable and in no time I had doubled up.

Easy game.

Alas, the rest of the afternoon would not go as well.  My opponents were nothing special, but I couldn't seem to drag many chips.  I kept ending up in my favorite place, the land of second best; and to top it all off my JJ was cracked by 99 AIPF to put a serious hurt on my stack.

After the second break I was still up to 50 big blinds, which is well above average in this event.

During the break I peed next to this guy.



Good news is, he thoroughly washed his hands.  Bad news is, several other men in that bathroom did not.  Yuck.

I also strolled by the Mother Ship - now back in the Amazon room where she belongs.

Then I sat back down and got tangled up in a hand where all the money went in on the flop, I had AK and flopped top two pair on a AKx board and my opponent ripped and I snapped.  He had AJ and the turn was a Queen and naturally the river was a Ten.  Dirty.

Down to under ten big blinds, I waited patiently for my moment - and found it soon with AK again, jammed it in and the chip leader snap called with AQ.   Board xQxxx and POKER OVER THE END.

So dejected but consoled that it was about 4 hours of good decisions but bad results - I late registered for the 4pm $200 single big blind ante Deep Stack.

Let me just say - as I have before I'm sure - that the single ante format is the future of the game and there is ZERO reason for people to be anything but less than 100% in favor of its universal implementation.

This time around I sat down with 50 big blinds to a VERY favorable table (I can honestly say I was easily the best player there which is not typical in the Rio) and promptly doubled up again when my opponents wonky gut shot hit on the turn but the board paired and boated me up (and bailed me out) on the river.

And then it was the second verse, same as the first.  A string of unlucky run-outs, capped off with my QQ losing AIPF to JJ held by the chip leader.  A short and somewhat frustrating day of poker, but still I was very glad I partook as I felt super comfy getting my feet wet and was super hungry to come back and play more very soon.

Driving back to Vegas on Saturday I informed the wife of my intention to play as much as I could between now and the Main in July.  She rolled her eyes a bit but was ok with it.

On Sunday my kid was over at a friends house and the wife just wanted to chill, so I was down for some pokerz.

I texted my homies Sven and Fish and put the question to them - should I play in a card room and put my war face on for real money or go to the Moose Lodge for some silliness and fun?  Truthfully, it was the latter that I had my mind on.  I knew if I went to the Moose I would have fun no matter what - I love the people there and it's super low stakes.  I really didn't feel like going to battle and potentially getting severely wounded with poker pain.

But my friends, who also happen to have 5% each of me in the Main, quickly dissuaded me from a dumb afternoon among friends with zero benefit to my poker game.  I needed to get real and get it on.  I climbed in my car and made a half hour trip to the fabulous Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood to play in their Super Sunday $230 25K guarantee.

Happily I was able to convince Sven to come along and then later I also texted G-Bone who also found time to come and gamble it up.  Poker is so much better with homies, even though we don't see each other too much and when we do we try to take each others money. Quick chatting during the break is a lot of fun and also can be helpful when we talk about interesting hands, not bad beat stories which are forbidden.

250+ runners sat down to fight for a prize pool that ended up being almost double the guarantee.  There was almost 14K up on top and the structure was deep and the chips were plentiful.

30K to start.

I was happy enough with my table draw.  Overall it seemed fairly soft.  There was one paunchy regular who was opposite to me in the 8 seat who I had played with before and I knew him to be sticky and very tricky.

We tangled a few times, with him getting the better of me and then this hand happened.

I had been a bit stymied in trying to chip up, I was the effective stack at 50 big blinds.

UTG limped.  My nemesis click raised and I flatted with As7s in the CO because I knew the table was super passive and extremely unlikely to squeeze without a premium.  Most of all I reeeallly wanted to play post-flop with this guy.   The big blind defended and the original limper came along.  4 players to the flop.

Flop was xAK rainbow.  All players checked to me, I checked back, under representing my hand with a plan to flat any reasonable turn bet.

A ten rolled off on the turn (yucky) also bringing a club flush draw.  With 8 bigs in the pot it was checked to nemesis and he fired a 1.5 blind bet.  Lol wut.  I called and all others folded.

River was a 2 of clubs.   Nemesis tanked briefly and then BOMBED the pot with an 8 blind bet.  I tanked and realized this would hurt me fairly bad but I decided on a call based almost solely on tilt from my frustration and a little piece of information that came back to me about his sizing.   Earlier I had looked up a super small river bet from him (when all I had was king high) and he had a monster.   This time he bombed the pot so big, I think he would never realistically expect a call from me - if he wanted value he for sure would bet smaller.  He wasn't good enough to polarize his range on the river like so many good players do.

So I called.  He shook his head and mucked.  I reflexively turned up my cards before realizing I didn't need to show if I didn't want to - he had surrendered the hand.  But I'm glad I did show, it rattled him to see that I had called him with a single pair shit kicker.

As I said, I would put most of my reason for calling squarely on me being tilted from being unable to to get anything going.  Still, in hindsight I like my call more and more, as it would've been damaging but not deadly to my stack and I had ended up being correct that this guy was up to no good and it would send him a message to get in line, at least with me.

And so then I'd like to report that buoyed by my soul-read I straightened up and flew right and accumulated chips expertly to make a deep run.

Except I was still tilted because I realized my call had been emotionally driven, and good results or not - that's never a thing I want to get into the habit of.

And so still being tilted I managed to spew.  And spew.

And spew.

It all came off the rails on the third hand that I would lose to my nemesis. He opened from middle position, I defended my big blind with king jack off suit. I flopped a gut shot straight draw and check-called his smallish c-bet. Turn was absolutely no help and this time it looked like he might he have bet a bit larger, throwing out a single 5K chip as he murmured something. I asked the dealer how much the bet was, the dealer looked me in the eye and said 2000. About a quarter pot bet. I slung out two chips and right afterwards my opponent said "I said 4000".

"OK then give me my chips back."

Well you can probably guess how this turned out.  It escalated it a bit, with five regulars at the table yelling at me that the money had to stay, but I stopped short of calling the floor because I know how it works in Southern California card rooms, and I said so aloud to everyone at the table. "I'm not going to bother to argue because I understand that the rules are different for casual players like me as opposed to regulars like you guys. I could waste Coreys time (the TD) but I know how this would turn out. You guys make the rules."

I disgustedly tossed in two more 1K chips and of course folded when the river blanked and my opponent pushed.

I was mad. Mad at the culture of regulars who basically run the place, much like the homeless in Los Angeles they are free to do whatever they want whenever they want and the rest of us just have to go along with it. The rest of us includes the dealers by the way, who have to endure all sorts of abuse and behavior that is out of line. 

I would have folded to a half pot turn bet, I was getting the right price to see a river with a quarter size bet. The dealer had looked me in the eye and answered my question. That I was not allowed to take back a call based on false information because the regular had mumbled his bet amount is pretty goddamn ridiculous. I'm getting worked up again just writing about it.

Anyways, like I said this was when the wheels came off. I think I lost another small pot or two and then this catastrophe happened.

With 12 big blinds I opened under the gun for 2x with 810 of diamonds. That was my first mistake. Way too loose of an open, and also I really don't have room to open with only 12 big blinds.  Some very good players do it, but I'm not so good that it would work for me.  I need to get it in or fold.

But my second mistake in the hand was a humdinger and catastrophically stupid. It folded around to the cutoff, a quiet and tight player who had about the same amount of chips as me, shipped his stack into the middle. The action got back to me and I thought very little before disgustedly pushing my chips into the middle as well.

This was a truly terrible and emotional decision. The cutoff player had not once shown himself to be out of line. His range was rather narrow. The very worst hand he would shove with was probably Ace Ten suited. I was well behind his entire range. But I was so mad and ready to get the fuck out of there that I couldn't wait to get my money in bad.

I proudly turned up my garbage hand and my opponent showed JJ.

How about a miracle dealer? No, dummy, absolutely not.

The board ran out and the jacks held. I rose to depart, and I heard the old familiar "Hey, you still have chips!" 

I sat down, dejected, fondling my paltry chip stack.  It wasn't really a stack.  More like a small collection.  I had about maybe five big blinds?  I prayed decent cards to get my chips in during the next orbit, but the cards never came. Absolute trash, so I had to let the blinds pass through me, along with a full round of antes. As the next round started I took this picture...

Alas, no good cards came and by the time it was my turn to be big blind again I had just over two bbs total.  Of course I was going to be putting everything in without looking at my cards.  An early position player opened the hand with a min raise, two callers came along.  I laughed and pushed my remaining chip in, I now stood to collect the entire main pot if by some miracle my hand held up. 

The flop came with an ace, yuck. I still hadn't looked.  The raiser c-bet and all folded, I turned up my hand and was delighted to see a bullet. My opponent actually had missed the flop, but he had pocket kings. The turn and river came and my hand held.

Now I was only severely short stacked, with just under 10 big blinds.

Less than an orbit later I woke up with AJ in late position. My old faithful nemesis had opened the pot with a 3x and had gotten two callers.  I shoved, and nemesis re-shoved with his big stack for protection. The players folded and nemmy turned up, wait for it...

Waaaait for it...

65o.

The folded out players were incredulous, now I just needed my hand to hold. I wasn't that big of a favorite. Personally, I kind of liked the move, there was a lot of dead money out there.  

My hand held and all of the sudden things weren't so grim.

The very next hand, on my big blind, the hijack, the same fellow who I had donated to in the disaster hand earlier, had been involved in two massive hands since and now had a mountain of chips, 3 bet old nemmy who was now determined to play every hand.

The bet I was facing was probably about a third of my sack. I was really hoping by some miracle I would not have to fold. And low and behold I looked down and saw QQ. I ripped, old nemesis hemmed and hawed and finally folded. The cutoff snapped and turned up AQ.  The chorus of bitching and moaning from several regulars (led by nemesis) rose to a fever pitch as my hand held up.

"You are quite lucky sir."

Yes. Yes I am.

I felt a massive weight lifted from my shoulders. All of a sudden I had an actual and viable stack of chips. I was right back in this tournament. I wasn't super deep, probably around 25 big blinds, but it was only a little less than an average chip stack.

I don't know what I had done to deserve this second chance, but I was so lifted in spirit, so invigorated, that I was now determined to simply make the best possible decisions I could and put all the negativity far behind me. I was now in A-game mode.

And it's probably not the best thing I was so heavily influenced by my emotions. But on the other hand, I'm glad to see that I can recover from such a severe spiral. Not to mention a teeny teeny tiny stack.

I knew deep down that such a come back was possible, I had just recently come back from less than one big blind to win a tournament that was in a home game for much lower stakes.  But that game was full of stoners, so it wasn't too crazy that the one sober guy at the table was able to take it down after being on the nub.  But this was something special - I had been given another shot to not waste my afternoon.  I wasn't about to blow it.

I was back to playing regular poker. Some hands worked out, others didn't, but from here on out, after about 5pm when I had recovered a viable chip stack, I would make nothing but good decisions.  There may have been one exception.  I don't know.  Feel free to let me know what you think the next time you see me.

It was a crucial hand - several new players had come and gone and we had also lost quite a few of the original players at the table.  For awhile a solid grinder with a big stack sat directly to my left.  He was very active and aggressive and clearly knew what he was doing. At one point he opened on my big blind three orbits in a row.  On the fourth time he did it he had two callers and then I also defended for the first time. Previous times I had had truly raggedy hands. This time it was Ah5h.

I was not super happy calling, especially with two callers already in the hand who were both pretty tight players. The grinders open was 4x, which was a big chunk of my 25 big blind stack. I should mention that although I was accumulating steadily, the rising blinds pretty much kept my stack at 15 to 25 big blinds for the remainder of the tournament.  Anyways, probably not the best call, but getting over 4 to 1 I rationalized it in my mind.  And besides, these days I have taken to defending my big blind much wider than I used to.

The flop came all low cards with two hearts. This was pretty much Yahtzee for me. I was not calling off such a big part of my stack to find a fold if I flopped a big draw. I checked, grinder c-bet half pot–ish.  It was folded to me and I let it rip. Grinder sighed, and then in a very irritated manner called and turned up pocket queens.  He was complaining loudly before the turn card even came out. "Man I know you're going to hit, you've been so lucky."

No verbal free rolling sir. The turn was a heart.  Now my stack wasn't just viable, it was one of the biggest ones in the tournament.

Damn it felt good to be a gangster.

An old and super funny Asian fellow to my right went on and on about how lucky I was and kept asking for change he didn't really need so he could get some 'lucky' chips.  I happily obliged.

Grinder then quickly spewed off his remaining short stack, not to me unfortunately, and he was replaced by a super boisterous and a little bit scary classic Hollywood Park regular.

He liked me though and he had me in stitches with his banter.  Some of the gems he dropped - (apologies for the profanities, but we are all adults right?)

"Look at this motherfucker over here, he be clownin' that motherfucker!"

"Ah shit son, you gots ta' come correct, I knew you didn't have shit!"

"That's my boy right there, positivity man, gosta have positivity up in this bitch!"

A short stack a few seats to my right shoved over a few limpers.  I looked down at 1010 and re-shipped my stack from the small blind.  And then I heard...

"Oh fuck me..."

My neighbor to my left had looked at his cards and was in agony over whether or not to get his chips in.  He stood up and hemmed and hawed for a good 30 seconds and then angrily folded...

Other players folded, the short stack turned up a baby ace and I turned up my pair of tens.

"Ah yeah boyee!  Folded pocket 8's!  Ha ha ha!!!"  Exclaimed my neighbor as he spun around to pump his fist.  Then he turned back as the flop came rags with an 8.

"Mother fucker!!  Dealer you always do this shit to me!!!  God damn!!!"

The turn was a blank and the river was a 10.

"Yeah that's what I'm talking' about!  Booyah beeaatch!!"

More chips slid my way and the bubble approached.

Then there was the hand where I busted my neighbor.  This is a bit fascinating to me.

The previous hand was what sent him into a bit of a spiral.

My other neighbor on my immediate right was also a classic HPC homeboy who knew everyone, but he was very much self aware and he and I got on really well because he was also very smart and funny and knew what he was doing and picked up right away that I did as well.  We avoided each other when we could but for sure enjoyed each other's company.  I loved that he mumbled and took the piss out of my nemesis across the table.  ("Look at this motherfucker, calling with 7 9 off suit, that's some dumb ass shit right there")

He was doing an interesting thing by limping most of his range.  But twice he had big premiums underneath and was able to snap off other players and drag quite a few chips.  Not a style I would play in, but it seemed to work for him.

So, the hand - he was on the button.  There were several limpers and this time he chose to shove, I assume because the limpers stacks, my stack and my neighbor to my left's stack, couldn't really hurt him too much.  I figured him for jacks or similar and made an easy fold.

The boisterous homie to my left again looked at his cards and blurted an expletive of anguish - he couldn't believe how good his cards were and he was truly truly in pain about whether or not to call or not.

"What you want me to do dawg?" he finally asked his homie.

Now, you may be saying to yourself,  "Uh, you can't do that..."  and you'd be right.  But this is Hollywood Park, also known as HPC and the C stands for COLLUSION.  You didn't know that?

To his credit, the dude on my right said "Do whatever you want, I'm all-in"

And then, this is a true story, homeboy on my left said "Do you want to chop it up no matter what?"

My eyes widened but I didn't say anything and no one else did either.  Again, to his credit, the dude on my right just repeated himself, giving no indication what he wanted his buddy to do.

I am still wondering what would've happened if the all-in player had said something like "I got you dawg" or something similar.

Eventually the neighbor to my left folded, but not before saying  "Do you know what I'm talking about?" to his friend.  The friend didn't answer.

The fold put the potential colluder on massive tilt.  All of the sudden he was involved in every hand.  Always angry or gleeful depending on the outcome.

It wasn't but less than an orbit later that I woke up with KK and opened.  Tilty McTilt 3 bet me and it folded around and of course I 4 bet jammed.

Again the agony, again the frustration and then pretty quickly - a call.

"This my baby mamma's birthday!" He said proudly as he turned up 8 6 suited.  I turned up kings and he stood and all the energy drained out of his body as the board ran out harmless.  I had him covered and that was that.

He scowled and stomped off without a word to anyone.

Well that was lovely.  Made me feel a bit better about being what I considered too emotional.

And then before we knew it, the bubble approached.

There was a brief window where I managed to throw the switch and accumulate some chips with zero risk.  There were a handful of players at the table that would actually fold sometimes.  I targeted them when it was folded to me and opened 2.5x without looking.   If they didn't fold pre, I would simply c-bet and sometimes it worked.  If they called I would then look at my cards and go from there.

This worked probably half the time over a dozen hands or so, which means it was profitable.  I was happy that there was a Russian dude somewhere over on table 1 who refused the bubble safety.  They wanted to pay 3 bubbles!  Absurd!

Somewhere on this blog, if you dig back through the archives you can find a long rant by me about money bubble safeties. I was young, I was dumb, I was every bit the recreational player who thought he was awesome but really didn't know much.

I made the case - that professionals, semi-professionals and regulars should look at the big picture and at the bubble of a large tournament that has been going on for a long time (this one had been almost 7 hours, the one in my other post was over 9) and say yes to agreeing to pay the bubble because there are typically a lot of recreational players in low buy in events with big guarantees.

I reasoned that the 'big picture' is that pros should want amateurs to be happy and want to come back. In the post I told the story of a young kid across from me who had a heartbreaking experience when he was the bubble boy because Poker Hall of Fame member Barbara Enright had said no to the safety.

Everyone in that room was mad at her, including me.  Nasty names were bandied about, and I thought they were deserved at the time.

Now I know better.

In a tournament - bubbles are quite literally EVERYTHING.

I've realized that there are also multiple bubbles in every tournament.  The biggest and most obvious is the money bubble, but not far behind is the final table bubble.  There are also pay jump bubbles, especially when the next payout is 4 figures after a 3 figure payout (or a 5 figure after a 4 figure and so on).  There's also smaller but very real bubbles, break bubbles, the table is about to be broken bubbles, and several more.  One that's a bit bigger is the end of Day 1 (or whatever day) bubble, especially big if it's not a time but number of bust outs that determines when the day ends.

All of these bubbles are a chance for free chips when you have a stack.  You can pillage and plunder with very little effort or risk.  Bubbles are ESSENTIAL to No Limit Tournament success.

I apologize to Barbara Enright and all other players I've been mad at for denying bubble boys and girls equity.  They were 1000% right to say no.  I was 1000% wrong.  Why would you EVER surrender a chance to accumulate with zero down side?

Now, I don't play for a living and I don't play to supplement my income.  So if a bubble safety is asked for, I don't say no.  The only time I would, would be in a bigger buy-in event with real money on the line; and in an event like that I doubt very much I would be the only one saying nay.  In fact, I would be shocked if a safety was even proposed.

So we played until we got to hand for hand.  A boring and tedious process that I've only been witness to a handful of times.

Fortunately, this time, we only played one hand and the bubble burst.

Then it was time to climb the ladder of pay jumps.   As I mentioned, I had been hovering around 20 big blinds since my recovery.  Typically I would accumulate a bit, up to 25 or 30 bigs, and then the levels would raise the blinds and I'd be back down to 15-20.

I kept up with the same strategy after the bubble burst - to a point.  I still looked for easy spots to accumulate, but I dialed back the aggression just a skoch with cards that had less equity.  Left and right people were now super eager to get all their chips in.

The first set of payouts was $400.  Then it jumped to $450.  Not much difference in pay.  Then there was a jump to $600 for 18th - 14th place I believe.   After that it went to $800 for 13th - 10th.  I was pretty conscious of these numbers and would always ask myself "Do I want to pass on this for a $200 pay jump?"  Often the answer was, yes.  But when it was too good a spot or too good cards I would let it rip.

Most often when I did, I used my stack as a 3 bet jam, especially to squeeze after someone would open and another player would flat.  Very effective.

As the final table approached I remember waking up with JJ two hands in a row.  The first time I got no callers after I jammed over 2 limpers.  The second time I opened and then 4 bet jammed a big stacks 3 bet.

He had 9h8h.  My hand held. He obviously thought, because I was only using my entire stack and not trying to see a flop, that I was an aggressive idiot.  Guess he had to prove he was a bigger dummy than me.

And so I went to the final table with a hefty 30 big blind stack.

There were a handful of super short stacks, the rest had me well covered, including the Russian who had said no to a money bubble safety.  His stack was massive.  Case closed on that argument.

I got pretty card dead (not that that's anything unusual or any kind of excuse) so I was pretty well shut down as play commenced.  I did manage to bust the teeny tiny stack, who was hilarious and friendly. Almost felt bad to see him go.  Almost.  His departure assured everyone a $1K payout minimum.

Another small stack fell, payout was now a guaranteed $1250.  The next jump would be $1450.

A little light bulb went off in my head.  This table was super friendly, and there were zero notorious "No-Chop!" regulars to be seen.  There was one more micro-ish stack left, and then there was me who was now down to 15 big blinds, but that was actually not as bad as it sounds.  Everyone else was now short as well, the monster stack probably had maybe 30 big blinds if that.  And the blinds were set to rise again soon.

I thought to myself, "Self, if this micro stack busts, I'll bet you someone will ask to run the ICM numbers and if everyone agrees, and they most likely will, I stand to collect probably double $1450."

So I sat tight, and soon all that I foresaw came to pass!

It was the big stack Russian who grinned ear to ear and said "Let's look at numbers..." after the last tiny stack exited.

It took only a few minutes, they are a well oiled machine when it comes to chops at HPC.  The tournaments are designed to not go too long so we degenerates can get back to donating at the cash tables.

The biggest stack would only get just over 9K (there was almost 14K on top) but the smallest stack - that would be me - would get $3650!  Hells yeah, ship it!

Thankfully everyone agreed with me, as everyone knew fortunes could change very quickly with the blinds going so insane and the next level would put an average stack at less than 10 bigs.

Handshakes all around.  Corey the TD, who is as nice and friendly and professional as some regulars at HPC are smelly and grumpy, mentioned that this was the biggest payout in the history of the Sunday Special tournament.  Nice!   Everyone at the final table got a gang of points for their monthly 10K award.  We each got 450 and Corey said last month's winner had just over 1000 points.  Boy, if I didn't work, I would for sure be going after that 10K prize!

Lost it all on Blackjack right after this pic was taken.

And so there it was, officially my biggest cash ever, outside of my 10K satellite win I suppose, but that was just a seat - this is actual monies.

I know we as poker players all have that fantasy of a really big day culminating in a phat payout.  And I know all of these fantasies are probably pretty similar -  a day of great decisions, making tons of moves, and a bit of luck.

Well, my actual day went like this.   4 hours of suspect (okay terrible) play, followed by a miraculous comeback courtesy of the poker Gods, and then a re-emergence of my A-Game which (along with that ubiquitous dash of luck that is required for these things) carried me to the final table and a nice beefy slab of cheddar.

Needless to say, this is a flipping' great start to the Summer!  The wife didn't get to roll her eyes at me when I got back after 11pm!  She was all smiles!  Yay!

Hopefully I'll be back here often regaling everyone with more endless rantings about big scores!

Until then - I will see you on the felt!