Tournaments can be BRUTAL - Golden Nugget Moose Event 2022

I played quite a bit of poker in the first week of January - trying to prepare myself for the upcoming Moose International Event at the Golden Nugget in Vegas.  I was booked for 4 nights and was very much looking forward to a long and fruitful tournament series with my fellow Burbankian Moose Lodge members as well as making new Moose friends from across the country.

December 31 

I took advantage of my office closing early to skedaddle down to Commerce for a $250 daily.

DNC (Did Not Cash) - but had a fun time splashing around and putting my chips to work until my AA got cracked by QQ AIPF (All-In Pre-Flop) with 40 big blinds.  Boo.

Chipped Up and then was SHOWN THE DOOR

*******

On Jan 2 I returned with a post-holiday glow, this time to take a crack at a $125 daily with a $100 add-on.

Early and deep, the CO opened 3x.  I 3-bet with AK from the SB.  BB of course called and so did the CO opener.  Flop was A♣️Q♣️9♦️ - it checked all the way through.   Turn was 5♠️, I led 1/3 pot.  The BB of all people click raised.  The CO folded.  I called.  River was the brick of bricks a 2♠️,  I check called a 1/2 pot bet.  BB Villain said "Watcha got?"

I laughed "I called you dude!"  He hesitated.  I simply showed and he mucked.  Where do they find these wizards?  So grateful that No-Limit Hold-Em tournaments are FAR from dead.

After the first break average stacks were quite a bit more shallow - my notes say I had 35 bigs when I squeezed nice and chunky from the button with a small suited Ace and 4 limpers.  Grumpy Sticky, as I called him, was in the Big Blind and defended for half of his chips.

Guess he didn't realize with a negative SPR in his stack I was shoving no matter what the board was.  The flop didn't hit me but I shoved anyways after he checked, and yes - he folded.

A bit later...

I then went on a heater, catching AK, AQ and JJ three hands in a row.  All the pots were small (but not insignificant).

Then I got moved and had a fantastic villain to my immediate right...

and...

Many of my recreational contemporaries bemoan sticky but bad players.  Not me.  I just love them to death, and the guy on my right at this table almost single handedly propelled me into the money and onto the final table with a nice average stack.

Yes, the good news was - when I got to the final table I had the most 5Ks so I got to buy up all the 1Ks.  The bad news was, average stacks - including mine, were very short.  I missed a nice ICM chop by busting in sixth place and had to settle for the actual payout of $485.  Pic is after toke.

*******

January 7 - I headed back to the loverly Commerce and plunked down $125 plus a $100 add-on and once again found myself putting my chips to work in the face of a relatively soft field of 130 runners.

I did not tweet at all - and didn't take notes.  But I ran pretty pure, and consequently played very well.  When the dust settled I sat 5th in chips out of 7 remaining players - and we agreed to a dynamite ICM chop which saw me collecting slightly better than 3rd place money - $2865!   Oh yeah.    My Moose trip was fully bankrolled!  (Plus I had already won my Moose Main Event seat and part of the hotel room expense by playing live at the Lodge!)

Love those Turquoise hockey pucks!

******

January 9

And so I was off to the glorious surroundings of downtown Las Vegas and the garden spot within known as the Golden Nugget.

Actually, the Nugget is still a nice hotel.  The room was clean and the decor was probably only ten years old or so.  Sweet!

I played a bit of cash shortly after my arrival and won about $200 in a couple of hours.  Very happy with this as the 1/2 game at the Nugget can be amazing but it is uncapped - and cash plays - meaning you have to put on your big boy pants when you sit down and you may drop a dime or two easily if you're not careful.  I was pleased to add another tournament buy-in to my poker bandolier.

Then I sat down for my first of what would be at least 6 tournaments during my stay.

Busted quickly after losing a flip AK < 77.

Entered the evening event and lasted quite a bit longer.   Had a great time with lots of very friendly people, and I got very excited because most of them were absolutely awful poker players.

This, it would turn out, would be my downfall during the week.  Kind of a reverse, or positive, tilt.   I would very quickly underestimate my opponents after an orbit or two, and then call too much and get far too tricky.

Not that I didn't play well a lot of the time - but I when I played bad, I played REALLY bad.

In this particular tournament I managed to suck quite a bit - until I righted the ship and started playing better and pouring on the aggression as the bubble approached.

Unfortunately the Poker gods, having rewarded me thus far with for my bad play - finally decided that they didn't like me playing well and saw fit to dispose of me with a 3-outer on the river to end the evening.

At this point grandpa was pretty tired, so rather than push it and donk off more money in the cash game I absconded to my bed.

********

January 10 

In the morning I arose early - as I always do these days - and joined my fellow Moose Mr. Adam at the fabulous Claim Jumper establishment right downstairs from my room for a hearty breakfast and a lovely conversation.   I got reacquainted with another Burbank Mooser - the delightful Mrs. Bunny and also enjoyed the company of my Moose friend Sean and his dad.    We regaled each other with bad beats of days past (that would be yesterday) and all of us were excited to enter the Moose Main Event later in the day.

All of my breakfast-mates had early entry at 10am, alas I had registered for this event very late in the year so I had a 4pm start-time.

Rather than distract myself with potentially blood pressure inducing cash game shenanigans at the Nugget (the uncapped game that could be GREAT or AWFUL) I decided to unplug and unwind a bit with a stroll around the "Fremont Experience" and the surrounding area.

I will say in all honesty, the neighborhood has certainly seen better days - but it's also been much worse as recent as the early 2000s.   I just needs a bit of a crackdown on the drug addled mental patients that circle the outskirts and it could be right back to being pretty cool.  It will always be funky, but it could be cool again, just with a bit more effort on the law enforcement component and especially on the prosecutorial end.

Overall, the area didn't make me too sad.  Until I stepped into Binion's.

The poker room vanished just before the pandemic, and likely is never coming back.  That's depressing for you, the place that INVENTED the modern No-Limit Tournament is without poker entirely.  Even worse, the original home of the World Series of Poker now looks like this year round.

This is where over the past decade and a half, ever since the WSOP left, Binion's has hosted large and lively mid-stakes tournament series.  The windowed wall in the back on the right is the original sight of Benny's Bullpen where ALL of the original WSOP match-ups, with Doyle, Puggy, Moss and Amarillo took place.

Incredible history - now an empty shell with nothing of current or historic interest in every direction.

So after that thoroughly gut-wrenching meander through the once famous halls of Binion's, I needed a pick-me-up and something to feel good about for the future.  So I entered the newest, biggest and baddest casino in all of downtown Vegas - Circa!

I will say - it's a technological marvel.  The sports bar is INSANE.  Brightest and biggest TVs I've ever seen in my life.

They checked my ID to get in, which I'm good with.  Knocks the chances of a weirdo walking up on you while you gamble down to about zero.

The decor was slick, and the amenities modern - but overall I have to say the place left me pretty cold. Row after row after row of digital slot machines, most of them empty.  Yes, these are "nickel" slots that typically cost $2.50 or more a "pull" to win anything meaningful.   Both brainless and confusing to me.

The pit games run by human beings took up a small fraction of the floorspace.   Blackjack tables were a $25 minimum bet, which if you're an idiot and paying $400 a night to stay at the Circa, I guess makes sense.  (I did find tables in a corner later that were priced lower at a more reasonable but still spendy $15 minimum bet)

One of a dozen or so craps tables was up and running.  A similar number of roulette tables sat empty.  Many more electronic roulette set-ups, as well as electronic horse racing and other absurd games of chance littered the floor.

But mostly it was slot machines.

Didn't get a chance to check out the pool because the entrance was blocked by a gruff security guard with his arms crossed.  Very inviting.

Overall, it was a dud.

My favorite casino that I meandered through was the off-Fremont Main Street Station.  Yes, it was older than dirt, but it still had character and a fun funky flavor that most of the other casinos were missing.  It had been closed for 18 months during the pandemic so it was nice to see it back up and running with real mechanical slots and $5 blackjack tables.

Not a stock shot at all.  It was actually quite a bit busier than this picture.

My favorite find that I stumbled across was in the pedestrian walkway on the way from the Fremont Casino over to Main Street Station - it was the "Golden Arm" Wall of Fame that pays tribute to legendary craps players with long lucky streaks or amazing skills (depending on what you believe).  

Also a picture totally not stolen off the internet.

********

So after taking in a pretty decent sirloin in the overpriced but pleasantly serviced steakhouse in the Nugget - I was ready to sit down and throw down in my 4pm starting flight of the Moose Main event!

You may recall my lovely selfie from the top of this post - of me in a big ass mask in front of the Moose sign.  Yes, we had to wear a mask indoors all the time, even when sitting at the table playing poker.

Yes, it sucked, but I was in Vegas by choice and so I was determined to not let it affect me.  Mostly I didn't think about it, but in hindsight it was for sure irksome and may have contributed to my over all crankiness when I was playing (and busting) in these tournaments.  I wasn't cranky with other people, at all, but I definitely got more and more frustrated as my expected cashes didn't come.

Anyways, the Main started out well for me.  I had an INCREDIBLY soft table, the softest table so far - by far.

There was a lovely lady on my immediate right with a twang in her voice and a pungent vodka smell on her breath.   She liked to play every hand, as slow as she possibly could.   Yes, she had to ask every time "Is it on me?"   Yes sweetheart.  Yes it is.

Didn't bother me at all.

I was in a good mood and so was the rest of the table.  This was the Moose Main - bitches!

Eventually I settled on a nickname for drinky on my right - I called her Vodka 7, because that was her favorite drink and it seems she was determined to polish of at least seven of them off before the dinner break.

I won a few hands, I lost a few, and was in decent shape after the first break.   

Then I looked at the structure.

Well, so far I had played in two side events and they had been EXCELLENT structures - only 10K in starting chips, but average stacks above 50 bigs after the first break and around 30 after the second break about 3 hours in.  Very good for a low buy-in price point, and the juice was a relatively reasonable 18%.

This Moose Main obviously had been designed by someone else, probably the Moose organization itself.  20K in chips to start, but a rapid and merciless DOUBLING of blinds after the first break to put average stacks at 20 big blinds one level after the first break.    In effect, a SUPER turbo.   But this didn't really bother me.   Moose players are slow and nitty - with 900 plus runners they need a kick in the pants or the tournament is liable to go on for a week or more.  I was fine with it.

Also, I didn't realize this until the next day when they posted payouts, but the juice was EASILY over 30%, which is entirely unacceptable in a standard tournament.   I did realize though, that this event was and is a major fundraiser for the Moose organization, so I'm actually ok with it.  It is, in the end, a good cause (with Mooseheart Charities undoubtedly benefitting.)   So that's not the part that bothers me either.

No, what really bugged me is what happened as the second break approached.  

Some genius at Moose international decided that we needed to go back to 2018 and reinstate the OLD FASHIONED ANTE.   

BECAUSE THE GAME UP TO THAT POINT HADN'T BEEN SLOW ENOUGH.

As you can imagine, this was a DISASTER for my table, where most players were slow to begin with and Vodka 7 was on drink number five or six at this point.   FML.

I'd say this, the old fashioned "Who didn't ante?" nonsense, more than anything else, tilted me right out of the tournament.

With this madness in place - and apparently everyone going along with it - the blinds then doubled and then doubled again.  At that point  I was overly eager to get my 20ish big blind stack in and either double/triple up or get the FUCK out of there.

I was looking at a triple up when I got my chips in with AQ in a three way pot versus 66 and 22.  Was looking great on an AQx flop, but a 6 hit the turn and that was that.

On paper this was a 4 day event, but I suspected they would be done in 3.

I was out in the middle of the pack of the 15 or so Burbank Moose members - so the $20 last longer was not going to pan out.

It was 830pm when I busted, and there were no other tournaments scheduled on that day.  So I railed a few of my fellow Moose buddies a little bit and then called it a night.

********

January 11

Day 2 of the Main resumed at 10am, so after another early breakfast with the Adam and Bunny breakfast crew (this time we were joined by nice folks from Ohio who Adam had befriended a few years ago at this tournament series) I went for another meandering walk before signing up for a noon (I think) side event.

Played well and spun it up - alas, I fell out of a tree in a big pot and missed all the branches (too many outs) and was out just after 2pm or so.

So it was on to a 4pm side event.  The nooner I think was $200 and this one was $125 or some such.  Low entry cost, relatively low juice and as soft a field as ever.

Unfortunately I met the same fate in this tournament.  Played well enough, but couldn't hit for shit when it counted.  Massive combo draw and missed all the outs twice.   At least the chips were prettier.

The good news, after all that busting out, is that by the end of the day - we still had a couple players from Burbank still in the mix of the Main.  The one with the biggest stack was none other than my breakfast buddy Adam!

Dragging a massive pot!  #LFG KING COBRA!

While I waited for the last side event, the 7pm $100 Last-Chance-ament, I had a blast railing Adam, aka King Cobra, legendary Burbank Mooser!   I got as much joy from watching him drag chips as I had from dragging chips myself over the past two days.  So awesome to see a friend make a deep run!

But then it was time for me to sit down and throw down myself in the super prestigious 7pm Moose Nugget nonsense accessory tournament lol.

I have to say, of all the fruitless efforts at cashing at the Nugget, this tournament was easily the most fun, mostly because I played exceptionally well.

Also there was more than a fair amount of run-good involved.

But, as I've already kind of given away the game here - a cash was not to be.  I took two truly horrific bad beats in a row in this one and was crippled and then quickly out.  No bubble in sight.  No fanfare with my exit, though I managed to be very civil as I left.

Off to bed and then there would be another day of tournaments ahead - if I could stand to endure it!

********

January 12

I woke up happy and excited because I knew my breakfast date with Mr. Adam would be a blast - as he had continued on the night before after I left and made the final table in the Moose Main!!!!  (Insert air horn sound here).  I had been correct in surmising that there was no way this was going for 4 days - it would end with the final table on day 3.

Indeed, Adam regaled Bunny and I with enjoyable tales of his triumph the day before.  I was excited for him as I knew the final table was being streamed live (with no hole cards) via this thing called the internet.

I would be able to watch on my phone while I played poker myself!  And indeed that's what I did.

With the Burbank last longer bet already locked up, Adam did us proud - finishing in 7th place out of over 900 runners for a not big enough cash of $2500 I believe.  (not big enough because the juice was super duper high, but again - it was for charity so it's all good).

Alas, I did not cash on the day that Adam did.  I lasted a bit longer in my event, but it was nothing to write home about - or tweet about apparently.  I really didn't take notes, but I do remember that it was easily my toughest table yet in these Moose events, so my plan of tightening up and reducing my frequency of bluffing really didn't work out, like at all.

I busted out and I was a whopping 0-7 in all the tournaments.   Boo.

I had the rest of the day, I could enter in the afternoon and evening tournaments.  But really, I'd had enough at that point.

I got in an uber and went to another casino and played cash.   I did very well, at the fabulously new Resorts World casino, playing in their smallest stakes 1/3 No Limit game.

After I dragged my 4th substantial pot in about as many hours, and I realized that I was up a good amount (nearly 3 full buy-ins at just under $1100) - I got on my phone and changed my flight to leave that day.  I ate the expense of the final night at the hotel, it was all good. It was very cheap and I was anxious to get back to the wife and kiddo.

Although the tournaments had been a bust - every other single thing, especially the great people I hung out with from Burbank, as well as a bunch of nice folks that I played with for the first time - was awesome.  I can now see why my Moose brethren are always so excited about this annual event, it truly is a great time that showcases the best things about poker - the friendship and the fellowship.

I feel very lucky that this year my work schedule finally opened up around the dates of the event - so I was able to go for the very first time.  I hope and pray that this timing works out again in 2023, I would really hate to miss it ever again!

**********

Coda:  January 15

The following weekend after I got back, I found time to get back up on the horse.  I always am anxious to do this when I've had a long string of non-cashes.   Thankfully, I broke the streak.

This time around I found myself at the venerable Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood - across from the brand new football stadium.  

Alas I didn't tweet or record any hands - I was really focused on making the money!

Thankfully, it came to pass!  

It was amazing being back in my original home casino.  The relatively new room is pretty fabulous.  Still the same players though.  Saw a ton of familiar faces.  Did not see my favorite angry man Mo though, hope he is ok.   Corey, the fantastic TD, is apparently gone.  I'm sure he got scooped up by some better paying casino somewhere.

The juice is still not great - 17%, but it's still softer than Commerce.

I missed the LAPC entirely this year, but the WSOP just released it's schedule and I am SO looking forward to that!   I'm already mapping out a schedule, I will be posting it soon!  Stay tuned!