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Commerce Freeroll Tournament - A WSOP warmup

It was sure was nice of Commerce Casino - all you basically had to to was login and register in your "My Account" page and poof - you're registered in a 10K guarantee tournament!

So today was the day.  Nothing like a free tournament in a real tournament setting to get your juices flowing before a weeklong WSOP binge.  Michelle came with me, and expecting the freeroll to have a not-so-friendly structure, we set the over/under for starting chips at 4K, and I took the under.  To my surprise, it was 5K!  But only 15 minute levels - and some crazy jumps later in the tournament.

583 runners, 60 getting paid.  Now, to save you the suspense I busted around 85th, 25 short of the money but the most interesting part of the tournament was with exception of my bustout hand, I DID NOT LOSE A SINGLE HAND in the tournament.  That's how bad this structure was.  I did chop hands however.....FIVE OF THEM.  Aq, Kj, and AJ twice.  Also uncharacteristic, and probably was a major detriment to cashing. They were without a doubt the most interesting hands. At the second break I was short, but as short stack hero I brought it back up to 21.5K, but this structure was so bad(900/1800/200 to 1200/2400/500 anyone?) it seems like everyone was feeling the crunch. At 2000/4000/1000 I was at about 5BB and shoved with a4 with one caller, who showed 69os.  Clear until the river, when he spiked a 6 - winning that would have probably gotten me to the money.  Overall I was happy with the way I played, and feel pretty good going into Tuesday.  Here's our tentative plan...

Tues.  Cash/ WSOP $135 Daily Deepstack
Wed. Cash/ PH 6pm $100
Thurs. Cash/ Golden Nugget $125 or possibly Aria
Fri.  we leave, but will stay the day depending on how well we do.

Cash is obviously the major variable, but the best option for chasing losses.

I'll be reporting soon from Vegas!

Nice Bovada Cash and WSOP Trip Set, 6/24-27

After min cashing all over the place, I binked a Bovada rebuy for about $400 last night, putting me ever closer to my $4K goal on the site.

Yes, I havent been mentioning Bovada because well, the fewer on there the better, but if you follow blogs or podcasts at all, the cat is out of the bag and the fields are bigger than they have ever been, so no need to really keep quiet about it.  I am going for a 4k goal because that would give me 80 buyins at $40, and would allow me to play for more cash and whenever I tip above 4K, I can cash out.  It also frees me up to enter the $100K on Sundays if I don't sat in it.  I've had a few decent cashes in that but its been two years since my $9K score there(I cashed a majority of that out).  So, I'm at 2.6K now...I was up to 3.4 but went on a bad downswing.  I've found that due to anonymous tables, I can pretty much max out at 2 tables a time to play close attention. My winrate has been horrible when I play more.

And the WSOP is set for me.  Not on my bday this year, but later in the month, 6/24-27.  As far as the actual WSOP is concerned, I will only probably play one daily deepstack and then spend my time at other establishments - probably a PH event, an Aria event, and one or two at the Nugget.  Hopefully I'll make a deep run in something!

OOf. Vegas, May 8th

Yep the title says it all.  I left Vegas today down a whopping $495.

What is funny is that today, on my way out, I sat down at The Flamingo.  I had decded to only play at places I had never been to before - I've now played at every LV Vegas property - and of all the rooms, I liked the vibe of Flamingo the best - best of all, they had little USB charger stations under the table.  Nice luxury.

And I was playing well today - I sat down with $100 and ran it up to $345 at one point.  I was down to about $205 when THIS happened.  I'll be thinking about this hand.

I'm on the button with Ac7c.  3 limpers, and Villian in cutoff raises to 10.  I call, as does everyone else (typical chasing like this happens a lot at this table.) Pot is 53.

Flop comes 4cQc5d.  The villain pushes out 35.  This guy had been very active.  I didnt like this bet.  It reeked of protecting something else besides the queen, or if he had it, he definitely did not want to see another club come.  I call the 35.  Pot is 103

The turn brings an interesting card, the 8h.  I now have a flush draw and a gut shot straight.  He now puts out 65.  Now I do some math.

Presuming 9 clubs in the deck, one is the 6, so three more 6's and I have 12 outs to beat anything I think he might have, save a river that quads up a set he might be carrying, but I feel a straight or the nut flush will be the best hand here.  So my odds are 3.8-1.  Pot is 168 to call 65, so my pot odds are about 2.6-1. My implied odds if I hit are through the roof.  Of course, I am supposed to fold, right?  Not only do I call, I decide to go for broke.

Based on what I knew about this guy, he was a trapper.  He had checked a flopped straight earlier and let someone catch a flush on him.  He also checked down a set and feebly threw out a small bet to get a little action on the river when no one bit.  So, my read was that he had some kind of big pair, or had possibly hit the Q hard with something like AQ.  He wouldnt play a set the way he had been playing it.  I didnt want the only way I won this hand was by hitting a club or a 6...I wanted to see if I could conceivably push him off of whatever he has as well.  So, I shove.

To my surprise he calls.

The river comes with no club, no 6, and he tables - sure enough, AQ.  Busto.

So, my main error was going for the flush in the first place, considering my odds.  But I was down for the trip, and there was a lot of money in the middle.  Not shoving over him and simply calling would have been a better play too, though it would have only left me with about $85.  Looking back that would have been the better move, as I might still be playing there now instead of back on my couch in LA.

But - I was happy about adjusting my play today.  I was having more fun and was awake enough to pay attention.  I had strong reads on everyone for the most part and felt like myself at the tables more than I had earlier in the week.  In other words, I regained confidence in the abilities I knew I had.  But, still made the aforementioned error.

Las Vegas May 4-6

Hello dear readers!

It has been an interesting a few days here in Sin City. I'm actually working here, which has meant some long hours not a whole lot of opportunity to play poker . When I have been playing I've been generally sluggish and quite tired, and as a result my poker play has been- well, less than stellar.

In fact, even though I have one more evening here, I can say with some confidence that this could be my worst outing ever at the tables here in Vegas . I am roughly $300 down after two long sessions(on at the venetian, the other at PH).

My first session, i dusted off $200 within an hour, with two key plays doing the primary damage.

Im in the 10 seat utg+1 and a fairly aggressive guy in the 6 seat has position.  I open to $7 with 77 and i get three callers.  He flop comes 3A3(not sure of suits, but a 3 flush never came).  To thin the field up a bit I make it $15 and only get 1 call from the 6.  I can't put him on a 3, but a suited aX is definitely in his range. I had seen him set mine and hit twice already, and he was a frequent 3better on the flop and turn with most any pair- the table was nitty and it was working a lot for him.  Im going to assume moving forward this a fold if i see the same. The turn comes another ace.  I decide to take about 5 seconds and do the mental hollywooding of deciding what to raise.  The best way to take this, i think, was to rep the set and keep telling the story. I make it $25 and he calls.  He's not the type to give me rope to hang myself, so im putting him on a pair.    Im fairly confident he would have 3bet 1010-AA pre, so right now im thinking 88 or 99 have me beat, but he could be hanging on with 44-66 as well.The turn comes a 4 and i throw another $25 out , he calls and tables 88.  Right read, wromg action.

The bustout hand was stupid, really.I have KdJd in mp and limp behind 2 other limpers.  The button makes it 7 and i come along as well as the bb.
The flop is xkx with two diamonds. I check, the button makes it 15, bb folds and i call. This fellow had not been very active- i had about $95 behind and he had me well covered. The turn is a blank, and i check.  He puts out 25 again.  I eliminate a flush draw from his range as i doubt hed bet the draw this big.  KQ and AK are possible, but it was getting late and i had to get up early- so i shoved my last 80.  He took no time to call and tabled AK.  Quite ashamed.

Planey Hollywood didnt do much better.  Nobody seemed to be having much fun either. I did go up early with a K7 on the bb that hit the flop hard,  and i felted the kq across the table from me.  That jumped me up to $290, but then gave that amount back on this hand.

Young Ukrainian who had been quite aggressive is the villain. I have AsKd.  I pop it up to 10 and the ukrainian calls. Flop comes K67 with two clubs. He has always led out so i let him dictate the call.  He makes it 20 and i consider 3betting here(and i should have) but instead i call. The turn, no club and a blank.  I try to confuse him a bit and lead out for 28.  After a few seconds, he calls.The river fills out the flush with a 10 and he checks.  I figure im good and bet 30, he calls and tables 89.  Ugh.

I went up and down a bit after that, ad when the table dropped to 6, i left with $105.

My game feels off this week.  My days have been long, and i may not play again this trip.  I may play on my way ouy of town on thursday- ill see how i feel.  This would be my first trip aside from the wsop where i might leave down.

Looks like it is the El Cortez...

Thanks to all who chimed in with recommendations!  While yes, Binion's does do a thing with Four Queens, they do require 4 hrs/ day now, so AllVegas should amend that.  They also don't give it to you in advance, you have to record the play and go, and over 4 days I don;t know that I can sit in Binion's for 20 hours playing poker.  It is a convention week and the fish will be swimmng on the strip - and I want to be there. The Cortez rooms were 20 with a $9 resort fee, so it'll set me back about $130 for all four nights.

I don't plan on hitting any tournaments unless my bankroll really swells up, and if I do, it will either be the Aria daily, or this really cool promotion they have at Planet Hollywood I read about - they have a Micromania table 1/1 blinds and a micromania tournament that is only $10 or something like that, WITH a guarantee.  Pretty much all my bankroll can handle right now, with a lot of it tied up online.  I haven't really mentioned it on the blog, but I am working towards a $4K goal online so I can register into any tournament I want without too much worry about my roll going down. Right now I am hovering around $2K and need a couple more good scores to get there.I haven't hit anything really big in 2 years (see my $9K online win back in the archives) but the little scores always help!

Vegas! May 4-8, but a quandary

So, it turns out I'm going to go to Vegas to do an event gig at the Electronics Convention that week, Sunday- Thursday, so essentially I'm getting paid to go to Vegas!  Although, it has been a little difficult to make it +EV as they aren't providing housing.  I'm making about $600 for the job, and don't want to cut too much into that roll.  All of the Strip hotels are up that week because of the convention, and ALL of the casinos, even the ones on Fremont, are adding that pesky 'resort fee' that essentially doibles the price of the rooms, with the exception of the El Cortez in Fremont, which only adds on $8.95 to their room.  I thought about staying outside town at the NV border but I did the math - when you add in gas to go every day it ends up being way more than some of the other options.   So, readers, do you have any tips?  Of course, I plan on making enough at the tables to stay at the Bellagio :) but I am trying to be responsible and practical in the worst case scenario.

Of course, I'll be doing a trip summary once all is done.