Cash is King [EPT Barcelona update]

Hey Ivica so I don't have a positive ROI in MTTs for the last two years so I am not sure I am the best person to ask about that. I kind of look at it as a lottery ticket in a way. If I play MTTs I play the big ones, so anniversary Sunday Millions, WCOOP/SCOOP and so on, kind of looking for the big hit. Serious MTT players will grind a lot of touneys with smaller fields (50-500 players) and I guess that can offset the variance of the big field events. Since fields are so large in the events I play that pushes the variance even higher.

Recently I started playing more Live Event satellites and I really enjoy those. I qualified for the Irish Open last year, the Carribean poker tour and a couple of local events, but I am really yet to go out and play a big 5k or 10k event (I have only played the 5k WCOOP online). The satellites for those events have smaller fields but a lot of them are really tough especially the EPT ones. You have a bunch of the super high rollers playing them so it can be tough but for me its kind of the dream of playing in a big televised live event and that's why I do it. Grinding cash online is the most profitable way I can spend my time, but sometimes one seeks something more than that, maybe that glimmer of fame that comes with going deep in a high buyin live event, so I guess that is why I do it.

Since I play mostly cash, I have noticed a lot of times that I may be playing an MTT and if I get good cash game action on the side I kind of blow off the tourney all together. That is obviously a huge mistake and I have considered hiring an MTT coach for a while now. I may find one for SCOOP this year.

Cheers!

Fantastic response, really appreciate you taking time to write it all out for me.

I like your mindset with MTTs. I feel with higher expectations in MTTs comes even greater disappointment because in a way they are like playing a lottery. I can just imagine all those people giving tons of money each week for lottery tickets and then never winning it. Same way I feel for MTTs.
Perhaps we can find more about CG vs MTTs from Pleno. I think if he haven't won huge amount in the very beginning of his MTT switch that he would revert back to CG. It just makes sense to me more for hourly purpose.
I also personally respect more guys who are grinders, make steady living from poker, are willing to work on their game steady compete with best and become best and are willing to grind hard also. MTT road seems like a easy way out, playing lottery with bunch of fishes,trying to bink something to feel secured. It just seems like a lazy way out to me that's all.

I hope you make some big MTT score and attend those live TV events where you would get recognized with big names. Why not become new Phil Ivey or Phil Galfond?

All the best and please keep updates as frequent as possible. You are playing very high limits and I am curious to find out about your mental game, thinking process, every day life with such swings and winnings (how much playing higher limits affected your regular life etc).

All the best!

Awesome blog! Subbed! ♠_drink:

Don't get me wrong though, there is a great deal of skill in MTTs as well. What I am saying is that if one constantly plays in fields with thousands of players (like I do) it is hard to get a real grasp of your skill level as those results are prone to a lot more valiance and the "long run" gets a lot longer. The way I see it the smaller the field, the smaller the variance but when I play MTTs I do so for "the big win" (big variance.. big field). For example I have no desire of playing the $1k Super Tuesday or the Sunday 500 and although those still get big fields, they are not like the Sunday Million.

Another way to look at it if you make the top 1% of a field of 100 players, you have won the tournament and you typically win around 20-25x your buy in. If you make the top 1% in the Sunday Million (using Feb 8 event as an example), 66th place paid $1895 which is close to 9x your buyin. You make less than half for reaching the same tier of this event, over the 100 field, but in the Sunday Million it is all about the potential of getting to the top 0.1% of the field.

I hope that makes sense..

Weekly review Feb 9-15

I have again struggled to get into any good 5/10 games (I only play those on FTP at the moment). There is either no action when I am on, or I only get joined by good regs when I try to start a game. Then when there is a soft game I cannot get in, so yet again this week I barely got to play any hands at NL1000. Other than that I had a strong week, I took Monday and Wednesday off again to spend with my gf and got to go snowboarding for the third time this year (LOVING IT!). I had a really strong Thursday at the tables I made about $1600 at the $2/5 games on FTP in about 2 hours of 2-3 tabling (most of the games were 40bb max). Obviously I ran good but action was great too. Here are the results:

On Sunday I decided to treat myself and I played the €530 satellite for EPT Malta, which got 171 runners, generating 12 packages up for grabs. I usually don't direct register these, but I had a good week and I was feeling good so I decided to take a shot. I got pretty close busting in 27th.. very disappointing, but I have a lot of hands from that event that I think are worth discussing. Most of the hands were not very big in terms of pot size but were interesting from the way my opponents and I played them and I think it is worth reviewing them since they were played against some of the top MTT players in the world (Timex, Syam Srinivasan, Dominik Nitsche etc). I will post a bunch in a follow up post. What I found really amazing in this event was that with around 100 players left my table draw looked something like this:

I have Mohsin Charania, Dominik Nitsche and Zack Korik on my left and then you have Diego Ventura, Mike McDonald and FaceStealer so that has certainly been the toughest table I have been on. I only have one unknown and I barely play any MTTs... Will try to post hands later today or if not tomorrow!

Cheers and GL!

So here are my interesting hands from the €530 EPT Malta sat from last Sunday.

Starting from the early stages we have this monster:
Poker Stars, $500 Buy-in (25/50 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 8 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: 7,775 (155.5 bb)
BB: 6,551 (131 bb)
UTG+2: 9,201 (184 bb)
MP1: 6,118 (122.4 bb)
MP2: 7,160 (143.2 bb)
MP3: 7,216 (144.3 bb)
Hero (CO): 7,515 (150.3 bb)
BTN: 6,440 (128.8 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 7 7
3 folds, MP3 raises to 125, Hero calls 125, BTN folds, SB calls 100, BB calls 75

Flop: (500) 4 7 K (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, MP3 bets 300, Hero calls 300, SB calls 300, BB folds

Turn: (1,400) A (3 players)
SB checks, MP3 bets 1,070, Hero calls 1,070, SB folds

River: (3,540) 6 (2 players)
MP3 bets 2,588, Hero calls 2,588

Results:

Villain is a very good cash & MTT reg plays the mid stakes on stars and I have seen him in a lot of high buyin MTTS. He is very loose and very aggressive

On the flop I elect to just call in order to potentially induce one of the other two players to come in and maybe try to raise, fairly standard 4 way. I think raising flop with 2 players to act behind me looks incredibly strong and I am chasing away a lot of hands that I can get value from later.

Turn is a beauty, as no draws come in and I am afraid the overcall from SB will often be a draw. Villain bets really big so I now think he probably has a very strong hand. Turn can be a raise I feel villain will continue vs a turn raise with AK, A4, A7, 44, AA, KK, so I am beating 24 combos and only losing to 6 combos. He may also continue with some hands like QJ /QT/JT of clubs/spades but would be in a super tough spot as I am never really bluffing 3way on this board vs that bet sizing.

The river is pretty bad and I am even more confused by his bet sizing. I don't feel like he bets this big with a set or two pair as I will have a lot of flush draws + gutters that get to the river. So in essence at the time I felt like he probably had a flush but I had a case of "hand is too big to fold". He ended up showing 44 which I was really surprised about. I thought he played it well until the river. I also would have gotten all the money in had I raised on an earlier street. All in all kind of a weird hand and a fairly close river call, but if he bets this big with a set on this river then he may make the same size bet with AK so that makes my call better.

Poker Stars, $500 Buy-in (40/80 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 9 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: 9,441 (118 bb)
BB: 6,049 (75.6 bb)
UTG+1: 8,168 (102.1 bb)
UTG+2: 3,053 (38.2 bb)
Hero (MP1): 11,818 (147.7 bb)
MP2: 6,244 (78.1 bb)
MP3: 6,350 (79.4 bb)
CO: 6,476 (81 bb)
BTN: 7,877 (98.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with T 8
2 folds, Hero raises to 200, 2 folds, CO calls 200, 2 folds, BB calls 120

Flop: (640) 4 9 5 (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 360, CO calls 360, BB folds

Turn: (1,360) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets 760, CO calls 760

River: (2,880) A (2 players)
Hero bets 1,440, CO calls 1,440

Results:

Hand was played against Dominik Nitsche

That flop is not always a continuation bet for me against 2 opponents but with an overcard and several backdoors I felt like I had a lot of turns I can continue on if I got called.

I got a great turn card, auto barrel in motion.

River is pretty good for me to bluff as I don't expect him to get to the river with very many Ax hands. I presume he folds turn with a lot of his A2-A5 and I am really only worried if he flopped a set. Turns out I was wrong and that A did help him... I dunno the A is a very obvious bluff card and some players (wrongly) assume that I will never be value betting river with TT-KK so they always call here with 9x when I bet, but that is a topic for a different discussion...

Poker Stars, $500 Buy-in (40/80 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 9 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: 6,684 (83.6 bb)
BB: 6,670 (83.4 bb)
UTG+1: 9,476 (118.5 bb)
UTG+2: 8,079 (101 bb)
MP1: 7,519 (94 bb)
MP2: 5,929 (74.1 bb)
MP3: 9,768 (122.1 bb)
CO: 2,413 (30.2 bb)
Hero (BTN): 8,938 (111.7 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with K J
4 folds, MP3 raises to 180, CO folds, Hero raises to 440, 2 folds, MP3 calls 260

Flop: (1,000) A 8 9 (2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero bets 520, MP3 calls 520

Turn: (2,040) 4 (2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero bets 960, MP3 calls 960

River: (3,960) A (2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero checks

Results:

Here is a hand against Timex that I think both of us misplayed.

Preflop 3bet kind of standard for me, I don't really like calling with KJo, I get squeezed often, it looks good but its not that good, just happier to 3bet it.

Ace high flop is always better for my range than his so auto cbet in progress.

Turn is where I probably have to shut down with no equity at all. I don't think it is a good bet, there are no Ax hands that ever fold. At the time I was thinking that he may take one off with TT-QQ and hands like JTs, 67s (if he even has that in his range), 9Ts, 78s etc but I feel like that is not enough hands to justify betting...

River.. unbluffable I guess I can bomb it and try to rep AK but does he really ever fold an A here given every draw missed and I have a fairly wide button 3betting range? Nope

So he shows up with a missed combo draw and as played from him he just never makes any money (or enough money) when he hits his hand. OOP with this strong a draw I feel like he just has to go for broke. Plus he will be winning so often when he check/raises flop and shoves turn. But what can I say, Mike has made millions playing MTTs so maybe I am wrong?

Poker Stars, $500 Buy-in (250/500 blinds, 60 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 9 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: 23,499 (47 bb)
BB: 20,878 (41.8 bb)
UTG+1: 13,199 (26.4 bb)
UTG+2: 13,490 (27 bb)
MP1: 40,883 (81.8 bb)
MP2: 10,768 (21.5 bb)
Hero (MP3): 14,208 (28.4 bb)
CO: 14,064 (28.1 bb)
BTN: 3,292 (6.6 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 6 A
4 folds, Hero raises to 1,000, 3 folds, BB calls 500

Flop: (2,790) K 4 A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 1,250, BB calls 1,250

Turn: (5,290) 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (5,290) Q (2 players)
BB bets 2,500, Hero calls 2,500

Results:

Hand played against G's zee second biggest online MTT winner all time...

Standard flop bet

Nitty turn check to pot control (I got check/raised on the turn a few hands earlier so I was a little gun shy).. So many nasty rivers that it sucks to give a free card but he can put a lot of pressure on me with a small turn check/raise if I bet.

River seems ugly but its not too bad. Calling here is kind of close, I think he bets any ace here for value, he has some missed flush draws and some QT QJ that he turns into bluffs to fold out my Kx. When he showed K6 I just don't understand the point of the bet. I guess its a bluff? I don't think I ever hero call with a Q or worse... very strange.. I don't like it I think he is better off bluff catching?

Poker Stars, $500 Buy-in (150/300 blinds, 40 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 8 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: 9,505 (31.7 bb)
BB: 5,241 (17.5 bb)
UTG+2: 18,403 (61.3 bb)
MP1: 24,274 (80.9 bb)
MP2: 6,741 (22.5 bb)
MP3: 10,575 (35.3 bb)
Hero (CO): 22,432 (74.8 bb)
BTN: 18,126 (60.4 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with J K
4 folds, Hero raises to 635, BTN folds, SB raises to 9,465 and is all-in, BB calls 4,901 and is all-in, Hero folds

Flop: (11,357) 2 6 7 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Turn: (11,357) 4 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (11,357) 3 (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results:

I would love for the MTT gurus to explain to me how shoving 31bb preflop in early/mid stages of an MTT can be possibly be a good play? Villain is one of the best MTT players live and online. Ignore the fact that the BB woke up with a monster, I still don't see how shoving here is a good play for so many BBs

Poker Stars, $500 Buy-in (350/700 blinds, 85 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 8 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: 9,078 (13 bb)
BB: 29,383 (42 bb)
UTG+2: 10,309 (14.7 bb)
MP1: 3,626 (5.2 bb)
MP2: 67,999 (97.1 bb)
MP3: 17,066 (24.4 bb)
Hero (CO): 14,074 (20.1 bb)
BTN: 28,540 (40.8 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 5 5
UTG+2 folds, MP1 raises to 3,130, 3 folds, BTN raises to 11,120, 2 folds, MP1 calls 411 and is all-in

Flop: (8,812) 3 T 3 (2 players, 1 is all-in)
Turn: (8,812) 2 (2 players, 1 is all-in)
River: (8,812) 8 (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results:

Is it a huge mistake not to shove 55 here? I think it is.. I was multi tabling here and missed that spot but it feels pretty good to put it in here and I am definitely ahead of openers range...

Poker Stars, $500 Buy-in (700/1,400 blinds, 175 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 9 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: 43,405 (31 bb)
Hero (BB): 25,403 (18.1 bb)
UTG+1: 30,089 (21.5 bb)
UTG+2: 53,628 (38.3 bb)
MP1: 68,427 (48.9 bb)
MP2: 23,813 (17 bb)
MP3: 116,029 (82.9 bb)
CO: 31,979 (22.8 bb)
BTN: 82,814 (59.2 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K T
UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 raises to 2,940, MP1 calls 2,940, 2 folds, CO calls 2,940, 2 folds, Hero calls 1,540

Flop: (14,035) T 4 7 (4 players)
Hero checks, UTG+2 checks, MP1 bets 5,600, CO folds, Hero raises to 22,288 and is all-in, UTG+2 raises to 50,513 and is all-in, MP1 folds

Turn: (64,211) 3 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (64,211) 5 (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results:

The dirty feeling when you get snapped and you know you are crushed before the cards flip over...

Preflop price is too good to pass from the BB.. not sure if there is an argument for squeeze shoving that pre?

Sweet flop, I feel great when opener (Fabian Quoss) doesn't continue, Timex behind him takes a weak stab.. he could have a hand as strong as JJ , but he has a lot of weaker hands that I beat and that I don't mind folding out so I think my best play is to certainly shove flop.. I have 16bb or so anyways. I would have liked a bit better if there was a flush draw on board. Anyways Fabian slow played his monster and got all the money.. well played.. gg.. was cool ..

I think I learned a lot from this event and it takes a game like this for me to actually go in and dig through my hands and think about them deeper. If my week gets better I might play the next €530 this sunday, but so far I am not running too hot...

I have skipped my regular weekly update last week, partly because I was having a horrible week and partly because I had no motivation to write anything. Currently going through a pretty nasty downswing, I lost around $6k in the last 2 weeks. I have been feeling really demotivated during that period as I couldn't do anything right.. I was getting crushed every time I started playing. This really felt a lot worse than losing $5k in a day. In a way having one big bad session where you lose a lot is not that big of a deal especially if most of it was due to variance. However, getting pounded at the table day in and day out and losing for 2 weeks is a lot more crushing to my confidence and it really starts to affect how I look at the game.

In a sense $6k if my average stake is $2/5 is 1200BB which is not that much actually. I can easily make that back over the next two weeks if I run and play good. It is the fact that I started doing stupid shit that made the downswing worse than it needed to be. I played a lot longer hours and had a few days where I would get up to $600-1k in profit and lose $2k in the last 2 hours of the day... I also started playing too many tables because the games were "good". However, if I am playing 8 tables of $2/5-5/10 with some of them being 3 handed some 6 handed.. I play so crap I literally miss every spot. I don't have time to look at stats, take notes, figure out plays, make a plan for later streets.. pretty much auto pilot and I get owned by the regs in the game.

After losing $5k I decided to move down to $1/2 not because of bankroll worries but to rebuild some confidence cause I was playing pretty scared and pessimistic poker. I did well for 3 days winning back almost $2k and then I started spewing like crazy and lost $3k in the next 3 days. What I notice is that when I play lower, I play worse... I simply make too many speculative plays, marginal calls and its just bad. I need to play at a level where I am motivated to think deep about a hand and my opponent and try to make the best decisions and for me that starts at $2/4 and up at the moment. I also have to stop playing Zoom, this shit is not profitable for me.

Here is my comeback plan:
- stick to shorter hours (I played for 3 hours today and made a small dent in my downswing) max session length of 3 hours and stop playing if I lose over $1500... use the rest of the day to analyze hands and study
- play $2/4-5/10 for as long as I am feeling optimal (and not broke)
- stick to playing 4 SH tables to a maximum of 6 if they are all 6 handed or play a maximum of 2 tables of HU at a time
- spend 1h/day studying
- wake up at 8am every day
- make a fresh juice every day
- start going back to the gym for a minimum of 30min every morning

Lets hope for a $10k upswing in March!

Well this souns familiar.
February has been the exact same for me. And yes the confidence really do fade.

And also i seem to work the same way as you when it comes to putting in way to long sessions when you are loosing, i guess a stricter scheadule of some sort could make this better, all tho it can be quiet hard to follow them i feel ♦

Anyway, i think you will be a stronger player when you get back to greenland

GL this month

Full Tilt, $5/$10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (SB): $400 (40 bb)
BB: $442 (44.2 bb)
UTG: $632.50 (63.3 bb)
MP: $222.75 (22.3 bb)
CO: $285.75 (28.6 bb)
BTN: $393 (39.3 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 8 A
4 folds, Hero raises to $25, BB calls $15

Flop: ($50) 8 A 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $35, BB calls $35

Turn: ($120) T (2 players)
Hero bets $80, BB calls $80

River: ($280) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $110, Hero folds

Interesting hand against a TAG reg playing 21/17 over 1k hands, 8.8% 3bet, 2.4 aggression
vs SB steal villain folds: 61% calls: 27% 3bets: 12% (sample of 33) so he seems pretty tight in this spot

I built a range for him for calling pre:

He may have hands like ATs and AJo in his 3bet/get it in range pre given this is a 40bb max table and that would certanly be OK but I assume that his 12% 3bet range is split evenly between value and bluffs here. So villain will 3bet top 6% to stack off for value: 77+ AQo+ AJs+ and use the other 6% of his 3betting range as a bluff with some suited 1-2 gappers.

If we take that 27% range I gave him to the flop, he continues with a fairly big part of it about 70% of hands he sees the flop with in this spot (19% of hands)
The turn improves his range a lot so he sees a river with almost all the hands he gets here with (18.5% of hands)

The river is gross.. purely looking at the range he gets to the river with I have 58% equity against it, which I guess is not really enough for a value bet. I also consider the fact that he will call with all 2 pair & straight hands and fold everything else, which actually gives me only 27% equity against the hands he calls with.

The real question here is.. should I have check/raised the turn to stack off... it is close but I have a lot of outs even against QdJd where I still got 30% equity..
Alternatively on the river do I make a small bet like he did or do I hero call his bet? I really don't see him value betting a worse 2 pair here, it really comes down to whether or not he ever turns a hand into a bluff. I think he has a few missed draws or hands with no showdown value, but I can't really see him bluffing with that sizing here, I supposed he would bluff shove with a hand like Kd7d when I check to him on the river?

Any feedback would be appreciated!

Hey my friend!

Before hitting bed just from top of my head what might be wrong here.

Pre flop I would expect for 40bb stacks opponent to have way more Axo hands in 3 betting range BVB and more in flatting range hands like K9+ Q8+ J8o+ etc (off suit kickers that is). I agree that he will have somewhat polarized range but I don't think it will be 77+ AQo+ AJs+ and then all the suited trash with 2 and 3 kicker, but rather hands like A2-A5o in there as well to connect IP with A high boards + for blocker value.
That is just from top of my head looking at pre flop.
Post flop looks very simple and easy to me to be honest.
Flop bet, turn bet for value, river decision is the most difficult one. I would never x there and turn our value betting hand into bluff catcher without proper reads. The key thing here is realizing what would he bet if we check and what does he call like 1/3 of the pot when we bet and what does he jam when we bet? Is he the type of player that will merge his K10 into shove once we bet? If that is the case + all the 2 pair combos, missed diamonds draw etc, then we can profitably x/c in this spot to bluff catch or even bet call shove.
I think the easiest way to play this hand in vacuum without his river betting vs x/calling or jamming tendency is to simply bet fold to shove. I expect you will get called when you bet by all the weaker 2 pair type of hands such as Q10,Q9,109,98,108 + with some other bluff catchers such as KQ(if he feels you are 3 barreling missed draw on this river). So quite a lot of combos that bluff catch you on river when you bet that you should extract value from but only Jx hands are getting it in (in vacuum that is my expectation anyways). But, if he is thinking player, understands that this bet sizing for example looks weak and not for value, he might exploit it by jamming his whole range as you are never really happy calling off A8 there without proper reads.
Final thing here to note is that if you go with 3 barrel line here, opponent will in vacuum assume that you are very strong on this board ran out and will therefore have very little to none bluff river raising range or turning hands into bluff (depends on individual opponent he seems like a bit TAGish REG so he might not!) but rather always raise straights there.

Hope I managed to give my 2 cents here before hitting the bed. It is probably all over the place but hopefully it can start some more discussion on this hand.
I play NL25-NL50 ZOOM while taking shoot at NL100 on Stars and tendencies that I see there are of course not the same as tendencies on your limits. Had same type of hand in BVB spots on numerous ocassions I know that here I would never fold a hand unless I bet and get shoved on and definitely would always x/c river in this spot expecting opponent to bet all his 2 pair combos which he has way more in his range vs Jx that he was calling down the flop with in the 1st place!

Well what I would say is that his BBvSB range is incredibly tight and to have only a 27% call range is kind of ridiculous in my opinion. I call in that spot over 55%, 3bet about 20% and fold the other 25%. So based on him calling just 27% and 3betting 12% it is kind of hard to construct an adequate range that makes sense.

I am not sure why you think he would 3bet Axo hands out of a 12% 3bet range. He would have to fold most of those to a 4bet and I am 4betting a ton in that spot. I am pretty much getting it in with almost all pairs vs 3bet and as wide as A9 and KQ (not vs him in particular because he is really tight but in general). You are right about Ace blocker but I think that works better when playing 100bb deep here he is just gonna get punished for 3betting A6o as I would be calling very few hands OOP 40bb deep and shoving or folding most... I dunno I could be wrong

I totally agree that he should be flatting hands like K9 J8o etc but if he only has a 27% calling range its hard to fit all those in there that is why I am a little confused. To me it seems crazy to fold J9o vs 2.5x SB open...

The river you bring a fair point and I guess I underestimate how much he may bluff catch/hero call given both flush draws missed so I certainly may have missplayed it there. The more I think about it the more it seems like I should have bet out or just called given the great odds. Yet I still don't see him value betting worse and bluffing that small... stupid hand keeping me up at night :@

Yeah I hear you my friend. I got hands that keep me at night also They are often the ones when I expect opponent to fold over pairs and they rarely do ! ♦

Haven't been updating here for a while. Long story short I went on an $8k downswing starting Feb 15 and I have pretty much clawed out of it now. Shit wasn't fun but I think run bad is over for now. Played a bunch mostly 1/2 & 2/5 and now I am ready for 5/10 again. In the meantime I did a week long vacation in Cuba with my gf which was nice and relaxing and I gathered some sun.

I am looking to book my trip to Vegas for the WSOP and I was wondering if anyone reading this will be there for the beginning of the series? I am looking for a roomie for at least 2 weeks starting May 28th, I might stay longer if I run good or if anyone has a spare room willing to lend out let me know..

Cheers!

Just got back from spending a week in Montreal playing some live poker. The Playground Poker Club is absolutely the best venue around to play cards in; its just a great experience every time. If you are in Canada and love poker, try to make it out there you won't regret it. They do a phenomenal job of taking care of their players.

I was there for the WPT Spring Championship. I played:
$250 Frenzy, busted Day 1
$385 Satellite to the $3500 WPT, busted
$220 50/50 Bounty, finished 9th out of 234 for a total $910 ($510 prize and $400 for 4 bounties)
- made a small ICM mistake calling off with A9s for about 8bb vs MP shove on my last hand.. opponents bounty wasn't in play
$385 Satellite to the $3500 WPT, won a seat.. was a huge turnout 271 players generating 27 seats
$3500 WPT, busted in level 8 late on Day 1.. had a pretty tough table overall 2 fish and the rest were pretty good aggressive and competent opponents.. the 2 fish got moved to other tables within the first 4 levels and their replacements weren't soft.. Overall I think I played pretty good but couldn't win much with my big hands and all my bluffs got caught...

Most memorable hand, I called CO open from the BB with 9To (CO is a strong young kid I played cash with him earlier), he has been cbetting a ton so the flop comes 864r and he bets about 1/2 pot. I call. Turn is A, he bets again, I raise to about 3x his size, I actually made a mistake with the sizing I meant to make is about 2.3x his size but I threw in the wrong chips.. stupid live games.. anyways at that point I had committed about 40% of my stack and I assume he folds virtually everything less than 2pair here. I don't think he cbets flop with many A highs so when he barrels turn he either flopped a monster or is just barreling a card that is supposed to be good for his range.. I could have any 2pair/aces up/sets in this spot and I wouldn't be xr a rainbow flop even with sets so I think my play makes sense. He thinks for a minute, giggles, looks at me with a smile and ships it.. fml.. I still like my play though. After that hand I was down to about 20bb, got moved to another table.. open shipped AQs from UTG for about 14bb at the time, got called in the BB by AQs and he made a flush.. gg

Great experience overall. They got very few runners in this event this year so it was rather disappointing to see the numbers be so low. I also played a bunch of $2/5 cash and I did rather well. I was up on 4 of my 6 sessions with the other two being just break even. Tables weren't the softest but there were definitely some money to be made. I considered playing some $5/10 but the buyin was $3k max and stacks were super deep so I decided to pass on that.

Crazy hand from the $2/5 games:
We are playing $2/5/10/20 double straddle at the point on a $500max buyin table, which is actually perfect since I play a ton of 20-40bb games online. UTG fish limps, BU (LAG youngster) iso raises to $80, I am in the SB w TT and a stack of about $550. I think about it for a minute, thought about just jamming but for some reason decided to make is $225 and not fold to a shove. BB fish jams $330, straddle rejams $500 (loose aggro girl but seemed good), folds back to the BU who gives a speech and shoves over all of us covering everyone. At that point BU only has AA-KK in his range, if he folded I would have probably still called off. At that point I am getting about 17% pot odds for a 4way all in, but I am certainly up against one maybe 2 overpairs and if its 2 overpairs I am not actually priced in to call.. I fold and BB shows JJ, straddle has QQ, BU has AA... board runs out T high loooool... $1.8k pot over to the button.. only if I just shipped pre over his iso, but regardless it was fine as played.. just a wild hand my equity vs their exact hands was only about 12% so folding was clearly correct

Next: crush SCOOP about time a final table one of those and then off to the WSOP!

Cheers!