Good luck Rob. Am at Aria in Seniors, will report later.

Pretty sure you can cope with Raise Every Hand Bloke.

So I headed back to Orleans, tail between legs.

I've not played any NLH this trip, but am due to play two x $1,000 Seniors NLH affairs, & I suddenly realised there' was a nightly $200 NLH at Orleans. So, after a sandwich & a brief nap, I handed over two of those Benjamin things to play the super-fast structured NLH affair.

In the first orbit I had Aces (doubled up off Mr Optimistic's 10-10), then Queens Jacks & Aces again all of which won unopposed, & 10-10 which lost to A-3. This was in a single orbit.

In a way, that sort of took the fun out of the early exchanges as I tend to nit up a bit (a bit?) when I get a stack & so I just sort of played snug all evening.  

Anyway, it was super fast & with 21 paid from the 153 entries, we reached the money just after midnight.

I'd been super short on the bubble, & a fella to my right jammed on me, BvB. With 6 BB & J-9 Suited I think that's a standard call & I got there. The bloke went apeshit, all the usual "how could you call?" nonsense. (He had A-4, also a standard play).    

The Min Cash was $402 & after an initial Ladder to $452 my mate jammed on me again, & this time I had K-K. Never had so many Premiums in one MTT. He was a spot worse this time - A-3 but the A-A-9-7-7 runout was enough to see me shown the red card. And my man turned to me, almost nose to nose, & shouted "see, JUSTICE, that's JUSTICE".....


lol, calm down mate. Some folks do take it seriously, don't they? For balance, I should maybe add that he was French.

Anyway, another $452, (Min Cash + 1) & another Hendon, although I'm starting to think that Orleans no longer send results to Hendon/GPI, as none of mine from this trip are on their yet.

[Nothing is certain except death and taxes & variance.]

Benjamin Franklin is, I suppose, responsible for $100 notes being known colloquially as "Benjamins".

His original claim to fame, however, was surely...


Nothing is certain except death and taxes & variance.

It had not slipped the minds of the Gods of variance that I've run rather well so far, & in the last few days they seem to have got round to levelling things up.  They always do, nothing is more certain.

After Wednesday's expensive loss in the Venetian $1,600 Bounty (loss $1,100 as I managed to win a $500 Bounty) there was another big ticket jobbie yesterday, the Venetian $1,100 PLO.

I was utterly amazed at how PLO has changed. It's been a while since I played any (High Only) but it used to be a game of high cards & rundowns. Not any more, folks were calling or getting it in with all manner of stuff, almost literally any 4 random cards. It was almost as if it were a £5 Rebuy at Gutshot, nobody seemed bothered about the $1,100 ticket cost. In my world, as it is for most of us, $1,100 will always be a lot of money.  

I wonder how much of this is down to bitcoin, trading today at an eye-boggling $105,000? Or maybe some nocturnal & nefarious activity? Guess they could be big poker winners, but let's be honest, there are not many of those.

It was truly eye-watering.

Anyway, I was in it so after sitting there in stunned disbelief for a few levels, I eventually realised I'd have to get my hands dirty & go to the party.

I'll be honest, it was tremendous fun. I missed a huge draw then a few hands later hit a similar draw & got paid, & that gave me a $200 Bounty & propelled me to over 70,000.  

So I was sitting there quietly, happily preening my 70,000 stack of chips & trying to work out my strategy going forward, when along came the Aces. It used to be the case that in PLO we could bin "bad" Aces, but from what I was witnessing yesterday, that's unthinkable these days.

I was in the SB so I was hoping there may be some action in front of me to give me more raising leverage, but for the first time all day it was walked to me in the SB.

Anyway, my hand was

 

Not great, anything but, but from what I witnessed, we have to play them.

So, after some pre-flop 3 & 4 betting, we see this flop.  


 



Goodness me. Do flops get any better than that?

Anyway, my next bet was virtually all-in, Matey Boy shoved & I accommodated him with alacrity. And I was somewhat alarmed to see his hand was...


 

Note there had been considerable pre-flop action. He was BB & 3 Bet my open, then called my re-raise. Yikes. I certainly never expected to see the old 2-gapper. I was not so much surprised at his holding, as to how beautifully it hit that Flop. 8-9-Q-K wrapped right round J-10. A thing of beauty. And I thought I'd hit that flop hard...

Anyway, no matter, we just need to catch our flush or pair-up & we are flying with around 140,000. It was not to be though. Variance was at last on my case, & let's face it, I can't complain after the run I've had.  

[Work Poker expands to fill the available time]

Good morning.

Parkinson's Law might well state


 Work Poker expands to fill the available time



It certainly seems that way.

I promised myself daily Diary Updates during my trip, but it's not working out that way at all. I seem to be doing long days pokering, not enough sleeping, & not enough time to keep the Updates coming.

Retirement is not working out quite as I planned it, with all the time in the world at my disposal.

I have made some notes from the last few days to remind myself of what I may want to write about so once things calm down somewhat I can maybe do some writing by referring back to them.

Won't be much this morning though, today I'll mostly be playing the $1,000 NLH Aria Seniors, assuming they deem me to be of sufficient age. Starts in just over 2 hours time, at 11am Local.

B-U-S-T-Oooooo

Even wayer outer now, 42,000 which gives me some breathing space.

This is tremendous fun.

75.5k next break
Coming back to 1k/1.5/1.5k
Atlas has Tikay at 30.5k

Atlas is way out. 31,000.

Oh, forgot, I won a $500 Bounty so that helps.

Yup still in but down to 37,700. Thought I had scooped a 90k pot with nut low and "nut" flush until Matey Boy announced "straight flush" and so we chopped.

Indeed we shall see.

You keep getting into position Tony, one of these days....

Maybe Tom, maybe. Being brutally honest, & this is not false modesty, I'm not good enough at the $1,600 Buy-In level & need to get very lucky. But when I somehow get into the money spots at that price level it's SUCH a thrill.

Whereas at, say, up to $600 or $800 I do genuinely fancy my chances & only have to get a bit lucky.

I'm utterly fascinated at how our minds work in these things, self-confidence (or not) & self-esteem.

Anyway, Venetian beckons. Will try & do some 'photos, it's such a lovely & well-run room. Chalk & cheese compared to the grand sounding MGM Grand.    

Short of time this morning so today's little update will have to either be very short, or maybe I'll do it later. Venetian for an 11.10am start today (90 minutes from now) but I never got up until 08.30 which, for me, is some sort of record so I'm a bit rushed. Since retirement, I've (tried to) develop the habit of being early for everything & not rushing so something will have to give today.

EDIT - in fact, I'm going to abandon today's update until after today's Tourney, as I'm really keen not to be rushing.

Note to self - Diary Update will be yesterday's dismal performance, and why I'll never ever return to play poker at MGM Grand again.

Today's outing is a $1,600 Big O Bounty at Venetian. Not at all sure I should be playing it, that's more than the cost of my WSOP's, though set against that, it is Big O which is very much my game of choice. We shall see.

Always the ones you must expect

https://www.pokernews.com/news/2025/06/poker-playing-pirate-scotter-clark-arrested-48793.htm

Do you remember this guy Tikay?  Had the misfortune of him at my O8 tables a couple of days running a few years ago.  Spent the day shilling some bitcoin poker site and harassing the waiting staff and any other woman in his presence.  Was deeply unpleasant from what I remember.

Morning David.

The poker world seems to have way more than it's share of these dodgy sorts.

I'm not familiar with him, but I'd take an instant (& perhaps illogical) dislike to anyone who puts on fancy dress at a poker table, though with some of my friends, it's hard to know when they are wearing fancy dress.

Only fair to admit that I am...Knottikay's coach or backer either.

Ha, very clever, Alan.

Remind me when you are off to Vegas?

I bumped into Alvez at MGM yesterday, you would maybe know of him but not sure if you ever met him.

Quite a trip that Tom.

Loved the 'photos of Nice, which, the cost & poshness apart, is such a wonderful seaside resort & the temperatures are "just so".

[Can't wait to read about the last 15 years.]

Bugger! Dont know how I've managed to miss these updates. Very nicely done, thank you.

Can't wait to read about the last 15 years.

 

+1.

Would love to read about what's been happening since you moved on from GUKPT & then the Eureka Tour. That must have been best part of 15 years ago.