Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

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

[Karabiner]

Glad to hear that mateyboy is alive and well

[animalpoker]

After spending most of level 5 and 6 at 12.5-25k and riding my luck plenty I’ve somehow spun up to 67k and now have a Russian $500 bounty in my pocket - it feels like a cash already even though I’m in for 1600 to start .
I think the delay was about 30-40minutes
Table already moaning on whether we get another break in 40 minutes or not now we have resumed 😁
All playing very face up at moment, already stole couple of small pots since stacking up

Corona count….  zero so far

[animalpoker]

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

[tikay]

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

Atlas is way out. 31,000.

[tikay]

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

This is tremendous fun.

[tikay]

B-U-S-T-Oooooo

[animalpoker]

B-U-S-T-Oooooo

Unlucky sir
I agree this one’s a lot of fun
130k here , can’t believe registration still open for another hour

Might not see you for a few days unless you are playing any plo tournaments ? Or I catch you in the cash area .

[animalpoker]

Out myself
Lost 2 huge pots and bust on another that would have got me right back into it .
Was in great shape in all 3 for at least half or scoop and lost all 3. 
Feel sick , 1st one was probably for a top 3 stack in the room.
6pm local time , not sure how I stay off alcohol tonight .

[tikay]

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.

[tikay]

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.  

[tikay]

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.