 Vegas June 2026 |
| WSOP DDS, Aria 7pm |
| Last Updated: 2026-06-12 11:10:45 |
| The plan for Thursday was Starbucks for breakfast and then MGM Grand for an 11am tournament. Of course I get half way over there and realize I left the backpack I had just loaded up minutes before leaving the room on a chair in the kitchen.
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| Back to Vdara, then really over to MGM to play poker.
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| Or not.
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| 40 minutes after the start of the tournament there were 19 players. Waste of my time, so I need to find something else.
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| Then I get hungry, so back to Salt and Ivy for a quick lunch and on to the WSOP Daily DeepStack tournament at 1pm.
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| Right off the bat I get all in with A-K vs K-K against a guy I had already decided was a loose player. But ... loose players get hands too sometimes and just like that I'm at 4600 from my 25k starting stack.
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| Not ideal.
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| So with 11 big blinds I go all in with A-7 late to act and get no callers, up to 5600 stealing blinds and antes.
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| A few hands later I wake up with A-10 and go all-in again, this time the loose guy calls me with K-Q off. A-T is a winner and just like that I'm back up to 11k. It's a start!
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| Now I can stop jamming, I wake up with A-Q a few hands later and make a standard raise and get two callers.
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| Flop K-T-2, it checks to loose guy who makes it 1500 to go. I call as does the other player. Turn is a jack for a straight!
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| It checks around, river another 10, I lead out and everyone folds.
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| Hand after that now I'm in the big blind, same loose guy raises out, I defend with A-6. My read in that early hand has definitely been validated at this point!
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| Flop A-2-2, he bets, I call. Turn a K, he bets and I call, river a Q, we check around, my two pair better than his KKQQ two pair. Once again K-Q vs my ace-something. Turned out he also flopped a flush draw in clubs!
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| And just like that I'm at exactly a starting stack of 25K at the first break!
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| Unfortunately I was card dead the entire first 40-minute level after the break and was trickling back down again.
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| By this time loose guy was also short stack guy. He had given me back a lot of my chips and then got unlucky against someone else and lost most of his stack.
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| I'm in the big blind and new also loose guy makes it 2k to go, original loose guy puts in his last 2800. At this point original raiser cannot reraise and I look down at 44 in the big blind so I call and other guy also calls.
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| I figure why not, if I flop a set I can hopefully get a nice pot!
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| Flop comes 9-2-4. SWEET!
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| Checks around, king on the turn so I lead out hoping guy with chips had a king ... but he folds. We roll over the cards and all-in guy has pocket 9s.
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| Are you f-ing kidding me? Set over set. Can't make it up.
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| I'm down around 17k, lose a few more chips in blinds while the blinds are going up and before I know it I'm down to 15k with blinds at 500/1000/1000 ... so 15 big blinds, pretty easy math.
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| I go all in with A-5, get called by ... K-Q, what else? This time guy next to me, and I'm roughly 60-40 to win ... king on the turn, 5 on the river, done. Eventually my ace-something was going to lose to K-Q, 60-40 still loses 40% of the time.
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| Write all of the above with some time until the 7pm at Aria and head down there around 7:30.
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| Attendance at Aria up to this point has also not been good at all, but on this day they got 417 players for their $1600 buyin NLH tournament and while it wasn't a huge turnout (like I think I said in the previous BLOG they typically have long waiting lists for this tournament) it already had more players for the 7pm at 7:30 than they had at 8:15 my first night. But I still got an unsold seat.
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| Got off to a great start for a change!
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| I'm in the big blind and look down at KK! First to act raises out, second to act reraises to 2000 and I make it 6000 to go. First to act folds, second to act calls.
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| Flop 5-5-4, I make a continuation bet, he folds.
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| Very next hand in the small blind I call a min-raise with 9-T off and we see a flop four handed.
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| K-Q-J rainbow!
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| Original raiser leads for 2k, I call and everyone else folds.
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| Turn a blank, he leads out for 5000, I go all in and he folds.
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| 42,000 stack from the 25k start. Sweet!
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| But nothing going between then and break and I go into the break at 34k.
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| Card dead for a bit after the break until I pick up a few chips with A-K, then a big pot comes my way.
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| Under the gun I raise out to 3000 with A-J suited. Fold, fold, next guy tries to limp in for 1200. Once he's told he can't take it back he reluctantly calls.
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| With effectively "dead money" in the pot there are two more callers.
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| Flop 2-K-Q. I lead out for 5500 for a continuation bet, guy who messed up thinks and calls and everyone else folds.
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| Turn a blank, we check around.
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| River is a total blank and I jam all-in with ace high ...
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| He goes deep in the tank. He hates my bet. Hear him mumble about how I must have a set. After a very long tank he finally folds a king face up. Hehehe.
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| 45,500 at the next break.
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| Not too long after the break they break up my table to consolidate. Card dead for a little while at my new table, win a couple pots to maintain my stack, but then this table gets broken up and I'm moving again.
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| 149 players, paying 19 places, 63 remain.
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| When we're about to break up another table at 53 or 54 players I get all in with A-K suited against QQ.
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| No help, out. Oh well.
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| As I finish this entry up I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing today. My plan is to go play 8-game Mix at the Golden Nugget ... but ... my car battery is a little low, if I'm doing that I need to go spend at least a half hour charging somewhere and I really don't want to go to the Nugget. But I really like 8-game! So I dunno ...
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| My alternative is a "mega stack" NLH at Orleans an hour earlier. I don't need to charge the car, only 2 miles, but meh I've played enough Hold'em. So we'll see.
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| I did spend a half hour trying to find some results and see if Nugget and Orleans are getting players but I'm finding almost no information. My other problem is that Orleans is at 11am, Nugget is at noon and if I decide on Nugget and there's not enough players to be worth my while it's a bit late to go to Orleans. |
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