Vic Champs Trip Report (part 8 maybe?), To Little to Late, Vic Champs Main Event
“Procrastination is a lot like masturbation, it’s fun for a while but in the end you’re just fucking yourself.”

So they saying goes and so I have done to myself. Normally, I crank out a trip report within 48 hours of the hands played involved. I can easily remember the hands and stack sizes, not to mention the feel of how things gone down, what people said, the order of things, etc.

It’s been around a month since the Vic Champs main event, and every single day I tell myself “today is the day I write that god damn trip report already.” And yet, it doesn’t get done. Day after day things come up; life comes up, and it never happens. How did I finally find the motivation to sit down and grind it out? I told a friend if I didn’t get this (and a few other things I’ve been lazy about) done today I’d give him $100. So I’m paying myself to write it. This one’s hard to get down on paper, because there’s so much content I had to ask the casino staff to give me paper and pen so I could jot down the enormous quantity of hands I played. Unfortunately, I didn’t anticipate my own laziness and didn’t bother to include stack sizes in the details, since I figured I could remember that much. For a week, maybe two, I probably could have. At this point, we’re just gambling…

While I vastly prefer having somewhere to live besides a hotel during a tournament series, the one annoying aspect of living in my apartment is having to wake up so fucking early in order to make the tournament at time. Today’s $2600 Aussie dollar main event goes off at noon, meaning I need to be awake around 10:45am. The result of having to be up at this ungodly hour is that I’m of course sick to my stomach again. Today feels bad to start off, but not quite crippling. At least I feel pretty awake.

My girlfriend drives me down to Crown and I dash out of the car in an intersection, desperately trying to keep from being late. When I arrive in the poker room I find myself a couple minutes early, and find my table. A bunch of old guys, one young guy on my direct right, and an empty seat. Works for me.

The tournament has an awesome structure with 20,000 starting chips at 50/100 blinds. Playing deep stacked against mostly recreational players is a ball, kind of reminds me of my WSOP ME days, and as I recall that went very well and had a happy ending for everyone involved.

At the start the play is a mix of very loose with limping and seeing the flop, and very tight when it comes to committing serious chips. The young guy on my right looks over at me quizzically, he looks pretty familiar.

“Hey mate! I read your Shannon Elizabeth trip report. That was hilarious!”
“Oh right, yea, heh. Thanks, it was a crazy series. I try to stay out of it a little more these days. I don’t think I handled it to well.”
”Yea, you could tell it was just this vicious stream of insults. It was excellent.”
“Thanks man.”

Soon after the young player is moved to a different table and the empty stack shows up, Arul Thillai. Arul has perhaps the best tournament record of any player in Australia in the last few years, and he plays an ultra aggressive game. Lucky for me, he’s on my very direct right, meaning I’ll get to try and abuse that fact.

How tight were things in the early goings? Try this hand out:

Stacks: ~20,000, blinds 50/100
I hold A8o in the SB.
Preflop: Folds to MP1, MP1 calls, folds to CO, CO calls, button folds, I complete, BB checks.

Flop: A 7 3
I check, BB checks, MP1 bets 200, CO folds, I call, BB folds.
Turn: 3
I check, MP1 checks.
River: T
I bet 400, MP1 calls. I flip up my A8 proudly displaying what is probably the winner or definitely chopping, and get shown A7. A8 no good sir.

There’s a weird trend going on at the table, where when they try to 3 bet my highly aggressive play, they reraise a tiny amount, or just the minimum.

Stacks: ~20,000
Blinds 100/200, I hold As 4s on the button.

Preflop: Folds to me on the button, I raise to 550, SB raises to 1200, BB folds, I call.

Flop: Ks 6s 2c
SB looks at this flop suspiciously and checks. I check behind.
Turn: Td
SB checks, I bet 1500, SB calls.
River: 7c
SB checks, I bet 4500. SB goes into the tank for quite some time and starts staring at me. He begins reaching for his chips in a way that really looks like he’s gonna call, shit, uhhh uhhhh, ummm, go for table talk?
”Pocket queens no good man.”
The small blind freezes. He looks at me and mutters “Well I don’t have pocket queens.”
I slightly nod my head. SB looks me over a bit, then folds.
“You were close, I had pocket jacks.”
”Well if queens are no good I certainly don’t like jacks chances.”

After this hand the table settles into a routine. Arul is raising around 70-80% of hands when it folds to him. I’m often 3 betting, or calling in position and making it hard on him post flop. We trade jabs back and forth for quite a while. I three bet him in all kinds of positions, he raises SB, I 3 bet BB. He raises UTG, I 3 bet UTG+1, he raises MP1, I raise MP2. I haven’t had a real hand yet though.

At one point Arul raises in MP at 150/300 and I 3 bet AJdd behind him. I realize after so many 3 bets with fairly shit hands, that this is an extremely stupid play because if he 4 bets me (which he’s capable of) I’ve got to throw away the best hand I’ve had so far. It folds back to Arul who quickly 4 bets and I start swearing at myself. I fold. Fuck that was stupid. On top of being very aggressive pre flop though, Arul is also quite skilled post flop.

Blinds 150/300
My stack: ~22,000
Arul: ~28,000
I hold QcTc on the button.


Preflop: Folds to Arul on CO, CO raises to 900, I call, blinds fold.
Flop: Ac Kc 7s
CO checks, I bet 1200, CO calls.
Turn: Qd
CO checks, I check.
River: 4c
Arul checks, I check. Arul flips up Kd5d for the pot.

Stacks:
Arul: ~31,000
Me: ~21,000
I hold KTo on the HJ. Blinds 200/400

Preflop: Folds to Arul in MP2, MP2 raises to 1100, I call, 4 folds.
Flop: A T 3 rainbow
MP2 checks, I check.
Turn: 7
Arul bets 1600, I call.
River: J
Arul checks, I check. Arul flips up J8cc for the pot.

At this point, Arul is raising an enormous percentage of hands pre flop, maybe in the area of 85%. The table is really only a person game, with the rest mostly folding or getting post flop and outplayed. The only real mistake I’ve heard Arul of making on any consistent basis is pushing a bluff to hard and to far.

Stacks
Arul: 32,000
Me: 19,000
Blinds 200/400
I hold Jc8c on the button.

Preflop: Folds to Arul on CO, CO raises to 1200, I call, SB calls, BB folds.
Flop: Jd 7c 5d
SB looks disinterested and checks. Arul bets 3000, I call, SB folds.
Turn: 9
Arul bets 9000, I shove for about 14-15k total, Arul folds.

Arul starts laughing about bluffing off his stack. In the following hands he begins rebuilding it massacring the rest of the table. While my stack hovers in the mid 30’s, he rebuilds his back to the same area when the following hand comes up.

Stacks:
Arul: ~29,000
Me: ~35,000
Blinds 200/400
I hold JJ on the CO.

Preflop: Folds to Arul on HJ, HJ raises to 1200, I reraise to 3600, 3 folds, HJ calls.
Flop: K 7 5 rainbow
Arul checks, I check.
Turn: A
Arul bets 5000, I fold.

Aruls aggressive play keeps up, as does my 3 betting, but he loses a large pot to a tight player in seat 1. Having lost half his stack the hand before, the following hand comes up:

Stacks:
Arul: 22k
Me: 29k
Blinds 300/600, I hold JJ in MP2

Preflop: Folds to Arul in MP1, MP1 raises to 1600, I reraise to 5500. A player in seat 7 goes “Wow, that’s like the billionth time he’s 3 bet you.”
”We’ll see about this one.” Arul politely replies.
It folds back to Arul who shoves for 22k.
“Well, I can’t fold, so I guess I call.”
Arul shrugs and flips up QJo. I dodge the 3 outs and bring my stack up around 50,000.

With Arul gone I continue to slaughter my defenseless table. Unfortunately, we are soon broken and I’m moved to the feature table on the rail. Sitting on the table under the red lights with a crowd of spectators sits Joe Hachem and on his left Sam Khouiss. Hachem is sitting with a decent stack, Khouiss a little more short though still alive. I know both fairly well and have played a little with both, and both are aware I don’t totally suck or anything. On the second hand at the table the following hand develops:

Stacks:
Me: ~60,000
Khouiss: ~16,000
I hold 7s6s on the HJ. Blinds 400/800 with 100 ante.

Preflop: UTG limps, 2 folds, MP1 limps, I limp MP2, folds to Khouiss on button, he limps, SB folds, BB checks.
Flop: 7h 5s 3s
Checked to me, I bet 2000(that needs to be more next time), Khouiss calls, 3 folds.
Turn: Qh
I check Sammy bets 4500, I call.
River: 9d
I check, Sam checks. I flip up my 76 which takes the pot.

A few minutes after this hand we’re allowed to go on dinner break. They announce we’ll be given 40 minutes for dinner. What. The. Fuck. 40 minutes? 40 fucking minutes? On top of being given a totally shit dinner break, my stomach is catching up with me and I feel awful. I had called every restaurant in Crown earlier that afternoon trying to get a reservation and every single fucking restaurant was completed booked. I run upstairs trying to get into one of the walk in restaurants, but they to are completely packed. I settle on the Crown food court, and attempt to eat some Singaporean but feel so sick I can barely get more than a few bites down. I make my way for the bathroom and spend what feels like an eternity In the stall wishing I were dead. God I need to get this shit checked out.

When I finally get back to the table I’ve missed 5 minutes of play. God damn it.

I begin playing moderately aggressive though nowhere near as much as the previous table. Hachem is more than willing to 3 bet me on my left , and pops one of my late position raises to take it down pre. Another well known Australian local player shows up on my right, though he is far more of the recreational variety. A few minutes after he sits down the following hand develops:
Stacks:
Me: ~60,000
Hachem: ~35,000
CO: ~30,000
Blinds 500/1000 with 100 ante.
I hold Jd 9d on the button.

Preflop: Folds to CO, CO limps, I limp the button, SB folds, Hachem in the BB checks.
Flop: Td 7c 6h
BB bets 2500, CO folds, I call.
Turn: Kd
BB checks, I bet 5500, BB calls.
River: 4h
BB checks, I bet 12,500. Joe goes into the tank for I think perhaps the longest anyone has tanked on me ever. There is an enormous amount of rail birds watching, and as he sits there contemplating I’m trying to decide if I’ll flip my hand just to be a show off. I decide I’d rather keep a good image. Man these red lights are hot, is it hot in here? Fuck, it’s hot. Hachem sits there shuffling his chips, thinking, thinking…..finally he folds. Pheeeew. I toss my hand in the muck. Sammy of course adds his 2 cents.
”Ha! You were bluffing Ton, stone cold bluff! You didn’t have a thing!”
”I didn’t?”
”Not that time!”
”If you say so Sammy.”

The Australian local on my right keeps complaining about how many rounds its been since he’s won a hand. I don’t intend on letting him change that trend. The following hand comes up between he and I:
Stacks:
My stack: ~68,000
Button: ~38,000
Blinds 500/1000 with 100 ante. I hold Jd Td in the SB.

Preflop: Folds to button, button raises to 3000, I call, BB folds.
Flop: Qh Ts 5d
I check, button checks.
Turn: 6d
I check, button bets 2000, I call.
River: Ah
I check, button checks. Button flips over K6o and I take the pot. He continues to complain.

Next hand I’m dealt ATo on the button. At 500/1000 blinds it folds to me and I raise to 2800. The SB folds and Hachem 3 bets to 8000 in the BB with a ~40k stack. I quickly grab two stacks of around 40,000 total and slide it into the middle. Hachem lets out an audible sigh and folds.

A round later, another Crown regular, Vic, comes to the table. I’ve played with him a lot in limit games, but never in tournaments. The second hand he’s at the table, the following hand develops:
Blinds 500/1000 with 100 ante.
Stacks:
Me: ~70,000
Vic: ~15,000
UTG limper: ~65,000
I hold As Ks in the BB.

Preflop: UTG limps. UTG had only once limped before and had shown up with aces. I eye him suspiciously. Hachem folds, Khouiss limps behind. 2 more folds and Vic raises to 7000. It folds to me and I make it 14,000 to commit him but leave myself room if the UTG player insta jams his stack. UTG and Khouiss folds and Vic throws in the other half of his stack, then flips over AJo. I’m writing hands down that I’d played during the day and watch the action with disinterest.
Flop: 5 4 3
Turn: J
River: T
The crowd reacts but I don’t blink, and continue my writing after throwing Vic the chips I owe him.

I continue my aggressive and stealing play. Khouiss has built a stack that was at 2000 a little before the dinner break to now in the area of 45,000. continue my aggressive and stealing play. Khouiss has built a stack that was at 2000 a little before the dinner break to now in the area of 50,000. He is of course, constantly talking.

Stacks:
Me: ~70,000
Khouiss: ~45,000
Blinds 600/1200 with 200 ante.
I hold 6d 6h UTG.

Preflop: I limp in. The entire table basically goes “WTF? You? Limping?” and seems suspicious. It folds to Khouiss in MP who goes “well I don’t care how dodgy that looks, I’m raising” and makes it 4200. It folds back to me and I call.

Flop: Kd Jh 9d
I check, Sam checks behind. Sam is now being very quiet. The one thing I’ve noticed about Sam is as talkative as he is, he REALLY talks a lot when he’s feeling confident and strong. That he goes silent here makes me suspect this flop isn’t what he was looking for.
Turn: 7d
I check, Sam bets 3000. I've seen him use these tiny little proding bets with hands he's unsure of, A high, mid pairs, or weak top pairs. I'm pretty sure if i raise here i don't need to raise much and he's already pretty weirded out about my hand. Also, if i'm wrong i might have up to 11 outs. He's also been really quiet thus far.
I raise to 8500, Sam calls pretty quick. Guess I was way off.
River: Td
I check and Sam quickly bets 15,000. I fold and Sam flips up AhKd. “Hahaha! I didn’t even need that Ad did I Ton? I had you all along! Trying to bluff me eh? Not this time!”

The next hand develops 20-30 minutes later. Khouiss seems to think i'm bluffing a lot (i kind of was, wasn't really 'caught' per say outside the previous hand.) The BB in question is a really awful player who is way to loose and way to tight at all the wrong times. He basically does whatever the hell he feels like but is moreso pretty weak and if he has a hand he likes he starts jamming, no matter how much an overbet.

Khouiss has occasionally been open limping, so this isn't like some freakish event.

Blinds 600/1200. Antes 200.
My stack: 65,000
Khouiss: 40,000
BB: 35,000
I am SB with Ks9s.

Preflop: Folds to Khouiss in MP1, Khouiss calls, folds
to me in the SB, i call, BB checks.
Flop: 3h 4s 6h
Checks around.
Turn: 9h
I bet 2500, BB thinks it over and calls. Khouiss thinks about it and raises to 8500.


This part is tough. What could Khouiss check the flop with that is reasonably beating me? I THINK he's smart enough to bet a set/two pair/combo draw on a board of this texture, so I'm having trouble putting him on a hand that beats me. Conversely, I'm having trouble putting him on a hand that i beat. Is he raising Ah with some other card? Straight draw/flush draw combo? a limped suited connector like Tc9c or along those lines? 6d5d that decided to check back a weak top pair?
I call, BB folds.
River 5d
I check, Khouiss bets 12,000. Flush draw missed, not sure a 9 value bets here though? If he had a straight draw I’d think it was with the 5, though its not outside possibility he has a 7. I think about it for a long well. “Well Sam, this is either gonna be the worst call ever or the best call ever, I call.”
Sam proudly flips up 7h 8h, having check a flush draw/straight draw/over card draw on the flop. Sure as hell didn’t see that coming. Fuck, both those hands felt really gross and I feel like I completely botched them.

With the blinds escalating to 800/1600 and my stack dwindling I’m in bad shape. A lot of my open raises start getting jammed on and my stack gets in the area where I have to be more careful. I’m also never able to play a hand strong pre flop BECAUSE I NEVER HAVE A HAND. It’s 12:30, and after 12 and a half hours of play my hand quality is:
pairs QQ and above: Zero
JJ: Three
TT/99: Zero
AQ: 1, and it chopped with AQ.
AK, one of which took it pre, the other was cracked by AJ.
Sets: Zero

At 1am the blinds go up to 1k/2k and I’m floating around the 20-30k area. I jam KQ pre after a few limps and take it. Luckily Vic is a few seats on my right, and has a very obvious betting tell where he makes it 5-6x preflop with hands he’s very confident with, and 3X pre with hands he’s not sure of. I resteal on him twice, but times with J2o, when he makes it 3X, and he folds. A while later the SB raises and I jam 95o in the BB and he folds. I have yet to get caught showing a weak hand pre flop and for a while I stay quiet.

1:30am rolls around and we only have a half hour left. The quality of my hands still hasn’t improved, and the numbers I wrote down at 12:30 are still the same. I’ve been quiet for a few rounds when the following hand comes up:

The button is a middle aged guy who someone told me is a “good player.” I don’t remember who told me that. His stack looks to be about ~36,000. Mine is about ~29,000. I hold 6d9d in the BB.
Blinds 1000/2000 with 300 ante.

Preflop: Folds to the button who makes it 6000, SB folds and I confidently slide my stack into the middle. The button INSTA SNAP CALLS and flips up A6o. I flop a flush draw but in the end blank out. Good call sir? Whatever.

I end the Vic champs having cashed only 1 event, the PLO event which I never meant to play and didn’t know how too. I feel like I played well in most of the events (perhaps worst in the main event) and am now exhausted of live. I can’t wait to get back online.

Since that tournament a month ago as many know I’ve been back into the online scene. I realized playing live over the last few months that although I was often much better than the rest of the players around me, there are still so many spots that I’m just not very good in. Having realized such, I have restored my pursuit of being pokers greatest knowledge mooch. I’m still doing coaching with Ajunglen when we both find time, who I use for doing Sunday majors. I’ve asked NoahSD to coach me in 6 max events where his experience with cash will help me iron out my poor deep stacked play, and hired Sirwatts to coach me with my 100r hand histories, as few have been more successful against the thinking villains in that tournament than he has. I’ve also asked Luckychewy to teach me cash, again to help my deep stacked play. Even in the last few weeks I feel I’ve improved tremendously, and the results are showing. I’ve made more final tables this week than I think, perhaps ever, and already won 4 tournaments with a few days left in the week. After finally getting this done, I intend on updating my blog on a near daily basis, even if its not a full on trip report and just a sort of log of online events.

Events coming up in the future that I’m considering that could lead to live trip reports are Singapore, Seoul, Adelaide, Melbourne Cup, Syndney, Macau, and of course the Aussie Millions. All of these will be occurring before January, and depending how much I win online and how much staking Timex wants to do, I might play none and I might play all of them. But we’ll discuss that all next time…

Preface: Over the course of the WSOP I received an enormous amount of support through the threads of these trip reports, IM, email, facebook, and PM. I never really got around to messaging a lot of these people back, as post ME I was very busy/exhausted so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their encouragement.

I’d also like to thank Timex/Stevepa for giving me the opportunity to play so many events. Of the team of guys they put together, I think its safe to say I was the least established and the largest gamble, unfortunately I didn’t pan out for them, though with Timex agreeing to go forward with the Vic champs, hopefully I can make it worth his while.

Lastly, I’d like to thank everyone who through the forum and especially on IM, have improved my game immensely over the last year. Guys like Grafyx, LuckyChewy, Mikej, Thay3r, DonT77, UCLAbruinz, curtains, Jurollo, Badgerpro, NoahSD, and adanthar have all been integral (sorry for anyone I’m forgetting, can’t get into my AIM list right now.) Of special notice is Ajunglen whose reviews have transformed my game over the last few months to really take it to a higher level. It came to absolutely zero surprise to me when he won his Sunday million recently. You guys and this forum are responsible for making me the player I am. End Preface.

The few days leading up to event 1 of the Vic champs have been mostly exhausting. I went from Las Vegas to Milwaukee, to Madison, to Milwaukee, to Chicago, to LA, then Sydney, and finally Melbourne. I had a few days to relax and get the apartment set up before the events started, as well as catch up with friends. Up until a few days ago, I hadn’t been in Melbourne for 13 months, and hadn’t seen most of my Ozzie friends since November in Singapore. We find time to make it to a Saints vs Hawks footy game, where the Saints crush the Hawks and win me 100 Ozzie, so boo yah and in your face Darren/Steve.

In my time studying abroad just about anyone who hung out at Crown could tell you I likely spent more time in that poker room than anywhere else. Within a few months I knew just about everyone and everything that went on in that room. Some would say the Crown poker room is full of degenerates and scumbags. Well if that’s the case they’re my favorite group of degenerate scumbags. Even though this time around I’ll mostly be sticking to online poker unless there’s a tournament series in town, I’ll always feel a certain nostalgia for the 20/40 limit days.

Walking into Crown tonight would find me having the same conversation fifty times over. “Hoooooooly shiiiiiit! Lucky Tony D. You’re back? What the [censored] are you doing here?!” Cut to the part where I inform them I’m unbanned, living in St. Kilda, and have definitely read the fine print this time. One of my favorite parts of Australian culture is their enormous informality, which is especially apparent in the casino where almost everyone I’m talking to is off work and out to have some fun. Tonight’s event is a simple $230 buy in NL holdem tournament, barely worth writing about really but I decided I’d write about everything I played. Previous to the event I run into Mark Vos and we start talking prop bets.
“Mark you want $100 last longer?”
”Only if you give me 6 to 1.”
”That’s to much. I know you can’t take this serious but that’s still to high. 3 to 1.”
”You’re on.”

In a $230 tournament, it’s a miracle if Mark can make it 90 minutes, by his own admission. Still, given that we only start with 60 BB’s and one hand gone bad and its over, this is likely a neutral EV wager.

I end up being seated on one of the red felted ‘feature tables’ along the rail and under a bunch of lights. We start with 3000 chips at 25/50 blinds and half an hour levels, much like a $1500 WSOP tournament but worse in fact, and apparently with no antes. Play gets under way and my table has one player I’m quite familiar with, my friend James Dood, one of Australia’s better players in Hold’em/Omaha. He’s on the other side of the table though, so he won’t be able to abuse me on the left. He’s in the BB on the first hand, and I immediately begin trash talking about how I’m going to blow him off his blind straight away. I’m in MP (11 handed, blegh) when the following hand develops:

I hold As Jc in MP2. All stacks 3000.
Villain is middle aged guy I’ve seen around a few times but don’t remember anything about.

Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 150, folds to SB, SB calls, BB folds.
Flop: J T 4 rainbow
SB checks, I bet 225, SB raises to 600. This is not a great spot, but this shallow I don’t think I can ever really consider folding here. J9/QJ/KJ are all in his range, though I don’t think he’s check raising me with a draw. I’m pretty sure if I shove now he’ll fold most J’s, but if I call he’ll commit himself on a safe turn. I elect to call.
Turn: 2
SB shoves, I call. SB shows KJ and I’m well in front.
River: 5

I raise the next hand and take the blinds. A couple hands later I raise again and get reraised by a guy I know in seat 1, and fold to his reraise. A round later the guy in seat 1 has continued to play somewhat aggressive but not spewy, when the following hand comes up.

I hold Jh Js in the SB. Blinds 25/50
My stack: 5800
UTG: 3300

Preflop: UTG raises to 350, folds to me in the SB. His 7x raise is really weird, but is rarely KK+. I call, BB folds.

Flop: Ks Qh Ts
I check, UTG checks.
Turn: Qd
I check, UTG checks.
River: 7h
I check, UTG bets 650, I fold. UTG proudly flips up 44. I’m not sure what else I could do, I didn’t really give him credit for 7x’ing a small pair UTG, and basically all his more likely range has me crushed on this board and isn’t folding if I bet as a bluff.

Play in this event is extremely loose/passive. People are limp calling 4-5X raises with things like J8o with a 60 BB stack and its totally the norm. While the play is bad at the WSOP, the thing with most recreational players in Australia is that the game is still quite new. Poker didn’t really find a popular stride until 2005 when Hachem won the WSOP, as the explosion of the Crown poker rooms size can tell you. When I first got there a couple weeks before Joe won, I think the Crown poker room had about ~25 tables. Now it has roughly double that. My table is no different, as there is a lot of limp calling and limp folding going on.

With the blinds having gone up to 50/100 the following hand comes up. The two limpers were very loose/weak.
My stack: ~5600
UTG+1’s stack: ~2500. Blinds 50/100, I hold Kc Qd on the button.

Preflop: UTG folds, UTG+1 limps, 1 fold, MP1 limps, folds to me on the button. I raise to 475, folds back to UTG+1 who folds, MP1 calls.

Flop: Td 5s 2d
MP1 checks, I bet 625, MP1 calls.
Turn: 9c
MP1 checks, I check.
River: Jd
MP1 bets out 900 with about 500 more behind. I’m thinking if he had a flush draw he’d mostly commit himself on the flop if he has ANY clue (poor assumption on my part) so pretty easy shove here. I put him in for his last 500, he calls and flips up a brilliantly played Kd 9d. Fair enough, I’m back to around my starting stack.

After this hand my cards dry up and seeing as everyone’s stack is so shallow, there’s no real room for creative aggressive play. The blinds go up to 100/200 and with 2800 in my stack I resteal the guy on my right with T9dd who makes it 600 and get a fold. A couple hands later I pick up AK and raise pre flop in EP, and some guy in BB tries to make a move by shoving with Q3o for 2k and my AK holds. Not sure what that was all about considering how tight I’d been for a while but hey to each his own. Then it folds to me in the SB and I raise air as the BB seemed really tight/straight forward but he calls. The flop is rags I c bet he insta jams and I fold.

A little while later with blinds now at 150/300, the following hand comes up:
My stack: ~5000
SB: 2100
I hold Tc Td in EP.

Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 800, folds to SB, SB calls, BB folds.

Flop: 3c 3d 2c
SB shoves, I call. SB shows Kc Qc. The irony is I don’t think he even planned on stopngo’ing me on any flop, he just saw a hand he liked and called, then got a dream flop and crammed.
Turn: Ac
River: Ks

[censored], now I’m crippled. A blind steal a little bit and stay around 3000. When we get back from the break the BB has yet to show up and I’m sitting with about 3000. The blinds are 150/300 and the button is a fairly aggressive player with a big stack. It folds to him and he raises to 800. I look down at Kc 9c and insta jam. He calls and flips up 66.

Flop: Ac 8c 5h
Turn: 8d
Just a few outs here.
River: 3h

Oh well. On the plus side I won my $100 last longer off Mark who started shoving blind an hour in. I run into Mark later and after getting some food we head down to the poker room and decide to organize an in house home game. We recruit 10 players and set up a game of $25 buy in, 1-2 blinds, one rotation NL holdem, one rotation NL Omaha hi. The game is mostly drunk, loud and boisterous, and I run horrible and lose like $400. Oh well, tomorrow is the $1100 HU event, which given that it’ll be more SNG structure than cash game should play to my advantage.

Tonight I went out with friends to celebrate a totally pointless 6 weeks of life. We got very drunk and this is what happened:

Watts/Stevepa/JohnnyVincent and I go to dinner tonight at Buzios and pay our bill with $340 in vouchers plus additional money for tip.

We order much wine at Buzios and I begin to get drunk. I attempt to convince Johnny Vincent to come out tonight, but he refuses unless he can find his favorite magical powder. I tell him booze is good enough and more civil, he tells me he’s to tired. I call him a pussy.

We go to Coyote Ugly at New York New York. I get increasingly wasted, a 40 year old woman tells me I am a fine piece of ass while trying to dance with me. I tell her I am 22 and have a girlfriend. I enter a meaningful conversation with a bartender about her married life and how her husband feels about her working here getting hit on all the time. She tells me my cigar smoke is disgusting. I ask if she’d rather be talking to some [censored] who’s trying to sleep with her.

I become super friendly with some black dude named Jerrod who works in real estate and tells me he’s going to take me to a Raiders game. I tell him numerous times that he better not be [censored] messing with me, and he promises he isn’t since I hooked him up with a cigar and him and his wife up with a drink and we got wasted. Go Raiders unless they are playing the Packers.

We go to the MGM grand. I am absurdly drunk and we run into Aaronbeen and Kush. I call up the operator for some such reason, then attempt to smooth talk her into coming out with us. She more or less agrees. I tell Sirwatts that we are going to the front desk to find the operator ‘Vanessa’ and that he is going to be “Tony” who talked to her on the phone. Watts begrudgingly accepts.

On the way to the front desk I see a promotional Dodge Viper on top of some slot machines. I attempt to leap onto the top of the slot machines but am so wasted I fall over onto the floor yelling “FUUUUCKING VIPER!!!” after pulling open the door of the car and falling backwards, sprawled out everywhere having thrown over a slots chair.

Watts and I arrive at the front desk. We demand this so called “Vanessa” who according to the woman at the front desk, does not exist. I tell her to stop lying to me. She says there is no such Vanessa. Watts and I withdraw.

On the way back towards our party Watts and I run across a bridal party. I stop and attempt to explain to them what a fine catch Sirwatts is. Watts looks at me with contempt, as do the girls. At some point I attempt to grab Sirwatts and throw him over my shoulder, but instead end up tackling him in the middle of the casino. I then run off from Watts laughing hysterically at all the stupidity and stumble about in a drunken stupor. This would be the last impression Watts ever has of me for the discernable future. I attempt to find my way back to the party but everyone appears to be gone.

After completely failing to find my friends I wander over to the front of the Mirage asking people who work at the hotel “Damn it man! Where are the taxis in this ungodly place!?” They point me in the right direction. I collapse into a Taxi and tell him to take me to the Korean BBQ, then change my mind to just go to the Rio and desperately try not to pass out in the cab.

I get back to my room and write a fairly mediocre trip report.

I convince Sirwatts to spend an entire day out Wednesday wasting time and eating food so I’ll be appropriately tired that night. The plan works and when I hit my pillow around 3:30 I fall straight out. When I awake at 11:30 to play, I feel much better than on day 2. If I can get a good soft table full of guys concerned with making the money, I’ll have myself another massacre.

I get to my table and find a totally different scenario. For starters, on my immediate right with 400k is Imper1um. In seat 8 is Stevebets, and most of the table seems competent and not to worried about making the money. Imper1um and I have played at the Bellagio and he’s at least fairly familiar with my aggressive game, luckily having him on my immediate right negates his ability to run over me with three bets. I start the day with $292,500 and with the table playing aggressively, I keep most of my aggressive plays to late position.

Early hands of minimal interest includes 3 betting Imper1um with JJ and him folding. In another hand the button a very old and sloppy aggressive Spanish player who DOES NOT FOLD raises and I call with 22 in the BB. The flop is T8T and we both check. Turn is a Q I check and he bets only 10k. I know he’s pretty spewy aggressive so I decide to give him one call. River is a 4 and we both check, I expect to be good but he shows me JJ. Owned? He certainly had a hand I never saw coming.

I raise 99 utg and get cold called by a guy with about 80k. The flop comes T64 two clubs, I bet and he shoves. I’m pretty sure he’s not cold calling my utg raise without a pair or shoving here without at least 15 outs, but most always an over pair, so I deliberate and fold.

For a while after the 99 hand I play very tight, as my stack has slipped to about 270k. After folding a round or two I decide to make an UTG steal with just about any 2 cards, as I’m pretty sure Imper1um will respect it in his BB. I peek down at 95o utg 8 handed and the following hand develops:
Blinds 1500/3000 with 400 ante.
My stack: ~270k
MP1: ~330k

Preflop: I raise to 9500, folds to MP1, MP1 calls, all others fold.

Flop: 8 7 6 two diamonds.
MP1 in this hand is a younger Asian guy who works for Pokerstars in Costa Rica. He knows I’m a smart and aggressive player and we’ve been chatting and friendly. I lead out for 13k, he calls pretty quick.
Turn: 2s
Awesome card. I think about my bet size, then lead out a large 40k, hoping that if he raises it’ll force him to commit for my stack. He grabs a full stack of orange 5000’s and raises to 100k. I go into the tank for about 5-10 seconds, then move all in. MP1 asks for a count. He tanks, counts up his chips, stares at me, tanks some more. He stands out of his seat, sighs out loud, can’t seem to figure out what to do. I figure he absolutely must have an over pair and that he worries I have a set, so I’ve got to be WAAAAAAAY good here, like him drawing dead good. He counts out the 134,800 more to call, announces “lets gamble, you got a straight?” and slides it into the middle.
“Yea, straight” I reply.
Unfortunately for me MP1 is by no means drawing dead and flips up 88. I can’t even believe he thought about it, if I was in his shoes I would’ve smashed my chips into the middle Phil Hellmuth style. There’s almost 600k in the middle which I think would be good for the chip lead at this point, and I just got to dodge 10 outs on one card.
River: 7
I don’t even react. No yell, no scream, no slapping, just staring at the card. I look over at MP1 and say calmly “Well, that’s unfortunate.” I shake his and Imper1um’s hands, wish them and the table luck, and walk off.

Why didn’t I react? Why wasn’t I angry? I don’t know, I mean, what did I really expect? It’s been like this for 6 weeks now, and every time I need to win that one key hand to put me in a truly excellent position to do something great, I will inevitably have it blow up in my face. I’m sure if I looked back on the trip reports it’d seem all totally unfair, but what’s the point in getting worked up? Six weeks of live is the rough equivalent of 3 days of online play, and who really cares if you run bad for 3 days?

Most of what I feel is just exhaustion. I’m tired of all this; of Vegas, of casinos, of hotels, and most of all of failing. The failing is more depressing and discouraging than it is infuriating. This will be the last trip report for some time, I’m going home. I’m not sure when the next time I’ll play serious live poker is, knowing me I’ll be annoyed with the situation and then a week later I’ll snap back to live and want to get back in there. Australia has a Victorian poker championship coming up with a $15,000 AU buy in event not to mention numerous others, so maybe I’ll take a shot. I don’t know, it’s all too much to think about right now. I’m out.

Vegas Trip Summation:
Tournaments played: Like 25-30ish.
Cashes: 4
Final tables: 1
Total value of all cashes: ~20,000
Total cost of all buy ins: Oh god, to take a shot in the dark here, ~80,000? Did I really lose Timex/Steve 60k? That’s gross. Sorry guys.

My whole life I’ve been pretty lucky in regards to health and physical concerns. I’m allergic to nothing; never been seriously ill, fast metabolism, etc. Unfortunately somewhere around my teen years I developed two annoying physical problems:
A. I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep and maintaining a normal sleep schedule.
B. I have an extremely sensitive stomach.

Worst of all, one problem tends to beget the other. If I get under 8 hours of sleep I can count on with about 95% accuracy my being quite sick to my stomach the next morning. I looked it up on WebMD and apparently this is just a consequence for not getting enough sleep for some people. On those days I never know if my next meal will turn my intestines to hell and ruin me for hours. So what tends to happen is on some night where I plan on getting 9 hours of sleep I lie in bed unable to sleep for an hour, then realize I’ll only be getting 8, then realize if I don’t fall asleep very soon I’m going to be sick. Ever tried falling asleep when you’re thinking “man I really got to get to sleep right now”? Yea, good luck with that. Then I inevitably wake up feeling sick for the rest of the day, which if it carries on through the evening makes it even harder to fall asleep. The only ways I’ve found to stop the cycle of insanity is either sleep medication, or having days where I don’t have to wake up for anything. The problem with those days then is that my body tries to catch up by making me sleep a bazillion hours totally ruining my schedule, so next time I need to get to bed at a decent hour my body will think its way to early.

It’s the night before day 2a. I’ve had a quiet evening where I’ve had dinner with friends, watched a good movie, had some food, wrote, taken a sleeping pill, and tried to get to bed early. Unfortunately my schedule got [censored] by our playing until 4am on day 1 and I didn’t wake up until 5pm today. When I finally manage to fall asleep at about 4am my body snaps awake at 8am, my schedule being so [censored] my body thinks that period was a nap and not its proper sleep time. I lie in bed for another 90 minutes praying my mind will click back off, but it’s not happening. [censored] it, I can play on 4 hours sleep, I’m just going to need Pepto-Bismol and Redbull.

I waste time on my computer for a an hour or two then head downstairs to the little shop in the Rio and buy the much needed Pepto. I feel fairly good and awake for 4 hours of sleep. The Pepto does pretty well at making my stomach chill the [censored] out. I’ll just take my annoyance of the situation out on my much short stacked table.

I show up a bit early to the table and have a look around. I had read the list correctly, everyone is quite short and nobody is over 40k. Most of the table is in their 30’s or 40’s as well, with only a couple younger guys. This is very good news. The cards get in the air at 500/1000 blinds with 100 ante and the massacre begins.

For the first 2 hours at the table I find nobody is willing to play with me. At one point I raise J9o and a short stack shoves and I call getting 2 to 1 and beat his 77. That was about the last time anyone screwed with me. My BB got walked about two thirds of the time (seriously) and my open raises were almost never three bet. Eventually another larger stack of maybe 120k gets moved to the table 2 on my right, and he’s a fairly aggressive Euro player. I put my table captain hat on begin making his life miserable with 3 bets. In this period, there is absolutely zero interesting hands. I don’t think I played one hand past a flop, and my C bets were getting an absurd amount of respect. The only other young guy at the table stares at me for a moment then asks
”Where do I know you from dude?”
“I don’t know, have you played a lot of the events?”
”Nah, just got here.”
”Play in Australia ever?”
”Never been there. I don’t know, you seem really familiar though.”
I realize where he knows me from, but I decide not to say anything. It’s to early in the morning to be doing impressions.

About 3 ½ hours into the day I get moved, which is unfortunate because my table was letting me get away with all the murder I’d planned. I arrive at my new table, where the line up goes as follows (and would only change by one player all day) :
Seat 1: Older guy of about 55 or 60. Very very tight weak.
Seat 2: Younger guy of maybe 30ish. Wearing a Ladbrokes qualifier shirt. If the land of Nitdom needed a king, this is their guy.
Seat 3: A tight but at least a little more aggressive English guy of about 35 or 40. He’s a cool guy.
Seat 4: Laggy Asian guy of about 30. He’s not a good sort of LAG though (as you’ll find out) as he often open raises 4 or 5 or even 6X at totally random times and seems tilt capable. I’m 90% sure he wasn’t a famous one either. He is the other big stack on the table with around 250k (I show up with about the same.)
Seat 5: A mid 30’s black dude who according to TheWacoKid is in the music industry and plays not bad. He’s kind of on tilt when I get there and seems unsure of his decisions after apparently blowing off some chips to seat 4.
Seat 6: Me.
Seat 7: A young guy from Melbourne Australia named Tim. When I hear his accent we get talking and hit it off pretty well. Unfortunately for Tim he is playing WAAAAAAY to weak tight, that or the most card dead I’ve ever seen anyone.
Seat 8: A very nice/talkative 50ish guy who is a huge nit.
Seat 9: A 30ish Singaporean guy who got 2nd in the 5k Singapore event to Tony G. He is a little more loose but not necessary loose aggressive.

When I arrive at the table I realize that seat 4 is really playing table captain here and raising a lot of pots. Nobody on the table seems interested in stopping him. That is, nobody until I showed up. A couple rounds in the following hand develops:
Blinds 600/1200 with 200 ante.
My stack: ~250k
Seat 4: ~250k
Seat 5: ~80k
I hold Q5o in the BB.

Preflop: Folds to seat 4 on button, button raises to 5000, SB looks extremely unsure of himself and his decision then calls. I make it 22000, button insta mucks. SB spends more time feeling unsure of himself then folds. I then rip the metaphorical table captain hat off seat 4’s head.

I start raising a [censored] load. Nobody seems interested in stopping me. At some random point I three bet seat 4 again, who calls and check folds to me on the flop. We go on break and I tell people how I’m in the mid to high 200’s and various people insult me for my absurd luck in regards to table draws. When I get back from the break I am absurdly hungry and seat 4 has a box of small cookies. He offers them to me.
“Oh thanks so much man, I am starving.”
”No problem, take all you like.”
”Oh man, you’re my new best friend. I promise, no more pre flop 3 bets.”
“I wish I’d had these cookies an hour ago then.”
The Brit in seat 3 chimes in (who I’d 3 bet once) “I’ll go buy you a box then!”

For about an hour or so everything goes calm. The Singaporean guy in seat 9 massively sucks out the black guy in seat 5 with a totally retarded hand (4 betting all in with AJo vs black guys KK and flopping AJA when black guy was being a huge nit) and eventually seat 5, who has 4 BB’s left, gets knocked out. A new guy gets moved to the table, a quite tight Asian guy of about 30 who has ~150k. Seat 4 and I take turns open raising and crushing the table, and we both move our stacks into the low 300ish area. About an hour in the following hand comes up with seat 4:
Me: ~300k
Seat 4: ~300k
Blinds 800/1600 with 200 ante. I hold Qc Qd on the CO.

Preflop: Folds to seat 4, seat 4 raises to 5000, HJ folds, I tell seat 4 “Sorry man I gotta break my promise this one time. I was good for a while though” and make it 16500 (note: I talk a lot on the tables without interrupting hands or being rude/insulting. I make a real effort to get friendly with everyone at the table. It’s a lot harder for people to pull the trigger on guys they are friendly towards than an anonymous face. Don’t believe me? Try it.) It folds back to seat 4 who calls.
Flop: Qs Js 5d
Seat 4 checks, I bet 21k, he folds. I flip up my QQ and say “hey look man, see I’m honest, it was necessary this time. We’re still friends right?”
He laughs and tells me we’re still friends.

Again for about 20 minutes things are calm and seat 4 and I mop up the table but have no confrontations. With about 10 minutes to go before the dinner break the following hand comes up:
Me: ~320k
Seat 4: ~260k
Blinds 800/1600 with 200 ante. I hold 7s5d on the button.

Preflop: Folds to seat 4 on HJ, he raises to 5000, CO folds, I raise to 16500 and say “alright, sorry man, one more time.” Folds back to seat 4 who calls.
Flop: Tc 9c 7c
Seat 4 checks, I bet 21k, seat 4 insta folds Kd Kh face up. Juuuuuuuuuyah are you serious?

I lost 15k with AKo to the Singaporean who 3 bets me pre flop (his 3 bet range is JJ+ I promise) where I call his reraise and check fold a Q25 flop. We go to dinner soon after and I can’t stop telling people the 75o hand.

We get back from dinner and the table is feeling chatty after having a break. The Brit in seat 3 asks me where he knows me from. Again he tells me I look so familiar but he can’t figure out why. We have the same conversation trying to figure out if it was a pre lim event or the Bellagio but again he wasn’t here.

A little while into the level I am again of course playing absurdly aggressive. I am raising my button/CO with a combined 95% frequency when folded to. My button especially is absurdly easy as Tim will never shoot back in the small and the BB comments every time “one of these days I’m gonna find a hand worth that raise and call you.” That’s a less than intimidating threat when I know his plan is to check-fold most flops. About a half hour into the level, the BB finally gets his wish when the following hand develops:
BB: ~150k
Me: ~310k
Blinds 1000/2000 with 200 300 ante. I hold Kh Qh on the button.

Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 6500, SB folds, BB says “I finaly got a hand worth 6500, I call!.”
Flop: Kc Qc Ks
I want to laugh so bad. I mean jesus, how [censored] good do I run. I keep my face stoic behind my sunglasses and wait for his move. BB says “I’m gonna go ahead and shoot first here” and throws out 15k. I call.
Turn: Ah
BB thinks and checks. I bet 25k. BB considers his options and calls.
River: 5h
BB checks. I think I screwed up here a little and didn’t bet weak enough, as I fired 50k (which is only half pot, but this is live people.) The BB mulls it over and folds, telling me had Ac7c. A bunch of cameras are on us during the hand, and considering I want to keep things nice on the table and the BB giving me credit when I raise I lay my hand down face up next to the KQK on the board.
”Just a full house! Hahaha!”
I grab the cards off the table and pull them up in my hand 5 draw style “I’m keeping these dealer, now lets play 5 draw people.”
The table is in laughter and the BB finds this all very amusing (especially feeling good that he made the right fold.)
“How am I supposed to win when I’m playing a hand vs Tom Cruise?”
Suddenly the light bulb goes off over the Brit in seat 3’s head.
“That’s where I know you from! Top Gun!”
I smash the table with my hand “THAT’S RIGHT! ENGLISH…MAN. I AM DANGEROUS!”
The table is rolling in laughter, the dealer is enjoying the spectacle to much to even keep dealing.
“You can be my wingman any day!” says the Brit.
”[censored]! You be mine!”
Finally the dealer begins sorting up the cards and taking my full house away from me and we keep playing. At this point almost everyone on the table is laughing and joking with each other except the extremely quiet Asian guy in seat 5 with his ipod. His days are numbered.

In the next couple rounds I lose 30 or 40k back when I raise pre flop and get called by the Singaporean. I C bet into him and he min raises me and I have to give up. He had been doing this occasionally, though sometimes he also folded to my C bets. I’m not hitting flops very well. The Asian guy in seat 5 is playing very tight and I am playing very loose aggressive when the following hand comes up:
His stack: ~110k
My stack: ~300k
Blinds 1000/2000 with 300 ante. I am UTG+1 with AA.

Preflop: UTG raises to 7000, I reraise to 21000, folds back to UTG who considers his options and goes all in, I call instantly. “SHiiiiiiiiiiit” says UTG. Wow this feels familiar. UTG flips up………….AcQc. He’s drawing dead by the turn and walks off remorsefully. “I don’t get it, that guy played super tight for hours. What the hell?”
”I guess he just got tired of all your raising Maverick” says the Brit.
”Huh, I tried to tell him I am dangerous, guess he had his Ipod on.”

At this point my stack climbs to a massive 410k. A new dealer comes to the table, a woman of about 35-40. I’m not sure how it gets started, but the Brit says something flirtatious towards her. She playfully shoots him down (though in a manner that expressed some interest.)
”Don’t worry Brit, you’ll get her. The accent always does, I found that out in Australia.”
“Maybe, but I don’t have your slick clothes and glasses Mav.”
”Yea? Okay here you go take em.”
I rip off my jacket and sunglasses and hand them to him. The dealer gets in on the act and tells me to take my shirt and pants off as well. The Brit now continues playfully hitting on dealer. The event was reported on Cardplayer as follows:
“Dunst Helps A Brother Out

Tony Dunst, who is almost always sporting a coat jacket, slacks and a button down, offered up his sharp duds to a smooth-talking british tablemate who was hitting on the dealer. Dunst was joking with the brit, who he described inherently smooth due to his accent, when he offered his shades and jacket up so that the brit might have a better shot wooing the dealer. Dunst is probably in such a good mood due to the fact that he has climbed above $400,000.”
After this little incident I play perhaps the most mind boggling hand of my poker career. It was vs Seat 4 again, and went down as follows:
My stack: ~380k
Seat 4: ~300k
Blinds 1000/2000 with 300 ante. I holds Ad8d UTG+1. (The raise will seem a little loose and small, but I can assure you at this table, it was all that was necessary.)

Preflop: UTG folds, I raise to 6500, folds to seat 4 in BB, BB calls.
Flop: Th 8h 5s
BB checks, I bet 8500, BB calls. I table is still in a joking mood so I say to the dealer “no heart! For the love of god no heart!”
Turn: Jc
BB checks, I check.
River: Ac
BB checks. I figure it’s going to be very hard to get value from him so I bet really tiny, 13k. The BB quickly flips his cards face up towards the muck but not in the muck. I look over, yep I was right, two hearts. NO WAIT. THAT’S THE QUEEN OF HEARTS AND NINE OF HEARTS. I think for sure the BB must have misread his hand.
“You folded a straight???”
The BB replies in the most calm and serious of manner
”That’s right. I folded a straight.”
All over the table, heads ASPLODE. I look over at Tim and seat 8 on my left, and we are all giving each other the most “WTF!?!?!” look I can imagine.

Strangely, after this hand, it seemed like seat 4 refused to fold to me ever again. We played a pot or two before break and he’d either raise and I’d flat call, then he’d check min raise me on the flop. Or I’d raise and he’d call, and raise my C bet. It was pretty annoying and started depleting my stack a little, but not too much. Still, his mentality verse me had clearly changed.

We go on our final break of the night and are told that when we return we’ll be playing to 350 players and calling it quits for the evening. I decide that my table will likely be feeling very tired and just want to make day 3, so I’ll step up the aggression. Unfortunately, I’m also feeling very tired as the running on 4 hours of sleep and Redbull is beginning to catch up to me. When we get back seat 4 is really doing his best to run over the table with a lot of open 4-6X raises. I’m trying to find hands to 3 bet him with or good ones to cold call, but my hands are god awful. He is also assaulting my BB from his button with vigor. Finally about 45 minutes into the level I post my BB and knowing button will raise, I decide if I have anything even slightly playable, I am going after him. The cards are dealt out and I peek down at Kd2d. Good enough damn it. The action goes as follows:
His stack: ~310k
My stack: ~380k
Blinds 1200/2400 with 300 ante. I hold Kd 2d in the BB.

Preflop: Folds to button, button makes it 10k, SB folds, I reraise to 35k. Button calls.
Flop: A Q Q rainbow with a diamond.
Here I make a big mistake. Since he’d been fighting back with min raises a lot and I’d been unable to stop him post flop, betting here is just asking to get min raised. If I want to try and take this pot I should check raise. Unfortunately at this point in time I am very tired and not thinking clearly, and lead out 40k. He quickly pops me to 80k. [censored]. My. Stupidity. I give up the hand and cost myself 75k and the table chip lead.

I manage to rebuild my stack into the mid 300k’s with aggressive open raises. At this point in time if seat 4 folded, it was probably +EV to open raise any 2. The table line up was still the same, Tim on my left nursing a short stack he refused to move in, seat 8 playing ultra tight. Seat’s 1 and 2 are still super nits. The only guy giving me trouble is the Singaporean in seat 9 who sometimes will cold call my raise and raise me on the flop when I C bet. I decide the next time he tries to do that I’m going to give him a taste of his own medicine with a check raise and hopefully freak him out since I hadn’t taken that line before. With very little time left in the day (seeing as only like 360 players were left) the following hand comes up:
My stack: ~340k
Singaporean: ~240k
Blinds 1200/2400 with 300 ante. I hold Q4o in MP2.

Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 7500, folds to Singaporean on button, he calls, blinds fold.
Flop: 767 rainbow.
I check, Singaporean bets 15k, I make it 40k, he instantly min reraises me. God damn it. I debate 4 betting all in, but I haven’t had a chance to see what he’s min raising with ALL DAY (and believe me, I had been watching and waiting carefully, but when your at a table that only knocks out 2 guys in like 5 hours you don’t get a lot of showdowns) so I decide not to take that huge risk. I fold.

For the remainder of the day I continue aggressive play without getting in any more trouble, as it begins seeming clear to me that I’m so exhausted that my thought process might not have its full clarity. When everything is said and done with I sit with $292,500, which although still a large stack, isn’t quite the amount of advantage 400k would have given me. I’m not sure how I feel about the two moves I made near the end of the day, I know for sure the lead vs seat 4 was a mistake but given his assault on my BB I’m fine with the pre flop reraise. It’s a lot to think about, but at least I have enough chips to raise hell on the day 3 bubble, when we really fly into the dangerzone.