Still not an actual Day 2, though. Quick update because it's late: today's event went better than the ones before it and I'll post some hands later, but I wound up shortstacking it up for about four hours and busting the first time I actually pushed a 10xBB stack. Nonetheless, I played well and made some good reads/got into one or two pretty interesting spots.

While I was doing that, though, my roommate was busy getting 2'nd in the S8/O8 event (grats Tom, you've earned it) and my friend Leo (Unamuno on 2+2) was busy final tabling the shootout (ditto).

My turn next :p

Last entry, we left off with me accidentally turning top two pair into a bluff. Yesterday, I followed up on that with this hand about 45 minutes into the 6 max:

LAGgy Asian guy who's already 4 bet once preflop open limps on the button. I make it 200 with AKo in the SB with about 2600 behind. BB folds, he calls.

Flop 665r. I bet 275 into 450, he calls (standard).

Turn A. I check, he bets 525, I call planning to lead the river, since he's going to check behind a bunch of hands and I'd rather he hero call stuff.

River 7. There's about 2400 in the pot/effective stacks 1800, so I bet tiny - 750 - to encourage said hero calls or maybe induce a shove. He takes 15 seconds, fiddles with his chips, then flats the...86.

Sigh. *Really?* I think I'm overly good at making villains think I have the nuts.

After that, I pushbotted back to 2200, then busted hero calling TranquilChaos (a good CR pro) on an AQ52T board with QJ after I defended PF and he nearly potted the flop/checked the turn. On the one hand, his shove seemed pretty ugly; on the other, I was 100% certain he didn't have an ace and I was beating him on the flop due to his bet size, which means he was only repping one hand/two flush draws both missed. Unfortunately, he was actually repping two hands, since it turns out he hit a set on the turn. I'm not particularly regretting the call much (unfortunate outcome, but I think I can defend it), but hands like the first are beginning to annoy me. Needless to say, not making the first break *again* is/was, too.

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On not quite actual tilt but determined to make a second break at *some* point, I then entered the O8/S8 2500 mixed game event. On the one hand, these two aren't my best games in the HORSE rotation; on the other, I was still sure I was +EV in the field, which, seeing the play, was true.

The results were mixed; for the last four hours, an average stack could play less than 2 hands to the river, so everyone's stack, including mine, fluctuated wildly. At one point, I was at 1800 chips at 100/200, then at 12K at 200/400 after winning a grand total of 3 pots.

I did eventually bust towards the end of Day 1 with about 1/3 of the field remaining and feel like I played too passive overall, but going over a bunch of hands with my roommates, there was only one decision in one hand that cost me a lot of chips, and it was simply a bad preflop call in S8 that, it turns out, I played well postflop/at least my instincts are good. Everything else was simply a cooler (topped off by AA33 < A345, then AKK5 < AA33 within a 5 minute span...but these things happen in split pot games with lousy structures.)

So, the bottom line is, I got enough poker in last night to make sure I'm not playing terrible, though I'm still getting coolered a lot. There's only one event left before Wednesday that I care about being in - tomorrow's $2500(?) NL, with some newly deep stacked Bellagio events - they doubled buyins and tripled starting chips in their daily tourneys and are apparently getting quite a crowd, too - possibly thrown in. Sans that, I'll just be taking a break from making Wafflecrush effectively pay me $1500/hour to get owned by people making the nuts somehow by playing online.

C'est la vie. For some reason, I still don't mind the outcome of any of this stuff. "That's poker" sounds a lot more plausible when you can't ever be on the bad side of lifetime variance again.

...but 0 for 2 on making the second break. I'm working on that, though!

The major interesting hand was, once again, the fifth of the day. With 4K chips and 25/50 blinds, UTG, a middle aged guy with a lot of tattoos on his arms (read: probably a nice guy, probably not very good) makes it 175. A random MP flats, and then the button, a 20-something obvious online pro whom I've seen around and almost has to be good, overcalls. (I later found out the button is Moorman1, who recently won the 5K winner take all freezeout on Stars and is definitely solid.) I look down at AQo in the big blind and make it 4 ways to the flop.

Flop: A Q 8 (I may be confusing the exact card/suits, but definitely two clubs, one heart). I check intending to CR, but it checks around.

Turn: 5. I thought the pot was 650 (actually 700) so I only bet 400 instead of the 500 I should've, but no matter. At any rate, the PFR and the caller fold, but Moorman calls.

River: 2. At this point, I decide that a)Moorman never has a set (no way he checks behind the flop and then just calls the turn with that many draws), b)he can't really have clubs either because he's never going to check behind on the flop only to call the turn, and c)I may as well bet to let him find a call rather than rely on him to bluff when checked to when I've shown this much strength OOP. Additionally, if I underbet, I might get him to bluff shove, and since I can't think of a single hand he has that I possibly lose to, that's a good thing.

So after thinking a few seconds, I bet 700, right around half the pot, intending to probably call a raise. Moorman thinks for 15 seconds, plays with his chips, and right as I'm praying for him to hero call, he...says "all right, I'm a nit" and just calls with 76.

Oops. Yeah, I guess I did just accidentally turn top 2 pair into a bluff, why do you ask? At least my read was kinda right - he didn't have *just* clubs.

After that, I was rather short and very card dead so I essentially hung around for 3 hours until the inevitable busto. Nonetheless, I still feel good about live poker, and with WC doing okay/the 6 max event coming up, tomorrow should be fun.

Grats to cking, BTW - 7th place in the 1500 PL represents the first WC WSOP final table that I know of other than Vivek's limitament. Hopefully, it's the second of many.

So, I broke my own record and bustoed the 1500 pot limit event (that I decided to play at the last minute) on the...fifth hand or so.

The hand: With 3K chips and 25/50 blinds, someone limps in EP and I make it 200 with AK in MP. The big blind, who's an old guy (at least 60) who just got to the table, instantly makes it 350 total chips. If you've ever played poker, you'll know this is a really bad sign, but, obviously, it's impossible to just fold here.

Flop: K63. BB instapots it for 800 or so. When I'm playing my A+ game, I think I can honestly fold here*, but nobody ever actually does. I call, leaving just about a PSB behind both of our stacks.

Turn: spade. Oh well!

Still not feeling bad about it, I just laughed it off and went to grind some sats (which didn't go particularly well, either - but the play was very soft as usual.) I won't be playing tomorrow, but will definitely be putting some time in later this week.

*After thinking about it, I feel like this is a spot where live pros can and do occasionally find folds that the rest of us just don't understand, but aren't actually wrong. Yeah, I do have top top here, but the problem is that live, it's just obvious when somebody has the nuts, and I think making ridiculous folds that are actually good vs. the guy's range (of 1 hand) is a skill that a bunch of us have to get better at.

For the last day or so, the rumor was that day 1 of the $1500 event (Saturday) would be sold out, as every online pro picked it over playing live on Sunday. That turned out not to be true, as I was able to register 90 minutes before the start (props to the Rio - this year, everything seems to be well organized for a change.) Unfortunately, I lasted all of 90 minutes or so in the event, but I actually feel like every bustout should be like this one - very quick, with every hand basically completely standard. I played a couple of pots where I overlimp/called and open raised about 5-6 other hands, but only won 1 total pot the entire time; every hand I played wound up 3 handed to the flop and I simply only ever paired up once.

The bustout hand was the only remotely interesting decision; with about 1700 behind at 50/100, I raised KK in EP and got called by a pretty loose/bad middle aged Asian player on the button. The flop came down AJT; rather than bet out (never folding out an ace in a million years) or check/shoving (eh...nah, he's never folding either) I check/called a pretty standard 2/3 pot bet that basically told me he had some kind of hand, then decided I may as well induce a bluff again and check/called the last 1K all in on an A turn vs. what turned out to be A6. Not getting there on the river kinda sucked, but oh well, standard.

It appears almost everybody else is also busto already (that's what happens when you start with 60 BB/it turns to 15 BB 2 hours in), but Vivek is still in during hand for hand in the 10K pot limit event. Hopefully, he can win this thing and unbusto WC; even if he just manages to FT it, it looks like we're set for a while.

Tomorrow's Sunday, i.e. playing online day; I might also sit out Monday because neither the 1500 PLHE or the 5K mixed NL/limit donkament particularly appeal to me (I may just grind sats), but there's a 1500 6 max on Tuesday that I definitely want to go for. That'll probably be my next event and my next update here, unless, that is, Vivek wins the whole thing.

PS: Vivek's haircut makes my occasional 'too lazy to go one block' 3 month old Jewfro look seem totally hot, imo.