Most of those hours, unfortunately, were not in the $2500, as I busted out of that at the 150/300/25 level. My actual bustout hand was fairly uneventful (AK < 77 for 20 BB or so), but there are a few interesting hands, most of them against the same, not very good but thinking LAG opponent. The highlight is flopping a straight flush draw with K 2 on a Q J Tx 3x Jx board, leading all three streets and getting minraised on the river/shown a jack after I folded (I'd lay odds on the other card being a K or 9.) The river was the big decision in that hand - bluffing it cost me about a quarter of my remaining stack - and while the pot was big and I actually thought some of his hands would find a fold there, in retrospect I should probably just give up.

I also had time for four $525 satellites. I ran as bad as ever in three (the highlight was a flop all in against Rainkhan with QT on a QT6, 2 diamond board vs. Qdxd on the very first hand of a sat, which I of course lost), but managed to chop the fourth for a $1500 sat profit on the day. These continue to be ridiculously soft*, and I hope to be crushing them as soon as the runbad stops, since Rainkhan told me just how badly he's dominating these and I'm a better player ;)

*Fun flukey hand: I raise A Q in EP and get called by the BB, a 50ish man who basically looks and acts like more or less of a drunken hobo (but a nice guy!) The flop comes 8 7 2, he looks at his cards - clearly checking the suit - and checks, I mentally say "awesome, lower flush draw no good" and bet; of course, he calls. The turn is the Q, he checks again, I bet about half the pot to keep him in, he takes about 15 seconds and calls again. The river is a club, giving me the nuts and him a lower flush...except that now, he tanks for 30 seconds and checks. Well, okay, he doesn't have a flush, so I'll just bet 2/3 pot or so (half our stacks). Sure enough, he tanks and eventually calls one more time...then, while I'm flipping my cards and dragging the pot, turns over K K and softly asks "What else can I do here?" Wow.

After the sats ended, I went to watch Nath play the stud/8 event for a couple of hours. It's not my best game, but I have a good grasp of the fundamentals, and as Nath was at the table with John Juanda and next to a couple of other pros, it was very interesting seeing them all play. Juanda actually open completed a bring-in (and eventually showed down 262 2 tone), something I've never seen anybody good do before - worth thinking about.

Tomorrow is the NL shootout, where I get to play anywhere from 1 to 3 tables full of people like the KK guy. Please let me run good :)

Unfortunately, I'm continuing to run very bad (0 for 3 big 70/30's in just one Sunday tournament is impressive, honestly, as is running Ax into AA 4 times this week), but in the meantime, there are definitely benefits to being out here. Playing live is certainly different, but the games are so much easier/the players so predictably bad that I can feel myself improving - thinking about new lines, getting people to fold through raw aggression, and opening up my game in a number of areas. Live players telegraph their hands so much and so thoroughly that simply taking away pots, including big ones, is incredibly easier.

A bunch of hands from this week:

1)The hand I posted about a couple of days ago (63d on the AA8 flop) is a fantastic Yeti theorem hand. Bluff recently published a segment on 2+2 poster's Yeti's theorem, which, in a nutshell, is "people who bet/3 bet a paired board never have anything". It's so true, especially on AAx boards, where an ace just never 3 bets a raise (a big mistake pretty often, BTW), especially not a small 3 bet. Pulling the trigger on a four bet with 6 high is something else altogether, though. I have no idea who the button is, but I'm sure I'll be seeing him on TV at some point.

2)In the 1K sat I played last night, I raised with AA and got called by an MP player who then folded QJ face up on a JT7 flop because "I bet so much" (2/3 pot, when we were 100 bets deep - this is a profitable call if he puts me on exactly AA.) This is just another "live players are so bad" post, but this week, I've been trying to see how profitable it is to check TPTK+ after a PFR, especially on multiway boards when I'm sure someone will bet. So far, that's been pretty mixed live (most of them are so straightforward that they just don't bluff no matter how much you want them to, and the rest are so bad that it's irrelevant whether you check or bet) but has gotten some nice results online. Nobody ever believes a PFR followed by a checkraise on a K72 board, either.

3)Another fun hand from the 1K: two limpers at 50/100, I raised to 500 with AK (I'd been raising a lot and had 8Kish behind, covering everyone), they called and the flop is AQJr. Both limpers thought [I was 100% sure that both had at least some piece of this flop], then checked. This is a very tough spot online that most people misplay - the fact is that you usually have too many outs to bet/fold to a CR profitably, and if you follow the predictable "bet the flop, check behind on the turn" line, when either villain bets the river you will often be folding the best hand (because you can't really call that bet profitably.) The correct play here in multiway pots, especially vs opponents that won't 2 barrel bluff, is to check behind and look for cards that change your turn equity (also balancing out the times you check behind with something like 99).

After I checked, the turn bricked off, the first limper bet 800, and the second thought forever and called. Normally, online, this is a close decision between a call and a fold, but live, it was very easy to tell the second guy just didn't have much - a weak ace at best. So I overcalled, the river bricked off as well, we checked through it and I won a nice pot. The interesting part is that I'm pretty sure I missed a small value bet on the end - something very hard to make online against anyone half decent, but pretty easy with live reads. I'll get better at these as the month goes on.

Tomorrow's event is a 2.5K NL freezeout and/or some sats I'm looking forward to; hopefully, it'll break me out of running bad :)

Today, unfortunately, was pretty much a wash. I busted out of the main $1500 event fairly early with AQ against AA on an ace high flop (yuck), then went to play satellites. To give you an idea of how those play, here is an actual hand from a $535 satellite:

7 handed, someone limps UTG with 7 BB at 50/100. 1-2 other people call and the BB checks. The flop comes down A 7 6, the BB checks, and the limper shoves for 3x the pot. The limpers fold and the BB thinks, then calls the overbet for 30% or so of his stack.

Limper: 9 6
BB: 5 4

Unfortunately, I'm good at running 70% into 30%'s, so despite that stellar standard of play, I went 0 for 2 in 535's and 0 for 1 in the 1K that I played afterwards. Oh well, (the day after) tomorrow is another day. In the meantime, tomorrow, about a dozen of us are playing the Sunday tournaments from this house - that ought to be fun.

Not much happened today. I went to the Venetian to play their 1K deep stack event (instead of the WSOP 5K pot limit event, which is supposedly harder than average. Other than two or three hands (and one hand I didn't actually play which I will break down later*), though, it was pretty uneventful, and I busted when AA ran into a fellow 2+2er's KK a few hours in. I also lost a couple of key flips in a very, very soft $535 SNG back at the Rio. I've got more hope for tomorrow's $1500 NL event (and, on the off chance I don't make it to day 2, Sunday's online lineup.)

*Sneak peek: TAG raises in EP and a very good, hand reading LAG calls in LP. The action on the A A 8 flop goes "bet, small raise, small 3 bet, minimum 4 bet", the latter getting the TAG's QQ to fold face up. The button then shows 6 3 . Honestly, the best Yeti theorem play I've ever seen.

Final tally - 63'rd/15xx for (40% of - I'm fully backed) $8,359.

I started out at a pretty decent table and quickly chipped up to 5500 from the starting 4K from blind steals and playing smallball. I lost a bunch of it during the 2'nd hour when I raise/folded KJo from the SB (live poker is so easy that when they RR you from the BB you can easily do that), then reraised someone with QQ and checked behind an ace high flop (he bet the turn, I folded, he showed AK. Pretty standard for live) and ended up with 4,050, up 50 chips. That was the only time I went backwards in chips for most of day 1. The highlights:

-At 100/200. two people limped and the button made it 1100 of her ~4K (?) stack. I had JJ in the SB and chose to simply shove (I had her covered by a thousand or so) since I wasn't really going to call OOP. She showed me AK, took a minute and folded face up(!)

-A hand I wasn't in but made me laugh: During 200/400, a huge LAG with at least 30K limps UTG, someone else limps, and an old guy who has a weak/tight look all over him but also has a monster stack limps on the button. 5 people see a Q 6 2 flop. It's checked to the button, who bets close to the pot, and folded to UTG, who immediately checkraises to 5K. Button takes exactly 2 seconds to call, and we see the K hit on the turn. UTG checks, button now bets 3K into 15K, UTG insta-CR's again to a whopping 9K, button takes 30 seconds, agonizes and folds J 8 face up. The LAG, of course, flips up QJo, no hearts, and starts to celebrate while the button dejectedly moans about how the fourth heart had to hit.

-One of those weird bluffs that you can only pull off live/I hope the BB isn't reading this: after just getting to a new table, I raise 77 UTG and it's folded to the BB, who calls. Something about the call puts me on edge, but the flop comes 4 4 3 and he checks, so I bet anyway. The BB instantly puts out all his yellow 1K chips and checkraises me just under half his stack, leaving himself all the smaller ones. I know exactly what he has and should really fold, but again, something about this tells me "forget pot odds, he's folding so many better hands to a shove". I ask him to count his chips while I think about it, and this + the small chance I'm bluffing with the best hand = me putting him all in after about 30 seconds. He agonizes, tells me he puts me on kings, then folds after a full 2 minutes.

But wait, it gets better: A half hour or so later, I raise AKs UTG at 3/6. MP calls and the BB reraises to 5600, now about a third of his stack (the previous series of hands has me chipped up to about 30K). Of course, I shove. BB says something like "goddammit, this is the exact same situation and the exact same hand", curses himself and his fate again, then folds JJ face up. This time, I show my hand. He mutters something about "how can he put his tournament life on the line with no pair" under his breath. Live poker is awesome.

The first time I lost chips the entire tournament was on the bubble, when I got repopped PF a couple of times. I went from a high of 35K down to 18K or so, but doubled up on a 70/30 (my first all in that got called when I was covered and the last until my final hand), won a flip right afterwards, and ended the day with the 66.8K stack I mentioned.

Day 2 started on a good note. A few hands in, I raised J5o from the SB to 6K, planning to fold to a shove from the BB, who had around 19K total. Of course, I forgot about the antes which made it an autocall, so I really should've shoved in the first place and instantly regretted it when the BB moved in. I disgustedly said "well, I have live cards, I call", flipped the J5 and watched the BB turn over...76o. Okay. A few hands later, I had 90K and reraised an LMP raiser on the button with AK. He (properly given my image) shoved AQ, I called and held up and probably had the #3 stack (170K) in the tournament out of around 90 people.

Unfortunately, that was pretty much it. After I moved to my last table (only the second one I would say was really tough), I chipped down to 140K at 2/4K blinds until the following 2 hands:

On the hand before my bustout, an MP player, a well known pro and a solid TAG, raised in MP. Justin Bonomo (ZeeJustin), sitting to my left, called. BB, a short stack, clearly didn't like his hand much but called anyway, and three people saw the A J 2 flop. ZJ and the BB both checked to MP, who bet a fairly large amount, ZJ instantly checkraised the minimum, and the BB, who again hated his hand, finally called all in (everyone in the building could probably put him on a weak ace at this point.) MP instashoved, ZJ thought a few seconds and called with AQo, no diamonds - a call that, even getting somewhere between 3:1 and 4:1, was honestly the worst I've ever seen him make. MP had AK, by far the bottom of his range. Of course, a queen hit the river, MP hit the roof and got a 20 hand penalty for crumpling the offending queen into a ball, and instead of being out of the tournament, ZJ had a ~500K stack.

On the next hand, I raised with AJ in LMP, ZJ called from the cutoff and the BB overcalled. The flop came A 5 4, BB checked and I decided to CR ZJ all in as I knew he would bet the vast majority of his hands here if checked to/I could make him fold a naked heart (plus, I could get away if the action went "ZJ bets/BB shoves", something that could well happen.) ZJ did bet, BB folded, and I checkraised as planned...into his T 9 flush. Oops. I'd still make this play again given the circumstances, so I'm not too disappointed, but I do wish he hadn't hit the 3 outer on the hand before.

It wasn't a great ending, but a smooth start to the WSOP - hopefully I'll be following this up with more as the events go on.