I’ve got some time over the next week before I have to get back to live poker so I thought I’d get back to writing some of these. A lot of people in the ‘what do you want to see from these articles’ thread they were curious about time management (and to a lesser degree, volume) and tilt/emotional management. Neither of these seem like incredibly elaborate topics, so I’ve decided to combine them despite not being all that related.

Time Management: The annoying part about MTT play, is that it’s the most restrictive form of playing poker when it comes to time freedom. Not only do the tournaments go off at a time we don’t decide, but online tournaments often last 5-10 hours and live ones multiple days.

When it comes to live poker we get very little choice in our time management since we can only one table and all breaks/rests are structured for you. The hardest part about live poker in regards to time management, is staying away from the temptations of the live scene in order to get enough sleep at night to play well. On any given night during say, the WSOP, people will be going out for food, parties, strip clubs, bars, and if your not a social pariah you’ll often be getting invites. If you’ve got to play the next day at 12 you should probably be up at least a half hour (depending on where your staying) before so you can shower, get dressed and get some decent food in your system before you have to play. I swear to god if another one of you fuck heads sits down next to me in a live event without showering and smell like shit I’m going to punch you in the throat.

For online poker, time management is a sort of juggling act. My personal process goes something like: Wake up, shower, set out breakfast in front of my computer, fire up 3-6 tournaments (depending on what hour I’m starting on) and continuing to register for the next ~4 hours, with my girlfriend helping me out by making some food about 4-5 hours into my shift. My average day normally ends up lasting within 30 minutes of 8 hours, but some might take under 6 or over 10, depending on which tournaments I go deep in and if I stop registering early. I play around 6-10 tables at a time on two screens, and on truly hectic days it can reach 12, but my average is around 7 or 8, which is comfortable at this point. Over the course of the day I probably play roughly 15 tournaments, depending on which day of the week it is, and 6 sometimes 7 days a week (though I’ll take half days so I get off early and get outside for the rest of the day.)

There are various pit falls of this kind of system. What about when you get hungry? I’d recommend having easily prepared meals around that also aren’t junk food, and staying away from things that will make you feel lethargic (booze, turkey, greasy/fatty food.) When it comes to using the bathroom, it’s nice to play with someone else in the room in this event (though at this point with the one player to a hand/account paranoia who knows, you could be accused of wrong doing here) or have a laptop you can move all your tables to.
As your day gets longer you should likely concentrate on the tournaments you are deeper in, as it seems a lot of players are auto piloting early in tournaments (as I often am myself.) By the time you reach the money, and certainly by the final table, most players are paying to every hand with at least some level of attention. Sometimes maintaining focus over a day this long can be pretty hard, and I can’t fault people who go on semi auto pilot while nine tabling, as long as every time a serious decision comes up you pause and put real consideration towards it. Using PT/PAHUD will also help with this, and I normally prefer to put a couple ‘feature tables’ up in the most convenient spot for me, normally the highest buy in or one’s I’m most deep in, and pay a lot of specific attention to those two and taking some notes. I’m pretty sure anyone who pays attention and tries to take notes on every hand of every table (while 8 tabling) all day is going to drive themselves insane, but if you have no problem with this kind of focus, go for it.

As far as how many days a week you want to play, I find it’s easier for a poker player to play more days since I enjoy my work (some of us don’t) but also since we lose zero time to anything but our work. There’s no commute, no trying to find parking, no homework (I guess reviewing and discussing your game, but that’s hardly homework) and no forced social interaction. If I had to guess, we likely save ~2 hours a day compared to your average worker since we work at home and we can always pick which days to take off or leave early. How many days a week you should play comes down to how much you need the money, how much you like playing, and how many other responsibilities/activities you have in life.

Tilt/Emotional Management: I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never had tilt problems. The last time I can remember really tilting was over a year ago, and I was playing over my bankroll.

The easiest answer to any tilt problem is to play stakes low enough that you never feel a huge pressure to win. Financial instability can be very tilt inducing, and if you really need money playing poker likely isn’t the answer.

Next I’d suggest having a stress outlet. Some people use a stress ball, play with chips in their hand, yell and scream, get exercise, have a cold drink, take some deep breaths, take a break for a few minutes, play a youtube video that cracks them up, etc. Find what works for you, and if it’s a healthy outlet, stick with it. We all have different triggers for our stress/tilt, and figuring out what they are and avoiding them is essential to a level head.

The part I would stress the most though, is realizing how pointless it is to get angry over that which you cannot control. Like I’ve said before, you need to make your peace with variance, since you’ll likely never understand it and it will NEVER be ‘fair’. Bitching about variance is not only counterproductive, but anyone who does more than a little of it will likely be branded as a whiner and a bitch, and you don’t want to be a whiner and a bitch do you?

In the end, all poker that poker winds up being is trying to make optimal decision after optimal decision after optimal decision into infinity, then watching the results. You can control the decisions you make but you can’t control the outcome. Since you’ll always be able to get into another tournament or game fretting about busting out of this one or that one is pointless. Any special importance you give to a singular event is mostly imagined. “Oh but Bond, I busted out of the WSOP ME, how tragic is that?” We all bust out of the WSOP ME (as I find it highly unlikely any WSOP champ is reading this, but just in case, stop being a Dbag Jamie Gold), how tragic can it be if it’s that common? In most tournaments there’s normally only one guy ‘happy’ with how it ended, and that is obviously the winner. If you can’t handle failing at an enormous frequency, then tournament poker likely isn’t for you. It’s okay to tell your occasional bad beat story here and there, but investing a huge amount of emotion into a single tournament is pretty stupid and counterproductive to achieving sick results.

Tilt is simply you being a big baby over variance. Grow up, face the fact that poker will often disappoint you, and do everything in your power to control what you can to reach a favorable outcome.

After finishing my writing I head downstairs to watch Bondgirl deep in her event. They’re down to 42 with 40 paying and everyone is playing pretty careful. She ends up playing pretty cautious after having lost a huge coin flip in blind verse blind play and gets into the money with a bit under half the average stack. The first hand she plays after getting moved goes down as follows:
UTG raises to 13000, folds to MP2 who shoves for 50k, Bondgirl shoves 40k, 4 folds.
Bondgirl shows KK, MP2 AKs.
Flop: A Q 4 rainbow
Turn: T
River: J

Jesus that was close. Thing stay tight for a little while but having got to the money chips getting into the money are inevitable. 2+2’er LearnedfromTV is on her table and she soon gets involved with a pot against him.
Preflop: UTG shoves 30k, UTG+1 (LFTV) reshoves ~35k, folds to Bondgirl in LP who reshoves ~45k, 3 folds.
Bondgirl shows QQ, UTG AKo, LFTV AQo
Flop: J 6 3
Turn: 3
River: J

Bondgirl takes down a massive pot and soars over average. She soon gets moved tables again and very little seems to happen for a very long time. The blinds continue to increase and at 2500/5000 she’s sunk down to about ~80,000. The table is 8 handed when the following hand comes up:
Preflop: UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to 23,000 (is standard raise though he was quite tight) 1 fold, Bondgirl shoves, folds back to UTG+1, UTG+1 thinks for a little while then slides his stack into the middle and reveals AA (he would later walk right behind me when I referred to him as a ‘stupid slow rolling fuckhead’) and Bondgirl tables JJ.
Flop: 854
Turn: 5
River: T

Bondgirl’s run comes to a close as she finishes in 24th for about $4800. The tournament has been going crazy in following her, hoping she at least final tables so the APPT will have a face to market to the new markets. Bondgirl was born in China and fluent in English, Mandarin and can understand/speak some Cantonese and as a 25 year old woman she’s exactly what they’re looking for. Despite only finishing 24th Pokerstars is excited at the prospect of her enough to offer her full sponsorship to APPT Syndey, which while somewhat emasculating means at least I get free hotel. Goooooooo meal ticket girlfriend!

The only problem with so many people talking into her ear is I’m getting concerned that she’ll start believing she’s as good as they say she is. While she played very well the entire event her game looked quite tight and she spent the next several hours questioning her JJ push. I tried to explain to her that the open raiser has to be such a totally absurd nit for her to ever consider folding in that spot. She claimed that he’d been very tight, but their sample size of hands was no more than 100 and most likely less than 70, meaning knowing an accurate opening range is basically impossible. Even if we give the villain the absurdly tight opening range of TT+/AQ+ we have 46.9% equity, and with the blinds and antes that’s all we need to jam, and that’s assuming worst case scenario. Additionally, the guy is snap folding AQ to her shove, and VERY possibly folding AK because of her image and the fact that he clearly has no understanding of equity and hand ranges. Still, I get the impression she still thinks she ‘could have got away’ or ‘found a better spot’ and after spending so much time trying to destroy that mentality it’s disturbing to see it creeping back in. I think I’ll ask Luckychewy to coach her in cash to really improve her post flop thought process.

Bondgirl, Timex, Tufat and I spend that night in the hotel spa getting massages of all kind. The facility is truly awesome, I got four massages and a late night dinner with a couple beers for what amounted to about 60 USD. It was so badass we even stood around all brushing our teeth together. Yea, clean teeth and fresh breath is how I roll.

I spend the next day discussing with the tournament directors what’s expected as far as the 15k event. He tells me in the morning that they have 23 registered and expect maybe forty. That doesn’t sound good at all. I talk to Timex about the event honestly, that I’d definitely like to play but if it’s going to be sick tough field we can both agree plunging further in make up against a very tough field seems pointless. Since we get no further information for the rest of the day I tell him I’ll talk to team Wafflecrush about it and see if they have any interest.

We head out to the city to see the casinos in Macau and check out the food festival in front of the Macau tower. The festival is like a carnival entirely made up of food tents. By far the best part is the beer tent that has bottles that are two times the size of a normal bottle for 2/3rds of the price. I know that doesn’t make any sense and I don’t get it either, but you actually pay less for more beer. The end result of course is strolling through the fair grounds double fisting two massive beer bottles that I take turns swigging from, full of romantic nostalgia for my college days and that can’t of behavior not only being socially acceptable, but the norm. The only annoying part of the fair is getting, which we ended up doing by standing around in the rows of tables for 45 minutes waiting for people, after two failed bribery attempts.

In the spa later that night I talk on AIM with Psyduck who tells me while they’re very much interested in backing me at some point, the 15kament seems like a hell of a lot of variance for very little if any equity. I certainly can’t fault them for their decision.

I get to sleep a bit before 5am intending to do nothing but relax for the rest of the trip, wasting away my days at the spa having my back cracked in ways never before imagined…

…There’s a loud knock on the door.
“I’m still sleeping! Later please!”
The door knocks loudly again.
“Do you want to play the 15k or not!?” the door answers back.
“What!?”
I crawl out of bed and walk over to the door.
“Timex?”
“You want to play the 15k?”
“Uh okay, let me put some pants on.”

I put my clothes on and open the door. Timex and Travestyfund are outside waiting.
“What time is it?”
“11am, are you going to play?”
“Uhh, hmm. I guess I feel pretty good. Care if I shower quick?”
“Wait, we should go buy in first.”

We head downstairs and wait in the cashier line while a fat Russian lady keeps ranting “Ghive me byack my phassphort!!” at the teller over and over. When we finally get to the window, the counting phase of course takes forever. We manage to buy me in at 11:40, leaving me enough time to run upstairs, shower, and get changed, but nowhere close enough for breakfast. After my shower I speed down to the hotel lobby, grab an apple, then bolt upstairs in time for the second hand.

All week we’ve been trying to guess how many players the 15k would get. I’d been told everything from 20 to 80, with most people guessing somewhere in the 40’s. The final count turned out to be 64, a full 8 tables 8 handed.

I expected the field to be really tough, made up of perhaps 10 really good pros, 40 very solid pros, and 10 donks. I was very wrong. My table alone has four pretty bad players, two so bad I’m desperately trying not to get too distracted trying to come up with where they have $15,000 for something like this. We start with 15,000 in chips at 25/50 with hour levels. For the first hour I am completely card dead and stay almost completely uninvolved, besides a couple raises where I C bet and take down the pot. Outside Joe Hachem on my left and a guy named Scott on my right, the play seems really bad.

An example of the bad play: One player on the table a few seats on my right was limp/calling about 80% of hands if not more. In one such hand he limps in, a couple others limp, and the BB (Ziv Bachar, who won the previous APPT event and seems solid) checks. The flop comes AsTsXo and Ziv leads, only the station calls. On the turn Ziv checks, MP bets 300, Ziv check raises to 1300 and station calls. The river comes a low spade and Ziv leads 2000, and MP calls him. Ziv turns over ATo thinking it’s the nuts and MP shows him Js5s.

The first interesting hand comes up vs Hachem:
Effective stacks: ~15k
Blinds 50/100, I hold 8s7s in MP1.
Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 300, 1 fold, Hachem calls, the rest fold.
Flop: 5s Ac 9h
I bet 450, Hachem calls.
Turn: Jd
I bet 900, Hachem calls.
River: 2h
I check, Hachem bets 2500, I fold.

I’ve played with Joe before a number of times and he knows I’m thinking and aggressive. I think when I pick up the double gut shot there double barreling is pretty good, since on the flop he can flat call plenty of pairs to see if I multi barrel to represent the ace.

A round or so passes and little happens, then I finally find a spot to get some chips. The player on my left is a station and makes his intent very clear with his body language.
My stack: ~13.5k
BB: ~13k
Others: ~15k
I hold 22 in the SB with 50/100 blinds.
Preflop: Hachem raises to 300 UTG, folds to huge station in MP, MP calls, folds to me in SB, I call, BB calls.
Flop: 2 3 9 rainbow
When the flop comes out, the BB now puts a chip over his cards and slides them a little closer to him. I don’t think he could have hit this flop that hard, so I think he’s most likely top pair. If Hachem has a big pair I’m pretty sure he’ll raise my lead on this flop and I can call letting BB get stuck again, then very possibly lead again on the turn to prevent Hachem from checking behind.
I bet 1000, BB calls, Hachem folds, MP folds.
Turn: J
I bet 2500 hoping to take BB to maximum value town, but he thinks it over and then folds T9s face up. Damn, should have check min raised him for maximum dirtiness.

A round later and little has changed. The table is still playing very loose and we’re about 15 minutes from our first break. A major hand develops:
I hold 8s 5s with about ~15.5k. Scott on my right holds ~16.5k. I’ve been chatting to Scott for a while, and he seems like a nice guy, and seems pretty recreational. He has been tight passive with raises pre flop, and has been limping behind limpers and calling raises some but not much. I haven't seen him get aggressive much post.

One hand I did see him play he raised KK pre, got called by station, flop Q84 rainbow, he check calls, turn Q he check calls, river blank check/check. After the guy mucks Scott says something like "phew, that Q was no good, I gotta call you on the river though if you bet though.” On to the hand though. Blinds 50/100
Preflop: UTG limps, UTG+1 limps, UTG+2 raises to 350, 1 fold, Scott calls, I call on CO, button folds, blinds fold, limpers call.
Flop: Qs Js 4s
Boo fucking yah. Unfortunately, everyone checks to me. I lead 1600. UTG thinks it over and folds, 3 more folds, and then it’s up to Scott. I’ve got my sunglasses on, and while directing my head towards the board I’m watching Scott with my eyes. He seems to mull things over, then counts out the 1600 and throws it in.
Turn: 2h
Scott checks. I think it over, stack up an amount, and fire in 3600. Again Scott thinks, doesn’t go for raising chips, and doesn’t do anything that’s a bad tell (like a sigh or a shrug) and throws in his money.
River: Jd
Not my favorite card but Scott checks again. I can’t imagine him slow playing any flush this far except an A high flush, and slow playing any hand this much is almost always bad. I think he would normally lead a set on the flop, and very possibly two pair, since he has no reason to think I’ll bet the flop for him. I think he’s likely holding something like an over pair with a spade, AsQx, AsJx, or the flopped nuts. I look down at my chips, count how much I have, and upon realizing I only have about 3/4th’s the pot (not really enough to bet fold in my opinion) I move in. Scott beats me into the pot and instantly tables As2s. I’m the second guy out of the tournament.

A less than wise man once said “Live players love the slow play and don't you forget it, no matter how bad the board/situation to do so.” My powers of prediction are quite creepy.

In the end 2+2 has a very poor showing in the 15k event and in AAPT Macau in general. Bondgirl was our highest finisher in the main event (to my knowledge) and not one of us cashed the 15k.

I elected to spend the remainder of my time in Macau wasting away in the spa or stumbling around the food fair, massive beer in one hand and delicious Indian food in the other. I haven’t added it up fully yet but I’m almost positive I’ve slipped into six figure make up with Timex as a result of this trip, though he seems less than concerned and with APPT Syndey only 9 days away I’ll be chasing those losses in no time. This shit ain’t over live poker.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the adjustments we need to make to adapt as internet players in the live arenas. I'm not trying to write a definitive guide here, what i'm really interested in is discussion and your thoughts on the issue, so please join in on what you agree/disagree with and what you feel has been omitted.

First, when talking about live play we're going to have to make some generalizations. When refering to the play of live tournaments or live players let's make assumptions:
1. The villains in the hand aren't very well known live players whos game you respect.
2. The villains in the hand aren't well known internet players.
3. The villains in the hand are basically unknown live players or known live pros who play badly.

As i said, it's a fairly cumbersome set of generalizations, but discussing how we would play against other internet pros in a live setting seems somewhat redundant to our discussion of playing them online.

First, some tendencies i've noted in your more standard live players:
1. Early in the tournament they call raises or limp to loosely.
2. They have a weak understanding of pot odds.
3. Their open raising conditions are often too tight.
4. They resteal at a very low frequency.
5. They are concerned with their tournament life.
6. They call raises out of position too lightly and defend their blinds too loosely.
7. They don't understand what kind of actions their stack size (should) limit them to.
8. They tend to play large draws more weak than online players (less big semi bluff raises, more calling.)
9. They tend to bluff less, especially in terms of big multi street ones.
10. They don't think about ranges very well.
11. If they are the type that's capable of adjusting their play, they will often react to a loose aggressive style quicker than in many online tournaments.
12. They don't thin value bet as much as they should.
13. They slow play much much more than online.
14. They (mostly) read all ins for strong, or at least stronger than nominal bets, especially early in a tournament.
15. They may seem highly inconsistent, that is, you'll see some players play very tight/weak for a long time then suddenly do something very loose and spewy almost out of nowhere.
16. They bet and raise for information and don't necessarily have a clear motivation of value bet/bluff bet behind their actions.
17. They may commit a very large % of their stack and fold to more aggression.
18. They percieve a pre flop 3 bet range to be much tighter than it normally is, unless you are very often 3 betting.
19. They may search for tells or visual cues of intent.
20. They make a decesion based on a very specific read.
21. They won't isolate limpers in position nearly as much as they should/could.
22. They squeeze at a much lower frequency.
23. There is basically no such thing is a pre flop 4 bet all in as a bluff in their arsenal.
24. Their shoving ranges on a short stack tends to be much tighter than online.

I'm sure i could come up with some more if i sat around thinking about it for a while, but that seems okay for now. Again, these are some really massive generalizations, but often devoid of a specific read they are the kind of generalizatoins we should be making.

So here's the part i really want to discuss, that is, the kind of adjustments we internet players should be making in the live arena. I feel like at this point in my live experience, i may have done a pretty mediocre job at doing so in some areas. These are the points i'd really like feedback on:

1. I think we should call down tighter: I think live villains are less likely to bluff, especially in multi way pots. When i think back to my live experience and everytime i've tried to make a tough call down, the only one that sticks out that i got right was against a good/aggressive/thinking player on a money bubble (and it was only on one street.) I think it's probably okay to give our villains more credit than we're used to online and take spots that seem like marginal/close call downs and weight them towards folds. I think the kinds of bluffs we should call down are the more obvious ones in pot controlled situations when a draw misses and we've checked on the turn. Live players will still often make the mistake of betting rivers in those kinds of spots.

2. I think we should call in position a bit looser pre flop (when stack appropriate): It seems since many players will play bit more weak/straight forward post flop, as well as slow play and give us more free cards, that i think we can call a bit lighter than normal in position, especially with the decreased chance of being squeezed (though obviously you need to be aware of who's behind you.) Also i think calling a looser range is especially effective since they often won't give you credit many hands in your range if you haven't established that kind of image yet, and they tend to call to many value bets on the river assuming it doesn't get to the stage of all in.

3. I think we should value bet nominal amounts in favor of all in when appropriate: If the all in get's treated with a lot of seriousness, and players aren't often aware of stack size considerations, than i think we might be missing value by shoving in spots where we can make what is a very clear value bet and get a call a ton of the time. If you think the player is very unlikely to adjust to this and start shoving over your bets as a bluff all in (this seems very unlikely with most live players) then betting for value intending to fold to a shove might be the better alternative. Obviously, if all in on the river is only a half pot bet, we should basically never be going the nominal amount.

4. I think we can use plays that have become somewhat out dated online: Such as the stopngo or the squeeze, as live players are mostly expecting this less and few put in enough volume to become overly familiar with these plays.

5. I think we should limp more: Especially behind other limpers, but i also know of two players whos game i really respect (Alan Sass, William Thorrsen, spelling might be wrong) that also do a fair bit of open limping with considerable success. I think we should limp behind limpers looser since it's less likely we get isolated and since people play pretty poorly in limped pots. As far as open limping, that's something i have zero experience with and would love for someone more experienced with it or smarter than me to come in and explain with detail what kind of situations it's good in and why.

6. I think we should increase our 3 bet frequency with antes: That is, moreso than we do online, however there's a catch to this. I think you can increase your 3 betting frequency to a point, but finding the line is very important since eventually live players may just start stationing you much wider. I was talking to a successful Australian live player, David Saab, and he called this the 'vindictiveness factor' which i thought was a good term. Basically, you can pummel your table/the players on your right with reraises for only so long until suddenly they just kind of snap and start spite calling you down very wide.

7. I think we should go absolutely fucking ballistic on the bubble on most tables: Unless your table is packed with pros who don't give a shit about cashing, i really think you can go all out on a live cash and final table bubble, much moreso than you can online. People are normally playing for multiple days to reach these points, and going out at that stage is a pretty gross feeling for most (even plenty of online players when you consider the time investment.) I think you should be willing to break rules in terms of stack sizes needed to 3 bet or open raise (to a reasonable degree), i think you should put people all in with an almost reckless abandon, i think against other deep stacks you should flat call pre flop when a 3 bet isn't appropriate and just make their lives miserable post. I think in most of these situations you can get away with murder. As one WSOP player once told me one off the money bubble "Of course i would of folded my kings if you shoved and had me covered, i didn't come all the way from Alaska just to finish 271st!"

8. I think when we have a tight image we should consider making more big bluffs: Be they multiple street or 3/4 bet type things, i think live players will make some rediculously tight folds if your image isn't too loose or anything. When i think about it, in most online MTT's i very rarely make big or 3 street pure bluffs, and while i certainly don't think we should go crazy with these things i think there's more possibility to make these work in live than online.

9. I wonder about the inverse of the Gigabet dilemma: I'm pretty sold on the idea that in some tournament situations, taking a -EV spot to open up future +EV opportunities can be a good investment. Can the inverse of this be true? If we have a table full of very bad players in a live tournament, should we consider passing on some slight edges for a ton of our stack, since if we lose we miss future opportunties where these players would put their chips in in a much worse spot. I am OBVIOUSLY not talking about being a tournament life nit, or "OH MY GOD YOU HAVE AA FIRST HAND AND 9 GUYS GO ALL IN YOU MUST FOLD!" or anything like that. One example i might give: The $3000 buy in pokernews cup i played recently was an incredibly weak field with a very deep structure. If it's first hand and it folds to SB with me in the BB holding 66 and SB open shoves then flips up AKs, should i consider folding? I think (and i can't prove it, i'm not good enough at math/theory) that might be a fold given the field. Do you think this inverse applies? If so how far does it/can it go?

10. I think we should call short stack all ins tighter until villain proves he's capable of shoving light: People in live just don't seem to shove very light on a short stack, even under 10 BB's with high antes. I can't say how tight we should go, and obviously the villain in the hand is the pertinent detail here, but i do think we should tighten up in this spot.

11. I think we should be really really image conscious: Since you're only getting in like 30 hands an hour in a live tournament everyone can (if they want and bother to) watch most hands pretty accurately. People seem to be a bit less observent in the early stages than mid/late where every pot is so important, but they will often sit around talking about the way other people at the table play and if you play as loose/aggressive as most of us do will eventually just start calling you a lot wider. Image and meta game in live is kind of hard to put into words, but i think adjusting to this factor is really important in dominating the live scene.

12. I think we should do more obvious stuff and take more obvious lines for what we want: Remember the stack a donk line? Guess what, in live it still works. Even dirtier, you can stack a donk by check min raising the turn. Soooooo dirty. I think min raising for free cards on the flop, or min raising for value on any street is way more viable live than online (though i still haven't done it.) I think live villains will think about your hand range less, so doing what might be really obvious online becomes considerably more viable live where they haven't already seen that pattern 10,000 times.


Okay, that's what i have on my mind for now. I'm really keen to get some discussion going here, so i'm actually going to post this in SSMTT and HSMTT since the two have a pretty different crowd these days but both play a fair bit of live. Agree/disagree/omissions/additional thoughts?

Yesterday was the satellites for the main event. At the time the event not only had its original 250 seats sold out, but apparently they were very much expecting to have 50 alternates and a full lock out. I decided to play one of the satellites, got deep, then failed to suck out AKs with 75o all in pre flop and missed out on my seat.

After the satellite I went back to my hotel room and found a PM from Timex, who said he’s three floors above me. I gave him a call and told him to swing by the room. I finally got to meet the man who (at current standing) ~$80,000 dollars I’ve lost. Whenever people up to this point had asked me about the WSOP and where I came up with the money I’d have the opportunity to say, totally lacking in sarcasm
“Yea well, I lost $61,000 of an 18 year olds money”
…pause
“but don’t worry, he’s not angry or anything.”
The expressions were worth the $61,000 alone, especially considering it wasn’t mine.

Timex and another 2+2’er (Frank, whose 2+2 name I can’t stop forgetting) came downstairs and we decided to hit the Venetian together. The casino is of course very similar to it’s Vegas sister casino, but the gaming floor is no immense it truly must be seen to believe. Rumor has it standing on one side of the main floor you can’t actually see to the other, and though I didn’t think to test it at the time I certainly wouldn’t have trouble believing it. Inside the casino is a river with gondola rides, not to mention theatres, luxury shopping, and all the assorted other amenities of a world class hotel.

The taxi line outside the Venetian looked at least half an hour long, so we elected to walk back. The Cotai strip is still heavily under construction, so the hotels are very much so spaced out. It will likely be 10-15 years before the strip is fully developed and looks something like Vegas, and at the moment walking from the Venetian to Grand Waldo (which according to some are “next to each other”) is a good 30 minute walk.

When we got back we went to the 2+2 meet up (which managed to attract five 2+2’ers in total) then hit the welcome party where we found several more. Earlier that day during the satellite I’d given the woman who does the Stars video blog interviews, Ali Lightman, who I’ve known from tournament poker in Australia, a quick interview. I told her that if she found me during the party I’d give her a truly ridiculous interview to remember. I think it speaks for itself pretty well. My bit is a little before half way through, select this link and choose video 5:
http://www.appt.com/news/apptlive/

Ali’s got a great sense of humor and loved the Chapelle show reference, and the party overall was pretty good for being in a loud club atmosphere mostly devoid of seating. I made sure not to go overboard on the alcohol since I needed to play the next day, then drank a couple glasses of water that night just to make sure.

I woke up today feeling refreshed and ready. I met a group of guys down a the lunch buffet to grab some food before the tournament, then headed down with a couple minutes to spare. It turned out that was largely unnecessary since the organizers spent half an hour giving speech’s about the event, then unleashed four Chinese dragons (so I thought, the Chinese guy next to me pointed out that they were in fact Lions) onto the crowd with a chorus of drums as they ran about through the rows of seats, bobbing, weaving and leaping into the air, with costumes that had moveable eyes and tongues just in case you needed an extra dash of mind [censored] in the morning.

Play gets underway somewhere around 1pm with our noon start time, and my table (which has 10 stacks dealt into it) contains Scotty Nguyen on my right, as well as my online friend Alex (Garage13.) We started with 10,000 in chips at 25/50 blinds.

Play at my table early was incredibly tight. Nobody gave up anything, and for the first few rounds there was maybe one or two flops per 10 hands. Scotty is up walking around for over 50% of hands, and when he’s seated spends a lot of time joking around. Of all the live pro’s out there, he’s very probably the most fun to have on a table. I actually got a few good hands to start off, but completely failed to get any action on them except maybe one call and a check fold post. Most my hands were very straight forward, and unfortunately didn’t get anywhere near enough hands to flat call people in position and make them uncomfortable post flop. I lost about 1500 chips on a K high flush draw in a multi way board that missed and an AKs that got 3 bet pre flop and had to fold to the C bet on the flop when my first interesting hand came up.

Villain in the hand was a young German kid who for some reason was dressed like a very much toned down lil’holdem. He had three bet one of my raises earlier when I had AKs and lead a QT7 flop that I folded to. I had a fairly agro image, mostly the result of having some good hands.
Effective stacks: ~8500. Blinds 25/50, I hold AsQs in MP1.
Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 150, button (German) calls, SB calls, BB (never showed) folds.
Flop: 9s 8c 7s
SB checks, I bet 350, button calls, SB folds.
Turn: 2c
I check, button checks.
River: 6s
I lead 1250 hoping if he has the bottom straight he won’t fold, and if he has the top straight he’ll make a very bad committing raise. Instead he folds.

The interesting hand came up between Scotty and I, as well as a very straight forward player behind me. Blinds 50/100, effective stacks about 9000. I hold 44.
Preflop: Folds to Scotty in MP2, Scotty raises to 325, 1 fold, I call, CO thinks about folding for a bit then elects to call, 3 folds.
Flop: Ah 7d 5d
Scotty checks. I’m pretty sure CO wasn’t thinking about calling with an A pre flop since it seems more automatic unless he has a weaker one. I decide to lead 700. CO quickly folds and Scotty check raises to 2400. I fold.

Things were quiet for some time and I continued to get good starting hands that couldn’t get action. At 100/200 I finally had an interesting hand develop:
My stack: ~9000
SB: ~7000
I hold Ad9d in the BB.
Preflop: Folds to SB, SB completes, I raise to 600, SB calls. SB is a 30ish Asian guy from Hong Kong who seems mostly straight forward though is a bit more TAG than most of the newer players.
Flop: Ah 7c 5d
SB leads 1000. I call.
Turn: 7d
SB leads 3000. I go into the tank. Leading this flop and betting so large by the SB has really been unlike him so far, but I’m almost 100% positive he’s raising AJ+ here pre flop. I think the only A he shows up with that beats me here is AT, and if that’s the case I’ll suck him out a good % of the time anyway. I look over at his stack and find he’s left himself with about 2400, and move in. He taps the table and folds.

The very next hand I get involved again. The UTG player is a young Australian who seems tight and decent but is more so a live cash games player. I hold AKo in the SB.
His stack: ~11k
My stack: ~14k
Preflop: UTG raises to 525 (he wasn’t opening too much, especially not in EP) folds to me in the SB,I call, BB folds.
Flop: Kh 8c 4s
I check, UTG bets 600, I call.
Turn: 6c
I lead 1600, he thinks it over and calls.
River: 7s
I lead 2600, again he thinks and calls, then tables AKo. Fair enough. I think in live that line gets more value then going after him on the flop, since he’ll always fold without a K on the flop and often check behind on the turn without one.

A few hands later a hand develops with Scotty Nguyen. Blinds 100/200
My stack: ~13.5k
His stack: ~15k
Scotty has been mixing it up a fair bit, open limping pre flop, raising 3X, raising 4X etc. He has yet to min raise. I hold 8c Tc
Pre flop: Folds to Scotty in MP, he raises to 400, 1 fold, I call with, guy behind me calls, folds to SB, he calls, BB (never showed up) folds.
Flop: 2s Td Qd
Everyone checks around. The SB seems disinterested and the player behind me is very straight forward and would always bet here with some sort of hand.
Turn: 7s
SB checks. Scotty starts laughing and bets 1600. I can’t figure out one hand in his range that a good player would check on this board into 3 players that beats me, except maybe something like JTs. For the most part I think he just sees two players that are always folding, and since he knows I’m agro mostly thinks I’ll be betting my decent hands on the flop. I call, and both players behind fold.
River: Th
Scotty checks. I bet 3000. After about 3 seconds he check min raises to 6000. Oh god this is so gross. I’ve seen Scotty 4 bet pre flop with 83o in the main event and pull some sick moves, but he’s also totally sober so far today and hasn’t really been getting out of line. He seems capable of putting me on a missed draw and trying to raise me off it with some missed hand of his own, and I’m not sure how much credit he gives me for a T. I call and he quickly tables 22.
“Haha!! All you have to do is check to them Baaaaaaby!!”
I rip my wallet out of my pocket and open it up.
“Hey Scotty you want what I got left in here as long as I’m gonna pay you off all day?”
“You know it baaaaby! Hahaha!”

After that I have to hang mostly tight due to my stack size and fail to get a lot of good hands. I flat call my friend Alex with KK once and jam over his flop bet on a 39sJs board and he quickly folds 88. Outside that I try to take advantage of the players stacks who never showed up, but the SB’s and buttons in front of those stacks act difficult by flat calling and 3 betting me with a decent frequency.

My stack has dwindled to about ~4200 at 100/200 with a 25 ante when I peer down at 44 in the BB. I have yet to three bet anyone pre flop. The player on the HJ is a middle aged Australian guy who seems to open at least once a round in LP and always raises a full 4X. It folds to him and he makes it 800. It folds to me and I jam in knowing he’ll snap fold 77 and down, and maybe even 88. He thinks it over for a moment, asks how much it is, looks over at my stack, and says “okay I call” then tables JJ. My 44 fails to suck out and my tournament is over.

Ali Lightman catches me as I walk away and says we have to do another interview (at this point it looks like it hasn’t been uploaded yet since the internet here is really slow.) When I have a link I’ll put it in the thread or next trip report, but basically I stood there and told her I was very shocked to find out I was, in fact, not one of the badest mother [censored] of all time, and that I’d be in my room crying and eating ice cream.

It was a strange tournament overall, and pre flop I really did run like god. My pre flop hands included; AA twice, KK twice, QQ once, 99 once, AKo once, AKs once, Aqs, all in the span of about 3 hours.

After I bust I found both Timex and Frank have long since busted, so we find Tufat and go over to a local Korean BBQ. I come back to find Bondgirl still in with Elky sitting on her left with a massive stack. She tells me some of her hands and it sounds like she’s played very well all day.

When play ends for the day she's got 29,800, good for about 70% of the average and has lucked out with a really great table draw for the next day. The entire day tons of people kept coming over to tell her how huge it would be if she won and how enormous her endorsements would be. The fact is, as a trilingual attractive Asian girl who was born in China and raised in Australia, she’s got huge marketing potential. The annoying part is figuring out which guys come over with legitimate goals for everyone to make money, and which are Captain Tom’s in wait. I’m mostly staying out of it and just hoping she runs super good and can buy me a balla ass house and Xbox room. Gogogogogogo Bondgirl.

Authors Note: This first trip report doesn’t actually contain any poker, as none will start until tomorrow. However, it will serve to set up the rest of the series, which will all follow the tournament and happenings here in Macau. If that’s not your thing though, then skip this one.

The Venetian Macau sits outside my hotel window, an enormous gold and tan monolith with no competition for dominating the skyline. Macau has become the world’s largest gaming destination, at least in terms of monetary turn over. Until 1999 Macau was owned and run by the Portuguese, who eventually gave it back to mainland China, tired with dealing of the triad infested island.

Macau is like Las Vegas if Mao Tse Dung and John Gotti took turns vomiting on it. Up until 1999 the Triad influence was so heavy and suffocating there was little room for progress. When the Chinese took over they managed to make the Triads practically disappear with their strict laws and enormous punishments for criminals. In the Chinese justice system, when a man is executed by gun shot his family is sent a bill for the bullet. The histories are somewhat similar, the US government did away with the mafia in Vegas during the 80’s and brought in the corporations, as the Chinese have done now. The growth as a result is startling. The Venetian outside my window is the single largest building in all of Asia, and the second largest in the entire world (the first being an aircraft factory), dwarfing its sister casino in Vegas.

I arrived last night in the early evening. My flight from Melbourne to Sydney was delayed by an hour and a half, and with the check in for my Sydney to Macau flight closing 40 minutes before the flight when Bondgirl and I arrived in Sydney we had mere minutes to sprint to a taxi and then to our terminal. She went first to hold off the counter lady, who wanted to turn us away until a higher up came over and decided to give us a pass. The nine hour flight was uneventful, I switched off between sleeping and playing my Nintendo DS, with some occasional reading.

The Grand Waldo is only a five minute cab ride from the airport, with only the gargantuan Venetian blocking our path. The hotel looks kind of tacky on the outside, but on the inside is actually quite clean and classy looking. The rooms are comfortable but by no means huge and the restaurants in the hotel are quite nice. We spent our first evening at dinner and drinks with friends, talking about how many are expected for the events. It appears the main event will lock out at 300, with 50 of those players being alternates. Estimates for the 15k high rollers event are around 40-60 at the moment, but more and more big name players are showing up, supposedly attracting more and more recreational gamblers.

I woke up this morning after spending nearly 11 hours in bed. I went down to the buffet and found friends, who discussed going into ‘Macau’. As it turns out, Macau (as most people think of it) is actually broken into three parts, Macau, Taipa, and Coloane. The Grand Waldo is situated in Taipa, with Macau being a 10 minute cab ride away, over one of three long white bridges. After breakfeast this morning my friends and I headed towards downtown Macau, a skyline full of casinos old and new. The skyline must be seen to be believed, as all the casinos are jammed into one centralized area, with an architectural style totally separate from what we’re used to in Vegas, yet still glittering and gaudy like it’s American counterpart.

I lived in China for six months. I’m used to the cab drivers who veer and steer like drunken monkeys despite only the front seats having a seat belt. The roads are nowhere nearly as insane as Shanghai, where the drivers would sooner run you over than risk being five seconds late to their destination.

Downtown Macau stinks. The air is polluted and dirty like the banners for whores that litter the streets. Too much time outside leaves one with a hoarse and dry feeling in the back of your throat, with coughing and water being the only recourse. The air smells foul, and feels heavy despite little humidity.

My friends wanted to go shopping, but my friend Darren and I began tiring of the air. I asked Darren (who won a package on Stars into the main) if he wanted me to spend some time coaching him while our girlfriends shopped. We headed back to the Grand Waldo and spent two hours in front of the computer discussing stack sizes, bet sizes, and shoving ranges. When our girlfriends returned they asked about going to dinner, so we decided on the Venetian. As we headed downstairs we ran into Ricky and Eva, who are helping Elton (Ricky’s friend and Eva’s brother) to organize the event. They suggested going to dinner back in Macau. Darren suggested a place with a guy who serves Tea like an extra from an Ang Lee movie, whipping his long barreled tea pot around like a ninja on ecstasy.

“Hey Tony, wanna go to the ‘race course’ after dinner?” Ricky asked.
They’d mentioned it the night before. Apparently the done up whores walk in a lap around this race course waiting for Johns to approach them, and as long as they don’t just stand there they can’t be kicked out for loitering by the security guards, who are everywhere in Macau. In fact, upon entering any casino floor, you have to walk through a metal detector.
“[censored] yea, let’s see the race course.”

I had imagined a literal race course, perhaps a small dog track where the men sit in stands alternating between waving their bet slips in the air and waving over prostitutes. I guess I took it too literally. The race course turned out to be a circle of shops and restaurants in a downtown casino, where dozens of done up whores walked the circle over and over making eyes at you while Johns sat around arguing with them over prices and what they can get.

The last time I was in a whore house was nearly three years ago in Melbourne, only a couple weeks after having arrived again. Myself, Damon and Charlie had gotten boozed up at Crown casino, then wanted to show me where they spend their free time. The girls were brought in a row and presented by the manager, giving a name and a place of origin. Charlie whipped out a wad of money
“Which one do you want Tony?”
“Whores aren’t my thing Charlie.”
“Too bad, you are getting laid tonight.”
“I told you, not interested, not my thing.”
Charlie stiffened, then in an increased tone repeated.
“You are getting laid tonight my friend.”
Half drunk and annoyed with his stubbornness, I grabbed Charlie stern by the shirt and stared him intently in the eyes.
”Their not my [censored] thing Charlie.”
Despite having nearly a foot in height and 40 pounds on him, Charlie was not intimidated. Quote the Charlie
“You are getting laid tonight my friend.”
He was not to be deterred. I needed a diplomatic solution that didn’t make me look elitist. I reached into my pocket, ripped out my wallet, and grabbed the $120 dollars required for 30 minutes. I walked over to the manager and jammed it into his hand.
“Number 3, for my short friend over there. You’re going upstairs Charlie.”
Charlie didn’t refuse, while I sat downstairs waiting in the lounge with Damon, who couldn’t find a girl he liked.

Some men see a moral dilemma in paying women for sex. I see a mathematical one. The fact is, if you break down that wall, if you go there once, you’re not going to stop. Paying for sex can be a difficult habit to break, and there’s a good reason for it, if you’re not interested in much outside sex it makes perfect mathematical sense. Watch this:

Spending a night with a Macau hooker runs at 500 HK a night. That works out to about $60 USD. It takes as long or as short as you like, but the finding of a woman and negotiation of a price takes only minutes. Every poker player knows time is money. The time sacrifice with a hooker is next to nothing, and the total monetary expenditure (in this case) is $60.

Now, what about with a normal woman? There’s no concrete cost, but most men can agree it’ll end up being larger than $60 dollars. Even if you don’t pay anything for her, the money you spend in activities with her (drinks, dinner, movie, whatever) will likely amount to over $60. But what about success rate? No guy has a 100% success rate, and normal guys who have some level of connection with a woman might bat around .300, about 30%. For some this will be somewhat higher, for many substantially lower. Now, how many hours will it take to get a normal woman in bed? Again, we can’t be concrete, but say you spend a night out with friends or together or whatever, having that number be in multiple hours is of course quite common. Let’s put an average at 3. In my case an hour of my time is worth about ~$150 USD, depending on how many tables I’m playing. Look how the numbers break down:
Prostitute:
Time (opportunity) cost: ~5 minutes ($7.50)
Monetary cost: ~$60
Success rate: 100%
Average cost for sex: $67.50

Normal woman:
Time (opportunity) cost: ~3 hours ($450)
Monetary Cost: >$60
Success rate: 30%
Average cost for sex: ~$1,480

End result: On average, cost with a woman, per sexual encounter costs you (well, in this case, me) over $1,400 more with the normal woman. You’ll also get to do whatever you want with no consideration as to your performance. Then again, if you’re after something more, this is all pretty useless, isn’t it?

We headed over to the Wynn Macau after dinner to watch the fountain show. It was no Bellagio, but for Macau it was nice enough. We went inside the Wynn and found a starbucks. Over coffee Ricky peered over the table at me with a glimmer in his eye
“Bond my friend, I think it’s time for some squeezing.”
I smashed my hand down on the table
“[censored] yea! Let’s squeeze some cards.”

Baccarat is to Macau what every other form of gambling is to Las Vegas, it’s everywhere, in escapable. I have little experience with the game outside watching the high rolling degenerates play for tens of thousands a hand in the Crown Mahogany room while I smoke a large cigar and laugh while mooching as much free alcohol as possible. I vaguely knew the rules of the game, but was mostly interested for my potential to squeeze and destroy cards while shouting “PICTCHA!” and “FO SIDE!”

Darren, Ricky and I strolled over to the lowest stakes table we could find (100 HK dollars minimum bet, about 12 USD) and I borrowed 1000 off Ricky. I began shuffling my chips on the felt while the cards were being dealt, and the floor woman came over and lectured me in Chinese.

Darren was given the option to place the cut card on the new deal. He slide the card once along the side of the eight deck shoe, then slide it back another time.
“NO! One time only!” shouted both the dealer and the floor woman.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. Sorry about that.”
As he finished his sentence he raised up the cut card and slammed dramatically into the deck. The card cracked then exploded into pieces onto the felt, entirely by accident. The floor woman looked over at Darren like he’d just stabbed someone and the other players looked at him with pure annoyance and contempt. The scene set me into a fit of laughter, nearly causing me to fall out of my chair. The players then looked at me in annoyance, not understanding what I found amusing in the delay of gambling. Their queer looks only resulted in my laughing harder at them. It took me five minutes to get over it, and ten to get a new cut card.

I spewed my 1000 down to 100, and threw my last bet on the felt. I played banker and banker only, since it’s something like 1% better than player over the long run. I managed to run that 100 back up to 900, and when it looks like I’m about to get out of the whole a new player was dealt in, a grungy looking man of perhaps 50. He played against me on his first hand, throwing 100 on player. He peered down at his cards, then looked up with disgust and threw them face down in annoyance towards the center of the table. The dealer then turned his hand face up, a jack and 9 for a nearly unbeatable natural nine. That mother [censored] slow rolled me, and I wasn’t going to forget it. My stack hung around 700 for a while, deviating within a few hundred each way but never really making any progress. The grungy man only seemed to play one in five hands, waiting for the stars to line up in whatever pattern he imagined inanimate objects might possibly have. Every time he entered a hand as player I made sure I had the largest bet out on banker in hopes of getting an opportunity to slow roll him, but he always won.

After an hour of this annoyance my stack hung at 900. A number of other players had joined the table and I’d yet to take my vengeance on the slow roller. The entire table lined up their bets on player, and I threw my 200 out on banker. The dealer dealt the player cards over to their largest better, and he revealed a jack and ace, for a total of 1. It looked great for me. I crumpled my first card in half, then halve it again in fourths, and the dealer looked at me like a lunatic. I unwrapped my card and revealed a 2, and the second card was a queen, giving me a 2. The dealer slid the next card over to the player side, and he flipped up another 2 for a total of 3. I needed an ace to tie, or a 2-7 to win. I looked over at the slow roller and made a mental prayer.

The dealer slid me my last card and I crumpled it up excruciatingly slow. I peered down at a 7, way more strength than I ever needed. I stared at the card for a while and feigned annoyance and disappointment then in an instant tabled the card face up, collected my bet and left.

We headed back to the hotel and made arrangements to play the mega satellite the next day. Now I sit in my hotel room, with the enormous Venetian looming outside my window, illuminating the night sky.