Vegas 2026 Trip

For the past few years, I've been selecting a summer week to travel to Las Vegas and play a mix of tournaments and cash poker. After the 2022 WSOP main event when I made Day 2 and busted out of the money, I decided to risk less and enter smaller events. Cash would be played mostly at Venetian, after their 2023 rebuild and relocation to Palazzo, establishing them as the premier cash game venue on the strip. 

This year, Mickey (son) decided to join me, as Tali (wife) was busy at work. The plan was to play the WSOP $1,000 Super Seniors (60+) event, and Mickey would choose his own ones. For proximity, I booked the Paris hotel & casino from Sunday-Thursday June 21-25. The WSOP promotional rate was quite good, about $150/night including resort fee and taxes.

Sunday, June 21

We flew out Sunday with Delta and Ubered to the hotel. Lining up for check-in seemed like it would take a while. A lady approached and said we could use the kiosks for check-in. I asked if it would allow me to add Mickey as a second guest and she said yes. The kiosk experience was ok, albeit it chose our room for us.

Paris is structured a bit weirdly - the reception area is separate from the room "towers"  - Bordeaux close by the reception and Versailles quite distant from it. We were assigned the Versailles and had to walk through the casino, up an escalator, then through an indoor passage bridge until we finally got to the elevators. Technically it's closer to Horseshoe (formerly Bally's) than Paris, that same elevator leading to the ground floor of Horseshoe.

Our room was a two-Queen on the 65th floor, overlooking the strip and Bellagio fountains. Walking in, it seemed quite spacious and modern. Taking a closer look, the carpet had some leftover crumbs (or similar) and the desk and nightstand stains from what appeared to optimistically be sugary drinks. I went to work with my cleaning wipes and approved the space for use. The bathroom was pretty ok, with modern fixtures and none of the plumbing issues that often plague hotel sinks and showers. The walls were paper-thin though, as evident from ambient noise we got from an adjacent room one of the nights.

This was the view from our room at sundown:

Whenever I travel, my first step is to go to a nearby pharmacy to get water and other goodies for the room. This time, we first headed to the WSOP registration counter for me to get my spot in the Super Seniors (to start Monday) and then to the CVS outside Horseshoe. 

For dinner, I suggested Istanbul Mediterranean, also just outside of the Horseshoe. They have a good selection of Shwarma, Falafel with various combos - all for about $25 with soda. We grabbed our dinner and ate it in the room - the outdoor area being too hot and crowded.

When in Nevada, it's legal to play online poker on the WSOP app and so I got in, deposited a modest amount and played $0.50/$1 cash while watching world cup soccer in the background. Perfect!

Monday, June 22

We woke at about 8 am and hit the gym for stretching and a basic workout routine. It is sort-of ok equipment-wise, but not large enough for the demand and the hogging of weights by some of the jock-bros caused me to give up after a few sets.

True to the stereotype of Seniors waking early, my event was slated for a 10AM start and I showed up on time, a 7 minute walk from the room to my seat. Mickey decided to head out to the Orleans casino for what looked to be a juicy $400 deep stack event, starting at 11AM.

The structure of Super Seniors was 20,000 chips, 1 hour levels starting at 100/100/100 blinds. For the first few levels, my table was populated by recreational, friendly players who were playing ABC poker. Perfect for yours truly, although I probably could have taken a bit more advantage of that setting. Here are a few hands I recorded in that stage:

Hand 1: QJ offsuit

Position: button

Blinds: 100/100/100

Stack: 20,000

Preflop action:

- Middle position raised to 300

- I called

- Big blind called (pot: 1100)

Flop: A Q X

- Checked to me

- I bet 300

- Big blind called (pot: 1700)

Turn: Jc putting 3 clubs on board, I have Qc

- Checked to me

- I bet 700

- Big blind called (pot: 3100)

River X (don't remember)

- BB bet 1000

- I called

- He showed Ax and I won with 2pair.

Note: I should have led larger on the turn, targeting Ax. Standard would be about 70% (1200) and exploitive could be 125% pot or 2100.

Hand 2: KQ offsuit

Position: small blind

Blinds: 100/100/100

Stack: 21,500

Preflop action:

- Early position raised to 300

- Button and I called

- Big blind folded (pot: 1100)

Flop: K 9 X

- Checked around (pot: 1100)

Turn: Q

- I bet 600

- Early position raised to 1600

- Button folded

- I called (pot: 4300)

River 9 

- Early position checked

- I checked

- He showed JTo for a flopped straight.

Note: I lost the minimum here. The board pairing on the river dissuaded him from another value bet which should have come anyway. Rec players fear going for thin value, in case someone raises them with a full house. 

Hand 3: KQ offsuit

Position: under the gun + 1

Blinds: 100/200/200

Stack: 23,000

Preflop action:

- I raised to 700

- Middle position called

- Blinds folded (pot: 1900)

Flop: Q J 9 with two spades, I don't have one

- I bet 600

- Middle position raised to 1200

- I called (pot: 4300)

Turn X (low, non spade)

- Checked

River A (non spade)

- Checked

- I show my hand and opponent mucked.

Note: This was a weirdly played hand by my opponent. He likely had a non-Ace pair + flush draw on the flop (like KJss) and was trying to apply fold equity. A min raise was not effective for that! 

Hand 4: KJhh

Position: small blind

Blinds: 200/300/300

Stack: 23,500

Preflop action:

- Early position limp called

- Middle position raised to 1500

- I called, big blind called 

- Limper folded (pot: 5100)

Flop: Q T X with one heart

- I and big blind checked

- Middle position bet 2500

- I called and big blind folded (pot: 10,100)

Turn X heart 

- Checked

River Th giving me a flush

- I bet 4000 and opponent folded.

Note: Most likely my opponent had AK or AQ. My river bet of 40% pot on a paired board was ok (I think), targeting his hand class. I don't think he was betting river so I needed to extract some value here.

At this point my stack was about 30,000 - chip leader since no dramatic hands had played out.

Hand 5: KQdd

Position: small blind

Blinds: 200/400/400

Stack: 29,400

Preflop action:

- Middle position raised to 1200

- I called, big blind called (pot: 4000)

Flop: T 5 X with two diamonds

- I and big blind checked

- Middle position bet 2500

- I called and big blind folded (pot: 9000)

Turn: X low non-diamond

- I checked

- MP went all in for 9400

- I tank folded

Note: Most likely my opponent had an overpair; I thought AA or JJ were the main candidates. With just a flush draw on the turn and my KQ pair outs being questionable, I was getting about 2:1 pot odds to call, whereby I needed something like 4:1.

Dinner break

In this event, they broke for dinner after Level 6, at around 4:45 PM. We found it strange but with "super seniors" I suppose it worked, to help them pace Day 1. Mickey was away playing at Orleans, and others in our group (Ron, Scott) had already bust this event and were busy elsewhere in other WSOP events. I headed to Mon Ami Gabi - a French bistro at Paris and ordered Trout Almondine and light beer. The trout was overcooked but edible, enough to keep me going for a while.

Update: Prior to and after the dinner break, I had been card dead for a few levels and blinded down to less than starting stack. The table changed, with 7 of the original 9 players busting and an aggro Danish player named Lars Hansen (who ended up min-cashing the event) applying pressure with ridiculous raises and showing bluffs like 53o.

Hand 6: 33

Position: small blind

Blinds: 500/1000/1000

Stack: 14,700

Preflop action:

- Limped multiway to me

- I called

- Big blind checked

Flop: A 3 2

- I checked

- Middle position bet 3000

- I jammed my remaining 14,200

- He called and showed AK

Turn: 3 giving me quads and the win! I went to a stack of 32,000.

The table loved seeing quads.

Hand 7: KJo

Position: big blind

Blinds: 600/1200/1200

Stack: 16,000

Intro: Since the 33-quads double up, I missed flops with hands like KThh, 77. I also jammed into multiple limps with KTss and they folded. My stack was now back down to the danger level.

Preflop action:

- Middle position raised to 4000

- I think called. My thinking is he is not folding to a jam now, but my hand is too strong to fold.

- Pot: 9800

Flop: A Q X

- I checked

- Middle position bet 5000

- I folded my gutshot, my pair outs may not be good.

Update: I now entered the last level of day 1 (level 10). I came into it with 9500 chips (6 BB) and after the blinds was down to 5500 (3 BB). A shove with A4cc was called by something like JT and put me at 13,500. 

Hand 8: AA

Position: early position

Blinds: 1000/1500/1500

Stack: 13,500

Preflop action:

- I went all in for 13,500

- Late position called and showed AK

Result: I spin up again to 33,000.

Hand 9: As7d

Position: cutoff (one to the left of the button)

Blinds: 1000/1500/1500

Stack: 33,000

Preflop action:

- It folded to me and I raised to 4000

- Big blind called (pot: 10,500)

Flop: 9 6 4

- BB checked

- I bet 3000

- BB called (pot: 16,500)

Turn: 5

- We both checked (pot: 16,500)

River: 8 giving me a straight

- BB checked

- I bet 10,000

- BB folded

Hand 10: AKo

Position: button 

Blinds: 1000/1500/1500

Stack: 46,500

Preflop action:

- It folded to me and I raised to 4000

- Big blind called (pot: 10,500)

Flop: 9 X X

- BB checked

- I checked

- BB called (pot: 10,500)

Turn: A

- BB bet 4500

- I called (pot: 18,500)

River: X low card

- BB checked

- I checked

- He showed QTdd and I won.

Note: This was another weirdly played hand by my opponent. The Ace turn favored my range and he still led out with a bet. Many AK holdings by the button would raise here, but I figured I could often be up against a 2-pair Ax and if not, I'll let him hang himself. I didn't lose value by not betting the river because he wasn't calling any amount.

Soon afterwards, we bagged for Day 2 and I had 53,000! Going from 5,500 to 53,000 (at some point I had 56,000) was probably the luckiest tournament level I had ever played.

Tuesday, June 23

Sleep didn't come easily after the built-up adrenaline of 10 hours (net) of Day 1 play. I had a bit more time in the morning, since Day 2 resumed at 11AM. Mickey went in hunt of a decent breakfast spot and I decided to check out the pool. My thinking was that if I show up at opening time (9 am) I could get some laps in before the crowds come. No such luck! It took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to use the elevator to get to the pool level (needed to first use the card-touch mechanism, which Paris confuses its clientele by not requiring it elsewhere). Once I got there, the single circle shaped pool was cordoned into only half of it being active, already full of families and kids. I turned around and left. 

Starting Day 2 of the event with 26 big blinds gave me some playability. Here are a few more of the hands:

Hand 11: KQo

Position: middle position

Blinds: 1000/2000/2000

Stack: 53,000

Preflop action:

- Early position raised to 4500

- I called

- button called

- blinds folded (pot: 18,500)

Flop: 9 8 7

- Early position bet 

- We folded

Note: This was the absolute worst flop for KQ. I might have found a preflop fold to the early position open, given my relatively shallow stack. 26 BB was too much to shove there and KQo is probably not the best candidate against an EP open. Calling may have been ok if there wouldn't be a lot of 3Bet squeezes behind, an assumption I should not have made. The counter argument is that in a tournament you have to play some hands you are uncomfortable with, and KQ is a potentially powerful holding. An interesting tactic would have been to 3bet to something like 11,000 planning to fold to a re-jam by early position, but if called I'd have to give up on that flop.

Hand 12: 33

Position: big blind

Blinds: 1000/2000/2000

Stack: 48,500

Preflop action:

- Early position raised to 4500

- I called (pot: 12,000)

Flop: 6 5 2

- Checked around

Turn: 5

- I bet 4000

- Early position called (pot: 20,000)

River: 4

- I bet 4000

- Early position called and showed A3 for a rivered straight.

Note: From a theoretical perspective, this may have been the most interesting hand I played. I ran it by PokerSnowie Scenario and it approved of all of my actions until the river. On the river, when betting 1/5 pot (as I did), it does put in that bet a small percentage of the time, but mostly checks. The only "error" in this hand was made by my opponent, when he just called and did not raise river. In a twisted way, I was happy to see him just calling with the A3, since my river bet functioned as a blocking bet, removing a possible hard decision from my game tree. From a "street poker" perspective, I could have bet full pot on the turn, given that my opponent checked back the flop; putting the tough decision on him. This is something I will need to add to my game, since I tend to think more as a cash game player (gaining marginal EV) than a tournament player (protecting my advantage).

Update: Now, with my stack down to 34,000 I was moved to a new table.

Hand 13: KJo

Position: big blind

Blinds: 1000/2000/2000

Stack: 34,000

Preflop action:

- Early position raised to 7000

- 2 calls from the field

- I called last to act (pot: 31,000)

Flop: 8 4 2

- Early position bet 15,000

- 1st caller went all in

- the rest folded

- Early position called and won with QQ vs the caller's KQ.

Note: this was a terrible preflop call by me. With 17BB I had no business entering this pot with any action other than a shove, and KJo was too weak for that. I was on tilt from the previous hand's loss and being moved to a hostile new table in desperation mode. I hate playing poorly when the advice I would have given to anyone else would be to FOLD that hand preflop 100%.

Hand 14: AJo

Position: button

Blinds: 1000/2000/2000

Stack: 24,000

Preflop action:

- Middle position limp called

- Cutoff raised to 7000

- I jammed all in 

- Middle position folded

- Cutoff called with QQ and won, I BUST. 

I ended in 742nd spot of 3,323 entries. The 1st place prize of $355,263 went to Lionel Barracano of France, with his first WSOP cash.

Note: The AJo shove was marginal but better than the previous hand's KJo multiway call. With 12 BB I still had time to wait for a better spot, perhaps when someone had not raised over a limper. These guys were pretty face-up and had I assigned him a tight range of 88+, AQ+, I would not have assumed that I had any fold equity and made the fold.

Update: after exiting the first level of Day 2, I decided to head over to the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas and join Ron and Scott, for another Super Seniors event, with a $400 buyin. That had started at 11AM and I figured that by the time I arrived, I'd enter to its level 4, giving me a decent starting stack to work with. The Lyft driver got me there by 12:20 and after hunting down the Ballroom at Golden Nugget, I bought in and got seated at my new table. 

Below: Mannes, Ron and Scott at the Golden Nugget. I had ChatGPT remove an unwanted person in the photo's background.

Sitting at my table, I was plopped into Level 4, with blinds of 200/400/400 and a starting stack of 30,000 chips. Levels there were (thankfully) 30 minutes, this being a single day event. There were 417 entries.

More so than at the WSOP, this table was chock full of colorful characters. First, they had some fun on account of my Seattle Seahawks hat and Vancouver T-shirt (which one are you from??), until I explained my affinity to both places. The guy to my left wanted to know my age and to my response "a bit over the threshold - 66" he said "I'm 18 years older"; to which I responded "you don't look 84" and he said "the threshold is 50 so you're 56" and then others pitched in and added that if someone had played their Seniors event (50+), they were also eligible to enter the Super seniors. All said and done, his age was established as 74, a more reasonable fit to his looks. A 75-ish lady to my right was from the Austin, TX vicinity and plays at The Lodge of Doug Polk fame. She was entering about 60% of hands and raking some of them in with ridiculously sized bets and suckouts. Then, a wild-eyed, 62 year old woman named Karen from Minnesota with roots in Tacoma, sat to the right of the Austin lady and drove her nuts with incessant talk, jewelry admiration, taking selfies and stories of family history until she bust in a very awkward and silly manner. After she left, the table nodded their heads in a sort of "good riddance" manner; I offered an explanation that she may be on the autism spectrum which can be associated with a certain lack of self awareness, and others suggested she had been drinking. Aside from that, many of the players knew the dealers and service staff, and there was a good ol' time vibe there that one could find charming, annoying or a combination thereof.

Here are a few notable hands from that event:

GN Hand 1 - AQo

Position: button

Blinds: 200/400/400

Stack: 30,000

Preflop action:

- I opened to 800

- SB and BB called (pot: 2800)

Flop: 9 8 X

- It checked around

Turn: J

- It checked to me

- I bet 800

- they called (pot: 5200)

River: low card brick

- SB checked

- BB bet

- We folded

GN Hand 2 - QTcc

Position: MP

Blinds: 200/400/400

Stack: 28,000

Preflop action:

- I opened to 800

- 3 players called including the blinds (pot: 3600)

Flop: A 3 3

- It checked to me

- I bet 800

- LP called (pot: 5200)

Turn: X putting a second club on board 

- I bet 3000

- LP called (pot: 11,200)

River: brick, non-club

- I checked

- He bet 15,000

- I folded

- He showed A3 for a flopped full house

Note: From just these 2 hands you can see a pattern. The table was full of passive calling stations, not good bluff targets when I whiffed. Every open is met with 2-5 callers and you have to make your hand to win it.

GN Hand 3 - A2cc

Position: SB

Blinds: 300/600/600

Stack: 19,600

Preflop action:

- EP opened to 1500

- Button called

- I called

- BB folded (pot: 5700)

Flop: A 2 4 monotone diamonds

- I checked

- EP checked

- Button bet 2500

- I called

- EP folded (pot: 10,700)

Turn: non-diamond 

- I checked

- Button bet 3000

- I called (pot: 16,700)

River: Tc

- It checked around and I beat AJ

Note: On a monotone board, top and bottom pair functions well as a merged value / bluff catching hand. I don't think raising would have made a lot of sense, given Button's desire to build the pot.

GN Hand 4 - KK

Position: MP

Blinds: 500/1000/1000

Stack: 28,600

Preflop action:

- MP to my right, 75-yr old Texan lady playing too many hands, opened to 3000

- I raised to 10,000

- She called (pot: 22,500)

Flop: A A 2

- MP checked

- I jammed 18,600

- She tanked, gave a long speech, asked me if I'll show, ended up folding and showing TT. In return, I showed her my KK.

Note: This was a fun one. I had pretty much decided to jam any non-Ace flop. When two Aces came, that "blocked" her from having many Ax combos. Also, she might have called pre- with a weak Ace and think she's up against AK etc. I was baffled when she showed the TT - she had tanked for at least 3 minutes. Too bad - it could have been a nice double up if she was really considering calling. 

Update: from that point onward I was card dead and whiffed almost all of the few hands played. My final hand was at the 1000/2000/2000 level with 12,000 chips (6 BBs), I open jammed KQdd and lost to JJ. 

At that point, it was 4:30 PM and Ron and Scott had left, having busted earlier. I headed back to Paris and had dinner with Mickey at Gordon Ramsey Burger - Planet Hollywood. We lined up for ~15 minutes but it was one of the best burgers I've had! 

Wednesday, June 24

Mickey and I headed out to the Palazzo to play cash at the Venetian, which is technically located on the second floor of the Palazzo mall (confusing, yeah). Even though I had played there a few times in past years, we still had to make our way around the maze of stores a few times, in the absence of any "Poker room" signs. The room itself is large, VERY LOUD and well run, with both cash games and tournaments. At first, we were seated together at a 1/3 game with a max buyin of $300. I also signed up for 2/3 with a max buyin of $600 and was soon moved there.

The cast of characters at 2/3 was problematic: two guys to my immediate left and right were buddies who had been, and were continuing, to heavily drink and speak loudly with each other. I couldn't understand why they didn't move to sit next to each other, even when a seat opened. They were however good for the game, punting quite a bit. But then, 2 players to my left was an aggro and smart Asian kid you never want at your table. He incessantly 3Bet my opens until I 4Bet him once and he started picking on others. His presence led me to request a table change, and I was moved after about a half hour to a more "conventional" one. 

Here are a few hands from the session:

Cash Hand 1 - AA (first table)

Position: UTG

Blinds: $2/$3 

Stack: $372

Preflop action:

- I opened to $10

- 2 calls from the field (pot: $25)

Flop: A J X two hearts

- I bet $10 

- LP called (pot: $45)

Turn: T

- I bet $40

- LP raised to $140

- I called (pot: $325)

River 6

- I checked

- LP bet $145

- I called

He showed KQo for a turned straight.

Note: the turn T completed many draws, including some 2 pair hands. I cannot fold my set there quite yet. On the river I could have found a fold, but I'm pretty confident a solver would call with villain's two-pairs and sets (mainly of TT) potentially playing that way.

Cash Hand 2 - QTo (new table)

Position: SB

Blinds: $2/$3 

Stack: $340

Preflop action:

- Cutoff limped

- I completed to $3

- BB checked (pot: $8)

Flop Q T 9

- I checked

- BB checked

- Cutoff bet 20

- I called

- BB folded (pot: $45)

Turn T (!)

- I checked

- Cutoff bet $75 all in

- I called and beat JT

Cash Hand 3 - AKo

Position: Button

Blinds: $2/$3 

Stack: $515

Preflop action:

- Cutoff opened to $25. He was behaving a bit weird, Chinese 40-ish with a hoodie and shades. He had not played many hands.

- I raised to $75

- Cutoff jammed all in and covered me ($440 remaining in my stack)

- I tank folded

- He said he doesn't like slow playing his hands. When he left, he said he had QQ.

Note: Calling $440 to win $1,025 was laying me 43% pot odds, approximately my equity against his likely range (mid to high pocket pairs, AK, AQ suited). It was basically a question of calling off vs an unknown player and if I was in a "gambling" mindset for my stack. It was a bit early in the session, I might have taken that gamble later in the day.

Cash Hand 4 - A7hh aka "shit luck"

Position: MP

Blinds: $2/$3 

Stack: $385

Preflop action:

- I opened to $10

- 3 calls from the field (pot: $33)

Flop: 8h 7x 5h giving me a pair and nut FD

- I checked

- LP bet $35

- EP called

- I called (pot: $138)

Turn: 9h completing my flush

- EP checked

- I checked

- LP bet $85

- EP jammed, we both covered him

- I re-jammed

- LP called my jam

River: EP said "pair the board" and the dealer put out a 7, driving a stake through my heart.

- EP won the main pot with 55 (full house) (about $750)

- I won the side pot with LP (about $240)

- Total pots were ~$1,000

Note: After this hand my spirit was crushed. Instead of sitting on a ~$1000 stack I was now (again) reduced to a fraction of my buyins for the day. So, I decided to join in on the double board PLO bomb pots every dealer change (1/2 hour) and gamble it up. Somehow, I managed to make my way back to just a $245 loss for the day.

Mickey and I then had dinner at Miznon, an modern Israeli casual bistro at Palazzo, and then headed to Planet Hollywood to check out Tipsy Robot - where you order cocktails on a kiosk and a robot mixes them! While it was well worth the $20 just for the novelty - the drinks themselves were kind of meh.

So - that was it! We headed back to our room, packed and summed up our trip. A bunch of loud kids abandoned by their parents in the next-door room kept us up until around midnight, and after a night of poor sleep, we woke grumpily and made our way to the airport. Landing in Seatac it was chilly with a light drizzle - a fitting welcome back from our Vegas week! I said to Mickey, it's good to be out of the furnace.

Vegas 2024 Trip

This year, my Vegas trip was going to be different. Unlike the recent past, when I had targeted the WSOP (World Series Of Poker) in June or July for high buy-in "shot taking", I decided to go for a more relaxed, laid back approach. It would be a solo trip taken on weekdays, arriving on Sunday and departing Wednesday. I'd play a few small to medium tournaments and fill in the rest of the time with cash games.

The theme of this trip was going to be minimalistic - travel, dine and drink lightly and try to enjoy my time at the tables, while engaging in that special mix of relaxation and occasional terror that only poker can offer. In August, the price of flights and hotel stays drops significantly, serving as another incentive. Using (mostly) AMEX rewards, I booked a room at Aria. On the day, I packed a carry-on plus backpack and headed out to the Seattle airport's Wally park garage. Despite having booked with Alaska - the first stop on the shuttle's round - I asked the driver to take me all the way to the end of the line so that I could go through the shorter TSA-pre security lineup on the South end of the airport, where the international gates are located. I then proceeded to take the underground train to link up to the North gate my flight was departing from - effectively hacking the system. Although the flight was during the lunchtime hours, I didn't stop to get food - I'd decided to bring my own protein bar and beef stick to carry me through. I did stop at a Starbucks to fill my Zojirushi coffee mug, a useful travel habit. On the plane, I was seated in a premium window seat, next to a middle aged lady on her way to some sort of convention. "That looks good" I remarked to her bland-looking chicken sandwich to get some form of polite conversation going. She seemed a nice enough type but didn't have much to say. We reached agreement that it's a good idea to purchase food at the airport and not on the plane these days. When the drink cart came around (don't they seem to take longer to get them going these days?), I opted for another recent favorite - two mini bottles of single malt whiskey (Glenfarclas) and a half cup of ice. Watching Netflix's Formula 1 series "Drive to Survive" kept me engaged - such a male cliche. 

Arriving at LAS airport, the walk through the baggage claim area to the rideshare elevator was a stark contrast to the previous trip - taken in mid-June 2023, my wife and I had to compete with a loud and rowdy swarm of travelers to get to the carousel and collect our luggage. This time, the vast hangar-style room was almost vacant and silent, informing me that this indeed is the "low season". Arriving at the Aria, same deal - no lineup to checkin and I got my room instantly. Aria, built a decade or so ago, is still a very nice property although it falls short of other premium hotels like Wynn, Venetian. The rooms, while still nice, are starting to show signs of age - the bathroom faucets and shower-heads are way past due for replacement, for example. No matter, the rest all worked well for me and in particular I enjoy the push-button blackout blinds, essential for morning (or any time of the day) sleep.

Too late to play the daily 1pm tournament, I decided to play 1/3 for a few hours. I like the Aria poker room - although smaller and non-descript compared to the more popular Venetian and Wynn rooms, it is fairly well run and notably, does not have a jackpot drop, leaving the max rake at $5. The 1/3 game has a max $500 buyin which I came in for. And the players are fairly pedestrian, tourist types, mostly sans the annoying geeky nerds that dominate other cardrooms like Wynn. The downside is that being adjacent to the slots, there's a lot of inane background noise, calling for noise cancelling headphones (which I generally prefer not to use in sessions so as not to block out the table chatter and tells).

Cash sessions don't always go one's way, and such this one started out. Every made hand was out-ranked (KQ vs AQ) or out-drawn. To deepen the run-bad, all of my draws missed. This went on for about 2 hours, then sort of an upswing, then more downswing and I found myself at about 7:30 pm down over $500. Still, I continued topping up to the max and over the next hour dug myself out of the hole back to almost par (mostly thanks to an A8cc hand rivering a flush and getting all in action from a K high flush). Next to the poker room is "Posh Burger", a pretty basic burger joint for about double the price of a normal basic burger joint anywhere but Vegas; I satisfied my hunger with an Impossible Burger (veggie). I got up at 8:30 pm and headed to my room for a quiet night of sleep. 

On Monday, I played a Venetian Seniors event with a $400 buyin, 30 minute levels, 200 BB to start and re-entries up to level 10 (contrary to one of my home game members who had insisted that re-entries are always up to level 4, everywhere). Since the event had a 10:10 AM start, my plan was to rise early, get a swim at the Aria pool, get coffee and a small snack at Starbucks, shower and head out to Venetian. To my mild dismay, the Aria pool only opens at 9:00 AM, forcing me to go to the gym instead. While the gym is great, it was jam packed and after my standard warm up on the elliptical, I had to compete with the weight jocks to get in a few basic reps (my entire routine, including warmup, is around 25 minutes). Post-gym, there are multiple breakfast options there, the conventional sit-down ones being exorbitant ($45 for an omelet and juice anyone?). Starbucks burnt my egg whites and I gave them the feedback - they offered a replacement but I didn't have time.

Arriving at the Venetian main door, my task was going to be to locate their new poker room, having recently relocated to the Palazzo second floor of shopping venues. After futzing around with Google maps and the useless touchpad hotel directory, I figured out that I need to head down the center aisle of the casino, following the signs until I get to the escalator taking me up to the right place. The room itself is large and impressive, with its own lavish restrooms and a free lounge, coffee and soft drinks area. 

Youtube short

I saddled up to the cage to get my tournament ticket and found my seat. There was a grizzled old guy seated (talking into his phone in the Youtube short above), in a heated conversation seemingly pitching his sales skills to someone. When he ended the call, I asked "business?" and he said in a Middle Eastern accent, nah, I'm retired, just making noises as if I'm working. That sounded a bit strange to me. I said, well I'd like to retire! He said that retirement is great, but it's a total mindset switch, no matter what I do today. I said that I might become an independent agent of some sort as a semi-retired occupation (side note: I have a Mortgage Loan Originator's license but came back to a full time job recently). He said, that's not retirement, retirement is really doing nothing except what you want. Well, I said, I need enough money for that. "Bluff more" was his answer and we both laughed. I said "I'll let you know when I'm bluffing". I later learned that he's a reg at that room, his name is Mohammed, or Mo as his buddies call him.

People sometimes come into Senior's events with preconceptions - the main one being, that they are mostly OMCs (Old Man Coffees) who only raise and 3Bet with the nuts etc. But my observation was that this tournament played like a typical midstakes event, with recognizable error patterns but nothing terribly surprising. The over-50 crowd has adapted at least somewhat to game theory and I didn't see the ridiculous open bet sizings (7X? 10X?) from even 2-3 years ago. I was card dead for the first hour or so, until I chipped up with A8 suited that flopped top pair, turned two pair, rivered a full house and got action on every street from AQo.

Now, back to our friend Mo. He was busy as a bee, playing about 50% of hands and piling up a large stack. Bluff more indeed, I thought. Then this hand: I picked up JJ on the BB, with blinds at 200/400 and a 400 ante, 46,000 in my stack, he covers. Mo opened to 1000 from early position, the SB called and I raised to 4000. Both of them called. The flop came T85. The SB checked, I led for 4000 (1/3 pot), Mo called and the SB folded. The turn was a 6. I bet 10,000 into the 20,400 pot and he made the call. The river was another T. I decided to check and he meticulously counted out 26,000, putting me almost all in if I called. I tanked - he was representing a narrow value range and in a cash game situation this should be a slam dunk call, especially with this player type. But the river T told a somewhat-plausible story that he had made trips or better, and in my experience it takes a special player to bluff most of his stack on the river. I ended up making the fold. Moe broke into a mischievous smile and winked at the fellow across the table from him (on the other end of mine). I concluded that I was likely bluffed but was ok to live and see the next hand with about 70 BBs remaining in my stack.

At some point and after a few more levels, I started to make hands and found myself at the 600/1200/1200 level with about 34,000 chips. I picked up AA and got all in vs KK to almost double up to 60,000. Then, card death until at the 800/1600/1600 I made "THE BIG STEAL"! It didn't matter much in the grand scheme, but I was proud of this one. I held 66 on the Button. Early position raised to 3000, there were 3 callers, I called and the BB called. 17400 in the pot. The flop was Q85, a whiff. It was checked around. The turn was a 9 and miraculously, it checked to me. I bet 1/3 pot (6000) and they all folded. Talk about value for yo money baby!! 

A few levels later, money time. Blinds were 1000/2000/2000, I had 45,000 in my stack with QQ on the button opened to 4500. BB raised to 15000 and he barely covered me. I decided to jam (almost trivial with 22.5 BB) and he snapped me off with AA. Duh. I said nice hand and exited. I don't get tilted by these events because the play at this point is almost robotic with these holdings. 

A pity though, because this event generated a prize pool of $41,000. 

It was still early afternoon and I was going to stay at Venetian and play some cash. I got onto the NLHE 1/3 and 2/3 waitlists and walked down the Palazzo shopping area to shake off the tournament bust out ickiness. Downstairs from there, I located the Miznon Israeli casual eatery, offering affordable and innovative meat, falafel, humus and related condiments in pita and plate options. When my plate arrived (roasted lamb and veggies), I got the call for 1/3 and completing my meal, walked up to the podium - I was about 10 minutes late and the seat had been taken but 2/3 was open. Even better! It allows a buyin of up to $600. 

Seated on seat 5 (my favorite), I noticed that seat 4 was a 40-ish well dressed tall Asian guy, man-spreading to almost prevent anyone from taking a spot next to him. When I said something like "sorry if I'm in your way", he grunted and improved his shape. As the game proceeded, I noticed he was playing close to 100% of hands as a limp, and seemed uncaring about whether he won or lost. 

In this game I didn't take notes - I had had enough of that in the tournament - but it was a very slow and quiet one until an active young-ish guy (30+?) sat down and started to shake it up. To start, he punted off a $200 stack on a silly call-down of a river jam by his opponent. I figured it might be advertising to get action down the road. Then, he proposed we do $10 bomb pots at every dealer change, which I enthusiastically embraced. He also proposed we do a round of straddles, I agreed but the table didn't cooperate. The bomb pots were double board no-limit holdem. In one of them, I rivered a full house on the top board, lost to a pair on the bottom board, still a chop was nice. Later, I scooped both boards, although the initial dealer read (and my own) was that it was a chop. New guy remarked that I scoop because I made an unnoticed flush on the bottom board. I thanked him and tried to toss him a $5 chip, he tossed it back and joked I can "give him the $200 I won from him" - however I didn't win any such pot from him, the largest being perhaps $40 or so.

Bottom line, after 4 hours of play I decided to make it a day and booked $210 in winnings, almost half of the tournament buyin. I made it back to the Aria for a quiet evening, watching some of the Democratic convention blabbering (Joe B finally did figure out how to talk) and catching up on House of the Dragon on my iPad.

Tuesday, Mickey (my son) was going to join me at the Aria for their 1pm daily $160 tournament, and so I had the morning to myself. At 9am I walked over to the pool area and checked in. Aria has two large pools, and trying to swim in the first one was futile - it was already getting full of families. I switched to the second pool and it was almost empty - ideal for a 15 minute swim. Starbucks had the spinach and egg wrap today and they didn't burn it. 

With a bit of time on my hands before the tournament, I sat at the Aria 1/3 game and it was a mid-morning sleepy one, with little action. I played for 2 hours until the tournament started and booked a $172 win.

For the tournament, Mickey arrived and we were seated on adjacent tables. I was on seat 1 in the corner of the room, and felt slightly claustrophobic. Some of the dealers were also not flat bellied (to be kind), and that made it hard for me to track the actions of seat 8 to the right of the dealer, forcing me to lean forward. The poker also sucked and I couldn't get anything going for the first levels. I found myself with a starting stack (22,000) to start level 6 300/600/600. Then stuff started to happen. I won a series of hands with AQ and QJ. I went into level 7 (400/800/800) with 45,000 chips. Then, a cooler with KQ that flopped trips and lost to a straight, and a mini-cooler with 74 in the BB that was checked to, flopped two pair and had to fold the river to aggression on a coordinated board. At level 8 (500/1000/1000) and holding Q9hh, I opened to 2200 from the cutoff, got 3 callers and the flop came Q84. They checked, I bet, one called. The turn was a 9 and the caller strangely led for 4000. I had seen this guy play hands weirdly, including stacking off his first buyin with a weak holding. So I decided to jam (I covered) and he snap called with a set of 4's. Well, well. And Mickey got to see that one since he had just bust and come to let me know.

Going from there, my stack was down to about 8000 and I chipped up to 20,000 with an all-in AJ being called by Q9. Then hung in there for another few levels, until at level 11, 1000/2000/2000 and 14000 in my stack, I open jammed AJ from early position, was called by AK and was out.

Like the previous day, I had some time to kill before I was going to go to dinner with Mickey. I walked up to the podium and was seated at a 2/5 table (max $1,500 buyin). I decided to buy in for just $600 because that matched the hundred dollar bills in my right pocket (as opposed to opening the zipper of my money belt). More importantly, it was what I felt comfortable risking sitting down at a table of unknowns at what may turn out to be a tough game.

As in cardrooms nation-wide, 2/5 plays differently than 1/3. There's more 3betting and less people go to an average flop. This one was no exception, and for a while I folded while trying to figure out a decent entry point into a hand. Then, I picked up KQcc in the small blind. Early position had opened to 20 (the standard for this table) and the button called. I raised to $65, a bit small compared to sizings you'll see in solver charts (like 3.5X + the number of calls for something like 85 or 90), but felt it was enough to build a nice pot if I flopped well. They both called. The flop came QX3 with two hearts. I led for $100 into the $185 pot, and just the button called. The turn came a blank, missing the flush draw. Given the $385 in the pot and my having about $410 behind, I jammed and the button folded. So I made $230 just in that hand. That first hand really helped build my image (I showed down he best hand in another spot) and later aggression on my part was mostly folded to. The rest of the session went swimmingly and I cashed out after 90 minutes of play, up $425. That was helpful.

For dinner, the Aria options didn't really look too attractive and the best restaurants were quite posh and forbidding (one doesn't even publish prices on its menu). So  Micky and I decided to double back to the Venetian and our trusty Miznon spot. I switched to a Pita with freshly roasted chicken (awesome) and he had a Pita with steak. $25 each plus diet coke (vodka soda for him) and we were happy guys. For Dad and son fantasy shopping, we took a peak at the Man-Cave store at Palazzo, worth walking into even if you don't feel like taking out a second mortgage to get one of their massage chairs. 

Mickey stayed overnight at my Aria room (he had been in a fantasy draft with friends the days prior) and flew back home early Wednesday. I woke, did the swimming / Starbucks drill again, checked out and - you guessed it - headed to the poker room to fill time until I needed to depart to my flight a bit past noon.

To have a relaxed time, I sat at 1/3. This was a pretty weird cast of characters (aren't they all strange in different ways?). I was seated in the hated seat 1 and moved to seat 2 when it opened up. To my left was a quiet lady with Caribbean or South American features. On the opposite side of the table in seats 6 and 7, was a couple of what looked to be "young rich Asians", both the lady and man terrifically dressed, with designer clothing and handbags, and a shit-ton of chips in front of the guy - $1,400? - she too had a nice stack. He must have built it up quickly, given the max $500 buyin at that level. While it was clear they were colluding, it was a soft collusion where they sometimes clashed in a hand. Nobody seemed to care. I'll call the guy Richie Rich.

Early on, I picked up KK in the BB. There was a limp, and a call from Richie. I raised to 35 and they both called. The flop was AAK. I cBet 30, the limper folded and Richie raised to 120. I thought, if he has an Ace I don't have to raise, all the money is going in anyway. Plus, I was only losing to the unlikely AK (2 combos) and AA (one combo). So I flat called, as I would with other nutted hands like quads. The turn was a 9, and it checked around. Blah. Now I knew he had bupkes - maybe a lower pocket pair. On the 8 river, I led for 200 and he folded.

After losing an annoying pot with ATdd vs 33 when it flopped AT4 and turned 3, I picked up 66 in the BB. The lady to my left opened first to act, SB and I called. The flop was the beautiful 642. I checked, she bet 20, SB folded, I raised to 60, she hesitated and said the magic words: all in. She had AA and got felted. I genuinely felt sorry for her.

Getting up after 2 hours, I cashed out for a $562 win.

End results:

• Tournaments: -$560
• Cash: +$1,319
• Satisfaction: 100%

Heading back to Seattle, the flight was ok. Seated in 9D (aisle seat), I had to dodge all the clueless people boarding with large carry-ons that kept hitting my shoulders. But I liked the idea of being able to hit the head as often as I wanted. This time, the Netflix feature was The Long Game, a true story of a 1950's Latino High School golf team with Dennis Quaid. I'm not a golfer but this was a really good one. Landing into the low 70's local weather brought me down to earth, and happy to be back home.

Winning at Low-stakes Poker

 

Overview

This post will be about beating low-stakes no limit hold’em, both generally and specific to the games I play (0.5/1 home games, 1/3 cardroom games).

Why would I share advice, if it’s any good? While it could be self-defeating – making my opponents better players if they follow it, I think the benefits are myriad:

•     Sharpening my own thoughts and theories to make me a better player
•     Developing follow-up threads to share thoughts amongst readers
•     Be remembered / recognized as someone that helped even one person increase their profits, would mean a lot to me.

I’m sharing this as free content – but if you take some part of the advice below and feel that you have profited from it, please let me know, and (seriously) Venmo me a token amount as thanks!

If you’re like most recreational poker players, you like to play for fun – whether cash games or tournaments. Cash game players enjoy the camaraderie of a regular home game or of chatting with familiar faces at their local cardroom. Tournament players like the added component of a structured event, limiting their exposure to the buyin amount and building up tension as the blinds go up and relative stack sizes compress.

So, if you could continue with your hobby and get better at it with minimal investment, why would you not do so? If you were a tennis or golf player and I gave you a single piece of advice that would increase your win rate by 10%, would you take it? This is what I’m going to try to do here.

Why me?

First, let’s get one thing out of the way. What qualifies me to dispense advice to fellow players? Am I really better (or as good as you) in this crazy game? For starters, I’m not a coach and I don’t have life changing money wins in my past (my Hendon mob entry for published tournament winnings will show virtually zero). I guess my best answer is that over the past year or so, I’ve made some changes in my game that I believe have yielded very good results. Sharing some of those insights may benefit you, and they may also help you beat me! I say, bring it on, because when I see you improving then I’ll have to adjust and improve some more!!

Common (Unforced) Errors

Let’s look at a few of the most common and (borrowing from tennis) “unforced” errors I see at every level. As you go up in stakes (say to 2/5 or 5/10 cash games, larger tournament buyins), these errors although still existent, diminish somewhat. All of the examples below relate to a full-ring table with 9 players, 200 big blinds deep ($200 at 0.5/1 with no rake, similar to our home games).

Open limping

You are the first to act (under the gun). You look down at a hand like Q9 offsuit or J7 suited and decide to limp (call the blind amount). Your reasoning is that your hand doesn’t feel strong enough to raise, but you would like to see a flop with it and potentially stack a better starting hand that has raised you preflop.

The problem with this thought process is that although you will occasionally flop well, over any decent sample size you will lose money with this action. If your table is passive and everyone limps after you then sure, you’ve just won the lottery – you’ll get to see a flop for almost free. But if there is at least one raise after you, you will now have to call another 2-3 blinds just to see a flop which you will most likely have to check/fold. That’s called lighting money on fire.

Some of the more advanced players have developed what they call a “balanced open limping range” including monsters like AA-JJ that will limp-reraise preflop. One problem with this strategy is that when players in position see a limp-reraise they understand what it means. Another is that when you removed monsters from your open-raising range of hands, that weakens it unnecessarily, making it hard to balance multiple ranges.

Over-limping

You are in 5^th position from the blinds, one to the right of the button (aka cutoff). There have been 3 limps to you and you look down at A3 offsuit or Q7 suited. You proceed to just call, hoping to see a flop.

This is less of an error than limping first to act, because it is less likely you will face raises from the remaining positions – button, small blind and big blind. However, you are still investing in a pot where if you flop top pair and face action, you will most often be dominated. If you are really good at knowing “where you are” and folding such hands (like when the board is Q-T-4-3 and you are raised on the turn by a tight player), then you will minimize your losses. However, the reason that the preflop charts advocate folding these hands is again – over a large sample size they are negative EV (expected value).

A footnote to this pattern is that over-limping the button with speculative hands is not (usually) a large error, especially when the blinds don’t often raise. You get to see a pot in position with a hand that may make the nuts (like 65 suited) and that didn’t want to bloat it preflop.

Opening and calling too many hands

This is an error common to most players, closely related to the limping errors. You get bored folding and want to see flops (as a smart man said: “The hand only starts on the flop”). You are playing more hands than “theoretically correct” and inevitably, over time, lose money as a result. Take a look at this App to determine which hands you can open at which stack sizes and positions : https://app.floptimal.com/

Examples at 100BB cash games, 8 players:

•      AT offsuit is mostly a fold in first position
•      JT offsuit is a fold up to 4^th position
•      22 is a fold up to 5^th position

Varying open bet sizings

You are in middle position (say 3^rd from the blinds), and looking down at 77 or AK suited, decide to open bet 6 big blinds. While your “standard” open bet sizing is 3 big blinds, you decide to make it bigger here, to discourage calls and allow you to pick up the pot without (or with less) resistance.

The problem with this strategy is that it is unbalanced. Your opponents quickly learn that there is a portion of holdings you want to “protect” more than another, and will adapt accordingly (bonus: what are the correct adaptations here?).

When I expressed this line of thought to a friend, he responded that he likes to “mix things up” to confuse opponents and doesn’t necessarily bunch one category of hands into a larger bet sizing. While this seems to make sense on the surface, to me this rationale doesn’t really add up. It would seem that the best way to “confuse opponents” would be to keep the bet sizings identical with both strong and speculative holdings.

There is an argument to be made for varying open bet sizings based on position. So, in early position I will open smaller (say, 2-2.5 big blinds) and in later position will open a bit larger (2.5-3 blinds). But it should never be a function of my hole cards. Why smaller in early position? Because it is the harder position to play post-flop and we have less incentive to bloat the pot preflop.

Incorrect sizing adaptations

Another common error I see, is not adapting the open bet sizing appropriately to prior action. Two examples come to mind:

A. Two players in early position have limped. In middle position, you look down at AKo and raise to your standard, 3 big blind sizing.

B. The first player to act has limped and second player has raised to 5 big blinds. In late position, you look down at JJ and raise to 12 big blinds.

In both cases, you have failed to adjust your raise size to prior actions; in the AKo case, you’ll want to raise to your normal sizing plus the number of limps (e.g. 3+2). Some pros advocate going even larger, say adding 2 big blinds for each limper to something like 7 BB.

In the JJ case, someone has opened to 5 BB over a limper. That already indicates a strong holding. In fact, the product I train with (PokerSnowie) will fold JJ in that spot!!

But, given we are not playing against an AI bot but rather against a human who will be unbalanced with his/her raises, I will most often want to 3bet this hand in order to either take it down now or get heads-up with them with a top 3% hand (JJ). I will raise to something like 3X the original raise plus limp, 16 BB. The extra 4 BB gives opponents worse odds to call with hands like KQo, ATo that will be doing not too badly against our JJ should they just call. Should opponent then 4Bet, in our games we will know (most likely) that they either have JJ dominated with AA-QQ or are flipping with AK and can get away from our hand. By the way, in “PokerSnowie land”, hands like KQo and ATo are never raising to 5BB second to act and that helps explain the JJ fold.

Post-flop: Donk betting

The action that to me most marks an opponent as a “fish” is frequently donk-betting flops. Example: you limped in early position with QT offsuit. Button raised to 3.5 BB and you called. The flop is Q73 rainbow. You lead out for 5 BB. Case 1: button folds. Case 2: button reraises to 18 BB.

Outcome: In both cases you have torched money.

In Case 1, when you check then button will often Cbet because a Q high board favors his range. You can then just-call and decide how to proceed on future streets, based on the board runout and opponent actions. While your QT is quite literally a bluff catcher in this spot, it will still be profitable to call down on many boards. However, when you lead out and opponent has whiffed the flop (say, holding A5 suited), you have just let them off the hook. You lose any cBet that they would have made, plus any follow-up betting that you could have picked bluffs from on turn or river.

In Case 2, you have bet into a strong range with a middle strength holding and have been reraised. You can’t continue and have to fold a decent hand that could have called one or two “normal” bets.

When smart opponents see what you are doing, they will put you into a lot of Case 2 spots, even with bluffs and you may find yourself facing an all-in bet on the river with absolutely no idea what to do, all because of that silly donk bet.

Caveat: there are boards favoring the preflop caller in early position, and donk-betting is sometimes warranted on them. For example, a 654 board greatly favors the callers’ range and he can donk lead there with hands like sets, two-pairs, gutshots, combo draws etc. This is a bit more of an advanced topic and the subject of “solver study” to determine which hands fit best into donk leading ranges.

Caveat 2: When you call a raise in position, it checks to you on the flop and you bet, that is not "donk betting". The preflop raiser, by not continuation betting, has indicated that the board does not favor their hand and/or range, and now betting in position by you is natural. I try not to take this concept too far, because the preflop raiser may simply be trapping the other players with a monster or overpair that s/he will re-raise over any bet. See next paragraph on cBetting too frequently.

Post-flop: cBetting too frequently

This is one element of my game that when improved, changed my results dramatically. My early theoretical poker study, taught me that when I am the preflop aggressor, I should almost always cBet the flop. This, regardless of stack sizes, number of opponents in the pot, board texture etc. The logic behind that advice was simple: when I raise preflop and get called, me and my opponents will most often not make pairs or better on the flop. When I cBet, I am denying them the opportunity to continue on these missed flops and will be printing money. In theoretical terms this is called equity denial.

If you are a fan of 2000’s era poker shows like Poker After Dark and the old-school tournament series, you’ll see this pattern in action a lot. Aggression (and counter-aggression) seemed to be the driving passion of most players and viewers loved to watch Phil Ivey putting opponents to the test with hands like 52o that whiffed the board.

As GTO solvers and related technologies became popular, it became clear that post-flop play has to adapt to all of the elements : stack-to-pot ratios, board texture (card rankings and dynamism). In fact, multi-player poker isn’t fully solved and the AI example I can extract from PokerSnowie’s Scenarios tool are mere approximations – relying on millions of hands played against itself.

This is a long-winded way of saying that before betting a flop, take a look at the board and the number of players in the hand. The worse the board for your range and / or the more number of players in the hand, the less likely you should be to cBet.

There’s another side benefit to this approach: when you are out of position (usually early position) post-flop, you want to depress the number of cBets as a natural function of your position. And that opens the door for highly profitable check-raises by you.

Example: sitting at the cardroom yesterday playing 1-3 with a $300 max bet limit, I held AA in early position. I opened to $10 preflop and got 3 callers. The flop came Q77 and I checked. A player in late position, playing a stack of about $150, bet $50. I put him all in, he called and lost (mucked his hand on the river). If I had cBet this flop, I would have won $140 less.