Live Grind: How to Fall Asleep at the Table (Without Getting Caught)
Figaroo2
Legend
Bronze Level
I'd also be raising if I had the ace of hearts flush draw and maybe the Ah with a card that gives me backdoors to the straight like AT T7 and any two pair of course.
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
I haven't played the $250 satellite yet. Haven't decided what I want to do yet, but I won't be able to make it to any more of the $65 satties, and the only $250 one I can make it to is on day of the main haha.
So I could do any of the following:
- Sell my $250 ticket
- Buy into the $250 satty and hope to make it that day
- Buy into main directly, but with the $250 "credit" from my ticket
Also unsure if I want to sell action for this if I do play. I usually don't, but 1k is pretty big, and I haven't run so hot in big tourneys. Always just feels so gross thinking about handing away a ton of profit though.
Leaning toward just playing the $250 and trying to get in cheap (ie don't buy into main unless I satty in). That way even if I get in and bust main, I didn't have to front a grand.
So I could do any of the following:
- Sell my $250 ticket
- Buy into the $250 satty and hope to make it that day
- Buy into main directly, but with the $250 "credit" from my ticket
Also unsure if I want to sell action for this if I do play. I usually don't, but 1k is pretty big, and I haven't run so hot in big tourneys. Always just feels so gross thinking about handing away a ton of profit though.
Leaning toward just playing the $250 and trying to get in cheap (ie don't buy into main unless I satty in). That way even if I get in and bust main, I didn't have to front a grand.
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
K. Yeah that does seem a reasonable option, since I would snap buy into $500 buyins with good structures. Would anyone in here want to buy a piece tho? Cause I cba to go make a thread to try to get action.
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
Ok, so I finally played some poker.
I decided to warm up with a 3pm $50 turbo at the Rio. It was a small enough buyin I knew it wouldn't have me nervous at all, but big enough for me to care and start to focus my brain after a full day of basically vegetating and sleeping.
Ran pretty standard in terms of EV I think. It was tough to tell since we started with 40bb and blinds went up every 15 min, but everyone was just terrible, and it felt like the whole thing was basically standard up until the final table (only 22 entries total).
3 spots paid, and when we got down to 7 or 8 I chipped up a lot and was able to stay at around 20-30% of the chips in play. It was looking like I was going to smash my way to victory... Until we got to the higher blind levels. Here was the structure:
100/200
200/400
300/600
500/1k
600/1.2k
800/1.6k
1k/2k
2k/4k
5k/10k
10k/20k
The jumps from 1k/2k upward were absolutely absurd. I found myself with an ever-decreasing stack size, with the chip lead and under 6bb by the time we got to 5k/10k. I was jamming every couple hands 5- and 4-handed just to stay ahead of the blinds. But I called off several all ins as 70-30 and 60-40 favorites and lost them all.
One guy kept asking if we wanted to ay $50 to the bubble once we got to 4-handed. He also said he "didn't care" if we did or not, but that he didn't mind lol. I said no of course. I had 30-50% of the chips in play for the entire time we were 5- and 4-handed, but after losing those several all ins I was done. Eventually the blind smashed 10k/20k right as I got hit with the BB. I was in for about 40% of my stack, I saw a limp and a complete, and looked down at 72o. I checked.
The flop came A62r, the SB checked to me, and I immediately jammed. It was only about a 1/3 PSB, but I figured that meant if I won the pot even 1/4 of the time this would be insanely profitable given how short I was and how much was even in the pot.
The loose passive lady on my left shifted in her chair immediately after my all in and I knew I was finished.
"You're all in?" she asked, eyeing my chip stack (clearly in front of my cards) after I had ANNOUNCED "all in."
"That's what my chips are saying," I replied exasperatedly.
"I call!" The words came out of her mouth all squished together and fast, as though she was snap-calling... Except that it had taken her at least 30 seconds.
The SB folded and I turned over my hand resignedly. "I have two pair," she said, as though it were completely natural to have two pair in a 6bb pot where both players were effectively all in. A6 was ridiculously ahead and I didn't even bother sitting down long enough for the board to run out. I watched the final 3 play down to 2, and then down to a winner, cringing at every limped button and folded hand preflop. It was truly a ridiculous spectacle of live, low limit poker.
I switched gears to cash after that. The Rio was about to open a new table at 6pm so I decided to stick around. It took me a little while to get my bearings and remember some of the differences between 1/3 in Vegas and 1/2 at home. Bet sizing was bigger of course, but smaller than I expected. Standard raise size was $10-$15 for most players, and I quickly settled in at $12.
There was less limping preflop, but much worse play postflop, which I quickly exploited by value betting rivers thinly over and over again.
Ran decidedly meh for the first few hours, but things changed over time. I made a number of successful bluffs against the tighter players at my table, and was paying attention to people's tendencies to the point where I was planning the next street and sometimes two to pick my best line.
This may seem like a stupidly obvious concept - that's because it is. But the thing about in-game live poker is that sometimes a lot of obvious things go out the window for me. I find myself struggling to put people on definitive ranges because of how loose they are preflop. Or I have trouble keeping track of stack sizes in my head and have to check once I'm in the middle of the hand.
They are the kinds of things that go away the more I play, but that I still struggle with. So to have the kind of session where I was that in tune with my opponents felt good.
The session went on and on. New players came and went, and my chip stack grew. I'll save individual hands for when I'm not still in Vegas, but suffice it to say I started to run pretty good. I lost several larger pots in the beginning, but I was only in the game for $500 when things started to turn around. I made several big hands against extremely call-happy players, and won a couple large pots against one of the better players.
I played for about 6 and a half hours before remembering to go get dinner at about 12:30am - then I came back and continued to crush. The tables emptied out until we reached out low point 3 handed for about half an hour at around 6am. It was me, a nitty-but-not-terrible player on my left, and a terribad player on my right. I didn't make a lot during that time, but I did chip up as I found button straddles, preflop raises, and cbets to be an extremely effective strategy. The table eventually began to fill agin, but the poker room remained fairly dead for a Sunday.
When all was said and done, I had played for about 21 hours. I was in for $500, and out for $1,750. With so many players rebuying over that time period, and with my stack being so large, I had effectively become the bank - selling players $100 increments of chips, and adding the bill behind my stack.
At 3pm the next day, I cashed out only $250 worth of red chips - the $1.5k in bills went straight from the table to my wallet.
I decided to warm up with a 3pm $50 turbo at the Rio. It was a small enough buyin I knew it wouldn't have me nervous at all, but big enough for me to care and start to focus my brain after a full day of basically vegetating and sleeping.
Ran pretty standard in terms of EV I think. It was tough to tell since we started with 40bb and blinds went up every 15 min, but everyone was just terrible, and it felt like the whole thing was basically standard up until the final table (only 22 entries total).
3 spots paid, and when we got down to 7 or 8 I chipped up a lot and was able to stay at around 20-30% of the chips in play. It was looking like I was going to smash my way to victory... Until we got to the higher blind levels. Here was the structure:
100/200
200/400
300/600
500/1k
600/1.2k
800/1.6k
1k/2k
2k/4k
5k/10k
10k/20k
The jumps from 1k/2k upward were absolutely absurd. I found myself with an ever-decreasing stack size, with the chip lead and under 6bb by the time we got to 5k/10k. I was jamming every couple hands 5- and 4-handed just to stay ahead of the blinds. But I called off several all ins as 70-30 and 60-40 favorites and lost them all.
One guy kept asking if we wanted to ay $50 to the bubble once we got to 4-handed. He also said he "didn't care" if we did or not, but that he didn't mind lol. I said no of course. I had 30-50% of the chips in play for the entire time we were 5- and 4-handed, but after losing those several all ins I was done. Eventually the blind smashed 10k/20k right as I got hit with the BB. I was in for about 40% of my stack, I saw a limp and a complete, and looked down at 72o. I checked.
The flop came A62r, the SB checked to me, and I immediately jammed. It was only about a 1/3 PSB, but I figured that meant if I won the pot even 1/4 of the time this would be insanely profitable given how short I was and how much was even in the pot.
The loose passive lady on my left shifted in her chair immediately after my all in and I knew I was finished.
"You're all in?" she asked, eyeing my chip stack (clearly in front of my cards) after I had ANNOUNCED "all in."
"That's what my chips are saying," I replied exasperatedly.
"I call!" The words came out of her mouth all squished together and fast, as though she was snap-calling... Except that it had taken her at least 30 seconds.
The SB folded and I turned over my hand resignedly. "I have two pair," she said, as though it were completely natural to have two pair in a 6bb pot where both players were effectively all in. A6 was ridiculously ahead and I didn't even bother sitting down long enough for the board to run out. I watched the final 3 play down to 2, and then down to a winner, cringing at every limped button and folded hand preflop. It was truly a ridiculous spectacle of live, low limit poker.
I switched gears to cash after that. The Rio was about to open a new table at 6pm so I decided to stick around. It took me a little while to get my bearings and remember some of the differences between 1/3 in Vegas and 1/2 at home. Bet sizing was bigger of course, but smaller than I expected. Standard raise size was $10-$15 for most players, and I quickly settled in at $12.
There was less limping preflop, but much worse play postflop, which I quickly exploited by value betting rivers thinly over and over again.
Ran decidedly meh for the first few hours, but things changed over time. I made a number of successful bluffs against the tighter players at my table, and was paying attention to people's tendencies to the point where I was planning the next street and sometimes two to pick my best line.
This may seem like a stupidly obvious concept - that's because it is. But the thing about in-game live poker is that sometimes a lot of obvious things go out the window for me. I find myself struggling to put people on definitive ranges because of how loose they are preflop. Or I have trouble keeping track of stack sizes in my head and have to check once I'm in the middle of the hand.
They are the kinds of things that go away the more I play, but that I still struggle with. So to have the kind of session where I was that in tune with my opponents felt good.
The session went on and on. New players came and went, and my chip stack grew. I'll save individual hands for when I'm not still in Vegas, but suffice it to say I started to run pretty good. I lost several larger pots in the beginning, but I was only in the game for $500 when things started to turn around. I made several big hands against extremely call-happy players, and won a couple large pots against one of the better players.
I played for about 6 and a half hours before remembering to go get dinner at about 12:30am - then I came back and continued to crush. The tables emptied out until we reached out low point 3 handed for about half an hour at around 6am. It was me, a nitty-but-not-terrible player on my left, and a terribad player on my right. I didn't make a lot during that time, but I did chip up as I found button straddles, preflop raises, and cbets to be an extremely effective strategy. The table eventually began to fill agin, but the poker room remained fairly dead for a Sunday.
When all was said and done, I had played for about 21 hours. I was in for $500, and out for $1,750. With so many players rebuying over that time period, and with my stack being so large, I had effectively become the bank - selling players $100 increments of chips, and adding the bill behind my stack.
At 3pm the next day, I cashed out only $250 worth of red chips - the $1.5k in bills went straight from the table to my wallet.
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
Thanks guys. Felt great to have a definitively crushing session for the first time in a while. Also felt great to write about it again. I'm not sure yet in what capacity it will be, but I will probably be doing some more writing for CC in the nearish future as well, so stay tuned for that.
The time since that all-night session has been filled with rest, relaxation, and baller hotel rooms. My girlfriend got in late Sunday night, and we caught up about her family's trip to Taiwan. We then slept in late until we had to check out of the room around 11am.
After my first hotel room upgrade, I prepared myself for a bit of disappointment in the next room, since I knew it was likely we wouldn't be upgraded for the next room. But I was mistaken.
We walked downstairs to VIP Registration - we were supposed to grab our room keys there since the next 3 nights were to be spent on an offer. 3 free nights and entry into a video poker tournament. This registration desk was removed from the regular one, and even after finding it on the map, it took us a few minutes of standing right next to it to realize it was there.
VIP Registration at the Rio is in a separate room, behind glass and metallic doors with a fancier vibe than my tattered old hoodie and 3-day scruff could have possibly deserved. We entered and waited for a minute in line behind Diamond and Seven Star rewards members - I looked comfortable outwardly, but on the inside I was reeling. Did I belong here?
We were greeted graciously at the desk, though I'm sure we were the youngest and poorest-looking pair to come through that day or the day before. The attendant took my name and let us know that were upgraded to a Masquerade Suite. I didn't really remember what that was, so I said "great!" and handed over my ID and credit card. We were handed room keys, for the 20th floor - room 20001. After handing the keys over, the attendant asked if I wanted to add any more guests to the room. I asked whether it still said 2, and was confused when she said yes, but we might have wanted to add more. There was a slight delay when, after getting upstairs and the room keys not working, I had to sprint down and get new ones that were activated properly.
Now, to anyone who has never stayed in a suite in Vegas, the room number we received may seem insignificant. But by this point, I knew that the suites are typically on the furthest ends of the building because of their size, and because they tend to have the best views.
So when I saw the 001 attached to the 20, I got a little excited. I got even more excited when I finally opened the door and stared at the 400 sq ft living space and half-panoramic mountain view.
"Holy shit!" I couldn't stop the expletive from slipping out - this room already seemed more insane than the last.
As we wandered wide-eyed into the room, I dropped my bags and quickly took stock: large closet, half bathroom, couch, arm chair, arm chair with foot rest, glass table with 4 chairs, sink, mini-fridge, decorative table, television - the VIEW. It was becoming clear why the registration attendant had asked if I wanted to add more guests to the room - this place was incredible and enormous!
I ventured further, into the bedroom, and my jaw dropped. The bedroom was bigger than the living area, with a love seat, small desk, another television, a king-size bed, and floor-to-ceiling windows across the entire curved length of the room. I was even more dumb-founded when I noticed there was a door on each side of the bed - about 20 feet apart from each other.
I walked in the near one and promptly lost my shit.
I was looking down an entire hallway, but it wasn't just a hallway - it was the bathroom. 2 segmented counter spaces were offset with 2 mini-rooms across the hallway-bathroom. The counters housed beauty/make-up area, and two sinks, and the other side had a dressing room, a room with the toilet, and a shower. Next to the shower was an open tub with jacuzzi jets, and its own set of towels, soap, and shampoo. And next to the tub was the last of the windows - pointing just a hair off-strip.
The next day and a half were spent relaxing, eating, and reveling in the sheer absurdity of our room. We went to see Blue Man Group the following night in the front row, and wandering around the Aria before grabbing dinner at Lemongrass, a place with Thai and Vietnamese cuisine for pretty reasonable prices. I fell in love with the Aria poker room at first sight, but my girlfriend and I were both tired, and decided to head back to the room.
It's 1 o'clock on Tuesday now, and I've got an entire day and a half before I even have to think about leaving. We're getting ready to head over to the Bellagio, where I'll put in some hands and my girlfriend will walk around or maybe sit behind me with her ipad for a while. Then we'll grab some dinner, and probably head our separate ways for different activities. She'll be looking into some local swing dancing, while I'll probably head over to the Aria to find what I was missing last night.
The games at Aria had seemed full and juicy, though I only got to see them in passing. Ten 1/3 games and five 2/5 games looked enticing, but the two tables of 5/10 were what really had me intrigued...
It's going to be tough passing those by without a second glance.
The time since that all-night session has been filled with rest, relaxation, and baller hotel rooms. My girlfriend got in late Sunday night, and we caught up about her family's trip to Taiwan. We then slept in late until we had to check out of the room around 11am.
After my first hotel room upgrade, I prepared myself for a bit of disappointment in the next room, since I knew it was likely we wouldn't be upgraded for the next room. But I was mistaken.
We walked downstairs to VIP Registration - we were supposed to grab our room keys there since the next 3 nights were to be spent on an offer. 3 free nights and entry into a video poker tournament. This registration desk was removed from the regular one, and even after finding it on the map, it took us a few minutes of standing right next to it to realize it was there.
VIP Registration at the Rio is in a separate room, behind glass and metallic doors with a fancier vibe than my tattered old hoodie and 3-day scruff could have possibly deserved. We entered and waited for a minute in line behind Diamond and Seven Star rewards members - I looked comfortable outwardly, but on the inside I was reeling. Did I belong here?
We were greeted graciously at the desk, though I'm sure we were the youngest and poorest-looking pair to come through that day or the day before. The attendant took my name and let us know that were upgraded to a Masquerade Suite. I didn't really remember what that was, so I said "great!" and handed over my ID and credit card. We were handed room keys, for the 20th floor - room 20001. After handing the keys over, the attendant asked if I wanted to add any more guests to the room. I asked whether it still said 2, and was confused when she said yes, but we might have wanted to add more. There was a slight delay when, after getting upstairs and the room keys not working, I had to sprint down and get new ones that were activated properly.
Now, to anyone who has never stayed in a suite in Vegas, the room number we received may seem insignificant. But by this point, I knew that the suites are typically on the furthest ends of the building because of their size, and because they tend to have the best views.
So when I saw the 001 attached to the 20, I got a little excited. I got even more excited when I finally opened the door and stared at the 400 sq ft living space and half-panoramic mountain view.
"Holy shit!" I couldn't stop the expletive from slipping out - this room already seemed more insane than the last.
As we wandered wide-eyed into the room, I dropped my bags and quickly took stock: large closet, half bathroom, couch, arm chair, arm chair with foot rest, glass table with 4 chairs, sink, mini-fridge, decorative table, television - the VIEW. It was becoming clear why the registration attendant had asked if I wanted to add more guests to the room - this place was incredible and enormous!
I ventured further, into the bedroom, and my jaw dropped. The bedroom was bigger than the living area, with a love seat, small desk, another television, a king-size bed, and floor-to-ceiling windows across the entire curved length of the room. I was even more dumb-founded when I noticed there was a door on each side of the bed - about 20 feet apart from each other.
I walked in the near one and promptly lost my shit.
I was looking down an entire hallway, but it wasn't just a hallway - it was the bathroom. 2 segmented counter spaces were offset with 2 mini-rooms across the hallway-bathroom. The counters housed beauty/make-up area, and two sinks, and the other side had a dressing room, a room with the toilet, and a shower. Next to the shower was an open tub with jacuzzi jets, and its own set of towels, soap, and shampoo. And next to the tub was the last of the windows - pointing just a hair off-strip.
The next day and a half were spent relaxing, eating, and reveling in the sheer absurdity of our room. We went to see Blue Man Group the following night in the front row, and wandering around the Aria before grabbing dinner at Lemongrass, a place with Thai and Vietnamese cuisine for pretty reasonable prices. I fell in love with the Aria poker room at first sight, but my girlfriend and I were both tired, and decided to head back to the room.
It's 1 o'clock on Tuesday now, and I've got an entire day and a half before I even have to think about leaving. We're getting ready to head over to the Bellagio, where I'll put in some hands and my girlfriend will walk around or maybe sit behind me with her ipad for a while. Then we'll grab some dinner, and probably head our separate ways for different activities. She'll be looking into some local swing dancing, while I'll probably head over to the Aria to find what I was missing last night.
The games at Aria had seemed full and juicy, though I only got to see them in passing. Ten 1/3 games and five 2/5 games looked enticing, but the two tables of 5/10 were what really had me intrigued...
It's going to be tough passing those by without a second glance.
loafes
Legend
Silver Level
Great reads, very articulate and enjoyable to go through.
With regards to the $50 buy in tournament. I know that I used to play some of the local pub league tournaments thinking that I would be able to beat them on the basis that they are filled with literally some of the worst players in the world. I'm not exaggerating when I say that 2nl is a higher level game. However with 15 minute blinds and the players dealing for themselves (which slows the games down) as well as a poor structure that essentially just doubles the blinds each round, it seemed the overriding factor is just luck. I don't know if it matter how big an edge over the players, weather I profited seemed to be purely a basis of how well you ran.
In particular I remember that one of the games I would regularly final table, even with a good stack, but the 20k-40k bbs would always screw me over. At the very least I think it gave me some experience with certain live aspects like chip handling, keeping track of pot size and stack size etc. One thing I struggled with is that I folded the best hand wayyyy to often and it's because the aggression was so much with such crap that I could never get my head around the fact that players would be playing bottom pair in a multiway pot for several times the size of the pot literally thinking that they are doing it for value. I'm better now with putting money in with weaker pieces, but still fold the best hand a lot more than I should when I play these sort of things.
With regards to the $50 buy in tournament. I know that I used to play some of the local pub league tournaments thinking that I would be able to beat them on the basis that they are filled with literally some of the worst players in the world. I'm not exaggerating when I say that 2nl is a higher level game. However with 15 minute blinds and the players dealing for themselves (which slows the games down) as well as a poor structure that essentially just doubles the blinds each round, it seemed the overriding factor is just luck. I don't know if it matter how big an edge over the players, weather I profited seemed to be purely a basis of how well you ran.
In particular I remember that one of the games I would regularly final table, even with a good stack, but the 20k-40k bbs would always screw me over. At the very least I think it gave me some experience with certain live aspects like chip handling, keeping track of pot size and stack size etc. One thing I struggled with is that I folded the best hand wayyyy to often and it's because the aggression was so much with such crap that I could never get my head around the fact that players would be playing bottom pair in a multiway pot for several times the size of the pot literally thinking that they are doing it for value. I'm better now with putting money in with weaker pieces, but still fold the best hand a lot more than I should when I play these sort of things.
duggs
Killing me softly
Silver Level
love these posts, CC must have eaten my reply when it was on the fritz. Shot what you feel like shotting bro. honestly believe you will have an edge in whatever you sit and +FUN has to come into play.
side note, an aussie friend ran up a 2.5k stack at 1/3 so you have to have a crazy session too. challenge issued.
side note, an aussie friend ran up a 2.5k stack at 1/3 so you have to have a crazy session too. challenge issued.
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
Hah. I wish - and I was tentatively planning to shot 5/10, but there was only one table at Aria on Wednesday night when I played, so I figured it'd be pretty damn reggy. Appreciate the vote of confidence though. 
Got back Thursday night and worked Friday. Played in a new private game Friday night.
Hoping to do one more trip post about vegas but we'll see. Instantaneously back to 12-hour work days so I'm not exactly rolling around in my free time.
In other news, it's looking like I'm probably going to be doing some writing for the CC blog. Unsure when it'll be launching and how much content I'll get to write, but expect to see me around there soon.
Got back Thursday night and worked Friday. Played in a new private game Friday night.Hoping to do one more trip post about vegas but we'll see. Instantaneously back to 12-hour work days so I'm not exactly rolling around in my free time.
In other news, it's looking like I'm probably going to be doing some writing for the CC blog. Unsure when it'll be launching and how much content I'll get to write, but expect to see me around there soon.
Jillychemung
Stacks & Stacks
Loyaler
So, how'd it go?
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
Lost a bit, but definitely picked up some more guys that should become semi-regulars.
One of the area regs I've become friends with has been talking about hosting a game too, and maybe switching off in some sort of rotation. Details to follow. Also been thinking about instituting some sort of seat rake or very small table rake. Thoughts guys?
One of the area regs I've become friends with has been talking about hosting a game too, and maybe switching off in some sort of rotation. Details to follow. Also been thinking about instituting some sort of seat rake or very small table rake. Thoughts guys?