Venetian Deepstack $550 write-up...

So after the WSOP soul crush...I played a Golden Nugget tournament on Monday. $230 buyin, and completely punted the stack. Built up a bit for the first few hours, then 3-bet a guy from the button with 53hh, flop was 4/6/7ccc, and he just straight jammed, so I called and he showed QJcc for a made flush. Whatever.

Tuesday brought day one of the Venetian $550. Started with 15,000 chips, and things went well for me almost instantly. 3rd or 4th hand of the day, I raised to 250 from MP with 33, this girl 3-bet me to 600, there were 2 overcalls of the 600 cold, then it came back to me, so I flatted along. Flop was 3/4/5. I checked, lady bet 1200, fold fold, I raised to 2550, and she jammed. I call obviously and she shows KK. So now I'm at 30k. From there I have a painless time chipping up until first break where I'm at 50k.

After first break things turn sour relatively quickly, I lose two fairly big races. First one I open with KQss, and this guy jams 14 BB. I call, and he shows 64dd and flops a 6. Next one, I open 99, guy jams 20 BB, I call and he has AJ. Runout Q/10/4/9/8. Back down to 24k. Next big hand I play guy limps UTG, I raise with AQ from MP, he flats. Flop K/10/x, he check calls flop, turn 8, he check calls turn, river is a brick and I shut down, he has 22. Back down to under 20k now.

From there I do some chipping back up, and I'm able to bring it back to 25.5k for 2nd break.

After that break I play a huge pot, AIPF KK vs AK, and KK holds, so I'm back up to 60k in time for dinner break.

After dinner break we come back and then the huge pot of the day happens.

Blinds 800/1600, UTG raises to 4k, player jams for 34k total from MP, button flats the 34k, I'm in the BB with QQ, I rejam 66k, UTG folds, button calls again. My QQ vs short stack's 88 vs button's 10/10. Board bricks and I have 160k, average is 64k.

Credit to Venetian by the way, their customer service is outstanding. Around this time my phone was nearly dead, which I use religiously at the table, and they offered to take my phone to their back office and charge it for me. Very cool.

After that I chip up a bit more, and I end day one with 262,000 chips.

Day 2 gets underway, blinds 4k/8k to start, and on the third hand this fairly solid girl raises button to 22k, I 3-bet from the BB with KK to 47k, she flats. Flop is A/Q/4, I c-bet 52k and she folds.

Next big hand, I raise from MP with A7cc, this guy flats the button, everyone folds out. Flop is Q/10/7. I check the flop because I'm not a huge fan of it vs his calling range, but I still do have some showdown value obviously. He checks back. Turn is a 3. I check again, he bets, I flat. River is a 2, I check again fully intending to check call because I know he's not good enough to be going for thin value here with a 10 or with some type of pocket pair, and I think he's unlikely to have checked a Q on the flop in this spot. He bets again and I call and he insta-mucks. Up to 390k.

Chipped up to 430k, then a guy jams 20 blinds in, I call with 77, he shows A10 and wins the race. Back down to 270k. Chipped up a little bit again, then lost yet another race, 33 open jams the button and I flat with AQ, board bricks and I'm down to 190k. Eventually get to break with 22 players left, blinds going to 8k/16k and I have 162k. Not good.

After break, it folds to me in the CO, I jam the 162k in with Ac7c, and the BB(Kevin O'Leary) wakes up with AK. Flop is 10/7/3 and the 7 holds. Suddenly I'm back in it a bit with 390k.

Few hands later, O'Leary raises from the hijack to 53k, I 3-bet button to 122k with 10's, BB overjams for 300k, O'Leary mucks(says he folded JJ), and I call with the 10's, racing against AK. Board bricks the AK, and suddenly I have 860k.

Get to final table, have a couple quick bustouts, played for a while, and then this hand happens. I'm going to go into detail here because this hand is really weird, and I'm still not sure what I should do. Talked to everyone on the trip and everyone is OK with my play, but we're not sure if there's something else that works better.

So, 6 handed, pay jump from 6th to 5th is only $3000(old guy's about to bust he has like 4 BB). There are 3 stacks over 2 million, O'Leary has like 1.2million, I have 830k, old guy is basically dead.

It folds around to me in the SB, I look down at K/10o. The BB is chip leader with ~3 million, and has shown a real willingness to flat super light(like, super light to the point where he's actually a terrible player) and fuck with people. So my options here are open fold which is gross in every way imaginable. Raise/fold which might be the play because he's flatting alot but he's not super liberal with 3-bets. The problem with raise/folding is I don't think I'm getting 3 bet light, but I know I'm getting flatted light, and then suddenly I'm playing an inflated pot OOP with a 20 BB stack holding K10o against the biggest stack at the table, which is basically a nightmare. Normally ICM would be a factor here, but it's kind of not because I don't give a shit about the $3000 payjump, I don't want to fall too far behind the rest of the table and not give myself any chance to win.

Shoving K10 is the route I go with. It seems like it can never be a terrible play, and it's probably the least terrible option for this particular hand, but I don't know. In any event, BB calls because he woke up with AK and the board bricks, so I bust in 6th for $12,000.

I considered pushing my flight back to stay another day and play the $1k Venetian today, but frankly I'm too tired, I haven't taken a day off yet, so today I'd like to just take a day to myself before my flight back home.

Big thanks to Shyam, Griff, Saunders, St.Jean, Cairns and everyone for coming by to rail the FT. It was fun.

After that, we headed to The Palm at Caesars. Grabbed this back, executive room for 9 of us that they closed off, and proceeded to eat basically the best meal of all time. Lightly seared Ahi Tuna, king crab and 3 different salads for apps(the bacon/shrimp salad was beyond incredible), main course was NY Steak, Crab Legs and Lobster with Mashed potatoes, fries, broccoli, hash browns, beans. Dessert was Key Lime Pie, carrot cake and strawberry cheese cake. Top it off with 3 bottles of wine...and it was time for a monster CCR sweat. Because we figured it was going to be >$1500 for the tab, we decided to allow 2 losers for the 9 of us. I fade CCR so the meal is free. It's good to go perfect on it for a trip. Griff and St.Jean are stuck splitting it. The bill is actually way less than we figured though. It's $998(without tip, actual quote when we ask the waiter why they don't put the tip on for parties this size..."You guys came in here ballin', I figure I'm safe"). We tipped $300.

So now I'm just relaxing in my room. Gonna go out for a bit in a little bit, flight leaves here at 11:30pm, so got some time to kill today. Then it's back to the online poker world.