Oliver Gill

I wake up early for a change and head into Caesars for the Megastack at midday. The first few levels are fairly uneventful; we start with 15k at 25/50 and i’m finding some premium hands although getting little action and I manage to chip up to 20k without any major showdowns. Unfortunately, around the start of the 75/150 level, the poker gods decide to flip my doomswitch and i’m card dead for several hours. I manage to stay afloat between 16-18k for several levels by picking up hands, isolating limpers and bluffing in postflop spots but accumulating at a table full of TAGs is next to impossible when i’m card dead. Eventually the table breaks and I take 17k to my new table at 200/400/50. I drop to about 15k then a short stack shoves about 4k into my aces so I find my way back to 19k. I find spots to 3bet twice (once with air, once with jacks) and get 4bet shoved on both times, the second time by a total nit whose range is QQ+ AK so I have to lay it down.

I remain mostly uninvolved until 400/800/100 and i’ve climbed back to around 20k stealing blinds and isolating weak players in hands when eventually I get involved again. I find Qd Jd, a weak player limps, I raise to 5x, he calls and then check-raises all in on an Axx flop and I have to give it up. That one hurts and i’m down to 11k. I pushbot my way back to 15k by the ridiculous 80 minute dinner break and head over to the Augustus Cafe to use part of my stockpile of $10 food vouchers that I have accumulated on a meal. After some delicious chicken, I find my way back to the poker room and prepare for some pushbotting with my 12bb stack.

After a couple of hands, I find myself involved in my first significant pot of the day on the small blind.

Effective stacks ~15k (both villains cover me) at 600/1200/100

Dealt to SwoopAE: Qc Qs

Folds to the button who is a super loose fish who almost minraises to 2500. I think it over for a couple of seconds and decide that 3betting is better than jamming against this guy whose opening range is literally any two, since I do want to get it in here.

Then something weird happens. At the EXACT same moment that I announce raise, the BB throws in three yellow 1k chips to go with his 1200 already out there which is 4200 total. Odd. The dealer says that my raise changes the action so he can take his almost minreraise back. The BB then says he didnt mean to raise to 4200 and was intending to call. I ask for the floor and the floor rules he can take his raise back. Odd. After it’s all sorted, the dealer says that my raise stands and regardless of my raise amount, the BB can take his chips back. I elect to raise to 6600 (lol donkaments, but it’s live poker and they’re both fish so whatever) and the BB now decides to fold instead of min3bet. Okay then. Button decides to call though, despite it being completely obvious that I have a monster.

Flop: As 9s 2c

I check, BB announces the good old ‘i’ll put you all in’ for my remaining 8k and I snapcall with my queens, he tables Jc 9c and i’m way ahead but I have to dodge five outs.

Turn: 8c
River: 4h

I fade the 5-outer and double to around 30k.

A few hands later, a weak player who limpfolds a lot decides to limp UTG, a deepstacked loose-passive guy limps behind him and it folds around to me on the cutoff. I decide that with 5k in the pot and both limpers folding in excess of 90% of the time I can’t do anything other than move in here and fortunately I manage to find Qc Jc which makes my decision a lot easier. I ship my 29.5k in and the button immediately calls all in behind me for 15k. Fuck. Everyone else folds. ‘I hope you have AK’, I tell the button as I table my QcJc. To my surprise and delight, he tables ThTd and we’re off to the races!

Flop: Picture in the window! Excitement! Oh crap, it’s a king

Flop: Kd 8s 4c

No help so far. Queen please?

Turn: 3s

I don’t suppose I could bink the river…?

River: 8h

I guess not. So much for being back to an average stack. I sink back to 14k and open shove territory.

A few hands later, I find Qs 4h and jam over the same weak guy who limped UTG before when he limps again, he quickly folds and i’m back to 17k.

An orbit later, I open shove 15k with Ah Qs and find a caller in a horrible Asian player three to my left, he tables Ks Qc and I need to fade a king.

Flop: 2d 2h 8h

Hold, please.

Turn:9s

River: Ad

Excellent. I climb back to about 31k and life is good again. The average at this point is about 38k.

About ten hands later, it folds around to the weak-fishy button who limps, SB is a new player to the table, a young early 20s Irish guy with an Irish Poker Open card protector who has 3bet once and opened about 2 pots despite only having been here for an orbit. He’s short with about 16.5k. He elects to move all in over the limper and my first thought is ‘he’s an online player his range is any two’. I squeeze out Ah Tc in the BB which sucks because I was thinking ‘the minimum hand I reshove with here is AT’ before I looked at my cards. It’s a tough spot though since it’s live poker. I ask Irish Guy some questions and he seems nervous (i’m completely unconcerned about the button) so I decide to reshove. Button folds, SB shows AQ and I announce to the table that i’m really stupid because everyone in live poker is a nit until proven otherwise. The extremely loud New York Yankees fan at the next table who has been yelling all day looks over, perhaps amused that someone is almost as loud and annoying as he is. Anyway, I don’t suppose I could spike a ten perhaps?

Flop: QQ2

LOL, Donkaments. I guess not.

Turn: 9

River: 4

Well, that was fun. Sigh at being retarded; no one’s range is any two cards in live poker, because they’re all a bunch of nits. I sink back to about 13k with a few minutes left in the level.

I pick up the blinds open shoving Ts9s and then elect to jam 15k over the same weak-tight limper from the earlier hands who now has a similar stack to me. This time he calls and we both table AQ and chop it up. This guy is literally limping in over 50% of pots with a ridiculous range. He’s down to about 9bb and limps again; a couple orbits later after the blinds go up to 800/1600/200. I have ~11bb and I find Qs 9s and figure I fold out over half of his limping range because he’s just that much of a retard and move in again, this time he asks how much more and then elects to call and tables Ad Ah (the first time he’s actually had a big hand all day after limping).

Some spades would be nice. I tell villain that I have a nice hand to crack his aces with and i’m going to win this pot.

Flop: Js 4s 3d

Villain’s face goes all white as I ask for another spade.

Turn: 8h

More outs. Crack aces one time?

River: Kd

I guess not. I wish everyone luck and prepare to head to the rail, then realise i’m left with about 2800, good for a little over 1.5bb. Comeback time!

I fold my next two hands and then find myself in the big blind. Horrible Asian player raises to about 5500 (lol) and gets 4 callers (even more lol since the average stack at the table is about 30k). I throw my last few hundred in without looking at my cards and hope for the best; theres about 13k in the main pot and 15k in the sidepot.

Flop: Ts 7d 2c

This looks promising. Asian guy open shoves about 30k and the other three players fold. Asian guy tables 6d 6h (!?!?!?) and i’m very, very live.

I squeeze my first card and discover 9d. Well, that’s an okay start. I flip my other card and unfortunately, it’s the 3c

Turn: 7s

Well, hello! I now have three nines and three tens left in the deck that can save me.

River: Qh

Or not. I wish everyone luck and head to the rail, busting outside the money but in the top third of the field for what seems like the tenth time in my last twelve tournaments or something ridiculous like that.

I consider heading to the Rio to see how Ozone and doing and catch up with James who is grinding cash there but i’m really tired so instead I wander home, book my flight back to LA on the 15th and fall asleep shortly after.

I’m calling my bank in a few hours when it opens in Australia in a last ditch effort to get the 10k in USD in time to register for Day 1d of the Main Event tomorrow.
I had no idea it would be this difficult to transfer 10k from my Australian bank account to cash here in the US.

Here’s what i’ve tried so far

P2P transfer – fallen through
Western Union – can only transfer $999 in first transfer
Bank Wire to Rio – too late to do via bank, Full Tilt sent me an email saying they couldn’t do it
Gary Benson’s Intercash service – Gary left LV and is currently in the Mediterranean
ATM – My bank won’t let me withdraw more than $1500/day and I only tried for the first time yesterday
FTP$ to Cash – Couldn’t find a buyer.
So now you understand how my past couple of days have been spent.

The last 48 hours has been a little bit difficult. If I don’t get to play the main it’ll be disappointing but i’ll just play some 1k events over the coming week as my ‘take a shot’ attempt which is really probably the smarter option anyway due to bankroll management and the fact that I am a massive life nit. I’m still playing the Main though if my bank will let me withdraw the 10k, I went down to the Rio today and the atmosphere is great.

I watched Negreanu on the feature table for a while, picked up my Full Tilt gear from the FTP Suite, explored the Full Tilt lounge and laughed at the hilarity of about 30 of Dennis Phillips supporters in uniform on the rail next to his table. The atmosphere at the rio is like nothing else.

Yesterday, I played another $330 Megastack at the Rio. A couple levels in, I got involved in a big pot where I bet/3bet all in on the flop with a nut flush draw while deep against an older guy who pretty clearly had top pair or an overpair; he tanked for a while and eventually called off his stack with the overpair and I missed my 12 outs to end my very uneventful tournament. After busting, I headed to the Stratosphere to check out the thrill rides at the top. The rides were surprisingly awesome and the view of the strip from 1100 feet is fantastic. Although the surrounding area is seedy and I wouldn’t recommend staying there, the Stratosphere is definitely worth the visit. I also found a pizza place that actually serves BBQ Chicken Pizza here in America. It’s one of the most popular types of Pizza in Australia and yet you can’t find it anywhere here in America.

After the thrill rides, I lost $50 playing blackjack against a dealer who keps making 6K5 21s against my JT and stuff so i’m back down from being up $51.50 to being up $1.50 in pit games for the trip. Kinda pales in comparison to the 5k or so i’m down from playing poker. LOL, Donkaments, etc.

I’ll upload my photos from the Rio today shortly, check out the SwoopAE’s Photography Thread in the Poker Stories section of the forums.

I have spent the past 48 hours mostly avoiding poker; with the exceptions of a small winning session of 1/2 at the Venetian and a small losing session of 4/8 Mixed at the Hard Rock. Today was Day 1a of the Main Event and assuming i’m able to get the cash together by tomorrow morning (my options are find a Bank of America branch or transfer Mike the money online for cash) I am fully intending to play Day 1b of the Main Event this year. Failing that (Mike isn’t home and I have no idea where the nearest BoA branch is), i’ll be playing Day 1c most likely.

I spent Day 21 hanging out with James, Michelle, Tim and a bunch of other Aussies from Melbourne. We played some cash at the Venetian and then headed out for dinner at one of the restaurants nearby. Have I mentioned how enormous the food portions are in America? An appetizer or salad is a full meal here. Their beer is also huge, I ordered a Stella and they brought me a 20 oz glass (probably about double the size of a normal beer on tap back home). No wonder this country has an obesity problem, I can’t eat three meals a day here if I try.

I spent today hanging out at the condo before wandering down the road to the Hard Rock for the annual 2+2 meetup. We play some 4/8 mixed games and I drop about 25 bets due to a mixture of playing badly and running badly at a table including 2+2ers ‘Dynasty’ ‘Ashixxx’ ‘Count Chocilic’ (names have probably been misspelled) and a bunch of others whose online names I can’t recall. Famous poker players in attendance include Phil Hellmuth, David Sklansky, Isabelle Mercier, Greg Raymer and probably a few others I missed plus notable online players including Bond18, cking and a bunch of other online players who crush stakes where my bankroll would consist of roughly one buy-in. I decide to leave at about 11pm since i’m planning on playing the Main tomorrow, i’m starting to get drunk and i’ve already lost 25 big bets playing 2-7 Triple Draw, Double Flop Omaha, Badugi and a bunch of other random games.

I’ve signed up for coverage during the Main Event at pocketfiveslive.com and hopefully a few of my hands get covered by PokerNews as well, they might since i’ve met Tim Duckworth (one of their main reporters) at Crown a few times and I think he knows who I am.

I’m still waiting to hear from Ozone, he should be arriving in town pretty soon since he’s playing the Main Event (as far as I know anyway). Seb has disappeared to Los Angeles for a few days so my rail will probably be fairly thin and consisting pretty much exclusively of random Aussies I know who happen to be in town.

It’s been a quiet couple of names but tomorrow it begins; the Main Event. If everything goes to plan, i’ll be celebrating my status as one of the November Nine in two weeks time.

Another day, another flip, another river and another $340 gone up in smoke. This trip is nothing short of a financial disaster so far.

I wake up early and after chilling at home for a while, I make my way over to Caesars for my what seems like nine hundredth attempt to run deep in a $340 Megastack.

Like usual, I hit no cards early but chip up to about 22k anyway by the start of 200/400/50 without playing any significant hands. My edge is so huge playing deepstack tournament poker. During the first three hours or so, my table is super nitty and i’m super card dead so I amuse myself by teaching the thtree guys sitting in the seats next to me how to play ‘Lodden Thinks’. For those of you who don’t watch High Stakes Poker, the basic premise is that you come up with a question (for example, how many kangaroos are there in Australia) and choose a subject (let’s assume it’s me). The guys i’m playing the game with are Jeff, Joe and Mike. One of them has to decide on the number of kangaroos that they think that I think are in Australia (lets assume Mike does this). Now Joe and Jeff take turns bidding, starting at 1 and going up in whatever increments they choose until one of them decides that the other’s number is more than Mike’s answer to the question (as the subject, my actual answer here is irrelevant). When one of them chooses the under on the number thrown out by the other (lets say 10 million in this case), that person has 10 million and under and the other person has 10 million and one and over. Mike reveals his answer, whoever has the over/under right wins and then I reveal my answer and much hilarity ensures (questions include how many women Joe thinks Jeff has had sex with to how many hookers Mike thinks I think are in Vegas to how many Zoos I think Jeff thinks there are in the world and many more)

Finally, the blinds hit 300/600/75 and the game winds down when Jeff busts when his nut flush draw goes down to a set. After breaking even for a few orbits, I finally find myself involved. I raise to 1750, random aggro villain shoves ~6.5k, I call with Kh Jh, villain has AJo, I bink a king and move up to about 30k. Cool, but could I please save my running good for when we’re playing for stacks?

The table breaks and then I find myself involved again at 400/800/100. UTG raises to 2000, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 moves all in for 4400 total, I reshove with QQ to isolate, everyone folds, UTG+2 has AQ and my QQ holds. Suddenly I have about 41k. I lose a few thousand without finding any hands and at 600/1200/100 I find myself involved again with ~35k, villain covers.

Weak-passive player in MP limps for 1200, I raise to 4400 on the button with 8s 7c, The player in SB (station pre, hyper aggro postflop middle aged Euro) decides to call, everyone else folds. With a little under 12k in the pot, we take a flop.

Flop: Jh 5h 2c

SB leads 5500. I evaluate my options; i’m essentially drawing dead but there’s 17.5k in the pot and I have 30k behind and giving up after raising the limper preflop seems very weak since I have a fairly tight image. I figure that he never has better than top pair since he led out and is rarely that strong so I elect to move all in (within about 2-3 seconds of his bet) and villain quickly folds. I find myself back at 50k and life is good.

I still can’t find any hands and by 800/1600/200, i’ve dropped back to 45k (average is about 48k at this point with slightly under a third of the field remaining). I still haven’t put a significant portion of my stack at risk. I know the first of the two big flips that will take me into the money is coming soon though.

Sure enough, it folds to the button who moves all in for about 19k on my BB; I look down at Ah Qh and snapcall, villain unfortunately has sixes (I think his range is almost any two) and we’re racing. I tell him i’m going to hit an ace or queen because i’m feeling it.

Flop: Td 7d 2h

No help. Ace please?

Turn: As

Bink! Wow, it looks like today might actually be a deep run…

River: 6c

I guess not. The river doesn’t surprise me at all; i’m not running below expectation n all in pots this trip but I seem to win every 5k flip and lose every 40k flip.

Sigh.

Well, I still, have 26k, time for a recovery.

I stay alive taking the blinds once per orbit and about 20 hands later on the last hand of the level, I find myself involved again with a ~24k stack. Villain has ~35k and is a young guy wearing a baseball cap who seems competent but not particularly aggressive.

Folded to me on hijack with 9c 9s, I see that there are a bunch of 20-35k stacks behind me and decide i’m strong enough to raise/call instead of open shove, I raise to 5k (standard at this table) and young guy reraises to 15k on the button. I hate this spot, he’s always strong, i’d much rather be facing a shove. I know i’m doomed because his range is probably TT+ AQ+ but folding leaves me with under 10bb since next hand is 1k/2k and raisefolding a 15bb stack with 99 is just retarded. I make a speech about how everyone is a nit until proven otherwise in live poker then announce that i’m all in anyway, villain calls and tables Qd Qh and the doorcard is Qs. I wish villain luck and wander away as the dealer runs out the rest of the board. I figure they’ll call me back if I make running nines. Evidently, I don’t and I fail to cash in yet another Megastack despite chipping up to three times the starting stack without a showdown for a major portion of my stack for what feels like the millionth time. I’m really disillusioned, far more so than normal and although it’s completely standard to lose a few key flips over a sample size of 15 tournaments, it feels like the situation is completely hopeless. When we’re 60+BB deep, I chip up uncontested but as soon as we hit reshove stacks, I lose a flip or two and suddenly i’m open shoving into queens or aces.

I need to stay deep in the Main Event and hopefully I can find a way to get ITM without every needing to win a flip then maybe win some key flips for a deep run. Because my trip has been such a financial disaster so far (down about 5k now) i’m thinking of selling off about 20-30% of myself in the Main Event. Seb’s expressed interest in 10%, Glockers has 2% already and I gave 1% to TWLLM and Kid Hustlr a while back for helping me out at various points in my poker career. Leaves about 16% more I might sell, although I haven’t decided yet for sure.

In any case, I eventually wander home through the excruciating heat (even though it’s 10pm) and figure that tomorrow’s a new day, i’ll be taking it off poker and then i’ll probably be playing either Day 1a or 1b of the Main Event.

Here’s to my redemption and impending deep run in the Main Event. As Skeptix would say, it’s time to do it to it.

After lying in bed unable to sleep, I get up and decide to watch some American TV and stay up at late as I can then try and sleep late in the afternoon so I can wake up early in the morning and reset my sleeping patterns in time for the Main Event.

American TV is weird. One channel is running an informercial, featuring a Pastor with a Southern accent trying to convince viewers to purchase a vial of ‘Blood of Jesus’ (it looks like water with food colouring) for good luck. If you order now, it comes with a multicoloured piece of cloth with some biblical quote about wealth embroidered on it which will bring you money. Listening to the obviously fake ‘real testimonials’ amuses me for about five minutes before I change the channel and end up watching several episodes of ‘Angel’ back to back. The advertisements on this new channel are also hilarious. There is one ad for a headache relief pill which lists the possible side effects as ‘stomach ulcers, internal bleeding and muscle loss’ and urgses your the consumer to ‘contact your doctor if you experience any of these symptoms leading to likely side effects including (random symptoms). The ad concludes by stating ‘Product Name isn’t for everyone: Know the risks, know the benefits’. Really? Is anyone going to buy a medical product for something as minor as headache relief with the slogan ‘Our product isn’t for everyone, know the risks, know the benefits’ with side effects including internal bleeding and stomach ulcers?

If I see the ad again i’ll take note of what the product’s name is (I forget) and try and find a link to the ad online.

I also withdraw my 10k in WSOP Main Event funds from Moneybookers to my bank account so that i’m ready to transfer the money to either Mike or Seb or whoever ends up wanting a 10k bank transfer for 10k in cash. I swear everyone i’ve met here is loaded with cash after a great series. It’s going to fell really weird handing over 10k in cash for a tournament buy-in since this will be the first time i’ve bought into a huge tournament without being auto-registered.

By the early afternoon, i’m completely shattered decide to let myself fall asleep. I wake up at 3am, play some poker and decide that Day 20 will be the day I actually final table a Caesars Megastack event and i’m not going to oversleep for a change. Now all I need is to win some flips, flop some sets, find some aces and activate my luckbox. Poker is easy when you flop the nuts. Hopefully it’s my turn today.