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.