Well that was pretty gay, I hate busting on day1. Stacks were a little shallower to start compared to LAPC, and the levels 30 minutes shorter, but the blinds progressed slower which makes for awesome play on the later days, when the levels would be 2 hours and the tables would be 6max. Too bad I didnt make it past the first day!

Fortunately this go round I actually wrote down summaries of my hands on my phone, so I can write an adequate trip report.

My starting table was one of the softest in the room, just me, a bunch of fish, and a couple young competent players to my right, one who I discovered through a friend was "GnightMoon" online. Our "Bounty" (5k worth, 1 per table) was Scotty Nguyen, a beat in itself because Scotty is prob one of the best bounties and was only busting on day1 if he ran bad. Scotty just nits it up and 5xs his nitty range and somehow gets people to come along, and 3bets in good spots. Obviously terrible for me when hes a bounty compared to the other goofballs allowed to be bounties.

Then the 2 empty chairs given to later registrations end up getting filled by Faraz Jaka and Steve O'Dwyer. Faraz is one of the laggiest online MTT regs around and has had success live, Steve is the nut solid live/online player. Sucks having both of them there compared to most of the idiots in the room.

Anyhow, onto the hands. Start with 20k at 25/50.

1) AKo in SB. EP player limps, Fish makes it 100 in greens. This fish is like 80/30, bluffing and betting a ton through 2 orbits. very clear he will either bust early or be near the chiplead after a few hours. Faraz makes it 475 next to act, I think his range is really wide here as he's isoing the fish. Folds to me in the SB with AKo, I flat. I dislike 3betting oop 400bb deep with this hand for obvious reasons. Gets back to the fish who makes it 2k more (!) and Faraz flats. Now I just fold. Flop T85, bet/call. Turn 7, bet/shove/call. QQ for fish and KK for Faraz. Fish gets crippled, Faraz has lots of gold. Doublesuck when the fish loses and one of the better lags wins.

2) Someone limps, Faraz minraises to 100, folds to me in BB and I call J4dd, limper overcalls. Flop J94ss. I donkbet, limper calls, Faraz calls. Turn 6s, I bet 2/3 pot intending on folding to a raise, limper calls Faraz folds. River 2, I bet 1/3 pot and get snapped off, and he mucks when I show.

3) Raise AQ, fish from hand1 defends. Flop ATx, he checkscalls halfpot. Turn x, he checkcalls halfpot. River x, he checkcalls 1/3 pot leaving himself 1200. and he mucks. on the internet this is an ez shove, but live where ppl dont want to herocall their stack off in such a manner, leaving them chips is a better option imo.

4) Raise JTo in MP, both blinds call. QJJ, check to me I bet halfpot, fish in SB calls. This fish is a bad lag who looks like Clarrisa's dad from "Clarissa Explains it All". Plays NLHE like bad Commerce asians play limit holdem, firing bets way too fast and playing really faceup. Turn J for quads, check/pot/call. River 9, check/pot/call/muck. ez game.

5) Raise JTo in MP, 2 callers including fish from J4dd hand. Flop K95r, checks to me I bet halfpot, fish calls other guy folds. Turn Q giving me the nuts, I bet 2k (near the pot) and fish calls. River blank for K9xQx, I bet 8500 into ~6k, Villain snapcalls and frustratingly shows AK when I show. LOL live.

6) Overlimp JTo (see a running theme on JT?). Flop T83ss, Clarissa's dad the early limper bets 1200 into 4 people. I flat, new old guy overcalls. Turn J giving me top 2, new guy donks ~4k into the 2 of us. Clarrissas dad folds, I call. River low bringing in bdoor 3flush. new guy bets 6k, I sighcall, get shown 97 for turned str8. Maybe I can profitably bluffshove the river? I only considered it afterwards. I hate folding 2 pairs, f me.

7) I make a hero fold against Faraz

7b) Gnightmoon opens to 900 at 150/300, I flat AKo. Older guy shoves allin for ~1650 in the SB, BB overcalls like a champ, Gnightmoon tanks a little and flicks in the call, and I shove ~23k to iso. Everyone folds, and the shortstack older guy has 44, I brick, he quadruples.

8) Clarissas dad is in a constant state of laggro-tilt @ this point, he makes it 1400 at 200/400 in MP and gets flatted on the button by a younger strong player (GnightMoon). I have 23k or so and pick up black KK in the BB and squeeze to 5300. Smaller would work better online, but I knew Clarissas dad wasnt folding ATo so fuck it, why not. Clarissas dad snaps it, and GnightMoon goes deep into the tank before overcalling, weighing his range towards AQ/JJ'esque hands imo that considered backraising. Flop AT6dd, I check, Clarrissas dad instabets 10k into the two of us, Gnightmoon folds and I fold. Gnightmoon claimed JJ.

9) Very next hand a new older guy, presumably a nit, makes it 1600 at 2/4 and folds to me OTB with AKcc. I have ~18k (45 bbs) so I elect to flat over the 3bet/get it in, because the guy looks like he'll fold everything I dominate, flat AKo, and if I get it in he has like QQ+ always. So there's more value in seeing a flop I think, especially if I incorporate some random floats every now and then. Flop Q93hhh, we both check. Turn blank, check check. River blank, check check. 7x7h is good. Blargh.

10) Have JJ with 40bbs in SB, Faraz opens to 1200 in MP, his stats must be like 40/30 w/ a 3bet of 15%. Scotty Nguyen flats, Gnightmoon flats, and I shove my 16k. I dont really have a 3bet/folding range, so I like shoving a little bit better than a smallish 3bet especially when I have a hand like JJ thats slightly vulnerable, idk. Everyone folds.

Lose some random small pots like minraise/folding QT otb with 30bbs, defending a button minraise with 97o in the BB against GNightmoon and c/f, etc and so on

11) Folds to gnightmoon in the CO and he limps, BTN folds and I find 55 in the SB. I jam 12k (about 24 bbs), Thayer Rasmussen reshoves in the BB (he was new to table), Gnightmoon folds and Thayer shows AK. Board comes ATxxx and I bust. GG!

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My current attitude towards live MTTs is a bit pessimistic. I told myself at the beginning of the year I'd grind a lot more live in the hopes of getting on TV again, getting deep in something, making money and/or player of the year points.

I went deep a couple of times, have profited overall, but the amount I've profited (like 10k or so after selling action) doesnt come close to a standard grind of 2/4 NL. I can make 10k a month easily grinding 1/2 fulltime, and all of this live mtt grinding probably equates to a month of days invested in playing time.

Considering hotel costs, lack of healthy living, the constant full ring grind, I dunno... like I said, I'm really pessimistic. It's easy to grind 10ks and prelims when you're beating up on 10/20+, but as a midstakes player I think I'm gonna hold off on the live MTTs that arent WSOP.

Of course, I had all of this figured out a year or so ago, but I figured I'd try it out for myself and make sure that my premonitions were in fact rational.

Soo, heading back into SD tomorrow. Gonna do nothing but grind small/midstakes NL and midstakes 8game. Will focus less on live MTTs unless I can get some kind of favorable backing deal where I dont have to invest much and dont have makeup. I'm also gonna start p90x again, this time the noob version, and go back to health bounties that I had in December that were going so well before I decided to become a "live mtt pro".

Some good news in all of this is that I'm crushing NL cash the last couple of months. I feel like my NLHE game is the strongest it's ever been, and I'm starting deep ante games at 1/2 and 2/4 with good results (about +14 buyins over a few thousand hands). So I feel very good about returning to the grind, making videos, and coaching.

Cya later!