PSC Bahamas Trip Report
Part 1: Background & Qualification
After going for the second time 6-7 years ago when a buddy won a package and I tagged along, I've been trying to win a package on Stars for the last 3-4 years. Most year's it's mostly a half-assed effort as I'll generally play a dozen of satellites into the old $700 Sunday MTTs, actually win a couple of them and get a seat in the $700, but have blanked every year. I've averaged maybe 2-3 kicks at the can each year in the big MTT, so it's not for the lack of trying.
This year rolled around, after rolling the buy-in back to $5k in the main, they also rolled back the MTT from $700 to $530. Also packages are worth roughly $10K instead of the traditional 16-17k, which makes it a little bit easier to get in.
They also rolled out phased satellites this year, one was a $27 and the other being $82. These are created that top 10% in each phase 1 carry over their chips to phase 2. The weird thing (and somewhat good thing) for these, is that the number of players that qualifies for phase 2 is auotmatically rounded up. Regardless whether there is 11 or 19 player in the phase 1, there will be 2 advancing. For about 5 weeks straight, I basically made phase 2 of both $27 and $82 every week, and I was not playing more than 4-5 phase 1 each week for each buy-in level.
Each of the phase 2 guarantees 1 package, and early on, they typically get 1 package in the $27, and 2-3 packages in the $82, with the next few finishers getting cash prizes. I got close a few times with a few cashes, but never truly close where I would bubble the package.
Fast forward to Oct where I had the luxury to play some day-time poker, so I jumped in my fairshare of $44 (and $4.40 rebuy turbo) that satellites into the $530. Mixed results, but played about 5 or 6 of the $530s in total. The one I won was a bit weird because the $44 actually finished before the $530 started. I ended up unregistering as I wasn't feeling the greatest, so I took a nap. Woke up and felt better, and decided the late register as they were down to 6 or 7 players, were paying 2 packages and have 2 cash prizes, based on stacks in play I was just 1 double up away from being relevant, so decided gamble.
I don't remember any significant hands, but I just remembered winning a couple of flips to become relevant, and when we got down to 4, the last 2 eliminations went pretty hurry as there were a couple of back to back coolers.
I actually continued to play after winning my package, as it would've been nice to have some T$ to play with. I did come in second in a $27 phase 2, but that one was a winner take all. Also would've had a real good shot in the final $530 the week before Christmas when I got in QQ vs A3 BvB and he flopped an Ace, winning that one would've put me solidly in the chip lead with 7 to go and 4 packages to be won
Part 2 to come with winning a trophy on the first day upon arrival
After going for the second time 6-7 years ago when a buddy won a package and I tagged along, I've been trying to win a package on Stars for the last 3-4 years. Most year's it's mostly a half-assed effort as I'll generally play a dozen of satellites into the old $700 Sunday MTTs, actually win a couple of them and get a seat in the $700, but have blanked every year. I've averaged maybe 2-3 kicks at the can each year in the big MTT, so it's not for the lack of trying.
This year rolled around, after rolling the buy-in back to $5k in the main, they also rolled back the MTT from $700 to $530. Also packages are worth roughly $10K instead of the traditional 16-17k, which makes it a little bit easier to get in.
They also rolled out phased satellites this year, one was a $27 and the other being $82. These are created that top 10% in each phase 1 carry over their chips to phase 2. The weird thing (and somewhat good thing) for these, is that the number of players that qualifies for phase 2 is auotmatically rounded up. Regardless whether there is 11 or 19 player in the phase 1, there will be 2 advancing. For about 5 weeks straight, I basically made phase 2 of both $27 and $82 every week, and I was not playing more than 4-5 phase 1 each week for each buy-in level.
Each of the phase 2 guarantees 1 package, and early on, they typically get 1 package in the $27, and 2-3 packages in the $82, with the next few finishers getting cash prizes. I got close a few times with a few cashes, but never truly close where I would bubble the package.
Fast forward to Oct where I had the luxury to play some day-time poker, so I jumped in my fairshare of $44 (and $4.40 rebuy turbo) that satellites into the $530. Mixed results, but played about 5 or 6 of the $530s in total. The one I won was a bit weird because the $44 actually finished before the $530 started. I ended up unregistering as I wasn't feeling the greatest, so I took a nap. Woke up and felt better, and decided the late register as they were down to 6 or 7 players, were paying 2 packages and have 2 cash prizes, based on stacks in play I was just 1 double up away from being relevant, so decided gamble.
I don't remember any significant hands, but I just remembered winning a couple of flips to become relevant, and when we got down to 4, the last 2 eliminations went pretty hurry as there were a couple of back to back coolers.
I actually continued to play after winning my package, as it would've been nice to have some T$ to play with. I did come in second in a $27 phase 2, but that one was a winner take all. Also would've had a real good shot in the final $530 the week before Christmas when I got in QQ vs A3 BvB and he flopped an Ace, winning that one would've put me solidly in the chip lead with 7 to go and 4 packages to be won
Part 2 to come with winning a trophy on the first day upon arrival
Comments
As soon as Christmas was over, the trip couldn't come fast enough. Toronto was getting colder, and it was time to get away
I also paid it forward and had a friend come with me just like I did a number of years ago, all he had to do was cover for his own flight. We would CCR for most food bills, but I also covered a few rounds of drinks.
For those who has never been, The Atlantis is not cheap. $3.50 for a bottle of coke/water (we were given 1 voucher per day of our stay for 2 bottles of water), $6.50~ for a slice of pizza. As part of the package from Stars, I had $1000 to charge to my room, which helped cover most of my meals there. It also helps when I won some of the bigger CCR bills that I was involved in this trip.
On the first day upon arrival, we took a cab to the Atlantis, checked into the room, and headed right back out to a grocery named Solomon's Fresh Market. It's similar to what Whole Food's would be like in North America, and prices reflected that. Still, it was $1.50 for a galloon jug of water vs. $3.50 for 500ML on the resort. We picked up some fresh fruits, jugs of water, and some snacks. All of this helped stick to a reasonable food budget while on the resort.
When the schedule first came out, obviously the plan was to see when the main event days would be and schedule things aorund that. After that, we looked for tournaments that were "fun" and "non traditional". You can find $300 NLHE tourneys easily, but you don't find PLO 4/5 card dealers choice, deuces wild everyday. Hence why we both jumped in the $330 Dealer's Choice 4/5 card PLO on the first day. We late registered and missed about 2 blind levels after the food run, but that's ok since it was still 10K starting stack and blinds were 75/150 with 2 tables
I actually don't remember too many hands in that tournament. I remember my table is mostly playing 5 card PLO while the other was about half and half split between 4 and 5.
When we were about 7 handed, there was a huge hand that I got in where approx 1/3 of the chips in play was in the pot when I had flopped top set with an opened straight draw vs. a huge wrap in 5 card PLO. Turn and river both blanked so I took the chip lead momentarily. Same orbit I got involved in a similar spot where it was flopped straight by villain, I had wrap + flush draw and I blanked out. Had I won the second hand I would've had maybe 60-70% of the chips in play with 5 left, but poker can't be that easy.
4 handed, had one guy that has grinded the short stack all final table but has managed to hang on. One player (that I got heads up with) that plays this game like hold 'em, meaning he overvalue high pocket pair in his hand, top pair top kicker on flop, etc. And the last guy was a pretty competent player who I respected his play (which mean jack all really lol) and would eventually get knocked out in 4th.
When it got heads up, the TD brought over a silver spadie. I didn't expect these side tournaments to award trophies, but that simply increased my motivation to win. Villain and I agree to just play 5 card every hand, me personally knowing I have an advantage on him with the number of combinations available in a 5 card hand. He had shown down many hands where it was evident he overvalued pairs/two pair combos, ignoring the possibility of the draw heavy nature of the game. I took as many flops as I could with him, rarely putting too many chips in preflop simply because I know I can get him to put money in bad down the road.
Final hand is the spot I described earlier. Both of us has been consistently potting it pre, and I've been content to see flops even though I will be OOP, where as he folds pre more often than I do. He raised with AKJxx, and I called with QJ779. Flopped KT8 rainbow, I check, he basically bets 80% pot, I check raise pot, which committed me to call his all in which wasn't too much more after my CR. Got him in exactly the spot I wanted but I still needed to hit, pretty sure I'm something stupid like 60-70% favourite in this spot but I'm not sure if there's a calculator for this game. Turn was a second heart which gave me a runner runner heart draw out, and river was a 6 to give me the nut straight. And he pulls out one of Hellmuth's classic lines "if it weren't for luck, I would win them all" during the handshake, and I just smile and said good game.
Finished just late enough and missed the $110 flip out, so decided to go take a bite and call it a night after being awake since 6am to leave from YYZ. Passed by Poseidon's Table and decided to stop by. This is the buffet at the Royal Tower at the Atlantis. I definitely would not recommend this buffet for anyone that may go in the future. Spend the extra $5-$10 and go to Mosaic at The Cove instead. Mosaic is easily 5x better than PT.
Part 3: Main Event that lasted just over a level
5-Card Omaha Hi Simulation ?
850,668 trials (Exhaustive)
Hand Equity Wins Ties
AdKhJc6d3s 49.59% 420,279 3,081
QhJh9c7s7d 50.41% 427,308 3,081
5-Card Omaha Hi Simulation ?
741 trials (Exhaustive)
board: KdTh8s
Hand Equity Wins Ties
AdKhJc6d3s 51.21% 375 9
QhJh9c7s7d 48.79% 357 9
38 trials (Exhaustive)
board: KdTh8s2h
Hand Equity Wins Ties
AdKhJc6d3s 55.26% 21 0
QhJh9c7s7d 44.74% 17 0
And I mis-remembered the hand, my buddy started recording after the money got in on the flop I actually flopped the flush draw too...think that should swing the equity more my way?
And his hand was AKJ53 with 2 diamonds and 2 clubs
Your pre flop equity is actually lower if he has 2 flush draws vs 1 for you.
Sounds about right - at least I got in in good
Woke up Sunday morning, was debating between whether to play that day or Monday. Went for breakfast, stopped by the "Breakfast with the Pros" just to see what's happening, and that morning was with Daniel Negreanu. Hung out for about 15-20 minutes, he was taking Q&As essentially, and the "breakfast" part was 3 jugs of coffee that were empty by the time we got there. Went outside and decided it was too windy of a day to spend at the pool/beach, so decided to play. Went for a quick workout, and registered during the first break and sat down to play the 100/200/25 level at seat 3
Had Vojtech Ruzicka in seat 9 at the table, and seat 8 also looked familiar but couldn't put a name to the face immediately. Afterwards found out it was Lauri Varonen.
Third hand in, seat 1 raised on the button. I defend with J9ss. Flopped KJ5 rainbow. Check/Bet roughly 50% pot/Call. Turn 7 check check. River 3 or 4, check/bet roughly 30% pot/call. J9 > A3. Up to 32k~.
This is also an instrumental hand as I picked up a betting tell from player in seat 1, which helped me win a bigger pot next orbit. What happened was between this hand and a hand later when he won with a hand he preceived to be strong, the way he put chips into the pot was different. One was more of a forward push and has the chips slide out, while the other was more of a stack.
Seat 1 limp in MP, I raise AQ suited in the HJ, both blinds and seat 1 calls. Flop QJ7hh. Checked to me, I bet closer to 3/4 pot, blinds fold, MP calls. Turn K offsuit, now MP leads half pot, I call. And river is a J. MP leads again, this time for 3/4 pot, and I tank call based on the betting tell earlier and he shows 10-7.
Now up to around 40k and stayed around there for a little while when the first hand described by Poker News happens
I'm on the button with 86, UTG +1 raised to 2.5x, and got called 2 players and I call, BB also calls. Flop was 10 9 7hh. Checked around to me, I bet 1400 into roughly 3000, was check raised by the BB to 4000. And I call. Turn was a 5h, bet 7000 by the BB, and I call. River was a black 3. Now BB check. I thought about checking behind here, but I really felt my hand was way too strong to check. Of course a flush or bigger straight was within the villain's range, but I also felt pair + straight draws, pair + flush draws, 2 pairs, were also a strong part of his range. In retrospect, I really wasn't getting called by too many hands that I beat, but in the moment my thinking was that he wouldn't have played a flush draw with that line. Clearly I was wrong and he called relatively quickly and flipped over Q4 for flush.
I welcome discussion/comments/feedback about this hand.
Blinds are now 150/300/25, and I'm down to around 21K after last hand and blinds going through. Same thing happened as earlier when this time UTG opened to 750, 3 callers to me OTB with JT offsuit and I call. One other player from the blinds called.
Flopped was the magical 789dd giving me the nut straight, UTG checks, and one of the callers led for 1400, get folds to me and I actually raised to 5500 (not 4000 as reported). Blind and original raiser folds, villain that led tank (roughly 2 minutes) and calls. Turn was Ac, check, jam for roughly pot, and villain tank calls (another minute or two) with 88. River was a 4 cross but unfortunately only 1 mark in the middle for a 9 to give him a boat and the main event journey is over.
Decided to just hang out and just watched the football games that day, no matter how horrid they were.
Looking at the players in the field on 1A, in retrospect I should've played 1B. The field was much softer in 1B as alot of the tough players played 1A in order to get to play the 50K on Monday.
I can see betting out with nut straight and if you had a bad feeling that the villain was trapping then I could see checking behind as it's still relatively early in the tourney. If you check behind your sitting with just under 100 big blinds.
Your bust out hand is just a cooler. Everyone should be ok with getting it all in there.
Nice TR.
I see a lot of aggressive players raise with draws, so I would put a flush draw in his likely range on the flop and I think 3-betting with the second nuts has higher EV than flatting. Once I put him on a flush draw, I would have checked the river.
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The plan was to play any deuce (obviously), and have fun. Nothing really particular to report on, except there were many hands where it took the players (and dealer) a few moments at showdown to figure out what the best hand is/ensure hand is actually a chop pot.
Crazy hands like A2 < 52 suited when the 52 manage to make a straight flush was normal, and players folded AA preflop with 2 all-ins in front was the right play. I ended up busting middle of the pack when my Q2 couldn't beat 32, but I had a good time and had my fair share of alcohol during play. Unfortunately, pretty standard in live tourneys, there were a couple of nits who decided to mumble and grumble about how this tournament was not "real poker". Well duh, you're playing a deuces wild tournament, what did you expect.
The next day, decided to do some sight-seeing and be a tourist. Made our way back towards downtown Nassau, and checked out the Graycliff Hotel and also the Graycliff Cigar Factory. Friend and I both did the 45 minute cigar rolling lesson, as well as got a tour of their private wine cellar. I strongly encourage anyone who enjoys wine to check out their cellar, it's one of the largest private wine cellar in the world, and the amount (and rarity of what they have) is stunning.
I also recommend a restaurant called Athena down by the straw market area. Was taken there by Watts + friends earlier on Saturday after we arrived, and the meal was exceptional. Their Flaming Saganaki was awesome, so was the fish fry. The conch was probably the only dish we had that we mediocre, the rest of the meal was great.
Within the next few days, I played majority of the $110 and $220 flipout each evening. Those tournaments were perfectly suited for my skillset as the first table involved playing a flipament. In the $110, 4 tables of 8 players starts, 2 hands are dealt in flipament style, and the winner of each hand moves on to the final table to play "real poker". In the $220, they are 3 tables of 6. I played 4 of each on this trip, and I finally broke through on my last try on Thursday evening when I blanked the first 7 not making it past the first table, finishing 3rd in the $220 for a $720~ cash. Had a huge hand 3 handed where the small blind jammed, I called with AT < A5 when he flops 234 which would've given me about 23K of the 30K chips in play. That hand unfortunately did not cooperate with my plan to win a second trophy.
Final Part coming up soon - the Poker Stars Open
$220 buy in, 4 flights. Play down to final 20% each flight, one entry per flight. Played 1B, I believe that's Tuesday evening.
Actually registered relatively on time for once, missed maybe the first 10 minutes and that was it. Nothing to report on really for the first 4-5 levels, stack slowly dwindled both playing hands in position but whiffing, or raising preflop and whiffing. Had 2-3 players that were pretty aggro at my table, thankfully they were to my right. Half the table was relatively talkative, a couple of players were not interested in table talk, but it was a light atmosphere.
No real hands to speak of early on, so we'll fast forward a bit.
The player to my immediate right busted a few levels in, and an older gentleman was moved to that seat. As a note earlier, the aggro players were on my right, so he ended up getting seated to the immediately left of two of the more aggro players at the table. I would put him in the category of a Milton Rock
Which brings us to the first hand of note - I was down to about 20BB, and it folds to one of the aggro players in the CO. As per normal, he raises to 2.2x (ish) BB, I look over to my neighbour, and as he looked as his cards, he didn't project a sense of confidence, yet he thought for about 30 seconds decided to call in the SB. As he was thinking, I took that opportunity to look at my cards and looked down at AJhh, and at that moment I decided that no matter what he does, I was putting my stack in. As soon as he puts in his call in the SB, I announce all-in and moved my stack forward. (side note, it is annoying live when players announces all in, sometimes softly, and does not make any movement with his/her chips. Unless you have a gigantic stack, make an effort to not just verbally announce, but do something with your chips. And if you do have a gigantic stack, announce all in but also place a stack of your largest denomination in) Back to the story, as soon as I announce all in, it was like I yelled or screamed beside his ear, because he literally jumped out of his seat a little. The next few lines he says is probably slightly out of line, but I didn't care enough to make a scene. He says "I totally didn't expect you in here, I was paying attention to that guy over there" (paraphrased but pretty close to exact quote), and after a small pause "Why would you do that, he's been aggressive over there, and I've been tight here and now you go all-in?" (paraphrased but pretty close to exact quote). The aggro player thought for about a minute and folded, and he folds A9 face up pretty quickly.
Anyways, eventually I had 5500 with blinds at 250/500/50 (I think, could've been 200/400/50), and I jammed KQ in LP, got called by 55, hit one of my face cards and doubled up. Not long after, went on a small heater and ran up to 36K without any showdowns, but didn't run any bluff or anything, just had a bunch of small/medium sized pots that went my way.
Next hand of note is probably when we were down to roughly 50 players, 27 advances as this flight had I think 137 players enter. I raise KK, 1 relatively short stack jams, someone else with about 20K reshoves, and I obviously call and hold. That took me to about 75K. Gets moved again when we were down to 36, and took out a short stack with 99 > 22, which took me to the 91K or so that I ended the flight with. The length of time it took to get from 36 to 27 was very short, I would say at max 2 orbits at my table, which is very surprising knowing how long these bubbles could take some time.
Anyways, earned the day off on Wednesday, and day 2 resumes on Thursday.
Side note for this tourney as well, I had a chance to play with Will Kassouf for roughly 1 hour when we were at about 70 players left, until he busted. While he is talkative at the table, he is definitely not as annoying as ESPN portrayed him. There was no excessive unnecessary tanking, and he was quite friendly to the other players at the table that I would consider more as fans of the game/casual player. He is also quite a smart/quick thinking/aware player, I noticed a couple of hands where he did his usual "I'll show if you show, I'm folding a big hand here" talk, and depending on which card the player picked, he would know based on whether the card was initially on top or on the bottom, he would say "see, I folded pocket 9s" or "pocket 7s laydown here". The reason I knew was because later on, we caught him in the act as one of the players who has been at the table for awhile, was the "victim" of his speech play, purposely slowly went to pick a card, and as Will opened his mouth, he picked the other card.
Next part - Day 2 of Poker Stars Open
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