A Winning Streak for 2024

(Note: if you want a reference to poker lingo, click here.)

Already this year, I came in fourth, and in the money, in a small stakes online tournament (see I Broke My Promise), so I decided to give live tournaments a try again, despite having sworn off of them for 3 months and only one month had passed. My wife Carrie gave me her approval.

Golden Nugget Grand Poker Series

The Golden Nugget was having its winter poker series, and the buy-ins were low ($150-$250), so that seemed like a good place to start. These tournaments attracted a fairly large number of entrants, meaning a good return on investment. This multi-day tournament had a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000, meaning first place would get around $20,000. The hand shown above was one of my early hands, but afterwards I realized I had played it wrong on the river. When that last card came, I had quad As. The other player had been fairly aggressive, so I checked, thinking that he would bet. And he thought about it, reaching for chips and counting them, but then just checked. I had the nuts—quad aces—no hand could beat me. But the board was a full house, As over Ks. From his point of view, there were only two hands that beat the board, AK or pocket Ks. You don’t have to play any cards in your hand, but you can just use the five cards on the board as your hand. So if neither of us had AK or KK, we would both play the cards on the board and chop the pot. If I had bet anything, he almost certainly would have called me, because chances were very high that I didn’t have AK or KK (though I actually did have AK). He would likely have called me, thinking we were going to chop. Afterwards, he said he definitely would have called a bet of $5K, but I’m sure he would have called even if I had shoved. Despite having won a big pot with an incredible hand, I was a little disappointed when I thought about how much I could have won if I had played it right.

Shortly after that, I won the huge 3-way all-in shown above, with a Barry Greenstein special! Barry Greenstein was an early employee of the company Symantec and then pursued a career of professional poker. He wrote a book called Ace on the River. In fact, in my very first tournament, I played against him, and, to his outspoken amazement, I beat him. I was told by the player that sat next to him, he kept muttering “What is he doing?” Greenstein gives a signed copy of his book to anyone who busts him out, and though I finished first, it was the second-place player who busted him out and got the book.

Then there were 49 players left, 23 would get paid, and 15 would make it to Day 2. My stack was very good, so I felt confident.

Then there were 36 players left. My stack had dwindled; it was good, but not great.

Then there were 32 players left but I had been running card dead as my stack got smaller.

Then there were 27 players left, and I had only 8 big blinds.

I returned from a break, and under the gun, I got... pocket As! I shoved and got called by pocket 9s. I won and doubled up just in time!

In the next hand, I got pocket 5s, turned a set, and rivered a full house. I doubled up again and had a big stack! It's weird how this game can turn around so quickly.

Then we were on the money bubble and shortly after that, the bubble burst. I was in the money, but not guaranteed to be in Day 2. We needed to eliminate about 15 more players.

Then I won a good pot with pocket 7s. The flop was all low cards. I had an average stack, which I was very happy about.

We had been going about 1.5 hours trying to eliminate one more player before we all made it to Day 2 and went home to get some sleep before Day 2 started at noon the next day. I kept getting bad cards, my stack was dwindling, and I was very tired as we were closing in on 2 AM. I had been playing since 3 PM.

Finally someone busted. And it wasn't me! I was heading to Day 2, but with a short stack.

On Day 2, I got dealt pocket As and got a player to put in all his chips. He raised pre-flop. I reraised to half my stack. He called. On a Q-high flop, he checked, I shoved. He tanked and then called. He had pocket Js. He needed a J but didn't get it. I doubled up!

Shortly after that, I gave all those chips back to the same player. I had A♥10♥. He was short stacked and shoved. I called. This time he had pocket As.

I limped in with QJ, and a big stack called. A very short stack shoved. I shoved just to keep the big stack from calling. The big stack folded and showed an A. The short stack had pocket Ks. The flop was AA3. The big stack was understandably upset that he had folded. I lost half my stack and was then very short stacked.

I was in the big blind with A♦5♥. Everyone folded to the small blind who I had been trading chips with me over several hands. He completed the bet. I shoved. He thought was a while, mumbling calculations and then called with 4♥5♦. I was about a 3:1 favorite and he knew it, as he let out a sigh. The board ran out 3♥3♦7♥J♦6♦. I thought I'd won until I realized he'd rivered a straight. I busted out at #59 out of 888 entrants. Not great, but at least I started the year with a cash.

Venetian DeepStack Showdown,

After I cashed at the Golden Nugget, since I had planned to play all day, I went right over to the Venetian for a tournament that had started a few hours earlier. Things went okay most of the day, where I won hands and lost hands until about an hour or two from the end of Day 1 when I started winning all my hands. Day 1 ended around 11 PM. I was in the money and had bagged the largest chip stack of the day and in the top ten for all the days of the tournament. There have been several Day 1 flights already; in other words, multiple Day 1s for multiple chances to get to Day 2. It was a Saturday, there was one more Day 1 flight, on Sunday, and Day 2 would be Monday where we would play down to the winner. So I was in great position and got a day off.

On Monday, Day 2 was about to begin. There had been 796 total entrants, 101 remained, and my stack was #15 in size. First place would get $30K.

But from the start I was losing lots of hands. It was depressing, but at least my stack was big enough to last through lots of losses.

At some point, I limped with Q♥10♥ under the gun. I got a few callers including the guy on my right who was very loud and teaching everyone about how they played their cards wrong. The flop was Q23. He checked. I bet $25K. He called. The turn was another 2. He checked. I bet $25K. He called. Now I was nervous he had a 2. That's certainly possible in the big blind. The river was K. Now, he could also have a K to beat me. He checked. I checked. He had 34. Whew. I finally won a hand.

Throughout the day, I had lost with pocket 10s, AJ, A10, KQ, and other good cards. It was disappointing. My stack had gone from one of the largest to one of the smallest in about 2.5 hours.

I got dealt A♥2♥ in middle position and decided to limp in for $12K. Everyone folded but the big blind raised to $45K, almost a third of my stack. I decided to call. The flop was 7♥10♥10♣, giving me the nut flush draw. I shoved; he called with pocket Qs. The turn was 10♦, giving him a full house. Only an A or a 10 on the river would save me. They didn't come. I busted out at #66.

Overall, 2024 has been good to me so far. I didn’t make a lot of money, but played well, got no particularly bad beats, and cashed in 3 of 4 tournaments so far (I lost in an online tournament). I can’t complain. Let see if I can keep this streak going.