[Bond18]

After finishing my writing I head downstairs to watch Bondgirl deep in her event. They’re down to 42 with 40 paying and everyone is playing pretty careful. She ends up playing pretty cautious after having lost a huge coin flip in blind verse blind play and gets into the money with a bit under half the average stack. The first hand she plays after getting moved goes down as follows:
UTG raises to 13000, folds to MP2 who shoves for 50k, Bondgirl shoves 40k, 4 folds.
Bondgirl shows KK, MP2 AKs.
Flop: A Q 4 rainbow
Turn: T
River: J

Jesus that was close. Thing stay tight for a little while but having got to the money chips getting into the money are inevitable. 2+2’er LearnedfromTV is on her table and she soon gets involved with a pot against him.
Preflop: UTG shoves 30k, UTG+1 (LFTV) reshoves ~35k, folds to Bondgirl in LP who reshoves ~45k, 3 folds.
Bondgirl shows QQ, UTG AKo, LFTV AQo
Flop: J 6 3
Turn: 3
River: J

Bondgirl takes down a massive pot and soars over average. She soon gets moved tables again and very little seems to happen for a very long time. The blinds continue to increase and at 2500/5000 she’s sunk down to about ~80,000. The table is 8 handed when the following hand comes up:
Preflop: UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to 23,000 (is standard raise though he was quite tight) 1 fold, Bondgirl shoves, folds back to UTG+1, UTG+1 thinks for a little while then slides his stack into the middle and reveals AA (he would later walk right behind me when I referred to him as a ‘stupid slow rolling [censored]’) and Bondgirl tables JJ.
Flop: 854
Turn: 5
River: T

Bondgirl’s run comes to a close as she finishes in 24th for about $4800. The tournament has been going crazy in following her, hoping she at least final tables so the APPT will have a face to market to the new markets. Bondgirl was born in China and fluent in English, Mandarin and can understand/speak some Cantonese and as a 25 year old woman she’s exactly what they’re looking for. Despite only finishing 24th Pokerstars is excited at the prospect of her enough to offer her full sponsorship to APPT Syndey, which while somewhat emasculating means at least I get free hotel. Goooooooo meal ticket girlfriend!

The only problem with so many people talking into her ear is I’m getting concerned that she’ll start believing she’s as good as they say she is. While she played very well the entire event her game looked quite tight and she spent the next several hours questioning her JJ push. I tried to explain to her that the open raiser has to be such a totally absurd nit for her to ever consider folding in that spot. She claimed that he’d been very tight, but their sample size of hands was no more than 100 and most likely less than 70, meaning knowing an accurate opening range is basically impossible. Even if we give the villain the absurdly tight opening range of TT+/AQ+ we have 46.9% equity, and with the blinds and antes that’s all we need to jam, and that’s assuming worst case scenario. Additionally, the guy is snap folding AQ to her shove, and VERY possibly folding AK because of her image and the fact that he clearly has no understanding of equity and hand ranges. Still, I get the impression she still thinks she ‘could have got away’ or ‘found a better spot’ and after spending so much time trying to destroy that mentality it’s disturbing to see it creeping back in. I think I’ll ask Luckychewy to coach her in cash to really improve her post flop thought process.

Bondgirl, Timex, Tufat and I spend that night in the hotel spa getting massages of all kind. The facility is truly awesome, I got four massages and a late night dinner with a couple beers for what amounted to about 60 USD. It was so badass we even stood around all brushing our teeth together. Yea, clean teeth and fresh breath is how I roll.

I spend the next day discussing with the tournament directors what’s expected as far as the 15k event. He tells me in the morning that they have 23 registered and expect maybe forty. That doesn’t sound good at all. I talk to Timex about the event honestly, that I’d definitely like to play but if it’s going to be sick tough field we can both agree plunging further in make up against a very tough field seems pointless. Since we get no further information for the rest of the day I tell him I’ll talk to team [censored] about it and see if they have any interest.

We head out to the city to see the casinos in Macau and check out the food festival in front of the Macau tower. The festival is like a carnival entirely made up of food tents. By far the best part is the beer tent that has bottles that are two times the size of a normal bottle for 2/3rds of the price. I know that doesn’t make any sense and I don’t get it either, but you actually pay less for more beer. The end result of course is strolling through the fair grounds double fisting two massive beer bottles that I take turns swigging from, full of romantic nostalgia for my college days and that can’t of behavior not only being socially acceptable, but the norm. The only annoying part of the fair is getting, which we ended up doing by standing around in the rows of tables for 45 minutes waiting for people, after two failed bribery attempts.

In the spa later that night I talk on AIM with Psyduck who tells me while they’re very much interested in backing me at some point, the 15kament seems like a hell of a lot of variance for very little if any equity. I certainly can’t fault them for their decision.

I get to sleep a bit before 5am intending to do nothing but relax for the rest of the trip, wasting away my days at the spa having my back cracked in ways never before imagined…

…There’s a loud knock on the door.
“I’m still sleeping! Later please!”
The door knocks loudly again.
“Do you want to play the 15k or not!?” the door answers back.
“What!?”
I crawl out of bed and walk over to the door.
“Timex?”
“You want to play the 15k?”
“Uh okay, let me put some pants on.”

I put my clothes on and open the door. Timex and Travestyfund are outside waiting.
“What time is it?”
“11am, are you going to play?”
“Uhh, hmm. I guess I feel pretty good. Care if I shower quick?”
“Wait, we should go buy in first.”

We head downstairs and wait in the cashier line while a fat Russian lady keeps ranting “Ghive me byack my phassphort!!” at the teller over and over. When we finally get to the window, the counting phase of course takes forever. We manage to buy me in at 11:40, leaving me enough time to run upstairs, shower, and get changed, but nowhere close enough for breakfast. After my shower I speed down to the hotel lobby, grab an apple, then bolt upstairs in time for the second hand.

All week we’ve been trying to guess how many players the 15k would get. I’d been told everything from 20 to 80, with most people guessing somewhere in the 40’s. The final count turned out to be 64, a full 8 tables 8 handed.

I expected the field to be really tough, made up of perhaps 10 really good pros, 40 very solid pros, and 10 donks. I was very wrong. My table alone has four pretty bad players, two so bad I’m desperately trying not to get too distracted trying to come up with where they have $15,000 for something like this. We start with 15,000 in chips at 25/50 with hour levels. For the first hour I am completely card dead and stay almost completely uninvolved, besides a couple raises where I C bet and take down the pot. Outside Joe Hachem on my left and a guy named Scott on my right, the play seems really bad.

An example of the bad play: One player on the table a few seats on my right was limp/calling about 80% of hands if not more. In one such hand he limps in, a couple others limp, and the BB (Ziv Bachar, who won the previous APPT event and seems solid) checks. The flop comes AsTsXo and Ziv leads, only the station calls. On the turn Ziv checks, MP bets 300, Ziv check raises to 1300 and station calls. The river comes a low spade and Ziv leads 2000, and MP calls him. Ziv turns over ATo thinking it’s the nuts and MP shows him Js5s.

The first interesting hand comes up vs Hachem:
Effective stacks: ~15k
Blinds 50/100, I hold 8s7s in MP1.
Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 300, 1 fold, Hachem calls, the rest fold.
Flop: 5s Ac 9h
I bet 450, Hachem calls.
Turn: Jd
I bet 900, Hachem calls.
River: 2h
I check, Hachem bets 2500, I fold.

I’ve played with Joe before a number of times and he knows I’m thinking and aggressive. I think when I pick up the double gut shot there double barreling is pretty good, since on the flop he can flat call plenty of pairs to see if I multi barrel to represent the ace.

A round or so passes and little happens, then I finally find a spot to get some chips. The player on my left is a station and makes his intent very clear with his body language.
My stack: ~13.5k
BB: ~13k
Others: ~15k
I hold 22 in the SB with 50/100 blinds.
Preflop: Hachem raises to 300 UTG, folds to huge station in MP, MP calls, folds to me in SB, I call, BB calls.
Flop: 2 3 9 rainbow
When the flop comes out, the BB now puts a chip over his cards and slides them a little closer to him. I don’t think he could have hit this flop that hard, so I think he’s most likely top pair. If Hachem has a big pair I’m pretty sure he’ll raise my lead on this flop and I can call letting BB get stuck again, then very possibly lead again on the turn to prevent Hachem from checking behind.
I bet 1000, BB calls, Hachem folds, MP folds.
Turn: J
I bet 2500 hoping to take BB to maximum value town, but he thinks it over and then folds T9s face up. Damn, should have check min raised him for maximum dirtiness.

A round later and little has changed. The table is still playing very loose and we’re about 15 minutes from our first break. A major hand develops:
I hold 8s 5s with about ~15.5k. Scott on my right holds ~16.5k. I’ve been chatting to Scott for a while, and he seems like a nice guy, and seems pretty recreational. He has been tight passive with raises pre flop, and has been limping behind limpers and calling raises some but not much. I haven't seen him get aggressive much post.

One hand I did see him play he raised KK pre, got called by station, flop Q84 rainbow, he check calls, turn Q he check calls, river blank check/check. After the guy mucks Scott says something like "phew, that Q was no good, I gotta call you on the river though if you bet though.” On to the hand though. Blinds 50/100
Preflop: UTG limps, UTG+1 limps, UTG+2 raises to 350, 1 fold, Scott calls, I call on CO, button folds, blinds fold, limpers call.
Flop: Qs Js 4s
Boo [censored] yah. Unfortunately, everyone checks to me. I lead 1600. UTG thinks it over and folds, 3 more folds, and then it’s up to Scott. I’ve got my sunglasses on, and while directing my head towards the board I’m watching Scott with my eyes. He seems to mull things over, then counts out the 1600 and throws it in.
Turn: 2h
Scott checks. I think it over, stack up an amount, and fire in 3600. Again Scott thinks, doesn’t go for raising chips, and doesn’t do anything that’s a bad tell (like a sigh or a shrug) and throws in his money.
River: Jd
Not my favorite card but Scott checks again. I can’t imagine him slow playing any flush this far except an A high flush, and slow playing any hand this much is almost always bad. I think he would normally lead a set on the flop, and very possibly two pair, since he has no reason to think I’ll bet the flop for him. I think he’s likely holding something like an over pair with a spade, AsQx, AsJx, or the flopped nuts. I look down at my chips, count how much I have, and upon realizing I only have about 3/4th’s the pot (not really enough to bet fold in my opinion) I move in. Scott beats me into the pot and instantly tables As2s. I’m the second guy out of the tournament.

A less than wise man once said “Live players love the slow play and don't you forget it, no matter how bad the board/situation to do so.” My powers of prediction are quite creepy.

In the end 2+2 has a very poor showing in the 15k event and in AAPT Macau in general. Bondgirl was our highest finisher in the main event (to my knowledge) and not one of us cashed the 15k.

I elected to spend the remainder of my time in Macau wasting away in the spa or stumbling around the food fair, massive beer in one hand and delicious Indian food in the other. I haven’t added it up fully yet but I’m almost positive I’ve slipped into six figure make up with Timex as a result of this trip, though he seems less than concerned and with APPT Syndey only 9 days away I’ll be chasing those losses in no time. This [censored] ain’t over live poker.