Aria $1600: Day One

Breaking down the hands that got it going

I used to have a feature on my old blog called “Monday Night” where I’d play Full Tilt Poker’s $1k Monday while blogging every hand I played. I got feedback and threw some chum to the voyeurs. Since the pandemic, I’ve written down every poker hand I’ve been unsure how to play in the Notes app on my iPhone. I send many of these hands to online pro Ben Greenberg for analysis and save some for deep dives with other pros. Although my first major tournament victory was the $1k Monday, that came before I started blogging it. I longed to write a “Monday Night” post chronicling an exciting final table run, but every one ended in a humdrum bustout.

There was no humdrum bustout in Aria’s $1600 BetMGM Championship. There was no bustout at all. My dream of narrating an entire poker tournament victory has arrived. Here, I am going to share every significant hand I played in this tournament.

I am not concerned about sharing my strategy, for a few reasons:

1. I’m not a great player. I don’t have secret, diabolical strategies I use to exploit unsuspecting victims. I’m just a mediocre live pro who got very lucky to win a big Vegas tournament. In time, I hope and believe I will be an excellent no limit hold ‘em tournament player, but this win came way ahead of schedule. I believe I will be the biggest beneficiary of people reading and commenting on these hands.

2. I want people to read my Substack. I doubt anything more compelling than this win will come around anytime soon.

3. During my first go-round, my favorite poker book was Gus Hansen’s Every Hand Revealed, a hand-by-hand account of his 2007 Aussie Millions victory. It was exciting, unadulterated strategy from the world’s best poker tournament player. It detailed a wild hand with two tables left vs. my comrade Paul Wasicka. I was surprised and encouraged by how close Gus’s decisionmaking was to mine. I figure if a master at the height of his powers like Gus felt comfortable revealing his hands, so can I. You’ll see I didn’t do anything special.

After flying to Vegas, I played four straight long days in the gargantuan 9,670 player WPT Prime. I busted out of Days 1B and 1C at night, cashed 1D, then made a deep run on day two before expiring in 233rd place. Tired, drained, and a tinge disappointed to have sniffed The Big Score before walking with a $540 profit, I slept in the next day. I ate a late brunch with my friend Rich at Urth Caffé, took a gander at a piece of art in the Wynn he mentioned and walked outside. I stood on Las Vegas Boulevard for five minutes contemplating what to do with the day. I was kinda planning to play a Milestone satellite for the $10k WPT Championship, but it wasn’t for another two hours. Jon G was playing the Aria $1600 and texted about what a great field it was. It was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day, so I decided a walk down the Strip to the Aria would be nice.

I drew the same table Jon had started and busted at. In my experience, “off-site” Vegas tournaments running alongside majors like the WPT Championship or WSOP play extremely wild and aggressive, at least early on. I suppose it’s a combination of tilt-blasters, cash gamers and amateurs caught up in the maelstrom. Within an orbit, that prior was confirmed. The table had some hardcore whales, a few aggressive pros and a bold foreign lady who Queened the table with an iron fist. Rarely do we want to bring a preconceived strategy into a tournament, but in this one I was grateful for my previous experiences playing off-site Vegas tournaments. I knew if I took a hand into battle, I better be prepared for some serious shrapnel. Thus, I was selective with my starting hands.

Most of these hand histories are verbatim copies from my Notes app. I’ve added some additional thoughts in italics for some of them. These aren’t all the hands I played, just the ones I wasn’t sure about + the biggest pots.

200-400. Start with 38k.

Old guy who has played every hand since I sat down opens LJ to 1k. I call black 66 in cutoff. SB who looks like an old fish makes it 3700. LJ calls I call. 985hh SB bets 5100 LJ folds I decide to fold cause these guys don’t like to fold overpairs in my experience. He should probably be checking his range here?

300-500. Start with 34k.

UTG8 1100. Guy I recognize. Button calls. I have A8cc in SB and elect to call. This is probably bad, seems like a good squeezer. Flop 873hhs. I decide to ck. UTG 800. Button 3500. I tank fold and despise myself.

300-500. Start with 32k.

Open black TT from LJ to 1200. Old guy on button who is now a confirmed fish calls. BB calls. T96r BB cks I ck old guy bets 2300 BB makes it 8k I call button folds. Turn 3s second spade he cks I bet 8700 he calls. River J he cks I jam 16k he snap folds.

It might be better for me to raise the flop to get it in vs. lower made hands and make draws pay.

300-600. Start with 52k.

Old guy opens HJ 1600 I call AQss cutoff. Button (penis-measuring contest winner) 6k. Old guy calls I call. AK6ddh cked to button who bets 4k. Old guy calls I call. Turn 3h old guy cks I ck button 16k old guy folds I call. River 9 I think a minute about jamming my last 25k as he will ck back a lot of stuff he might call a jam with. But I ck and he jams and I call and he has AcQd.

400-800. Start with 61k.

Open KJdd UTG to 1800. Aggro lady with enormous stack makes it 5800 from the HJ. I call. QhQdTh I ck she bets 3k I call. Turn 3d I ck she bets 18k I jam 52k she thinks a minute and folds.

This lady was pretty talented & tough but she made a mistake to bet 90% pot here on the turn with whatever she had.

500-1k.

Guy I recognized 4bet ripped A6s for 30 BBs UTG1 vs my cutoff 3bet when I had AK. I held.

Next hand I opened KQ from HJ. Cutoff 3bet. I 4bet. He 5bet. I folded and he showed QTcc. The lesson is to have it. Or to actually have the biggest stones.

Then I opened 88 UTG to 2200. He 3bet next to act to 7k. I called. 987r. I led 5500. He called. Turn 4 badugi I bet 16,800 he called. River 3 I jammed 59k. He called AJ.

This was the biggest pot I won in the tournament, at least in terms of BBs. The key to it was leading the flop. Eight months ago I would have checked the flop and won a much smaller pot. The guy, who turned out to be a strong and friendly English pro, talked about how most people don’t lead a set there. He was also leveled by showing the QTcc 5-bet the hand before, not knowing if I was trying to win the penis-measuring contest. Little did he know I had conceded that to him on the QTcc hand.

500-1k

Open QJss 2nd pos. Button calls. Kc5s3h I bet 1/4 he calls. Turn Ts I bet 80% he calls. River 9s I bet pot which is most of his stack he folds.

1-2k. Start with 160k.

UTG opens with 150k. EP jams 40k. I look down at JJ in HJ while scarfing an Impossible Burger and smoothcall. UTG folds. EP has AK and makes top boat.

1.5-2.5k. Start with 125k.

Excellent Euro pro opens HJ. I defend J7cc. 9d8d3c I ck he bets 7500 I make it 22k he calls. Turn Qc I jam 90k he folds I show the 7c.

This was my only show of the tournament and it proved to be significant, as I would play a similar hand against the same foe on day two.

1.5-3k

Superaggro Bigstacked lady opens HJ I defend A4hh. T76r one heart I ck she bets 5k I call. Turn A I ck she bets 16k I call. River 5 I ck she cks back AQ which is a huge bailout as I was instacalling up to pot.

2-4k

Open KTdd EP. BB defends. J84ssc he cks I ck back. Turn 9 he cks I bet 70% he folds.

2-4k

Open AsQc EP BB defends. T98cc ck ck. Turn J he bets 2 BBs I call. River Ac he cks I bet 4 BBs he calls with QJ. He could lead flop.

3-5k

Open KhJc UTG. Antonio (Black Hawk legend & friend) calls HJ and BB calls. Q74ss cked around. Turn 7 cked around. River 5 BB cks I bet 2/3 they fold.

3-6k. Start hand with 23 BBs. 17% paying 12%.

Cutoff opens on like 50 BBs I defend A5o. AQ3 I ck call 2.2. Turn 6 ck ck. River 2 I bet 2.5 he calls I win.

The Solver liked a non-all-in 3bet here. It doesn’t mind a jam.

3-6k. Start hand with 29 BBs. 16% left paying 12%.

Open AsKd UTG. BB defends with 50ish. JJ9chd ck ck. Turn 2d ck ck. River 7d he bets 1/3. I end up folding. I think a river raise is rather good here but I didn’t want to do it on the bubble.

3-6k. 15% left paying 12%. Start hand with 25 BBs.

Sean H (strong Colorado player and new friend) opened second to last hand of the night from LJ on 35ish BBs. I had KQo in cutoff with 25 BBs. Behind me were three straight ~20 BB stacks including Antonio in BB. Every one had done something that appeared reckless at this stage. Fascinating spot cause normally Sean should be opening very wide. But I would open tight here because they didn’t seem to understand the ICM. Flatting was out of the question because of this dynamic. I have seen Sean punt pf in spots but I think he’s gotten a lot better and more conservative in recent months. I think I should probably 3bet small. But I folded.

I was disappointed to end the night with this hand because

• I decided a small 3bet was correct, but didn’t come to that decision during the hand

• My colleagues agreed small 3bet was correct

• Sean later told me he had KJ

• I felt I had played an excellent session and this left a bad taste in my mouth

But I took an enchanting three-mile midnight walk back to the house across the Strip, feeling absolute wonder and gratification at the opportunity to travel to places like this and play poker for a living.