600 PLO MTT @ Venetian

12000 starting chips at 25/25 blinds with 40 min. levels and reentry

Hero late registered around 5:25PM (tourney started at 4:00PM) and missed first 2 levels.

It would have helped to remember/realize that it was taking place at the Palazzo. Unfortunately, parking at the Venetian meant an additional 5-10 minutes of trying to find it.

Hero saw 1 playable hand in the 1 rotation other than 1 player building up a stack.

There was the standard people gambling before the end of the reentry period and one person busted, but otherwise it was uneventful.

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Hero's stack: around 14.3k at first break.

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An interesting hand which eliminated 2 people in level 4:

4c 4h 2c

Sadly, I do not remember all the action, but I think it involved the following:

[unknown preflop action]

checks to CO who bets

SB raises

BB tanks/folds

CO raises all in

SB calls.

(2 players all in)

turn: 6c

BB (who tanked/folded) had an OESD (5c 3c x x) and was upset on seeing the turn

CO had a4xx with 2 other live over kickers

BB had 22xx and it held.

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Hero was very quiet/tight (usually was PFR and hero folded junk).

Hero maybe played 1 hand in 2-3 levels (suited ace in limped pot) but was not in any profitable situations.

Thus, hero had tight table image.

In this hand, PFR (HJ) seemed to be opening a lot of pots to 2-2.5x (maybe VPIP/PFR of 30/22 in FR which is loose). In about 4-5 rotations, saw this villain raise 6-8x.

CO: looser player, but seemed to be competent

effective stack sizes: ~13k @ 100/200

hero dealt: AK32 (A3)(K2) double suited

folds to player in HJ

HJ opens to 2.5x (standard opening raise size for this player) - ~500)

CO: calls

Hero 3b to 1750

HJ 4b to 5k

looser player calls in CO

hero flat calls 5k

(~15k in pot, hero has ~8k left)

flop: K82 (two tone, hero has flush draw)

HJ (PFR/4b): bets ~3k

CO calls

Hero: raises all in for 8k

villain calls

CO calls

(~39k in pot; hero is AI)

turn: K82J (two tone; hero has FD)

PFR/4b: bets enough to put other person all in

CO: folds

river: K82J5 (two tone; hero misses flush)

hero is out around level 5 (~280/362)

Analysis:

Not sure if played correctly. After talking it over with some other people, 5b jam might have been best.

It can be super exploitable to c/f on bad flops....

Ultimately, chips still got in on the flop, so nothing ultimately changed per se.

Other analysis:

Source 1: Vanessa Selbst talks about it in duck's dog days donkaments (episode 8: 25:20 time mark)

villain played it perfectly by betting small into hero (and other player), hero has to turn "hand face up" and/or fold super cheaply.

Source 2 - A friend's analysis:

It's a disaster if something like AK2* doesn't get it in.

It's very likely any of the following could happen (where hero has enough equity to get it in on most flops)

AK is "best hand" combo and wins when no one else gets pair.

Hero rarely doesn't flop pair/fd/straight draw/any sort of equity.

Ultimately, chips should go in preflop, but no harm no foul in this spot.