WPT Vietnam Report

Why do we tolerate the outdated decor, smoky hallways, non-existent air conditioning, half hearted dealers, constant card marking, 50k for water, 10% “tax”, slow rollers and bad beat celebrations of Pro Poker Club? Because the tourneys are soft! Of course I wish the conditions are better but I’ll take soft fields over comfort and atmosphere any day. 

This past WPT was a measuring stick for me. I wanted to see if I am good enough to continue on this path or should I just forget about tournament poker. I made a horrendous mistake on the High Roller but other than that I think I played a decent series. It’s my first triple ITM series where I cashed the Kick-off, PLO and main event.

PLO FT second chip leader

The kick-off was pretty uneventful, standard hands, coolers and KO. Then I jumped into the short deck event. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. First bullet I busted when middle position over jam KK pre, I had AA on the button I rejam, big blind decides to call with JT. Flop was 678, turn 9. Then my second bullet I jammed 30 antes with KK only to be called by big blind’s A7o. Flop A.

PLO was the painful one. I was 2nd chip leader with 5 players left. I had the other players covered by quite a bit. UTG I opened QQJ8ds. Chip leader on the sb called. Flop KQ3r I decided to slow play. Turn was 4s and now with two spades on board. Chip leader donks for the pot, I repot and he jammed. Snap call. He shows JJ52sss. Yes he had 3 spades in his hand. I had 70% at the time to become the new chip leader with 3 short stacks left. River A. Should I have fast played my flop? I don’t think so. Can’t be result oriented and I like my line. I got him to commit 300k with 30% equity.

First plaque in Vietnam

Main event at one point in day2 I was top 5 in chips. I lost AT < TT 8bb jam, then lost AQ < TT for 15bb. On my left was a UK player who had been 3 betting my opens quite a few times. One time I decided to defend my open with JThh. Flop came 985hxx. I check raise his cbet and was snapped off by AA. I still had 37% equity and turned a T which kept me at 30% ish for the river. But it wasn’t what I hoped for. Two 70-30 flips that did not go my way.

Last event of the series I played in the High Roller. Leading up to my last bust I had QQ on the big blind. Utg1 opened, button flat, I 3bet to 7x, initial aggressor folds, button jams for 60bb and I snap off. He shows AKo. Board ran T7T4A. Gg. 

Overall I think I played a decent series but again not finishing super deep means it wasn’t a great result. If I won that PLO hand I would have had a shot at winning that event for 10K USD instead I got 1800 for finishing 5th. But I collected my 5th ITM for the year, with 2 FTs, outpacing my 2018 results at a much higher ITM %. I decided to extend my dream for just a while longer, heading to Taipei for J88 and the HK/Taiwan Series. 

Same denomination but different color. Call me OCD

So far I have kept to my new year resolutions. But upon reflection, I still need to work on my discipline and focus. In some hands I have shown flashes of brilliance that most pros would be proud of, but at times I would make mistakes even fishes would laugh about. Gotta work on increasing the first part and reducing the second.

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7-day challenge #embracethegrind

I have not played poker consecutive days this long for a very long time. After finishing up tourneys in Taipei, I decided to go to Cambodia for a week of grinding before heading to Vietnam for the WPT. The problem with most tournaments in Asia is that legal cash games are not available. (For example Vietnam, Taiwan, China)

Inspired by YouTuber Johnnie Vibes and his 30-day challenge, I did a 7 day challenge myself. After arriving I did not play the same day because I think playing fresh is very important. I played the following day and day 1 was not a great start. To be honest by the time I am writing this I have forgotten most of the key hands that day. But I remember being pretty tired at the end and spewing chips on the 2/5 table.

 Day 1 = -877 USD

I guess I hadn't played cash games for two weeks leading up to the game, and I was just figuring out who were the sharks and fishes on the table. But it's good that I came across as a non-threatening player to the regs so they would play more with me in the following days.

Day 2 = +992 USD

On day 2 I had a better session this time grinding out a $992 profit in a few hours. My memory is failing me where I used to be able to remember hands from years ago, now I can't even remember most of it in a matter of days. Sigh... the price of wisdom (or maybe just old age)

Day 3 I can remember pretty well being that it was more recent than day1 and 2 lol but there was a key hand that turned the whole session around. I was +800 within 1 hour and was thinking of calling it a night when this hand happened. Button straddled to 10, big blind thought that it was 15 and put in $15. The dealer forced him to raise to $20 when I am in co with KK. Button is a tough thinking player who likes to play pots with me and makes big moves on me. So I thought this is a spot where I can pretend that I am trying to steal the $20 mistaken raise. I popped it up to $70. Button now makes it $190 and we had about $1600 effective. Now I am thinking my plan worked. He thinks I am stealing so he is re-stealing! I made it $850, he jammed and I snap call. Well, he has AA. Bye bye $800 profit and I was now -$800. From then on I think I forced the game and got in pots that I shouldn't have. I managed to grind back to even but I got greedy. Wanted a profit but ended up losing $2200 for the night.

Day 3 = -$2200

I am a firm believer in self reflection. Took time to review my play and critiqued myself. Came to day 4 with a better mindset. Game was pretty uneventful for me, but there were a few big pots (that I was not involved in) but it got some of the players tilted so we made it a 5/10 game. Key pot for me was I backed into a runner runner flush and I almost tripled up. Then proceeded to make a few big bluffs and overpot value bets that got paid off. I had a great night. I usually stop playing after midnight as I wanted to keep a healthier lifestyle. This game I told myself was worth staying up for. I stayed until 5am and won $3100 for the day.

Day 4 = +$3100

The next day I went to the game to kill time while waiting for a friend to go to dinner. The 2/5 games were full so I sat on the 1/3 while waiting. This was when I won 600bbs from a drunk uncle who is one of the funniest and nicest people on the table. One key hand was utg raised to $12, 5 callers and uncle on sb made it $65. There's $130-ish in the pot and I needed to call $53 more in position completing action, and we had a 300bb effective stack, I decided to flat with 54hh. Flop was J53hh. He cbets $150. I think he's never smashing this flop except for JJ so I jam $800 and he calls. Turns a 4 rivers a 3. I thought the paired board counterfeited my two pairs but instead he flips over 42o for an open ended straight draw. Anyway day 5 was short but sweet with a nice profit.

Day 5 = +1275

Playing 5 days straight at my age does take a toll. I caught a flu so now I am battling a headache and block nose while playing. I started the day with $1000 and whittled down to $500. But anyway I got paid on on a river jam with A8 on a KA35Accc board by KJdd and I doubled up to $1000. After a few small pots here and there came this hand. Button straddled to $10, sb, bb and utg called. I am utg1 with AKdd I made it $50. Sb and utg called. Flop came 542ccd. Sb donks for $60, utg calls, I call. Turn 9d sb bets 120, utg calls, I call. River Td. Sb bets 225, I have around 1k behind. I jam and he tank called. Won a couple of hands after and ended the day with a decent profit.

Day 6 = +1614

Final day of my 7-day challenge as I am leaving for Vietnam the day after, I started off slow but one hand turned it all around. At this point I was down about $800. Utg opened to 20, co on is a huge whale makes it 55. I am on the button with KJ and because of the whale's range, I thought I can flat in position. Flop comes KJ8ss. Both checked, I bet 85. Co calls. Turn is another K. I thought I can let the fd get there so it went check check. River was a blank Q. Co checks. I overbet the pot by 2x+ by betting 500. I had about 500 behind. He tanked for a while and called with 88!!! I was thinking I must have gotten max value here but instead I missed value! He was planning a check raise all along but because of my huge oversize bet he just flatted. But anyway I think long term this line is okay.

Day 7 = +447

Overall in 7 days I am up $4351, about 800bb, estimated about 40 hours of play. Not a super great result cause I have had scores of 800bb+ in one session. But I am ecstatic with this result. I think most of the time I played well, but of course I did get lucky in some spots and got paid. I am not as sharp and have the stamina I used to, but I am proud to have played 7 days straight and still pulled out a respectable profit. I will be back again and this time I will try a longer challenge. Maybe 10 or 14 days.

Latest Update

Sorry for not posting in a while. I want to keep this blog active and I have just been busy. But I thought I share some updates with you guys.

So far this year I have only managed two ITMs which is definitely not what I was hoping for. But I am happy that I played reasonably well. I just re-watched one of the live streams I was in and it was cool to hear comments from Jason Sommerville and the RunItUp team. They agreed with some of my moves but also have mixed comments about the others. I definitely learned a lot from listening to them. Before you say I am gonna moan about my bad beats, which I had my fair share of them this year, but I had some good hands as well so it kinda evens out. I couldn't win a flip with QJss on a T9x flop vs Ah all in preflop to finish 2nd in a recent tournament. But I was happy to be on the ft again and I like the new way I am playing.

Unfortunately I did not finish 2nd in this event

This year I have been playing more cash games and have done well. So far the winnings have been sustaining my living costs and a bit more, including tournament buy ins so I am pretty happy. This year I set out to be degen-free and I am proud to say despite visiting a few casinos, I have kept myself away from any table games, sports bets, etc.

Yesterday I sat down on a 1/3 table waiting for a spot on 2/5 when this uncle who seems drunk sits down with 1k chips. Not particularly trying to target him, but I like to cover everyone on the table so I matched his buy in. Soon enough I got into big hands with him and he would reload for the max, sometimes trying to sneak in more than the max. I was up 600bb in less than an hour. But I can feel that he was upset and he seemed like a nice guy. I tried to chat him up and at one point I even check back a full house and showed him. There were comments of why I didn't go for value. Well first of all I put him on a range where he couldn't call any bets on the river. Even if he could, it was maximum like $40 I could have gotten from him. Instead I felt that being a gentleman to him and possibly losing $40 of value was the better move. You might think that I did that so that I can extract future value from him, and maybe so, but genuinely in my mind I was trying to be nice. Comes back to a post I made a couple of months ago about me being too nice. You can read that HERE if you missed it. Being nice actually saved me some money a few hands before this one.

Preflop UTG tight player opens. I have AK on the button I usually would raise here but I elected to flat. Uncle completes on the bb. Flop 866. Initial raiser cbets I float, uncle calls. Turn A. All checked. (I elected to hide my AK so I thought I continue with that story to get value on river). River is a T. Uncle donks out 70% of the pot. After winning 600bb from him I thought I should just call. He rarely has a hand that beats me, but I chose not to value raise. He flips over TT. Say what you like but I rather be a nice guy and still play for a living. Unlike some pros who are assholes on the table. They think they are better than everyone else, not just poker wise but as a human being.

Did well one night when a few bosses were tilted

This year I have been to 7 countries in 2 months. Luckily I do love travelling. But travel comes with a cost, and most places I go to do not have legal cash games. So I do have a high opportunity cost when it comes to playing tournaments. However I still would like to play a bit more but then again, if I don't bink one soon then I am gonna have to play cash games only instead.