Alex Bolotin Blog

Another quick exit before the first break. The two tables I had were pretty tough, especially considering the low buy-in. Made it to level 2 with 4k out of starting 4500 (no major pots, just a few c-bet nothing/give up). 25/50 I open QQ UTG to 150, HJ calls, SB calls, 875r flop, chk, I bet 300, HJ flats, SB makes it 1400. My first instinct was to fold, but then I started thinking “it’s hard to flop a set”, maybe he has 66 or 99 and HJ has like T9 (lol live pro one hand ranges), I’m tanking for like a min or two and the dealer is just yapping non-stop with Gank (the dealer was terrible, flipping cards, saying “call” when it was a “raise”, pulling in wrong amounts and not noticing, and loudly talking to the players, instead of doing his job properly), the noise didn’t help with my decission making and I make the wrong one, by going all in, HJ folds, and SB snaps me with 77. Clear mistake on my part, the all-in was reckless and just plain stupid for many reasons, including HJ being perfectly capable of having a better hand as well, and just stacking off with an overpair in a single-raised pot vs 2 people 80 BBs deep…is not good. Better step my game up if I want to bring home the gold. On the bright side, I booked a bet with a fish, my 4k vs his 2k that he will not cash in this event, awaiting for the mood-lifting text as we speak. Tomorrow $1,500 triple chance NL, if I want to take it down I better come correct.

Message to Rio: Dear Rio, I am not amused with a lot of things in this casino, but charging 25 cents for shopping bags just might be the last straw. Please, don’t make me start a poker union, believe me, you don’t need this in your life.

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Woke up at 11:30, but made it on time. 3k starting stacks, at the end of 1st level 3400. Towards the end of level 2, 25/50, I have 2900 left, Amanda Musumeci makes it 125 in the CO, I make it 425 in the SB with AK (prob should have made it smaller), she tank/ships, I snap (prob should have folded, she’s been playing kinda snug), and lose to her KK. Next event 1500 NL 6-max, hope I take it down.

Good luck to Eric Buchman and Eugene Katchalov, who are 2 and 3 out of 12 in the $1,500 Stud!

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Despite waking up at 10am, got to the table 5 min late, 15k stacks. The hands in the first level were insignificant, so I had the starting stack going into level 2, 50/100. 8 handed, earlyish position makes it 300, young kid in the CO who I played with before, but don’t remember his name makes it 900, I 4 bet KK on the button, EP folds, kid ships, I snap (although somewhat unhappily, he’s suppose to have Aces there shipping 150 BBs pre-ante), kid turns over AK and binks an Ace on the flop. Oh well, next event for me is the 1k NL on Saturday, the field should be enormous, with a first place of well over half a million, I hope I’ll play well.

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Me and Gene Todd Tran Bro (I know it’s “Gene and I”, but I like “me” more) arrived to Borgata at 1:30am (bastard picked me up 3 hours later than he said, daughter’s batmitzvah though, I guess it’s a reasonable excuse), by the time we check in/room service gets there its 3am, we watch “Hall Pass”, and go to sleep at 5am, which is 3 hours too late when the tourney starts at 11am. I think the lack of sleep was the main reason for my downfall.

I arrive 15 min late, 30k stacks, 50 min levels, 25/50. Early position limps, late postion limps, SB completes, I check 63ss in the BB, 975ccx, checked around, 4o turn, SB bets 200, I make it 525, early limper makes it 1800, I call, river 2o, I check, he bets 3500, and I honestly think the best play is to raise, because he’s unlikely to limp 86 in early postion/check flop 4 handed 2nd last to act with a flush draw on the board, and since chances are he is a weak player (avg player in this field is very weak), he’s likely to pay off the river raise with sets/higher 2 pairs. I pussy out and just call, he shows 86hh, still think raising is better than calling. This was the first knockdown of the tournament, which wasn’t good, as I’m a decent front runner, but I don’t handle things going wrong nearly as well as I should (must work on that, champions welcome adversity).

I extend a 10 min break to a 25 min one (sure, why not, let’s miss 10 hands for no reason, that’s how we gonna win), come back, and splash around. I play weak hands in weak positions at a 10 handed pre ante table, I setmine for more than I should, I pay very little attention to the action, and deservingly I get destroyed. My last 10k went in when there was an early limper at 200/400/50, big stack in HJ made it 1600, and I 4500/called the big stack with A3s from the SB, he had AQs, window card Queen, dead on the turn, well played me! I don’t like how I played that hand, simply because the big stack was reasonably solid, so I had no reason to believe he was light often enough (he didn’t punish limpers, limp/folded JTs face up, limped with small PPs/SCs in general), vs someone LAG I think my play would have been good. I’m very dissapointed with myself for playing bad, and in Vegas I expect my attitude and my play to be very different. Another thing that makes me very sad is that I had $300 on myself to win, at 128 to 1 (450 players), and it’s not even missing out on the 38k (although don’t get me wrong, it would have been very nice), but rather the fact that I know I can rip through this field like hot knife through butter, and the look on their faces when they would pay me 38k would be fucking priceless. I will be placing the same bet on few future tournaments, I’m craving that look, and I will get it.

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I was really eager to play poker, needing my gambling injection after over a week of inactivity,caused by online poker sites being forced out of the US market. Borgata Main had 2 starting days, so I played day 1A on Sunday. There were only 123 players that day, due to Easter (I think this holiday commemorates the resurection of Jesus, 3 days after we got him). Starting stack was 30k, structure was amazing, with most good players being in FL field was fairly soft, so I build to 55k with virtually zero risk. Last hand before dinner break there’s a raise to 800(?), 2 callers, I call with 44, some more callers, flop comes AJ4hhx, original raiser bets 2k, Charderfan30 (I think?) flats, I make it 9k, original raiser flats with 2 hearts, Charderfan tanks for a long time and ships, having me covered, I call, original raiser (who actually didn’t have that many chips) folds two hearts, CF shows AJ, and I hold (heart on the turn, original raiser would have won the main pot, so I’m running great in all aspects). I go to dinner as tournament chipleader with 123k, the day ends with 45 players remaining, and I’m in 4th place with 147k in chips. Day 1B drew over 300 players, which produced a lot of big stacks, about 150 players survived from both starting days combined, so I entered Day 2 20th in chips. Work day lasted about 13 hours.

First level of day 2 some grandpa raises to ~3k, and I call on the button with 22. Flop comes K92hhx, he checks, I bet 4k, he calls, turn is a King, he checkraises my 9k bet to 25k. When he checkraised, I figured his most likely holding is a weirdly played King, so while I considered just flatting and getting it on the river, I was afraid if a 3rd heart comes, it might discourage him from paying me off, so I raised again, he shipped for a ~100k, I snapped, and was unpleasantly surprised to see K9s, so suddenly I went from a big stack to below avg. Not to worry, coolered Andrew Brown with my QQ vs his TT, won some more pots, so big stack again. Lost some chips on the bubble due to not paying attention earlier, but gained some back by busting the bubble, winning a flip with my AQs vs bubble boy’s TT. I ended the day with 410k, which was good for 19th place out of 25 players remaining. Work day=16 hours.

On the final day the run good continued, as I kept picking up good hands and good situations. I entered the final table 6/10 in chips, and was very sad to see that most players at the final table were really really good. I blinded down a bit, luckboxed again when I won a huge flip with my AQs vs Mr Perfekt’s JJ, which put me back to avg of 2 million, and then I played a hand really bad. 25k/50k/5k, kid who was somewhat tight minraises in middle position, Dave, who’s been playing relatively tight also, 3bets button to 240k, and I look down at QQ in the SB. Somehow I managed to convince myself that if I’ll 4bet-get it in I’ll be either flipping or in bad shape, and if I’ll flat, I’ll be in a mirky situation out of position, so I made a horrendous fold, kid snap folded, and Dave later told me he had AJ. After that hand poker gods decided to punish me for rejecting their generous gift, and I found myself as the shortest stack with 6 left (I didn’t really lose chips, but people kept knocking people out, and building huge stacks which were dwarfing mine). My stack got shorter and shorter as the blinds were rising, but my luck hasn’t run out yet, as much bigger stacks than myself kept busting, moving me up on the payscale. Eventually I was 3 handed with 12 BBs, shipped JJ on the button, Russel Crane, (who ended up winning the event, great job, congratulations to him!), called me with AKss, I knew I was in trouble when the flop came 2 spades, King on the turn, and Ace on the river just for good measure. So yeah, 3rd for 97k, which obviously isn’t nearly as good as champion for 276k, but given that I was last in chips from 6 handed on, I really can’t complain. Really happy with the fact that I got some bullets for WSOP. Work day=13 hours

My 2011 live tourney stats so far:

Borgata 500+1 re-entry 6th out of 1472 for 31.7k
Borgata 300+1 re-entry brick
Borgata 3500 brick
Caesar 1650 brick
Harrah’s 300 brick
Borgata 2700 3rd out of 447 for 97.5k

Tournaments played: 6, cashed: 2, final tables: 2, wins: 0, buyins: $9,750. payouts: $129,200
Analysis: ROI: decent, sample size: enormous, FT rate: reasonable, win rate: unacceptable
Conclusion: I will not fold another big pair for as long as I live.

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This tournament was a lot of fun, with many familiar faces, fast structure, and announcements like “No English at the table”. There were several teams, representing the event sponsors (I was captain of Team Volna), and the team with the most points would win an all expense paid vacation. The level of play wasn’t exactly world class, as some of the participants played poker for literally the first time in their lives. We started with 10k, I got my first double when I raised a limper w/QQ, and bet-bet-bet on Q93hhxKh2x, and beat JJhx. My second double came when I raised AQ, bet Q high flop, shipped for pot size amount on the turn, which brought the 2nd spade, and beat KQss. I blind down to 35k at 600/1200/ante, folds to the button who makes a big raise, I 3-bet/call TT from the SB, and lose the flip to his AJs. All in all, I was reasonably happy with the way I played.

I would like to thank Illan Shpiro and Restaurant Volna for giving me the privillege to represent them (this is actually the first time in my career I was a “sponsored pro”). I really enjoyed playing this event, and I’m looking forward to play (and win this time) this event next year!

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Good turnout for this event, ~450 players, 140k+10k seat for 1st, 20k starting stacks, 40 min levels. Got down to 17k after first 3 levels, then at 100/200 loose guy who likes to limp limps in middle, I overlimp button w/76o, both blinds complete, flop 543 rainbow, SB pots it for 800, limper makes it 3200, I flat 3200 hoping SB will call also, SB ships, limper tanks! It’s moments like this that make me love poker. Unfortunately, limper folds his 75o (or fortunately, we would have chopped by the river), SB shows Q2o (lol), so I got almost 40k.
Matt Glantz moves to the table, I have utter respect for him as a person and as a poker player, but he often gets the best of me at the poker table, which is obviously unacceptable. Late position raises, I call QTs from SB, Matt calls from BB, KT6 gets checked around, I bet King turn, Matt raises, I fold like a little girl, outplayed again. I raise 55, Matt flats in position, I bet KQJssx flop, Matt calls, he could be floating to see if I give up, so I bet on the small brick turn, he calls, at this point I’m putting him on (hoping rather) on AQ-AJ type of hand, river comes a another brick, I fire the 3rd barrel and he folds, I couldn’t resist showing a five, not very classy of me, but the message “stop fucking with me” needed to be sent.
Build it up to the high point of 55k, and then I start getting a lot of mid pocket pairs, so I would open and either: a)I got 3bet huge, where I had no fold equity or the best hand, b)I got flatted by 3 ppl and I check/folded missed flop, or c)I got flatted by one person, I c-bet AKx type flops and got raised every time. So after a few hours of this nonsense I’m down to 23k at 600/1200/200, I get 66 UTG 7 handed (I think, our table was breaking after this hand), so I just ship it to avoid all the problems I faced earlier, and run into KK. Thought it was a profitable shove, surprised to find out that according to Sheet’s “unexploitable” chart it isn’t. Should have raise/folded probably, maybe even open folding is the right play.

Been playing a bit of MiniFTOPS for shits and giggles. Sunday’s event 22 $13 KO multi-entry drew an amazing 55,000 players, with 80k for 1st place. I run like god, amassing an enormous stack early, then cool down with like 50 people left and even spend some time grinding a stack with an M of 1. With 2 tables left I win every showdown, and suddenly I’m 4/13 (with only 27 BBs though). So there is a 1k pay jump from 13th to 12th, which I obviously don’t care about, but players remaining, who normally play 10 dollar tournaments might find it very significant. We’re 6 handed, and our table looks like this:
I’m in a (SB) with 27 BBs,
(BB) 7 BBs,
(UTG) 4 BBs,
(UTG+1) 25 BBs,
(CO) 40 BBs,
(BTN) 25 BBs
CO and BTN are winning players, playing aggro. CO min-raises, BTN 3bets to 5 BBs, and I have the worst hand in tournament poker: AQo. With the pay jump, 2nd shortest stack in the BB and CO/BTN being aggro/good, their ranges are insanely wide and AQ is WAY ahead, so I obviously ship and CO wakes up with KK. I get $2,500 for 13th place, which is of course nowhere near 80k that my little heart desired. Fucking AQ.

Decided to spend the last of my “bankroll” on lessons from a pro who’s tournament game I have great respect for, at an hourly rate that I’m sure real world people would find astonishing (maybe I’m exaggerating, but I personally would shovel shit if I could get that hourly for shovelling shit full time), I’m still convinced the rate is well worth it, because the best deserves top dollar, we’re sorta agreed, but now the pro seems to be dodging me, oh well, maybe I’m better off with a few dollars to play with and little knowledge than zero dollars and lots of knowledge. As far as that pro, I intend on stacking her (hint) , until that pro approaches ME for lessons (the “beef” ((it’s not even a beef, I’m very slightly irritated, and even that is negated by the fact that I’m somewhat happy get to keep my last dollar)) is obviously strickly poker-wise, absolutely no hard feeling on the personal level).

Not sure what’s next on schedule, but I need to start playing something, the WSOP is around the corner, and it will cost 100-150k, which I currently don’t have, so if I want to retain my title of ” #1 in the world in WSOP NLH final tables 2006-current”, I need to get to work.

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Forgot to post this (I post every live tourney I play, so when it’s time to do taxes, it’s easy to add the buy-ins). Played on zero sleep, was falling asleep at the table, was in for 700 total (1 re-entry), all I remember is the bust hand, there was a raise, I shipped 20 BBs w/A6o, another guy cold 4bet all in, showed a surprising ATs, which was still plenty good of course.

So with ~5k in buyins and ~2k hotel bill, profit for the trip is ~25k, nothing spectacular, but I guess could have been worse.

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Started the day with 17.5k, played 2 hands in the 1st level, 200/400/50: a guy who has raised 2 prior hands in a row limps UTG, tight guy limps middle, I make it 2200 on the button w/KJo, because I’m convinced first limper doesn’t have much, because he’d raise again if he did, because he’d likely get action, and because I haven’t played a hand prior to that, I’d thought I’d get respect. Now I know how Rodney Dangerfield felt, because it went call, call. Flop Q32 all hearts, I have the Jack of heart, checked around, turn is like a 5 of hearts, one guy bets small, I call, river check check, and I’m good. I raised a limper w/JJ, he folded, so I went to the 2nd level of the day, 250/500/50 with 23k.

I lose a few hands, like raising KJs, missing, c-betting HU and folding to a raise, defending BB w/KQ, missing, folding, etc, so I’m down to like 20k. I raise A4s in late to 1300, and charderfan30 makes it 3200 next to act, I make it 9k, he ships, and I call. Arguments for:
a)internet kids are aggressive, with 3 betting especially
b)even though I only played 2 hands in the 1st level, I was more active in this one (due to getting better cards, but they don’t know that)
c)according to Sheets, suited Ace wheel draws play really well when you do get called.
d)if he folds, I show a 4 and gloat, while adding 6k to my stack, if he calls and I win, I have a much healthier stack where I have many more options available to me.

Arguments against:
a)charderfan30 seemed to be playing good cards, and I think it was the first time he 3bet today, so I had no real reason to believe he’s light
b) I think my 40 BB stack is wrong for this move, if I’d have 25-30, then I can 4bet ship, if I have 60, I can 5bet ship, but 40 is neither here or there.
c)there are probably better spots in this soft tournament then putting 40 BBs in with an Ace and a Four, vs prob the best opponent at the table.

So yeah, I call, he shows KK, I fake slowroll by announcing “that’s no good”, and exposing only the top card, Ace, so he thinks I have AA Flop looked somewhat promising with 632, but no further help for me. Should have just folded to the 3bet. After 2 weeks of living in the Borgata (only played 3 tourneys during this time), happy to be going home. Not sure what’s next on schedule, possibly LAPC Main. Thanks for reading.

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Went to sleep at 11pm, woke up at 11am, and still had the audacity to yawn at the table. No familiar faces, except Irv Gotti, who surprisingly played well (I just assumed that multimillionaire music producers have no good reason to be good in cards). I miss a lot of hands due to taking smoke breaks, cards aren’t cooperating, and my stack size is moving in the wrong direction. Notable hands, in chronological order:

I raise JTo in late, one blind defends, check-raises me on T43ddx, I fold face up, he looks dissapointed and says “I thought I’d get more than 1 bet from top pair’, so I guess a good fold.

Irv almost minraises, one caller, I call from button w/A8hh, blinds call, checks to me on Kh8x6h, I bet like 2/3 pot, only BB calls. Turn is an offsuit Jack, he checks, I decide to check behind, because if he has any draw as well, I want him to hit it (well not the str8 draws obv), because I can get paid big, I dont want to get checkraised by a set or 2 pair, and he prob isn’t folding a King. River is a blank, we check and I lose to his K9o (questionable flick pre).

I call a raise w/98dd on the button, 4 to the flop of JT7sss, checks to me, I bet 1500 into 2400, one call, turn offsuit Ace, chk, I bet 3600, call, river 6 of spades, he thinks for a long time and bets like 12k lol, I fold face up, ask him if he got there on the flop or the river, he said “river, but I had an ace on the turn, I was all over the place”, since it seems like he was telling the truth, I played the hand well.

Young kid raises to 600 at 1/2, one caller, I call from the blinds w/66, flop Q65 rainbow, young kid bets 800, fold, I raise to 2200, he calls, 5 on the turn, he calls 2800 (I had ~9.5k left after that bet), river is a Queen, wtf, I check, he bets 3800, I tank and fold, fairy confidently. Later I remember him playing a hand, where he value bet A9 on a 953QQ, so I began to doubt my fold. I think it’s a call honestly, only because I”m getting like 4 to 1 (during the hand I figured it was 3 to 1, because my dumb ass forgot to add his river bet to the pot). Even if I knew the odds correctly, I’d still want to fold (human psychology, the pain of the loss is stronger than the joy of the in, and the pain of the loss would be the outcome vast majority of the time), but it’s wrong of course, if I’m getting a right price I must be calling. Asked him at the end of the day what he had, he said a Queen, so my fold was right, but this is being results oriented, I think call is a more profitable play vs this particular opponent.

I have 9500 at 100/200/25, the dude from the JT7sss hand minraises quickly, folds to me in the BB, and I look down at TT. Since he tanked for a while and bet big with presumably the nuts in the previous hand, I interpreted the minraise as weakness, so I make it 1700, expecting a fold or a call, he makes it 5k. I wasn’t 3 betting to fold, but there’s no way I’m good here (the guy was somewhat old). Tilt got the best of me however, and I make the call, instead of shoving, because he calls a shove a 100% of the time, but maybe he’ll fold to a stop-n-go 10% of the time, so small gain, but still a gain (I’m folding exactly zero percent of the time obviously after putting in 5k, regardless of the flop). Flop comes small, I ship, he tank calls w/AKs (thus proving my initial read of weakness wrong), and I hold. I guess the right way to play it on my part is either 3bet smaller and fold to a big 4bet if I think he’s not messing around, or just flat instead of 3betting.

Few hands left till the end of the day, I raise to 900 with 18k at 150/300/25, and a SB (old guy, prob not the best player) makes it 3k. Even though I was somewhat active in the last level, I thought the chances of him pulling a move on me were exactly zero, so I folded faceup pretty quickly, he shows me A2o. Nice hand old man, didn’t think you’re capable of it, hope we’ll meet again so I can return the favor.

So I finish the day with 17.5k, avg is prob 40k, play resumes on Tuesday 11am, 200/400/50, hope I’ll play better and walk around less than I did today.

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