 Vegas October 2021 (WSOP) |
| Days 8 & 9 concert, HORSE |
| Last Updated: 2021-10-26 13:15:44 |
| We kicked off week 2 of the trip Friday with Starbucks for breakfast, Javier's for late lunch with Tom and Drew and then System of a Down with special guests Korn and a band called Russian Circles.
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| Gotta say, Russian Circles was a very good opener. Instrumental only heavy metal band, just played non-stop for 30-40 mins. No obnixious, screaming lead singer as we often see as openers for these kinds of headliners, but also no big solos by any of the members. Basically a heavy metal rhythm jam band.
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| Korn was great. We had tickets to see them in 2020, Faith No More was supposed to open. We like 3 FNM songs, can do without anything else we've heard. To their credit Korn was one of the few bands (TOOL another) who cancelled and refunded instead of postponing ... and then postponing again ...
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| Joann still has Matchbox 20 tickets from 2020 and is supposed to see them now June 2022. We recently saw the Doobie Brothers after a couple of postponements on their 50th Anniversary ... er ... make that 51st Anniversary tour.
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| We would absolutely see Korn do a full set, but they definitely rocked for the hour or so we got out of them. Did the songs you'd expect, then introduced "Y'All Want a Single" as a song they rarely perform and "A.D.I.D.A.S." ("all day I dream about sex...") as a song they hadn't done in "a long fucking time".
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| System of a Down was originally supposed to have Faith as their opener, but the lead singer cancelled the tour to focus on his mental health. Korn also had cancelled a tour again this past summer because three of the members had actually gotten COVID! Jonathan Davis (lead singer) was hitting an oxygen mask all night. Since Korn wasn't doing anything but apparently had recovered enough they were quickly announced as the fill in for Faith. Great for us!!!
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| And System of a Down was fantastic. We got to see the first ever live performances (according to a setlist website I look at when I can't remember what a band did) of their two new songs, plus if you're a fan they did the two halves of Solder's Side as one song, something they told us they rarely do.
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| If you're not a SoaD fan but you are a Pink Floyd fan, that's akin to those guys walking out and belting out both halves of Pigs on the Wing. Again per that setlist site, the band hasn't performed the second half at all since 2013.
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| Then it was on to Tom's Urban for a nightcap with Tom and Drew again. We're told Tom's Urban has been renamed Tom's Watch Bar everywhere but here because they have a contract with MGM resorts with that name and can't rebrand here because of the contract. MGM renames and reopens restaurants all the time, so why they can't rename here doesn't make sense ... but that's what we're told.
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| Saturday started out with the usual Starbucks and sleeping in after pretty much closing Tom's.
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| On to Rio to buy in to the HORSE event.
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| 10 minutes in I'm in a stud 8/b hand where I start with hidden 9s and everyone has low cards so I stick around thinking I probably have the best pair. End up catching two pair, nothing to scare me on the boards of the other players but someone had caught a small set and two pair was no good.
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| Down to roughly 34k from my 40k starting stack 10 minutes in.
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| Then lose with kings up against a flush with nobody showing much chance of a low hand still in stud 8/b.
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| Not a great start!
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| But I do finally pick up a pot when two pair is actually good and we move on to that "two card game".
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| Get dealt King-Jack in back to back hands, both hands there's a raise before I get to act, I win both pots after taking a flop 4-handed. The first one I picked up second pair on a queen high flop, call a continuation bet and it gets checked down the rest of the way. Second pot we get a jack-high flop, I bet and get called by at least one player every street. Pair of jacks good again, just like that back to starting stack.
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| Once all the tables fill up and a couple of people buy in, they go and grab random people from random tables to create a new table for those one or two players. They then backfill those empty seats. My original ended up with 5 times we lost a player to new tables, myself being the 5th. But before that...
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| We lost our first player to a new table. A few minutes later, about an hour into the tournament, one Norman Chad sits down directly to my left. He asks my name and introduces himself to me. We were playing Razz at the time, and he got to watch me lose a chunk of chips when I started out with A-8-3 and raised out (whenever I describe a stud hand the first two are my hole cards and the rest will be in the order they are dealt).
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| I get called by a guy showing an 8. My runout was A8-3A48-2 (so "8 perfect") and he runs out 8AT4... and raises me on the river, I'm assuming he's an 8 and my 8 is going to be better, but after I call his raise he rolls over 2-3-5 for the nuts on the river. Ouch.
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| And my new buddy Norm got moved to create a new table.
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| For a little while after that I was collecting good pots here and there to do a little stack building. Won half a 4-way stud 8/b hand when I ran out A2456 for low (my first four cards were 45A2, the straight would have been good for a big scoop if I could have caught a 3); take down a Razz hand when my board looks scary even tho I had two pair (he caught a couple of face cards on 5th and 6th streets and gave up); scoop a small 8/b pot where everyone else's board looked scary and I couldn't do any betting, but everyone missed everything and my 3355 ended up being good.
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| 41,900 from the 40k starting stack at the first break.
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| I get moved to create a new table myself finally.
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| More of the same, up and down for a while. Win a Razz pot that was iffy to begin with starting with a 9, but I did hit the 9-low and the other guys each ended up with two pair and had to play ten- and jack-lows respectively, but then in stud 8/b lose a two-pair vs two-pair hand.
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| I had a stud 8 hand where I caught a flush and A2456 for the low but the other guy had two-pair on his board and did have the full house. At least it was a 3-way pot so I got something for it.
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| James Woods took his seat at the next table over from ours, same seat as me at his table.
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| Finally around 7:00 (3:00 start) I get my first really big hand.
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| Playing Hold'Em, I'm on the button and raise with 6-8 of clubs. Flop comes 5-7-9 with two diamonds. Big blind donk-bets into me, I decide to just call with the nuts.
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| Turn is a Jack of hearts, he leads into me again, this time I'm raising. He calls.
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| River a harmless 2 of spades, he leads into me again!!! Naturally I raise, he calls, he can't believe I flopped a straight.
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| Well above 50k at this point, but don't recall exact count.
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| It occurred to me around this time I hadn't had a playable Omaha 8/b hand the entire tournament to this point. I must have been frustrated because I played a hand that was borderline hand that ended up with both flush and good low draws but missed everything on the river and I had to give up.
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| 46500 at the next break.
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| Just after break I finally get a good 8/b hand, AA29 with a suited ace! Of course I flop a 2, last thing I want. Try a continuation bet, eventually give up on the river.
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| Just like that back around starting stack again.
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| Then a couple quick hands in stud high where I catch a set of 10s on 4th street in the first one, and call bets all the way down starting with J5J and catching another 5 on 4th street on the next one.
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| Back up to 54500.
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| Poker giveth, poker taketh way. Catch another 2 pair on 4th street in stud 8/b, again I run into a river straight and don't improve when again someone turns over 2-3-5 to go with their A-4 on the board. Brutal. And he had two big cards on the board so he caught both ends with that river.
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| Then the real killer. Playing stud 8/b I'm calling bets and raises on every street with a flush draw and a low draw. The low misses, but the flush comes in!!! But... My A-J-9 high flush loses to A-J-10. That was a major cooler, nothing I could do, and for the first time in a long time my stack is down in the 30s.
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| Shortly after that hand I did win a decent pot with aces, actually had a raise into me on the river that I called and took it down. But after the aces it was mostly downhill from there. Never won another really big pot, my quality starting hands fell apart more often than work out.
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| A25K in Omaha 8/b with clubs, flop J97 with two clubs, turn a 3 for nut low draw ... and miss everything.
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| Win antes and bring ins in Razz raising late to act with an ace showing, but then back to back hands start with three cards 6 and under and have terrible runouts.
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| Only 25k at the next break.
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| First hand back from break start out with AA hidden in stud high, a guy runs out 4 flush cards while I don't improve at all, give up on 6th street.
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| Start with 3 good hearts, catch a 4th heart on 4th street ... end up with just a pair of 7s on the river and lose to two pair.
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| Down to 14k.
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| I do win a couple of small-ish pots to get back up to 25k, "Motown" (jacks and 5s) and kings-up respectively.
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| Ryan Laplante joins the table with a small-ish stack. They're breaking tables now, registration is closed. He was also at my Day 2 table earlier in the trip. We talked about Breaking Benjamin, he's a fan :-)
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| Get crippled in Razz. Start with A-3-7, catch a 10 on 4th but a 4 on 5th and 7 should be good if I can get there based on the other boards ... run out 10-Q, 10-low no good. Other guy made the 8-low I knew he was drawing to.
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| Fall as low as 6000 chips.
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| I do get a double up when I decide to take a shot with Q3T all spades, catch a 10 on 4th and eventually a queen and two pair is good to get me back up to 15K.
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| Blind my way down to 8500, get all in on a 3-way stud 8 pot, catch a low and get back up to 12,900 heading into the final break of the evening.
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| Get all in with AA79 in Omaha 8, make the low with A-7 and get my chips back when the other guy catches 2-pair but can't make a low.
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| Hand or two later pick up AA28 with a suit. Can't ask for a better hand to get my chips in.
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| Flop comes 5-6-2, one guy has A-4, other guy has 5569 and I get no help from the board. Done.
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| Back to the room, had a whisky to calm down so I could get to sleep around 2am and awoke to my 8am alarm so we could go watch football at Tom's Urban.
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| Might not be a BLOG for a couple of days, playing in this tournament meant I was giving up my Sunday plan of 2-7 Triple Draw. There is a $200 at Orleans Monday, but I don't think I'm going to play I think I'm just going to take another day off and get going again Tuesday at Aria in their Hold'Em tournament. So hopefully the next BLOG should be up some time on Wednesday! |
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