|  Vegas June 2008 (WSOP) | | Day Three | | Today was a good day. A very good day. It's about 5:30am local and we just got back from dinner and buying into tomorrow's Omaha 8/b tournament at Caesar's.
| | Started out simple enough. Woke up in time to shower and get to lunch around lunchtime. Bellagio buffet - still the best. I say it every time. A visit to Vegas without a meal at the Bellagio buffet is criminal. And make it the one day you check your diet at the door. As if the food isn't good enough, the deserts are disgustingly good. I had three and was thinking about a fourth...
| | After that, finally, after years and years of running out of time or getting there too late or just plain forgetting until it was too late, we went up the Eiffel Tower. For those who have never been, when the Paris Hotel and Casino was built they built a 1/2 size replica of the Eiffel Tower right next to it. It's one of the tallest structures in Vegas, although I think Stratosphere beats it. I believe three of the feet of the tower go through the casino roof and are anchored in the casino floor (might only be two). Ever since it was built, every year Joann and I have talked about going up in that tower and every year we've left without going for one reason or another. Well we finally made it. And it was a very cool view.
| | Then a little blackjack and craps (I forget how we did but it was close to even, probably down a few bucks) at Harrah's, a quick nap for Joann in the room and then off to Caesar's for the 7:00 daily $150 buyin tournament. 5000 chips, 40 min rounds.
| | I started out on fire.
| | Ladies and gentlemen, the Puppet Master is alive and well.
| | When the tournament started there were 198 people, total prize pool of $23,760 with 18 places paying. Top prize officially about $7400.
| | Tripled up within 20-30 minutes and then some. Pocket 7's, called a raise, four handed, flop comes 7-2-3 with two diamonds. I check, next to act bets 250, call, call, me over the top for 1000. One caller. A 3rd diamond came on the turn and I bet the other guy out. Few hands later pocket jacks, flop rag-J-10, slow played an aggressive player who bet on every street with nothing but overs. Few hands after that pocket 6s, flop 6-10-J. Scare card on the turn but on the river there were straights and flushes on the board but also a second jack. Never saw the hand of the person who called my all-in after the river and she mucked as soon as she saw my boat.
| | From that point on I was in a zone. I did have a long stretch without cards, overall my chip stack was moving up and down but rarely was I below average until late in the tournament. But I would only make one mistake the rest of the night and it didn't cost me too badly. Every read I made was dead on. I was making big folds and was shown to be right, big calls and the same thing. The only thing that was arguably a mistake went like this...I'm about tied for the chip leader at my table when we're down to three tables. I had just won a few big pots. Other big stack raises out for 14000 with blinds at 2000/4000. I'm in the big blind, fold around to me and I've got pocket jacks. We each have about 80-90K chips. I call. Flop comes K-rag-rag with two diamonds. I have him on some kind of ace. Worried about A-K I just check. The real question as this plays out was should I have tried to win the pot right there with a bet. He checks. I'm now convinced he doesn't have a K. Turn is a 3rd diamond. I have no diamond, check/check.
| | River is another K. He bets out 15,000. 15K to win 45K, I'm 100% convinced he doesn't have a K and that I have the best pair. I call, my read was right but incomplete. He turns over A-J diamonds for the nut flush.
| | An orbit before that I pulled a Brunson, however. In small blind, two players, I call with 10-deuce. Flop comes 10-3-2. Two loose players in hand, I make a small 6000 chip bet, get a caller. Turn is a 10. Two more small bets on turn and river both get paid. In hindsight I wonder if I should have elevated my bets to get more but maybe I would have scared her off. And that was after the same player had made another bad call and doubled me. I put her on tilt, she made a few more mistakes and went from massive chip leader to average just before my jacks above came along.
| | But after the Jacks, I was perfect. My stack was up and down, but I never made another wrong decision. Got short stacked again, but limped my way to money. Other short stacks started trying to get back in it with marginal hands, I let them take themselves out. But more importantly, every time I played a pot not only did I read well but every bet I made elicited exactly the response I wanted. It's been a long time since I was so dead on in a live tournament. I created an image and then used the image.
| | OK, enough braggin' on myself. In the end, we got down to 5-handed and agreed on a chop. It wasn't an even split, we split based on current chip counts, but the chips counts weren't that different from chip leader to short stack. I took about $3500, two people ended up with $4K+ and two less than $3K but everyone went away very happy.
| | So here I am, now a little after 6:00am local and I think the adrenaline has FINALLY gotten out of my system and I can try to go to sleep.
| | But real quick, after we were done splitting up the money (two new all time high's for me, the most money I've ever held in my hands (over $17000 left in the pot when we chopped and like last year I was dubbed "the math guy" so I got to divvy it up) and the most money I've ever won in a tournament) Joann and I finally had dinner at about 4:00am, ran back to Caesar's to buy in to the 8/b tournament tomorrow...er...later today (so we can sleep that much later) and then back to the room.
| | Now the big question is, what about HORSE. Part of me wants to play in that $3,000 HORSE tourney and take another shot at a bracelet. I still believe I played well in event 16, absolutely feel I'm in a zone after this big win...and as I said, all I needed was a decent size cash and I'd play in it...but I'm not in love with the format.
| | If I cash in this 8/b tournament at Caesar's, I'm playing in HORSE. I will be "off the charts" confident at that point and I'll probably have a nice size bankroll. If I don't, then I don't know...we'll see... | | Post a comment |
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