Chopped Venetian 2500 HU + Mike, Basebaldy make FTs

Weeeeeeeeee. We're all owning. Basebaldy finished 9th out of 480 players in the first Bellagio event for 10000. Mike Katz is third in chips with 10 to go in the 2000 at Bellagio that resumes tomorrow, and he has a shot at 200000 if he wins. I played the 2000 today at Bellagio but busted quickly in the second hour. I actually did not win a pot in the 75 minutes I was there. I raised 33 on the button once and both blinds called. The flop came KJx. They checked and I bet 300. The BB called. The turn was an Ace. The BB checked, and I fired a 2nd barrel for 700. He hollywood shoved for 1500 more, lol, with what was obv QT. I folded. I was down to 2000 of the 4000 when the busto hand came up. Vinny Vinh open limped for 100. Btw Vinny looked like he'd put some of his weight back on, and hopefully he has fought off all of his vices. It was a shame to see what happened to him at the 07 WSOP. Anyway, the button also limped, I completed 50 more with 76cc, and the BB checked. The flop was A76. I checked and QT guy from earlier bet 350 into 400. It was folded back to me, and I raised to 1150 and held back 750. He moved me in, and I obviously called. He showed up with A6. Oh. River brick.

I headed over to Venetian to play the 2500 that started at 3 p.m. we had a pool of just about 8 players, so we waited 90 minutes until we got 22 players and played a shorthanded tournament to accomodate the TV taping for the NPL. I coasted early and then busted this kid annoying ass kid "Crazy Mike" in a fun pot where I had KQhh against his Q8 on JT9x. If anyone has been around Bellagio the last few days they probably know who I'm talking about. The egotistical twenty-something never shuts the fuck up and has been walking around Bellagio for the last 48 hours trying to challenge people to play him in a LHE freezeout. I honestly have never been at a table where someone talked as much as this kid. The whole table thanked me upon sending him to the rail. Anyway, so I coasted for a while and took a 2nd overall chipstack to the final table of 7 with 3 getting paid. The FT consisted of one unknown, JJ Lieu and Dan Alspach, Allen Kessler, Dale Pinchot, Keith Lehr, Kathy Liebert, and myself. Almost all of said players are tough tournament players. Dale came in as chipleader but lost a couple pots before I busted him. 8 handed I opened up front to 1700 with J9dd. From third position Dale made it 4000 straight. Dale had RRd me twice preflop already, so I was certain he had a huge hand here. Keith coldcalled the 4000, and I made an easy call for 2300 more since Keith covered me and I was very deep. The flop came QT8sss. I checked and Dale instashoved in for his 20000ish. Keith tank folded and I called. He showed red Queens, and I held against the board pairing. We took a dinner break before eventually sending Dan, Kathy, Allen and JJ (on the bubble) to the rail. Three handed we dwindled the unknown down until finally his KJss was no good against Keith's KQdd. We got heads-up and were really having a lot of fun. We were going to chop because it was 1:45 a.m., but we decided to drink some beers and play for the 10000 that was left in the middle. Keith led 140 to 80 when we begun. He severely outflopped and outplayed me and I was down to 20000. I doubled through a time or two, and we finally agreed to a 21000 to 19000 chop. We took care of the dealers and floor, and I made outta there with a niceeeeeee net. I got a lot of TV time too, so maybe it will air on the HD networks like they say in a few months. I'm tired and playing the Bellagio 2500 in 7 hours. Happy.

SS