Out of Bellagio 2000

I busted earlier today in the 2000 at Bellagio in the fourth hour with 10 tables left of the 230 something entrants. I felt like I played pretty g00t poker. I'll try to get in a habit of detailing the main hands of each of these tournaments because I feel like it's useful for you guys and me. I drew a starting table with an interesting cast of players. I was in the 9, Darren "DABADESTCHIC" Nelson was in the 10, the Australian Sarah Bilney was in the 1, Thayer "Thay3r" Rasmussen in the 2, a decent young Asian player in the 4, and a several minutes late Jean Robert Bellande in the 6. I thought, specifically, that Darren and Thay3r (as always) played fantastically. If he provides nothing else, the incredibly talkative Survivor contestant JRB always provides great stories and chatter at the table. Later, online player Amit "Amak316" Makhija (who plays just about as well as anybody) and Tony Cousineau took the empty seats. I played like a n!t the first two hours and took 4200 of the 4000 starting stack to the break. In the middle of the third level my biggest hand of the tournament came up. I'd built up a great image, so I decided to raise 87o in the HJ to 550. Young Asian defended in the BB, and the flop came AJ2 rainbow. He checked, and I bet 750. The turn was a T. This is a turn that I will two barrel a lot playing HU cash games, and the fact that I've been playing a lot of cash costs me some chips here. It's prob not g00t to fire this turn while shallow, because I can't really set up for the 3barrel. I DID settle on betting 1100 of my last 3000 into the 2700 pot. YA tanked for a full minute and splashed yellowbirds in the middle. I folded. After a blind steal I was up to 1600 chips and got in against an older gent with 4d4s against his AJdd at 1/200. The board came a silly Jx8x6d5d4h, and I doubled. I was at 3500 at 1/200 when another fun one came up. I raised Ad9c up front and said old gent called UTG+2. The rest folded. The flop came AxJc7c. I was planning on checkraising him AI for my last 2800 but lawl when I checked he bet 2500 into 1500 auto fast. I had an easy shove for my last 325 chips. Guy took a full 30 seconds to dig thru his flamingo stack and put the exact 325 in chips in, heh. I figured I had him in bad shape but remarkably he turns up ATcc to have me in gross shape. This is an incredible slowroll, but the dude didn't know any better. This is often the case for a lot of these guys who break poker etiquette, and I probably am too hard on them. I DID rip off a magic 7h on the turn though to put us at a chop at that point. He still could win the the pot outright with any club or the 3 remaining tens, and I could win with the 3 9s left. We both missed as the river was another 7, and I fell into a semi-miracle chop with sevens full of aces. I reshipped AKo and was up to about 4500 when another big one came up. I raised black A8o from MP. The button called and so did YA in the SB. The flop came 854 and Ya moved all of it in for about pot of 2125. I moved in over the top and the button folded. He showed me K9hh and we were in a race. He rivered the Th and I was crippled. I was down to 1100. On the busto hand, an older European player open limped the button for 200. I looked down at only the Ace of spades and had an easy shove for my last 5 bets. DN folded the BB and the Euro said "Ima give dis YONG man some aucccction," before calling me with Q6dd. I found the 6c with my Ace and was in decent shape. The board came 852 with two diamonds and he turned me dead with the 3 of diamonds. I can't complain though I ran slightly +cEV with my yummy suckout. There's a lot of tournament poker to be played, and I feel good.

Mike, Eric and I grabbed dinner and a drink or five at Blondie's sportsbar in the Miracle Mile mall. As so often happens to us in Vegas, Mike and I then decided to gamble in the pit and keep drinking. We wandered the strip like tourists and went in a buncha casinos. I actually won about a thou. weeee. We just got in like 30 minutess ago. I really don't mind it too bad. We've all worked our asses off to get to the position we're in financially, and if we don't enjoy ourselves while we're young and single I'm sure we'll regret it later. Not to mention every kid in his or her 20s is doing the exact same thing anyway.

2500 starts at noon so gotta be up in like 7 hours. Tilt. I need 10 hours sleep. Need to win. Not a good day for our team as we all busted OTM.

SS