Out of Event #17

I busted from the 1500 NLHE shootout in third at my table of ten. Of course, only the winner moves on to the next round and clinches a spot in the money.

I drew a table where I recognized only my friend Tom "SBRounder" West and Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier. Fortunately for me Tom and Bertrand tangled AIPF early with Tom's JJ holding against Elky's AKo, so I knew I was going to lose one of them right away. With 15 minutes left in the second level, I got very very fortunate when I got all-in with 87ss against a dude's Q4ss on QcJs9s for about 85 percent of my chips. I turned the stone joker Ts for a straight flush, and he missed his 1 out on the end.

I took 5500 to the first break with 5 of my 10 original players still alive. I got back and things went really well. I was playing very, very aggresively. I busted this young Euro in fourth when he auto 4bet shoved all-in against me with no FE with K4dd and my A8cc was able to hold. Three handed I was as high as 17500 with only 30000 chips in play. I limped a lot and tried to keep pots small for the most part. I had a shot to send Tom home in third when we got it AIPF for his 15bb's with my red 44 unable to hold against his AxJh on a board of 5h3h3xKh9h. That sent me down to 14500 and I shortly thereafter doubled up Tom again when I got kind of coolered when he opened the button and I had an obvious 3bet with ATo 3 handed. Tom had AJo though and 4bet me AI for his 16bb's total. Doorcard magic T but the rest rolled out JT4Jx. That put us pretty even 3 handed with all 3 having around 10000. The third guy was this straightforward tiny lil English guy who was a bit too animated for me when he'd win a pot. I think I made a clear mistake to cripple myself. I had been unspeakably active even in SB/BB pots against him and raised 66 to 900 at 150/300. He reraised me to 2100 after seemingly avoiding me up to that point. For some reason I decided to go with my hand and 4bet all-in for his 7850 total. He had Aces and I missed. I probably go broke anyway though if I just all because it came JJ3. I just figured the dude had to be fed up with me raising every blind vs blind against him. The very next hand I was AI on the button for my 1950 total with T3hh against Tom's 22. Board Kh4dAsJhX to tease me.

Afterwards I had an errand to run at Bellagio then my Mom and I ate at Noodles. I then came home and took a nap. Tonight my Mom and I went to see Cirque's Mystere at Treasure Island. I'm not much of a show guy to be honest, but if I had to pick my favorite in Vegas it would be Mystere, so I wanted to give my Mom the chance to see it.

Tomorrow I'll be playing Event #19 a 1500 dollar Pot Limit Omaha event. It should be noted that I have never, ever played a game in a casino other than hold 'em. Of course, I've dabbled online. I certainly am -EV in this event, but I won 350 thousand dollars the other day and want to play...so I will.

We played the online tournaments yesterday. I had two cashes including a nice run in the heads up tournament on Stars where I busted in the round of 4 for a 6600 dollar payout to turn a profit on the day. I ran so hot it was hilarious.

A couple of other things: Thanks for all the kind emails, texts, phone calls, facebook messages etc. congratulating me and wishing me happy birthday.

Also, I wanted to take a moment to thank the dealers and staff at Rio. These guys work their asses off and too often get nothing but negative things said about them. Obviously, there are going to be some problems when you deal with thousands of poker players and several tournaments each day, but I feel like the WSOP has been run spectacularly thus far.

Adam won his table to cash in the shootout today. With that cash, our house has now cashed a respectable 5 out of 37 attempts through 17 events.

Also, tomorrow we have an interview scheduled at our house with Cardplayer's Kristy Arnett. I think it will be like half high-stakes living and half roundtable interview. I'll link to it when it's up.

SS