Out of Event #31 in 32nd Place

On day 1 I drew a 6 handed table with Lee Watkinson and this unbelievably gorgeous Columbian (maybe?) woman to my direct right. She must've been a model or something that someone put in the tournament because she played pretty poorly and busted like 30 minutes in. Sigh.

Our table broke like 90 minutes into the tournament and I found a table with online players PbDrunks, AJKHoosier1, a couple of random fish, and this one Euro who must've been on drugs or something because he made ALL of his decisions so fast that it was scary. I doubled through him at one point when he 4bet me AI with no FE with two sixes and my AQ won on Qxxxx. I slowly built my stack at this table. One pot where I got a lil lucky came up against PBdrunks. PB raised up front and I settled on calling with black fives on the button. Fish in the BB also defended. Flop 432 with two clubs. BB checked and PBDrunks led out like 1200 into both of us. I thought for a long time trying to decide what to do, as he had like 5000 left. I felt he was pretty damn strong though, so I decided to gamble and just take a card off instead of raising him. BB folded. Turn magic 6d, two diamonds now. Josh checked to me and I decided to check behind with my straight because he's a great player and wouldn't have much trouble folding like TT if I bet. River Qs. Josh checked and I bet 2900. He called and showed me a set of twos after I turned over my straight. I was at like 14000 and then moved to a table that I knew would not break for the rest of the evening. As I was walking towards it I'm obviously hoping I get a good draw. That wasn't the case when I found a fantastic player in the form of the stylish Floridian, John Racener to my direct left. John had a decent stack and definitely isn't a guy that's going to fold into the money. Later, things got worse as Eric "p3achy_keen" Liu got moved to the table as well.

Eric and I go way, way back in cash games and obviously he plays as well as anyone and is a huge winner in the online cash games these days. Iwas pretty sure Eric did not know who I was in real life, so that played a role in the following hand. A really interesting pot came up against him as time expired to go to dinner. I was just below average at 22500 or so and raised A8cc from the HJ to 1100. He called in the SB. Flop T88 rainbow. Eric checked, and I decided to slowplay my flopped trips. Eric obviously valuebets very thin, so I wanted him to kind of catch up, think I was pot controlling like Ace high, bet the turn and then bet the river where I would surprise him with a raiseeeeeeeey daisy. The turn was an offsuit deuce for complete rainbow. Eric bet 1700 and I just called. As I was just calling I was thinking no 9, no 9, no 9, as I thought the only hands that might outdraw me are QJ and 76s. River 9, lol. Eric immediately started reaching for chips and then bet out 5600 into 6200. I was really fucking sick, although I still toyed with the idea of raising all-in for value for my last 14000 because he can VB like AT here easily and obv 87s. I said, "I can't believe I'm not raising," and called. He showed me 76 of spades. I really like how I played this hand though, as I genuinely feel p3achy would bet like 4500 on the end if he missed anyway.

I took 14000 to the dinner break. Ate with stammdog, HoosierAlum and basebaldy at Buzio's, one of the few good restaurants at Rio. After dinner I doubled with Aces against this random guy who seemed really fed up with me, Racener and Liu raising every hand. He raised the button to 1700 and I found AdAs in the SB and just called. Racener started reaching for chips in the BB but unfortunately just called as well. Flop was a not so delightful JJ7 with two clubs. Check-Check-Guy auto bet 3000. I just called and Racener folded. Turn offsuit K. Check-Check. River offsuit 5. I announced all-in for 9800. Guy tanked for 1 minute and called. I said, "Aces up." The confused look on his face was funny.

Shortly thereafter I got really lucky for all my chips. I found AsQd in the HJ and raised to 2200. I told myself I was going with the hand if Racener or Liu 3bet me, especially given the fact that Liu hadn't 3bet me yet and I felt like he was waiting for a good spot to do it. To my actual delight, Liu did reraise to 7200 out of the SB. I moved in without much FE for 21000ish and he quickly called with black KK, oops. Flop Q94 two diamonds. Turn Ad. River X. There were a couple of other interesting hands that night, but this blog entry is already getting too long.

Said guy that I doubled through with AA raised to 3000 from the SB and I decided to call with A5o in the BB. Flop Q54 rainbow. Guy checked to me and I bet 4700 or something. He INSTANTLY said all-in for 36000 more! The truth was this guy was pretty damn fishy and basically he is going to have one pair everytime. I was certain he would not play a Queen like this. He might have 76. I would not have called and flipped with him if he showed me the 76 faceup, obviously. This is just such a ridiculous line. I thought there was a chance he had like 77 that he just didn't know what to do with, but there's also a very good chance he has like K5, Q5, 65, A4, K4, whatever. I made a hero call after tanking for five minutes. He showed me 99, lol. Turn 2 for more help but missed on the end and was down to like 30000. I rebounded though and ended the night at 58200.

Day two was a sick rollercoaster. Very first hand a dude shoved 10 blinds from the cutoff and I called with ATss. He showed me 33. Axxxx to make me 6 for 6 in winning coinflips to this point in the tournament. Second hand Todd Terry raises UTG to 5000 and this dude Edmond Park raised to 10000. I'd seen him make a lot of small raises the day before. I found magic black AA right behind them on the button and raised to 27000. Terry folded and then Park just called 17000 more, leaving me 42000. The doorcard was the Ah, and it followed with the Qh and 6h. He checked and I moved in. He thought and folded. I had my headphones on, but I'm almost certain he said to me that he folded an Ace, which may or may not be true.

I was quickly up to like 110000 then got moved to a new table that was pretty sick with a lot of online looking kids and also everyone's favorite Italian, Dario Minieri. lol Dario is such a fucking sicko. I have a long history with him as well but have played live with him very sparingly. He might be THE most aggressive player on the planet in the game of NLHE. We were made aware of the breaking order, and I was delighted that I'd only have to play at this table for like an hour. I lost one pot to Dario that was pretty funny. Dario limped up front after raising a bunch, and I decided to just limp AcTd on the button because I didn't want to inflate a pot against him. He had me covered with like 250000 in chips. Blinds joined. Flop KQ7 two clubs. Blinds checked and Dario bet 6000 into 9200. I played this hand fucking awful and raised to just 17000. I really like raising against him here, but I should've made it like 22000. Dario reraised me like 35000 more pretty quickly. If we played this pot two years ago I would've moved in on Dario like every single time for my last 60000, but alas I've grown soft. I folded and he showed the table the best hand, two red fives.

A few minutes later I pulled a fairly big bluff off against this kid. I raised red QT UTG and the guy called me in position. Others folded, and we saw J43 with two clubs. I bet 8500 he called. Turn A, which I really liked. I checked and he checked. River 9. I thought and then bet, I think, 19500 into the 28000 pot. The guy thought for 5 long minutes, stacked his chips up, and I was almost certain he was going to call. To my delight he folded and I wasn't crippled down to like 40000 but instead at like 90000. An interesting dynamic in that hand was that the kid had called me by name or something earlier on at the table, which played a key role in the hand. If he knows who I am then he knows that I can value bet really, really thin there, so I might even VB like two tens or something.

I got moved to a new table which I really, really liked. The aggressive Bruno Fitoussi was to my direct left with a bunch of chips, but he was really the only one I was concerned with. I doubled a guy up in one pot where I had K4o on a board of A943 and bluffed him all-in on the turn. I was absolutely certain he had a 9 given how the hand played out, and for whatever reason he made a really good call with Q9o, and I bricked. I doubled up against him a few minutes later though when I won my seventh consecutive AIPF race, this time for all my chips, with QJ vs 99 on a board of QJxxx. I was back to 95000 with avg 117. I came back from break and then maybe made a mistake and reraised this guy AI with ATo. I didn't realize how tight he was. He called AI with AQ, and the flop came AQQ, leaving me dead to the case Ace to chop. It did not arrive.

Once more I doubled to get back to 90000 when this dude raised to 8500 in the HJ, I moved in with two nines for 42000 in the CO, and then third-party Bruno snapcalled on the button. Shit. First guy folded and Bruno showed me two black fives. Weeee. Flop 432. The dealer teased Bruno twice by putting a three-across 7 on the turn and a 7 on the river.

I dribbled back to 85000 when the really awkward bust hand came up. I raised the extreme nits BB to 8000 from the button and Bruno decided to reraise it to 40000 total from the SB, nit folded and I was in a really interesting spot for my 84000 total. I told myself I was going to go with the hand because of the dynamic with the dude in the BB, so I eventually did with no FE. The mistake I made was not doing it instantly after I told myself I was going to. Bruno had incorrectly folded hands for some huge odds, and I knew he was just trying to pot-stick himself with that raise. I expected to be dominated like never. The only hand I thought he might have was AJ, but I really expected him to do this with like any Ace and KQ, KJ, KT etc. There was also a good chance he had a small pair, which I didn't love racing against, but it felt right. Bruno thought 3 minutes and said, "I'm trying to find a reason to pass (fold). Can you give me a reason?" For one of the first times in my professional career I spoke while involved in a hand and said, "I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll show if you fold." Bruno called 30 seconds later and showed AJ, sigh. AJxxx.

Earned like 9700 bucks or something. It's nice to make another deep run. It would've been nice to final table but it doesn't always work out that way.

After the busto I went over to Bellagio with HoosierAlum and basebaldy to eat at Fix and sweat the NBA game. It was a good time. We made a night out of it. We degen'd at Bellagio then came home and changed for a night at Pure. We hung out with Roothlus, apestyles, THE__D__RY, mrtimcaum, jc alvarado, plattsburgh and few others guys to celebrate Roothlus's birthday and Plattsburgh's 3rd place finish in the 3000 event. Well done sir. Congrats to John Phan for winning that event. We didn't make it home til like 7 a.m.

There were no events worth playing today. I'm back in action tomorrow in the 1500.

SS