Complete Recap from Bellagio 2000

Nick took one more nice pot off of me as we went to dinner break, and I took 49000 to dinner with average around 42000. We were at 21 players with 18 getting paid.

I 3bet AI once with AJo for a bunch against a Binger open with 20 left and then 3bet with the intention of calling AI with AQo against another Binger open on the exact bubble. Thank God he didn't wake up with monsters because it would've been a long, long flight home if I bubbled. I hung around as we entered the money. My redraw table had Justin "robert07" Young, Binger, Kelly Samson, and David Peters. I battled hard for this entire table and made it to the ten handed final table as either the shortstack or next to shortest.

On the very first hand, a guy named Mark Kuhlmann opened in EP for a scary large 7500 at 1/2000 and I found a T first then actually rooted against sweating out another T. Alas, I did have TT and decided to go for 42200. I just don't really fathom folding here. Maybe I would if I was just trying to fold to the final table. It was folded back to MK and he called with JJ. As I mentioned in my blog the other day, a few of the other players started celebrating as if the night was over, lol. The dealer quickly spread out a board of x x x x T. I rivered perfect to prolong the night.

We took a 15 minutes break. We came back and the first hand back I found JJ and raised to 8000. This amateur player who was kind of an asshole sat up in his seat asked me how much I was playing (I covered him by 8000), thought, and then raised to 20000 total. This is a really disgusting spot for me. I decided to call 12000 more. Flop 644 rainbow. I checked and the guy insta bet all-in for about 60000 total. I pressed call. The guy screamed, "Shit!" and then turned over two tens. heh. Turn x. River x. I had him covered by just 8000. This propelled me to co-chipleader with Nick Binger at the end of the night at 180000.

We came back the next day at 3 p.m., and I felt really good. Still, it wasn't going to be easy. There were atleast 4 very, very good players at the table, and these men were there to win as well. Early on we lost this kid Ben "benba" Lamb. I was happy to see him go because I knew he would be dangerous if he accumulated any chips. I won a decent sized pot against Kuhlmann with 8 players left. I raised Q9hh from early to 8000 and he defended in the BB. Flop KQ7 two clubs. Check-Check. Turn 4x. He led 12000 and I called. River J. I really hated the Jack. Kuhlmann quickly led out 17000 into like 45000. I hadn't played much with this guy, so I had no idea what he was capable of value betting on the end. I thought for prob 2 minutes and called. I remember about 90 seconds into the tank being ready to throw the hand away but then I looked at him and he looked really uncomfortable. He said the lovely words, "Good call," and I turned my hand over.

The guys just started to drop off, with Binger accumulating most of their chips. We got five handed and it was Binger, Lieu, Young, an unknown that played decent enough, and myself. I'd slipped to about 190000 but then I won a decent sized pot where Binger opened to 11000 at 2/4, I just called ATdd on the button and Justin Young called 7000 more. Flop AK7r with one diamond. Checked to me, and I decided to get cute and check. Turn 8d. Justin led out 17000. Nick folded, and I decided to just call with top pair and nut flush draw. River was a card I didn't really like. I think an offsuit 6. Justin thought and checked. I thought a while and made an incredibly tight check because Justin is a great player and easily capable of CRAI on the river with a set or even Aces up. He showed two nines, and my hand was good. We eventually went to break and I had 263000, which was good for 2nd in chips behind Binger.

We came back from break to play 3/6000 (1000). The very first hand I was in the BB. It was folded to Binger in the SB and he raised into my BB for the first time of the day, to 18000. I saw the Qh then the Ac. I'd already made up my mind I