A Journey to the wsop,then Blackpool

[Eck]

Well that was an achievement getting past the bar..

Day 2:

pretty knackered up about 11am Steph and i went to the rio to get me registered. Steph managed to leave his i-phone in the taxi so not a good start. Got registered had no real enthusiasm to play so we had a chilled out day we went to binions as we thought some guys we knew were playing a comp there but couldn"t find them so proceeded to have a few beers and slowly made our way back up to the luxor stopping off at the Wynn for more beers. met the team from virgin in the luxor (and the missus, yes she did actually come too, have only seen her for a couple of hours a day until now, but she is having a lovely chilled out time)

further drinking in bar and we dicide to go to MGM for some cash. Pretty bad idea as everyone isn"t admitting they are knackered so nothing to report think i dropped $40 B we met brian there he made a nice profit and steph came out slightly up. so we head back to hotel and Steph and Brian do there best to initiate me into the newest poker team on the circuit. "You have heard of the Hendon Mob and the Hit Squad, well meet the Glenfiddich Gang!!! Now get that down you!!!" don"t even like whisky but im not rude as you know.

Think we made bed for 6am.

[Eck]

Day 3

this is getting tough here...old memory cells are fading.

Basically we got up, fed and hit the bar tbh. Steph and Brian were due to meet a team from Punter"s Lounge in Blondie"s bar at PH. We waited for MivkyP who was at the Manadalay Bay watching the darts and headed down. it was $10 for a wristband and they gave you a plastic drinking vessel which you coiuld refill for your pleasure for 2 hours at no more cost. They probably didn"t do too well on the profit side of things that day......

This finished about 6pm and we deicided to play the 7pm at PH was a $70 freezout. Chopped it 3 ways with Morlspin who kindly offered the 3 way chop whenit got down to 3 and we went on a break. I gladly accepted as Graeme had a large chip advantage blinds were huge and the missus ahd joined the team who looked like they were having a riot at the paino bar behind the poker room. the other guy who looked like a younger, fatter Paul simon thought for a minute and accepted. They need to have a 1st 2nd 3rd for there records so it was all in next hand and Paul simons AK held even though my Q4 turned a flush draw. Reason for the details there is in case Morlspin tries to tell anyone he won a comp in vegas...

Proceeded to bar, copious amounts of corona then headed back to Luxor and instead of doing the sensible thing and going to bed (I am playing the ME next day) I get a drambuie and head of to the 1/2 game in the Luxor. I proceed to play the most Uber aggressive poker of my life and put most of the table in fear of their life..  ( been spending to much time talking to the mole who plays short handed cash) anyway think i lifted a $300 profit in a couple of hours and headed to bed at 3.30 well slaughtered to get some sleep..

I start the Main event at 12 am so perhaps not the best preparation.

[APAT]

Great writing guys, really enjoying the Vegas tales.....

[Eck]

OK day 4 this is going to be short as i haven"t had a drink yet today and it nearly 3pm ffs.

main event: get up feeling like crap, absolutely no idea why reckon it must be something viral...

My table is in the Brasilia room which is dissapointing as it doesn"t have the same feel as the amazon room. My table had to my right some young american who i subsequently found out was 3rd in the short handed comp Minieri won. He got his aces busted by AK 3 handed but seemed only slightly annoying which was a bonus. I was in seat 9 (9 handed)

Seat:

1 - Cecilia Nordenstam


2 - random yank
3 - Random turkish guy
4 - American guy who professes to play in WPT. Must have made his money in Software or something as he pretty much stinks a poker.
5 - 21 year old in the full tilt gear called "chad". Spoke in that lazy american drawl and kept talking to Norman Chad and Lon Mcwhateverisnameis as if he knew them when they walked by. Said he read cardplayer a lot and mainly played omaha online but had no idea who the guy sat in seat 6 was.
6- Rolf Slotboom

7 - old American guy who just wanted to survive
8 Justin Flitz


9 - Some ridiculously hungover Scotsman.

[Eck]

First hand of day Chad limps folded to BB (Random Yank) who raises to 300 (50/100)
fop comes   RY bets Chad calls, Turn  qc, RY bets Chad calls, River  qh RY bets Chad reraises (forget all bet sizes but reraise was i think 5k on top of RY 2k bet) RY calls he has the Full house with a Queen, Chad flips    


First 3 levels (2 hour levels) had very little cards and felt like kack so played not much nursed stack up to heady heights of about 24k. Had cultivated a rock like image so any action i made was given respect except by random yank who called a few raises but passed to the c-bet and "chad", who was putting me slowly on life tilt with his drawl and general Americanness, who called a raise from and led into me on a jack high board for a bet of about 800 in 2nd level but soon disappeared when i repopped to 3k. i figured finding out if my tens were good and what my image was like. Chad then went up in my estimation by informing the table i had only played like 5 hands in 4 hours cementing my rock like image with those not paying attention. This helped immensely in allowing increased nicking.

Was fairly dry on the card relied on reraising Justin when i had ay reasonable holiding. Justin was raising pretty much most pots folded to him. Then in the 3rd level (i think - was a long day and i was struggling by on one egg benedict that i had managed to eat at breakfast) I looked down to see ks kc and as i go to lift some chips to raise i hear the dealer say "oops Misdeal" (was the first of the day). sigh.......

Level 4 (5 levels per day)

Chad limps UTG folds al way round to BB (Clifford something the incredibly bad poker pro) Clifford checks Chad bets takes the pot and show queens. This induced Rolf to ask why he limps utg with queens and chad slurrs out that he expected one of us guys to come over the top and he was going to repop. which made us then question him about the possibility of commiting his stack to a raiser who may have him beat in a deep stacked tourney with a pair of queens. Think he thought we were crazy tbh but chad does read a lot of the updates so perhaps...

anyway midway through level 4 Random Turkish Guy Limps utg and it folds to me on the button and would you believe it  ad ah. i raise to 1200 (150/300 25 ante). RTG reraises me to over 6k (can"t remeber exact amount but felt it was enough to commit him to pot as he was on about 20k too. So in they go and he calls with  qh qs Aces hold and i am over 40k - sweet.

Continue to play day out with fairly solid values as i absolutely done in and happy with 40k to go into day 2. Eventually nurse it up to 49475 winning the last hand of the day and will return on wednesday hopefully in better condition...


Right that is enough for now as i am now suffering withdrawels will try to do another update soon...

[APAT]

Great, thanks James and the best of luck on Wednesday.

[HaworthBantam]

Cracking read, nice one James.

Good luck Wednesday.

[lukybugur]

Good read indeed. GL James!

[biffa85]

Excellent start.  GL to you both.

[janc]

Great start James good luck for the next round

[Bodddders]

Great start Eck, keep building that stack.

[jacklevel06]

Sorry it a day late ,but there"s hers"s Level 5(200-400,50 ante).Having regained some sort of composure i sit quite for 3 orbits but with it costing me1k a go im looking to get busy get a rush of cards ak,queens i raise every body folds.I get aces in the small blind and as it was the third hand in a row i had raise ,i thought i would over bet to look like a steal.WTF was i thinking the guy folds a flat call should have been the move trying to extract some money off him,it had been a long day.Then there"s a hour to go before the end of the day ive got roughly 15k .Im in the bb and look down kk.Its folded round to the button who raises to 1400,sb re pops to 3k with 6k behind.I"m not usually into theatrics but give it a big dwell scrath head etc then slowly push them in.Big gets out the way and sb reluctantly calls.He turns over .I cant remember the flop but he hit his nine some where in it ,think this final kick in the you know whats affcted my memory.I"m down to the felt

[jacklevel06]

So ive got just unde 6k left and to cut a long story short,after  getting my chips in about 15 times i finally get a caller  kc qc for me  :as: ah for him ,a  kd on the flop gives me hope but im a goner.
Conclusion-I was nervous at the start but managed to get into it and really enjoyed it,maybe the aq plays were poor but i win them i"m up to 40k and sitting pretty for day 2.The kings hand played its self and i thought for 70% of the day i played well.Duncan Bell came (the bracelet winner)came up to me after play finished and said i played well,we shared a beer and went through my play where i think i learnt more about my game than i ever have.
At least i got plenty time to enjoy some time with Ailsa now.Theres a internet terminal outside the poker room so expect regular updates on James.Watch out Tighty  

[Swinebag]

Ul micky. With a bit more luck you would have easily made day 2. Good reports too.

[Bodddders]

The poker gods weren"t on your side thats for sure Mickey. As they say ul wp gg.

Enjoy the rest of the stay and keep those updates coming.