Saturday 20 June
177 runners turned out for the $340 megastack at Caesar"s Palace and the first shock is that Simon goes out after only 25 mins of level 1 when his QQ runs into KK on a jack high flop whilst playing 6 handed. He hits the pai gow tables and I continue the poker grind. Structure is great with 15k starting stack and 50 mins levels, plenty of play early on and a surprising amount of exits.
25,325 @ 1st break (end of level 2)
The major hand when I managed to get most of these chips was when I raise to 275 with
and get 4 callers to a flop
giving me top pair, good kicker and nut flush draw. I bet out 1,100 and there is a flat call behind, then short stack moves all in for 8k. Now it is most likely I am behind here probably 44 or 55, he could have a worst ace or worst flush draw or just be making a move to squezze the pot. I go into the tank and I am not bothered about the flat caller I don"t think he will call. The short stack also just lost a big pot and made be tilting so overall I decide I am either ahead or have lots of outs if behind. I move all in to protect and caller quickly goes away. On there backs and he turns over the one hand I did not consider
. Why he did not raise pre flop with multiple callers I don"t know, I release my AQ then, anyway I have outs. Queen on the river knocks him out and wins me a big pot.
23,600 @ 2nd break (end of level 4)
Not played many hands. Under no pressure with current chip stack. Playing really tight and creating a good image. The one time I did raise the table could not fold fast enough.
17,100 @ 3rd break (end of level 6)
No hands again, but still got a good image. A small mistake when active player raises to 1,500 and I call in BB with
. Flop is A 9 T, I check he bets and I call with my up and down draw. Turn ace, check, check, river 7. I bottle it and check, fearing he may be slow playing an ace. He checks behind and shows the dolly parton for a pair of 9"s. With my image if I bet the river or turn he surely folds. Blinds 400,800 with 100 ante when back so starting to come under pressure with about 8M.
17,100 @ dinner break (end of level 7)
Folding alot. Only major hand when active guy raises again and I find AA on the button. I smooth call 3k of my 14k remaining as I want to double up fully and may not get called if I push. Flop K J 9 rainbow, he checks I bet 3k and he folds, he said he had QQ but most likely a bag of bolts. If he did have queens then a ship pre flop would have worked but I took a chance to try and double up. I need to get full value for the premium hands i receive. 600,1200 with 100 ante when back, need to get busy now. Chilli cheese dog and fries for dinner, very nice and free as you get a $10 voucher when entering the tournament. Also catch up with Si who is doing his nuts on the table games, early days though.
OUT 54th 23 mins into level 9
No hands, used iamge to move in a few times with an ace to no action. Exit hand as follows; Blinds 800, 1600 with 200 ante, I move in in mid position for 12,800 with 44. Crazy lady behind first limps then when told I had raised decides to call anyway!?!?! 44 vs AJ, ace in door and I am gone. Pleased with my patience and play in general, needed to double up and when called about in as good a shape as I could be. I sulk away (I hate getting knocked out of any tournament) take a peek at the pu$$ycats, who seem rather subdued this year. Perhaps I am getting old but they don"t seem to be making the same effort as in previous years. I head over to IP to meet up with Si at the pai gow table.
The next 12 hours fly by as the beer flows and good fun is had by all. Saturday night in vegas is certainly party night as loads of people come in for the weekend. We get chatting to a couple of crazy ladies who are fasicinated by my english accent. They keep asking me to say words then proceed to laugh to themselves. I try to point out how american english is not proper english and that how tyre is not spelt with an i and colour has a u in it but I don"t think they got it. Bless them, they weren"t the brightest girls in the room but they were very easy on the eye and good fun to hang out with. One of them was an actress who had played a hooker who got murdered on CSI (apparantly, I did not recognise her), who was very petite but was obsessed with the size of her ass (or arse as I corrected her). Americans are so vain. Other people come and go and I proceed to get completely smashed as the cocktail girls Elaine and Rhonda keep bringing me drinks (I am a good tipper apparantly). I finally call it a night (or morning) about 7am and head back to get a few hours before the megastack at noon. It could be a long 2 weeks...
NO BAD BEATS - wrong end of a coin flip, no complaints.
