Day 8 - Wednesday 10th July
I was knackered last night, and so was asleep by about 10.30pm. I woke up at about 2.30am. The usual four hours, but I managed to fall asleep again and not wake up until about 7.30am. I think that says a lot. Although I never felt nervous playing the Main Event, I think there might have been some subliminal nervousness that stopped me sleeping properly and perhaps caused the odd mistake. Those mistakes were small, but crucial. I can"t believe that I actually typed "I"m folding for half an hour now" and then played 98s the very next hand. That"s just nonsense! Having said that, if I had hit that draw, I would have been on 70k plus and laughing. The other issue of the two days: I never really hit any big hands. My biggest double up was with AO when I had kings, but that wasn"t me hitting a hand; that was AO trying to hit a flush draw and, luckily, she missed.
I was thinking of playing the $1,600 Venetian event today at 12 noon, but after a long think, I reckon that"s just a bit too much given how much I"ve spent already this holiday! Usually the 12 noon event is $400-$600, and that would have been perfect, but the buy-in just so happens to be one of the big ones today. There is a $400 "survivor" event at 4pm at the Venetian, so the plan is to have lunch at Bouchon at the Venetian and then play this 4pm event. Not sure what the "survivor" bit means. All will be revealed soon!
Had a nice lunch at a place called "Pinot" in the Venetian because Bouchon closed at 1pm. I remember this happening a couple of years ago. Why close for lunch when lunch is just beginning? I"ve got a feeling that I also went to Pinot that time because the Lobster Bisque is very familiar. Anyway, the 4pm event is a survivor event, and apparently this means 10% of the field gets paid, but they all get paid the same, which is $3,400. That"s ten times the buy in after they take out the rake and the dealers" fee. The levels are 30 minutes; not perfect, but the dealers use one of those shuffling machines, so that speeds things up so we are effectively playing 35/40 minute levels.
I get more hands in the first two hours than I did for the 14 hours of play in the Main Event! About the third hand I call a raise with ATs and the flop is QTT. (I didn"t hit a flop that hard the whole of the Main Event!) I check, he bets, I raise and he re-raises. I think for a bit. Does he really have QT? He can"t have QQ. So I call and plan to check/call it down. I do exactly that on the turn, and we both check the river. He has T9. Then I call a raise from a loose bloke with KJ. I bet the jack high board and he folds. So I"m on 20k after five minutes (we started with 12k).
Then nothing for 45 minutes, then I get AA on the button. This clueless player (CP) raises, there"s a caller and I re-raise. CP calls, as does the other bloke. The flop is K74 rainbow. CP goes all in for his last 2300 (he"s already played a lot of rubbish hands and lost a lot) and I call. He has 65 for the straight draw and hits the four on the turn. So I"m back to 13k. Then I get KK, raise, and get three callers. Flop is 744. I bet and they all fold. So many hands that I needed more often yesterday! Then I get AK against CP. He is short so I just go all in on the A66 flop. I probably should have checked because he would have probably bet. He folds. I then get KK again (!) and a bloke with only 6k left goes all in. I call and he has AJ. Ace on the turn. Cheers then! Are big hands a curse? I"m back to square one even though I"ve had lots of good hands.
Then I get ATs in early position and decided to just call (mix it up!). There"s another call and the loose bloke raises, so I call and the other bloke also calls. Flop is KT8 and its checked round. Turn is an ace, so I go all in and they both fold. I"m on 10k now. Then I get AK two hands running! The first time I"m in the BB and there"s a raise, I re-raise, he calls. I bet the king-high flop and he folds. Second time exactly the same, but I bet the jack high flop and he folds (a different "he"). Nice. Now on 17k. Finally, before the break (after fours levels and two hours) I get AK again, she raises, I re-raise and she calls. Flop is AA2. She checks, I bet, she calls. Same on the turn. On the river, she checks, I bet and she folds. 21k at the break. Very nice.
After the break, the good hands where much rarer. Nothing for 30 minutes, then I re-raise from the button and he folds. Another 30 minutes later I get AKs. There"s a raise, I re-raise, the SB calls and the raiser folds. The flop is queen high. He checks, I bet, he calls. The turn puts a third heart out there. We both check (perhaps I should bet here? I sensed he had a big). He bets the river and I fold. I"m down to 12k, but the average is now 25k and the blinds 400/800/100, so I"m in trouble. I get TT early position, raise and everyone folds. Then a really stupid hand. It"s folded to the SB and he min-raises my BB. He is the sort of player that will fold to a raise, so I re-raise and he pushed. I should have pushed or folded. Poor. So I"m down to 9k. Not many hands later, it"s folded to me in the cutoff, I go all in with KQ and the button calls with AQ. Ace on the flop to rub salt into the wounds. I"m out in about 65th out of 144. A shame, because it all looked so good after the first break.
A quiet aevening, but I did go back to the Wine Cellar, once I realised that I can get 25% off because I played in the WSOP. All very agreeable.
