So my buddy Jason was doing okay as well, on about average stack. His claim to fame was that last time he was in Vegas, he came 3rd to Jamie Gold at a tournament in Caesers. He eventually went in about 50th place, a decent run for his money. I was paying for my card rush though, and was card dead for a while, until my table was broken up, and I got landed next to the Chip leader a big Russian guy.
He was playing every pot, and seemed to be calling down every hand, all I had to do was bide my time. Unfortunately time was running out as people were beginning to hit the rail at an alarming rate, but I kept winning the odd pot to keep me afloat. We were then amazingly joined by a Woman from Yorkshire, not only was she from Yorkshire, but she was from Haworth ( of Brontes, and Haworth Bantam fame), a village about 15 miles from where I live, what are the chances?
As we got down to four tables I was moved again, and was basically in shove or fold mode, when the SB who had been raising my BB for the last few orbits, merely called, with attention waning I thought he had raised again and mucked my hand face up. At which point I was quite happy to give him the pot, but the dealer called over the TD who said the hand was still live, and allowed me to check, the flop was dealt and neither a 3 or 7 landed, therefore I checked the BB bet and took the pot. The TD then informed me I would have to take a one orbit penalty, WTF ! This meant that I would lose 9 antes as well as my BB again. But unfortunately I don't know the intricacies well enough to know if I was being badly done to or not, so just took the beat.
By the time I got back I was in a perilous state, but some how managed to pick my spots and hang on until the final two tables. The top 13 were getting paid, and so I made it my aim to cash in only my second Vegas tournament. This wasn't easy as I was totally card dead, but the guy to my right was deep stacked and by palling on with him, got him to give me a couple of walks in the BB !
I was then dealt AK, two hands in a row, and pushed for about 5BBs and didn't get a caller either time, one from the Button who had A9, FFS!
So any way that got me live again, and ended up pushing with A10, and being called by the CL who had AQ. Darn, thought I was out the door, but was saved by the board pairing twice.
The Bubble was so funny, I was the short stack and felt like a rabbit in the gun sights, players were up and down, spectators were reporting back to their mates on the other table, but when it burst, I was still in...yee ha.
I even managed to ladder up to 11th and win $290, so after 7 hours play I had won $140, but I was chuffed to bits, I had just cashed at the Venetian!
A few celebratory beers were definitely in order back at the Ballagio, which then changed to some amazingly strong G & Ts! The group then decided it was food time and Samsung kindly treated us to a meal in the Jasmine Restaurant. This is a very nice Chinese, but the Maitre D certainly saw us coming, and recommended that he would select a choice of dishes that would suit our group. $2000 lighter we walked out!! Thank goodness for the generosity of Samsung.
I was about midnight now, and the thought struck me, how about a bit of cash! But for once my brain over rode my Poker obsession, and forced me to wend my way to the 24th floor for a bit od shut eye, before the show tomorrow.
