Back from Vegas
Well, I back from my 4 day vegas trip. After about 40 hours or poker play and other fesitivies over the 3-day period from Sun-Wednesday, I made it back to DFW.
I'll give a quick summary of what transpired. My buddy and I both planned on playing the $1000 NL event #17. I got there early on Sunday was hoping to make some money to help offset the cost of the buyin should I not cash in the event. I managed to make about $450 on sunday in cash games at the Alladin and Gold Coast and even $8 at the Bellagio. :)
Monday rolls around and the event gets going, 2891 people. Every table (206 tables) were playing 11 handed and there were 600 alternates that were getting rotated in as people got knocked out. They were all locked in, in under 2 hours it seemed. We started with 1500 chips and levels were 60 minutes.
My table sucked balls. It was the opposite of an "action table". It took almost a full hour before someone got knocked out of our table, and it killed us, no one had a big chip stack and it just sucked. I managed to win a few pots and get up about 2600 in chips the first couple of levels. I felt lucky to get that much. Finally, I knocked out a guy that went all in on a draw and my pair of Kings help up. Then they broke our table up...thankfully, and I was moved to a WORSE table. Even less action. I couldn't take it, chips weren't being exchanged, and other people at other tables were amassing huge stacks. My buddy had 15K while I was happy to have $3K. I wasn't playing bad, I just was stealing blinds and no one was ever getting action. It was pathetic. Finally a couple shorts get knocked out and we start getting new blood. And now we have ANTE's. Its about 6 hours into the tournament at this point. I was card dead. I was able to steal a few rounds of antes and even win a couple pots, I built up to about 8K in chips, while my buddy was sitting a 33K in chips. (the chip leader was $35K) And there were a fewl stacks at my table with 15K-20K.
I lost a couple pots and was being blinded to death. Everytime I picked up a blind-stealing hand someone else went all in before me. My UTG hands and what not were all 9-2o and what not. I wasn't even the oppurtunity to attempt a steal. At 10:30 I bust out in about 370thish. That was the last estimate of remaining players when I was still in...i made a terrible play when I knew I was behind, but was hoping I was wrong and/or I could suck out on the guy. Pocket 6's lost to AQ when an Ace spiked on the board. If I wasn't so tired mentally and beat down from dead card and just boring play, I probably coulda done better. They started paying at 270th.
My buddy (grunkzzz on the forum) finished 166th for $2300. He said Humberto Brenes sat down at his table when he had about $40K in chips and just ripped through him.
Tuesday, I made another $450ish in side cash games at the Alladin and Gold Coast. (too many sharks at Bellagio, stay away from that place)
Wednesday I gave back $360 in cash games. I knew better, I could gotten out with only a $100 loss if I woulda listened to myself and got up and left when I realized I was playing so poorly. But since I knw it was my last day and last chance to play, I stuck around. Huge mistake.
I did go watch some of the HORSE event, it was an impressive sight for sure. 12 or so tables full of top pros. It was like 12 final tables all playing at the same time. I saw/heard Matasow mocking Marcel Luske, that was pretty funny. Helmuth was at his table to.
Kid Poker looked a little frustrated, he was semi-short stacked at the time. Doyle doesn't look so good. Cindy Violette actually looks better in person than on TV, she looks torn up to me on TV. Annie Duke looks good. Lederer is a big dude. Eric Seidel seems standoffish, I had an interfacing with him in a hallway while he was waiting for Howard to shake one off.
Stuff I saw:
- Max Pescatori win a bracelt on the same day Italy won the cup
- Matasow get eliminated from a final table without blowing up
- Sammy Farha getting knocked out of a tournament
- A serious highstakes cash game with Shekien, Ted forresst, Farha, and a couple others that I didn't recognize. The game was weird, triple draw? I didn't get it. At least $200K on the table in cash alone. I didn't count the chips.
Many other random interfacings with pros and what not that I can't remember right now.
I learned a lot. It was fun. My first WSOP experience.
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