aaaaaaaaaaaaaah.....

That is the sound of relief from a great weekend in Vegas. I had a plan before heading down, I stuck to it, and came out of the weekend feeling a little better about my game. So, what happened? To sum it up quickly for those who don't want to read a trip report, I played only $30/60 limit cash games, three sessions, booked a win in all three. I then played in the $1500 NL tournament at the Bellagio on Saturday and made the final table and finished 9th out of 360.

For those of who wish to read a long report here we go...

I got in Thursday night after working in Seattle and went right to the poker room at the Bellagio. My game plan was to just play $30/60. I used to go down there and jump into the $100/200 game but the last few times I have been down there the game has not been that good. In fact at times the game is downright brutal to beat for a any amount of money. With my confidence not all that high I felt it would be a mistake to jump into that game right now. Plus I just wanted to make enough to freeroll myself into Saturday's tournament as my goal. Can do that easily in $30/60 without risking all that much money. The $30/60 game was just as I remembered when I was down there for the WSOP, but did not play the last time when I should have been there the whole time. This is the middle game between the lower limits and the bigger games. It is big enough that wealthy poker wannabes or guys stepping up in limits jump into the game and take some shots. The games were all good. It was so nice to be able to just sit in that game and actually feel like you were the best player at the table or in the top two. It also helped that I actually ran average to maybe even a little above average at times. I still am not seeing very many large pocket pairs, but the AK's AQ's and middle pocket pairs if they flopped the best hand actually stayed the best hand and did not get sucked out on more than average. I actually went 10 hours on Friday and never saw pocket AA's once. I was reading really well all weekend, I made some sick value raises on the river a few times to pick up some larger pots, and was making some laydowns that I been having trouble making the last few months. I did make my share of mistakes, but not so many that I was disappointed with my play. Overall I played three sessions. One Thursday, and then Two on Friday. All winning sessions. Felt nice to book some wins. I am most proud of the fact that I stayed out of the $100/200 game even when I really wanted to go to that game Friday night after booking two wins in the $30/60 and could have freerolled a shot in that game with profits. I just played once again in the $30/60 game and booked another good win. There were no really memorable hands, just a bunch of run of the mill hands. Off to the tournament.

I was feeling pretty good about my game coming into Saturday. I went to bed around 2:30am on Saturday morning and got some good sleep before the noon start. I have never even cashed in any of these larger Buyin events in LA or Vegas so I had no real expectations coming into the day. Now my sample size is still small, less than 10 total events with buyins above $1000, so I have not been too disappointed with my results. I got close a few weeks back in LA so I felt my NL tournament game was good. The day started at a good table, not too many really aggressive tricky players, and of the 10 people 7 of them were playing really squeaky tight tournament poker. Me and two others were mixing it up. I also got a table that was not going to break for a while so I could get some momentum and a really good feel for the players. I almost went bust right away. I was hovering around even for about 30 minutes and then I picked up Q,9 in the BB. There was a raise from MP, one of the two players mixing it up so I knew it could mean almost anything. We were playing 25/50 blinds and he made it 200 to go and I called the raise hoping to hit a hand. Well I did as the flop came down 9,9,7 rainbow. I checked hoping to check raise and unfortunately for me he checked behind me. The turn came a K, perfect if he had a K I would get some chips. I bet 300 into the pot and he flat called me. OK he has a hand but what, he showed no aggression on the turn. The river brought a 10, that was not really what I wanted to see but I still thought it may be a safe card. I wanted to bet enough to get called, I thought, but not a huge amount to get me pot committed if he had a hand like 10's or KK's and was trapping. I really felt KK's were unlikely, but 10's were a real possibility. I bet only $300 into a $1000 pot and he thought about it for a long time, then he flat called. I thought he was thinking about folding at that point, but what he really was thinking was should he raise. He had J,8 and made a gutshot on the river for a straight. I think my bet really through him off, like I had a made full house and I wanted a call. This worked out to my advantage because if he had raised a small amount I might have called, instead he just called and I lost the pot. The next round I was UTG with 6,7 of spades. I mixed it up and raised to 175. There was a goofy guy who had been moved to our table who was not paying attention to my raise and announced raise himself and put out $175. The problem was I had already raised to that amount and he was informed he would have to raise at least another $175 or more. He chose to just put out another $175. I knew he really did not like his hand that much at this point. The flop came out 5,6,3 one spade. I bet out $400 into the pot with top pair and the gutter. He flat called. The turn came the 2 of spades, and I just moved in for my remaining $1500. He thought for a really long time and tried to talk to me to get a read. I just stayed quiet and he finally decided that I had him beat and said I have outs, but I am going to lay it down. He showed me pocket 77's and laid them down. If he calls there I am likely out of the tournament. Instead I am back up to $3,000 or so and back in the race.

The next round playing $50/100 blinds I am still not doing much but holding my own when this hand comes up. A guy in seat two who had been mixing it up and getting some hands called the $100 BB with a ton of chips, the same guy who beat me earlier with J,8, then another MP player called the $100, and then a third LP player made it only $500 to go. This dude was playing super tight, I knew this was a big hand. I had the button with 5,7 of diamonds and decided it was time to gamble a bit to see if I could flop a hand to bust this guy or get some chips off the table chip leader. I called the $500, the two blinds dumped, the EP player with chips called, the other limper dumped, and we took the flop off three ways with about $2000 in the pot. The flop came perfect 5,5,K. The only hands I had to worry about was KK or A,5. The first player bet $2,000 into the pot, I knew he did not have either one of those hands as he would have checked the flop to trap, as he was not the aggressor preflop. The super tight guy moved in for his remaining $3,000, and I moved in over the top for my $3,500. The first guy now dumped his hand, which actually surprised me as he had plenty of chips and the pot now had over $10,000 in it and he only had to call another $1,500 with no chance to lose any more chips. He did however, and the other player had the hand I hoped for and not the disaster hand, AA, I held on to the river to win the pot. I now had some chips to play with. I used my stack a bit to build up during the next round and then while playing $100/200 I busted a shorter stack for around $3,000 when I had AJ and made a MP raise and he moved in with K,Q diamonds and did not hit. I had my stack up to over $20,000 now and they moved Jimmy Tran to the table. If you play any tournament poker you know who he is. He is not super famous player but you see him at all the tournaments. He is a middle aged Asian with black hair that has kind of a white patch in it that makes him a very recognizable gentleman. I had him to my direct right and he had a good stack but not as big as mine. He is a super nice guy and I got to play with him at my table for almost 3 hours before we broke. He is a really patient player, I actually learned a lot from him during that time about being patient and picking your spots.



I only played one decent pot with him the whole time. We were at $200/400 blinds w/$25 ante. He had the button, and I in the small blind had A,3 spades. He limped on the button, I called and the BB checked his option. The flop came 2,4,5, sweet. I checked, BB checked, Jimmy bet $2,000 into the pot and I raised it to $7,500. He thought about it for a long time and mucked pocket AA's faceup. Wow, how did you get away from that hand? I can not believe he did not take one more off, but great laydown. I did not show him my hand or tell him he made a good laydown but that was impressive. One of the things I disliked about his game was that he limped with big pocket pairs all day hoping to trap. He limped with KK's twice that I know of and with JJ's at least once as well. He lost all of those having been outflopped and getting away on the flop easy. I choose to just raise and take the blinds if that is what happens.

The next big pot I played, which essentially got me to the money as it turns out, was also a hand at the $200/400 level w/ $25 ante. A larger stack of about $15,000 sat down and had played about three orbits at our table. I once again had the button. This player raised it up to $1,500 and got called and I had 6,9 of diamonds and also called the $1,500. I had about $20,000 in chips at the time. The flop came down K,9,9 rainbow. The early raiser bet about $$6,000 at the pot, the MP player mucked and I thought about it for a bit to make it look like I was not sure and then counted out some chips, then moved in. He was really confused. He did not call right away so I knew he did not have KK's, I once again did not think he would have played KK's that way anyway. He then said I think you are bluffing and put the rest of his money into the pot with get this 88's??? Wow put 1/2 of your stack into the pot, calling all in, to be out of the tournament if you are wrong with 88's. I expected AK there not 88's. So I now had like $38,000 in chips, and our table broke. Crap. I was having such fun. I got moved to a new table with this big stack and was the big stack there as well. I now never got a big hand the rest of the day get paid. I stayed right around $40,000 the rest of the day. I just kept stealing blinds and antes when needed but could not build up my stack. I kept being patient and had the stack to do so, so I did. We finally took the dinner break at 9:15pm and we were at 34 players and they were going to pay 27. At this point I was starting to get shorter stacked. I never got any great hands and I was getting worried I would not even cash.

We came back from Dinner and I just wanted to be patient to cash and see what would happen. I never got a pair, just a few big A hands to steal the blinds to stay alive and then we got to 28 to go hand for hand. It took 45 minutes and I was getting deathly short playing 800/1600 with a $300 ante. There was only one shorter stack at my table and she finally put it in UTG with A9 diamonds against the BB K,10. The K,10 outflopped her and we were in the money. Cool.

We were then down to three tables and I finally got a few hands. I picked up KK's and took down a pot moving in after a raise. I then had $20,000 then I got AA a few orbits later and took down another pot after a raise, and a call to win another $20,000, at $40,000 now back in business sort of. I managed just to stay alive as stacks were busting all around me. I went from barley cashing to making it down to the final two tables. I then got moved to one of the two tables with Quinn Do and JC Tran at the same table.




Both of these guys had very big stacks, and played them well with opposite styles. Quinn was a pretty tight player that I could see, JC was just the opposite, he was raising lots of hands and trying to out flop or out play people. When played back at however he was getting away from hands. I was still card dead and got short once again. I then moved in for my last $15,000 playing $1500/3000 with a $500 ante with K,10 hearts in MP and only got called by the BB who had fortunately K,4, I held and lived again. Then I got moved to the other table to balance out and the table behind me went on a bust out tear. AA vs KK, and Jimmy Tran was gone 14th. AA vs 10's and another player out, 12 left. The I got moved back to balance again and KK's got in vs AQ and busted number 12 to have 11 left. Then the very next hand Quinn had AA vs. AK and the AK over played his hand pre-flop and went bust. This guy had $50,000 in chips and Quinn raised on the Button. This guy had been over playing hands all day and getting lucky, well his luck ran out. He re-raised Quinn and Quinn pushed and the guy could not get away from the hand and called. Busto down to 10 and we are at the final table.

Now my plan, because I was very short now playing $2000/4000 with a $500 ante, was to push before my next blind so I could either finish 10th and not come back the next day or double up. I really did not want to wait 12 hours to play 1 hand. But three hands in, once again a guy with plenty of chips, just pushed in EP with what turned out to be 88's for $57,000. Why he did not just make a standard raise to get away from the hand for a re-raise is beyond me, but he did and Quinn woke up with KK's on the button called and busted him. Great I made the final table, shit I have to wait 12 hours, miss my flight home, to play one hand to see if I can double up. Obviously I was excited to make my first real final table, but I knew the reality of the situation was I was most likely done on my next hand. I liked the fact that if I could just get lucky I had a chance for a massive payday. First was $194,000 plus a $25,000 seat at the WPT Champ. event. I wish there was a happier ending to this tale, but I made it past my first orbit pushing in the SB with J,7 diamonds and the BB not calling, so all I picked up was the blinds and antes to survive another orbit. I got down to two before the blind on the next orbit and picked up A,6 not suited and just pushed for my final $20,500. Quinn in MP called with pocket 55's. I thought this was about as good a spot I could hope for, a coin flip to double up. Flop came 5,10,5 and I was drawing dead. I play for 15 minutes and go to catch a flight home. I did not even stick around to see who won. Some dude I don't know won. I was hoping for Quinn because he is also from Seattle, although he does not live or play there anymore, but we both used to play at the Muck. He is a very nice kid who started the day with the chiplead at $267,000 so I would have bet he would have won but you never know in these things.

Also, my lone star sighting was that Shannon Elizabeth was also in the tournament. She was there with her boyfriend, don't know who that is but here are a few shots....





She is not as hot as you would think from the movies. She is attractive but not anymore than any other good looking girl you would see on the street. Never did get to play with her at the tables so I don't know if she is any good. I do know she did not cash or even get that deep, maybe 1/2 way through.

All in all a great trip, had fun, and actually won over 10 dimes. Long time coming, hope it keeps up through the end of the year. Hope you are all winning and talk to you soon...SJ