 Vegas November 2011 |
| Day 4 part 2 - DSE, Aria, creepy guy |
| Last Updated: 2011-11-10 14:15:10 |
| After my bustout at Venetian I killed time doing my first draft of yesterday's blog. Here's a quick rundown on how the whole tournament went:
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| Sat down at my first table, not long after I sat down a lovely young woman sat next to me and asked me a few questions about how the tournament went. Said she just flew in from Brazil, didn't know how the tournament went.
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| About 15 minutes later a Scottish lad sat down at the other end of the table and the Brazilian spent the next hour (until he busted out miserably) throwing herself at him. He looked like a friend, could she take his picture? She had one of those wrapped cheese sticks, apparently couldn't open it, didn't ask anyone near her and instead had the cheese stick passed around to the Scot for him to do it for her. I think I look like I'm capable of opening up a cheese stick package even tho I never eat them, and I was sitting right next to her. But I was wearing my wedding ring and clearly unavailable so I guess it made perfect sense.
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| BTW he showed no outward signs of interest. Actually might have been a little perturbed by the cheese stick. That didn't stop her.
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| Notice I'm not talking about the poker. For me, not much to talk about. Never got above 14,000 chips, never went below starting stack of 12,000 chips.
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| Oh, and the young lady who didn't have a clue about the tournament just happened to have a friend who also just flew in from Brazil with her...who at first looked familiar, then I realized I sat at a table with her (the friend) for several hours last summer. Hmmmm...what a coincidence.
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| So our table breaks up and I get moved to a new table. And I sit down next to a guy who looks very familiar. I ask him if he played over the summer, 'cause he looks familiar, and he says no. Says he hardly played over the summer, he's from Calgary.
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| Then there's a dealer change, and he's on a first name basis with the dealer. And the next dealer. And the next dealer.
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| Huh.
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| I finally figure it out. I sat at a table with him for a long time over the summer. After he crashed and burned and left that time, everyone was talking about his story. He was a decent player, won a WPT event, turned into Mr. hyper-aggressive, always plays deep-stack like tournaments, always crashes and burns. And he's a pathological liar. And all the local regulars know him, who he is and what his story is.
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| I didn't last much longer than him, see yesterday's blog...
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| Went to Spice Buffet (Planet Hollywood) for dinner and headed over to Aria.
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| Same story to start, I was basically in neutral for the first few hours. Couldn't get anywhere at my first table but I was somewhere above starting stack when they broke us up.
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| At the new table I had a very good situation, immediately after me was a perfect trapping candidate followed by some tight players. The guy I could trap wasn't playing every other hand or anything, but he was getting involved in a lot of pots with position and if nobody bet into him post-flop he went after the pot.
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| So somewhere along the way I get pocket 2s and there's a raise into me, I decide to call and my target who's on the button also calls.
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| Flop 2-3-7 with 3-7 of hearts. Gin.
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| Original raiser checks, I check, target bets about half my stack. I shove, he frowns and calls and turns over A-8 of hearts.
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| Small heart on the turn.
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| Deuce of hearts on the river.
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| I took off from there. Now I had fighting chips. That table broke up and I was able to build a chip stack. Didn't have any particularly big hands, but I stole a lot of blinds/antes and won some small pots and more importantly didn't get involved in any big pots that didn't go my way.
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| So we get to final table, we're 9 handed paying 7. I'm probably 3rd-4th in chips so in good shape. But the shortest stack is half of my stack and unfortunately he got lucky on me.
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| Short stack shoves, I look down at A-Q, I call, he flips over A-4 and catches the 4.
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| Now I'm the short stack. Next two times around the table I'm able to get away with a shove to maintain my stack, but the 3rd time wasn't the charm. I'm first to act, I have Q-9 suited, blinds going up and the next two hands are going to cost me about 1/4 of my stack just in blinds. Close enough, worst case I should be live, right?
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| Folds all the way around to the big blind who would have been calling for about 1/3 of her stack, she hated to do it but she called me with A-10. Flop X-Q-A, no help on the turn or river.
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| I do try to keep my blogs short enough that people can read them in a reasonable amount of time, which means there's always stories that don't get told.
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| But this one needs to be told...
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| In the Aria tournament I cashed in Monday, Leon was telling me stories about this guy he was going at it with at another table. When we got down to two tables the guy got moved to my table so I had a little scouting report on him and that was helpful. Right out of the gate he raised pre-flop, I knew he could be pushed off hands so I shoved with just A-9 suited and he folded. I showed off the junk to try and irritate him a little.
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| But that's not the story. There was something Leon didn't tell me, and maybe didn't notice.
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| Before I say anything else, this guy was a very good poker player. And I'm sure when he's not at a poker table he's a wonderful human being...
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| The guy was emulating Phil Hellmuth. Not "I wanna be like Phil" emulating. I mean "horror movie/creepy TV show about someone who starts out becoming a fan of someone, then starts dressing like that person, then starts to think they are that person" emulating.
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| Clearly hasn't gotten to that final stage yet. But folks, I'm telling you, this guy was a little creepy.
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| Same Aria hat and jacket that Phil wears when he's not wearing his own clothing line.
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| Same sunglasses I've seen Phil wear on TV.
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| Every time it was his turn to make a decision he put his mouth in his hand just like Phil does.
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| At least he didn't do the "hide my mouth in my balled up fists" thing Phil does after he makes a call. I was a little surprised he didn't, actually.
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| Spent a lot of time telling everyone who would listen how poker should be played, how tournaments should be run, how hands should be played, what the other guy did wrong in a hand, how easily he could have won the hand if he wanted (ask Leon about that one...).
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| The more I think about it, the creepier it gets.
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| Maybe I just watch too many crime dramas on TV.
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| So that's it for this trip. One cash in 6 tries, should have been two in six but what can you do.
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| As always, thanks for reading! |
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