Vegas June 2012 (WSOP)

Day 7 - Event #37 8-Game Mix (WSOP)

Last Updated: 2012-06-20 12:29:32

Emotional rollercoaster doesn't begin to describe my evening on Tuesday.

Up real early after the early night Monday. Hit the gym, hit the pool, showered and headed out to do some more shopping. Came away empty handed again, which is not a complaint just a statement of fact.

Hit the buffet at Rio and I have to admit, still one of the better selections of all the buffets we go to but honestly I just can't get too excited about it any more.

I'm starting to notice more and more the "sameness" among the buffets at the Caesar's owned properties and the quality of food at all of them is about average at best the last couple of years. Joann and I are talking about trying the Aria buffet Wednesday, and I'm expecting better things from MGM owned properties.

We got to the buffet around 3, finished up around 4 thanks to some intentional foot dragging to draw it out as long as possible...since I had to kill time until 5:00. Last year when I had the same meal at around the same time on the same day it was a tough meal. I was just so wound up about poker that I could barely get my food down.

This time, not nearly as bad, at least not until dessert. Once I started dessert the stomach started churning a little. After that, I just paced around various parts of the Rio around the Amazon and Pavilion rooms until it was time to sit down. About 2.5 mins to 5:00 PM I took my seat, counted my chips and settled in for what I hoped would be a long night.

As it turned out, it was nearly the shortest WSOP night of my "career".

Started with 7500 chips. Game order was apparently drawn at random at another table, if I remember correctly it was:

NLH
7-Card Stud
Omaha 8/b
Razz
PLO
Limit Hold'Em
Stud 8/b
2-7 Triple Draw

Shortly after I sat down, some guy named Amnon Filippi sat down immediately to my left. The same Amnon Filippi who had a 4th place finish in the poker players championship in '07. A little while later the late arriving Brian Rast sat down directly across the table from me (I was in the 3 seat, he was in seat 1). Yes the same Brian Rast who WON the Poker Players championship last summer. For those who aren't totally familiar with the PPC, it's not the main event. It's the $50,000 buyin tournament that has a trophy named for the late, great Chip Reese where they play 8 different games in rotation. Gee, 8 games...sounds familiar...oh, that was Phil Helmuth's 3rd second place finish last year...but I digress...

First big hand I played I drew out a straight in Stud 8/b, the other person rivered a flush. Second big hand I played, also Stud 8/b, 2 pr Aces and Deuces, other guy caught 3 3's.

Then in Razz I rivered a 7-6 that I proudly turned over only to see my opponent had rivered a 7-5. You can't make it up.

Half my stack, gone. It got worse.

Playing 2-7 Triple Draw I had a 2-3-4-6 and drew a 9. Decided to stay pat. Lost to a drawn out 8-7. I had been ahead the whole way...

2/3 of my stack, gone.

In case you're wondering, if I had a card as high as a Jack with the other person drawing one card I would have been mathematically correct to stand pat. Person drawing one is actually a small underdog to a Jack.

So I'm under 2500 chips from my 7500 starting stack and I'm incredibly frustrated. I think I've played almost perfect poker and I've just gotten killed by 4 coolers.

Down around 2350 in chips we're playing stud high and I look down at hidden Kings with just a 9 showing. I decide at that moment I'm getting all my chips in if I can. I raise out, get two customers. 4th street gives the other two blanks, I catch a king! Person with a Q showing leads out, I just call wanting to raise on the big bet on 5th street. Blanks all around on 5th, guy w/ Q catches an ace and leads again, this time I drop the hammer and raise, still have two other people in the pot.

Well I bet 6th and 7th, had I lost the hand I believe I would have been left with 625 chips...but a set of Kings holds up! I almost triple up to around 6K in chips!

Somewhere along the way we lost Filippi and he was replaced by Dan Shak, just a former Aussie Millions winner with almost $4 million in career earnings. No big deal.

Unfortunately for me things took another turn for the worse. Again I got a lot of chips in playing Razz, started with a 2-4-5-6 monster hand, had my opponent all in and dominated and caught pair, paint, pair. That was the worst of another tough stretch and before I knew it I was back down to 1750 in chips.

Now I'm in trouble, very short stacked.

I pick up hidden 9s in a stud hand and I look around and see the only over-cards out are dead. Two players have Qs, two have 10s and nobody else has anything bigger. 9s are going to be good enough here, we actually get into a preflop raising war and I get 4 bets in before 4th street with two opponents (one each w/ a Q and a 10). I get a blank, 10 catches a J, Q catches a blank. More betting, all my chips get in.

On 5th street, Q-x, who had led much of the action, catches a Q. Oh CRAP, I'm dead here. The guy HAS to have at least two pair, I'm down to two 9s to win. J-10 catches an 8. They bet/call. 6th street brings me another blank, blank for J-10-8, Q-x-Q catches MY 9! I'm down to one out, I think. I stand up, shake my head to Joann and make it clear to her we're about to be leaving.

Now my board at this point is something like 6-7-J-rag. I have a pair, nothing else. No other draw and a guy showing a pair of Qs and one of the only two cards I think I can win with betting on every street creating a sizeable side pot.

7th street gets dealt, I look down hoping for a magic one-outer. Ugh. It's a 7. I'm going home with two pair vs a better two pair.

Q-Q-9-x checks. J-10-8-x, who had been calling down the Qs on every street contemplates for a long time and bets into the side pot! Well, don't know what he has but obviously he has Q-Q beat, and if he has that beat he's got me beat..

Q-Q shakes he head and starts laughing. He actually looks like he's going to fold. Seriously? But he makes an apparent crying call and waits for the bad news.

J-10-8-X turns over one Jack and MUCKS.

Q-Q turns over...NOTHING!!!

He has a pair of Qs! I more than triple up again!!! You CAN'T make it up, people.

Folks, I gotta tell you, I was still in shock 3-4 hrs after that hand when I finally went to sleep. Stunned. How did I win that pot?

After that I get a small run of cards and build my stack up over 8000. I actually start winning a few small pots here and there, but also losing a few small ones. My stack goes up and down in the 5000-9000 range and then finally I hear the magic words.

"Dealers, complete the hand you're on. We're going to play four more hands and then we will bag up the chips for tomorrow."

When those four hands were done I was sitting on 7700. I played 8 hours of poker and I gained a whopping 200! It beats going down to zero!

We'll call the 3pm Rio buffet meal "dinner" and the 3am meal at the 24 hr cafe back at Aria "supper". I should have been giddy, but I think I was still just stunned over those 9s and 7s.

Wednesday I will be at Amazon Purple 435, seat 4. I will be the second shortest stack at my table, however a double-up would put me 4th in chips at the table. I am NOT that far behind.

Sitting with me will just be Freddy Deeb who will by far be the chip leader at the table and who I assume just about everyone knows (he's 7th in chips overall) and Max Pescatori who you would have to be a little more poker geeky to know of but I believe he does have at least one bracelet to his name.

So that's it folks. I'm starting out 168th of 209 remaining from a starting group of 477 paying 48 places. One double-up and I'm right in it.

Wish me luck!!!