 Vegas June 2007 (WSOP) |
| Day Five (Wednesday, Part 2) |
| Last Updated: 2007-06-28 |
| I'm going to make two bold predictions. This is going to be my longest blog entry of the trip, and this will be the one most worth reading.
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| What would a Vegas trip be for me without at least one emotional roller coaster. This one is by far the biggest.
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| After my last entry, Joann and I headed out to go to Rio to check out a little WSOP action before heading to Mirage for the $230 buy-in tournament. First we had to stop at Tiffany's to pick up a bracelet Joann was having repaired. We were rushing a little, but there was heavy traffic on Las Vegas Blvd and we never got to move very fast. I dropped Joann off at Bellagio's mall entrance, then slowly circled around, stopping as much as I could, until she came out. Joann gets into the car, we pull out of the lot and for the first time since we left the parking lot we could move fast ... and we notice that the wind is very loud in the back. We look over our shoulders and there is a 3-foot hole sliced in the roof of the car. Somone had sliced it, presumably to break into it but there was nothing worth stealing inside.
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| Understand that this is our ride home. My first thought is that I can't drive 800 miles at high speed with a torn roof. I'm not even thinking about my $1000 deductible at this point.
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| So I call the insurance (where I get reminded of my large deductible) and they set up an appointment for Friday at 8:45 am at a body shop that supposedly specializes in 24 hr repairs. As in you'll get your car back within 24 hrs, not that they work 24/7. Apparently they have parts overnighted to them and do work immediately on the spot. So we're dropping the car there tomorrow morning and hoping that by some time Friday the car will be done. Otherwise we have to figure out a way to find a cheap hotel room on a Friday night in Las Vegas ... good luck with that. Either that or we have to try to duct-tape the roof just to get home.
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| So back to Paris to file a report on the car. Joann went on over to Mirage to buy herself into the $230 tourney while I did paperwork. Made it over myself in plenty of time and bought in.
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| Just as at Harrahs the night before, I immediately started out big stack and Joann went quickly in the other direction. Doubled up once when poket Aces held up against a scary board (other person mucked), then more than doubled up again when I flopped a set of 10s against a pair of sevens who thought they were good. Quads on the river, by the way. A couple more takeouts and I was well over 16K in chips from my 3K starting stack very early. But then I hit the wall. Someone raises ahead of me and I have big slick. I call, "Belgian Guy" then goes over the top. At this point I'm only in for 700 but he's over the top for another 3500. First raiser calls, all-in for less, and here I am with big slick and a chance to take out two and I'm massive chip leader.
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| I know I'm behind. At the very least someone has a pair. Every bone in my body is saying get away from this hand. But I'm tired of making bad laydowns, I play to win not just to money.
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| "This would be the tightest laydown ever" I say. I start to throw them away .. then put them down, count out the chips and make the call. Belgian guy, into a raise and a call, re-raised with pocket freakin sevens. Original raiser has Kings. Flop misses, turn is a 7. Belgian guy sucked out. And I gave away 1/3 of my stack. But if an Ace had hit ...
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| Now that I think about it, I was getting about 2-1 on my money with a 35% chance to win the hand. Mathematically it was a good call. Still, though, I knew I shoulda laid it down. Joann then busts out and doesn't want to hear my story. Joann's first bitter taste of defeat. Never got cards, it happens.
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| I was up and down for a while after that, pretty much maintaining my stack. Then Cody came by and offered use of his rental car to myself and Joann to help us get the car to the body shop tomorrow morning (he knew we were playing there). Cody is "the man".
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| So Joann had to bring him somewhere so that we could keep his car, and before they left I told her that she might hear from me soon. I was being chipped down, literally nothing over a 5 for one stretch of 4-5 hands. I was looking for an excuse to push.
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| And there were pocket 10s again. Someone raised all-in ahead of me, however, and someone else went over the top. I laid down the 10s. Over the top turned over pocket aces, good laydown. Got chipped down some more.
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| Then came pocket 10s again. My magic hand so far. One limper ahead of me very short stacked. I push immediately. Aces from before hates to lay down his hand and he's big stack at the table. He calls, original limper calls with a little less. Over the top has 8's, limper has 7s. 10s hold up. 10s are magic for me in this tournament.
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| I've got chips to play with again. Another all-in with 10s, no callers. Down to two tables. I'm not short stack, but I'm not big enough to fold my way to the money. And I play to win, anyway ... and now Belgian guy is sitting three seats around from me and he's by far the chip leader in the tournament. He's loose, and almost every hand if I bet I'm betting into him. In a big blind, I look at my cards as soon as I get them. Fold around to Belgian who stares at me and then raises in my big blind. This guy is good, he read my weakness and he was going to steal my blind. I'm never looking at my cards before he acts again unless I'm acting before him ... I get a little redemption when I steal one back with A-2. He knew I wasn't real strong, but he knew I had something and let me have it.
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| I steal enough blinds with all-ins to maintain while people are getting knocked out. We're down to about 13 and 9 are paying. I only have to outlast 4 people, but everyone is patient, the blinds are going around the table fast ... I'm still going to have to play cards. So I'm in the big blind with J-5 off, both red. Small blind calls. Flop comes 6-8-9 with two spades. Small blind checks, I check. Turn is an Ace of spades. No way do I think he has an ace with no preflop raise to steal from the small blind. Plus if I push, he's got to think either I have an ace or some kind of pair or at least a flush draw. And I proudly like to proclaim that I've never been caught in a stone-cold bluff (pulled off two good ones at earlier points in the tournament - I know how to pick my spots). Time to pull off another one. All-in.
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| But this guy is not a dumb player.
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| "Why would you bet so much"
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| "Wouldn't you have raised [preflop] if you had an ace?"
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| "I don't think you have it ... call"
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| Turns over A-2. I'm drawing dead. Can't beat a pair of aces even if I pair up.
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| Were any of you paying attention? I wasn't.
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| I get up, turn around, start to leave ... and with my back to the table I hear those magic words.
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| STRAIGHT!!!!!
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| I still haven't been caught in a stone cold bluff because it wasn't stone cold. I had outs. 3 in fact because his deuce was a spade so I needed a non-spade seven. And I hit. Gutshot straight draw on the river and I hit. Every bad beat I've ever taken in my poker life just got redeemed in that moment. I finally put a horrible beat on someone I had no business putting on them and this was not for chump change. $18,400 total prize pool and I'm three from the money and I just doubled up again. I'm 2nd in chips at my table, but still only about 15% of Belgian. He's massive chip leader, him vs everyone else.
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| Down to 10, 9 paying. The first deal comes along - everyone will kick in $20 to give 10th place something. Super short stack immediately goes all-in, loses, takes his $180 from the rest of us and we're 9. He was badly on tilt, I think everyone felt sorry for him. He had been massive chip leader and gave it all away trying to take people out while Belgian was building up to take over.
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| Final table. Belgian is over 150,000 chips while second place is probably around 30,000 and everyone else 20,000-25,000. Someone proposes a deal. $3500 for Belgian (half the top prize), about $1500 for everyone else. That was bad math, more than that in the prize pool. Belgian incredibly agrees, but there's a reason (later). 2nd in chips balks because he's greedy. Belgian takes out another player. Now he wants $4000, $2000 for everyone else (math much closer now). 2nd in chips still says no. Then he starts nickle - and - diming. "Short stacks should only get $1500". Massive arguing ensues ... play another hand, 2nd in chips raises, someone goes over the top. 2nd in chips does the math and figures out if he calls and loses he's short stack. Greedy bastard finally has the light come on - he's one bad decision away from being the short stack himself. Now he'll deal.
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| After enormous calculus we settle on a deal. $1900 for everyone except Belgian who gets "the rest" which is about $4500. And he gets to claim that he's 8th place ... it seems that for a foreigner they have to withhold tax money, Americans don't even get a tax form. So he'll get all the money back, apparently at the end of the year, but they have to withold and he wants as much cash now as he can get - and that's why he agrees to the split. As far as the IRS is concerned, he won $750 8th place. But he walked away with over $4000 in cash and only had a few hundred withheld.
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| So there it is. Two ways to look at it. Either I just won back more than enough to cover the damage to the car or I played in the WSOP on "house money" and have to pay for my roof. Either way, I ended the day way ahead of where I started it. Before we leave Mirage, I point out to Joann that had I won that money two days ago I'd have played in the WSOP in the 8/b tournament earlier today. Probably a good thing I won tonight instead.
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| So tomorrow it's off to the body shop and then who-knows-what until an Omaha 8/b tournament at Orleans at 7:00 tomorrow night (only $80 buy-in but I'll take what I can get).
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| While Hold'em is now officially my big money game, I'm still the "8/B-Master". |
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