When we left part 1 it was Tuesday afternoon, so here are the highlights of the rest of the week.
TUESDAY Evening - We did cab it over to the Hard Rock Casino & played in their 7:00 PM $65 tourney. There were only 11 of us, so it didn't take too long until we were at the Final Table!! I lost most of my chips on an unimproved AK, and ended up 5th. Only the top 3 got paid, and IlliniFan took 2nd. We cabbed it over to the Rio. This was my 1st time seeing the WSOP in person & it was very cool. We passed Phil Hellmuth in the hallway & saw many other pros.
Lusky picked us up and we headed out for some dinner with Virge. I had a couple Fat Tire drafts, and a burger that was good, but so big I could only finish half of it. Lusky dropped us off @ IP and we played some 1-2NL. Never could get much going & ended down probly $100.
WEDNESDAY - IlliniFan was playing in a knockout tourney at Treasure Island, so I played his lunch bitch and got us some Wendy's. I Played in the HORSE tourney @ Binions & went 0 for 3 in Binions Tourneys. Just never really caught any cards, and it's tough making any kind of moves in limit. Used up my Binions points for a free dinner, before catching a cab up to MGM. Sat down with $200 in the 1-2 NL game and again cashed out $500. An older guy from Dayton had bluffed me out of a huge pot earlier when I found a good spot to try to get my $$ back. After an early position raise he bumped it to $45. I looked down @ KK & decided to jam. He went into the tank & I knew I was ahead. This guy had won 2 of the biggest hands by bluffing that I have ever seen. He finally called a flipped over JJ. My KK held up and I won a pot that had over $500 in it. Decided to cash out my winnings & head back to the IP.
Got back to the IP and bought in for $200 @ 1-2 NL. This was the slowest table I have ever played on. There were a couple of drunk Euro's and a cute girl who was flirting with and distracting everyone. Regardless, I somehow still managed to lose ~ $100 over a few hours. Oh well, at least it was entertaining! Went to bed ~ 5:00 AM.
THURSDAY - As usual, IF was up well before me & he won some cash game $$ in the morning before buying into the $330 noon deep stack tourney @ Ceasars. I used up my Total Rewards points for some lunch before I met TuscaloosaJohn and 1Queens Up1 @ 4:00 PM. Not enough mixed game interest @ the IP, so we walked down to the Venetian. Our timing was perfect as they were just starting a 6-12 HORSE game, so we got to sit next to each other. If you haven't been to Las Vegas, the Venetian has one of the largest and nicest poker rooms, so I was happy I got a chance to finally play in it. I finished down $31, which wasn't too bad after I was down more than $150 at one point. This was also my 1st time playing a live HORSE cash game.
We walked over to Ceasar's Palace & railed IF for a bit in his tourney before catching a cab over to the Rio. 1Queens Up1 registered for his Saturday $1500 NL event. I railed Bleu for a bit, as he was nearing the bubble in the $1500 PLO8 event. I saw him get a nice double up. We walked around a bit before sitting down for a couple drinks @ the infamous "hooker bar". 1Queens Up1 was beat from his flight in from Connecticut, so he headed back to the IP for some shut-eye. smokkee was across the bar from us for a bit before we knew it was him & he gave us some great advice on maximizing the $$ from our blogs.
Otis and AlCantHang showed up. Al is one of my top couple favorite poker bloggers & it was nice to finally meet him. Then it was quite the pleasure to meet Pauly, my favotite all-time poker blogger. Pauly hung out with us for a while before duty called & he headed back to his room @ the Gold Coast to write.
TuscaloosaJohn called it a night & I went back & railed Bleu til they stopped ~ 2:00 AM & would resume at noon. I took a cab to the MGM & bought into the 1-2 NL game for $200. There were a couple drunk Euros which made the table quite fun & juicy. I got up to ~ $450 before 2 different guys flopped full houses against me. I took that as a sign to cash out my $350 and bank another winning session @ MGM. I took a cab back to the IP & not a single player in the poker room @ 6:30 AM.
FRIDAY - Got up ~ 3:00 PM. Took the monorail down to MGM. Used up my player points for some lunch & got into a 1-2 NL texas holdem game. Sat down with $200. Had 2 good hands & 1 which could have been. The 1st good hand I had KdQd & raised to $15 on the button after a few limpers. At least one caller & the flop came 910J with two hearts. Villain checked, I bet $20, and he checked raised me another $30. Sweet!!! Unfortunately he didn't have much more behind (maybe $50)& I went ahead & put him all in. He muttered "so sick" when I showed him the flopped nuts. He never showed & didn't suck out on turn & river.
The second good hand I had was KK, when I raised pre-flop, bet the flop, and put a guy all in on the turn & he showed AdKd. Fortunately no A or diamond on the river & I scoop another good pot. The one bad hand was when I flopped a club flush in a raised pot, but the AK8 board paired kings on the turn. When the villain went all-in on the river for $150 it was an easy fold & the table coaxed him into showing his AK for kings full of aces. I definitely lost the minimum on that hand.
I headed over to the Rio ~ 6 and met up with IlliniFan, who had won ~ $800 in a PLO8 $5-$5 game. He got Mike Matusow to sign his FTP jersey & Phil Ivey signed a sweatshirt. The $50K HORSE tourney was underway, so it was very cool to see all the tables up close & just stacked with the top pros. The table we got prime position for on the rail & watched the most included Daniel Negreanu and Patrik Antonius.
I got to see the ending to the final table I had 1st seen the night before. This one will be on ESPN. Bahador Ahmadi won a bracelet in the Mixed Event. He outlasted a final table that included Barry Greenstein and Ylon Schwartz, who I saw go out in 3rd. At least he he got his signed copy of Ace on the River for knocking out Barry. The Jd3d you see in the picture caught up on the turn after it all went in on the flop. The Kd on the turn gave Ahmadi a flush and the bracelet.
I bought a couple souvenirs, said good-bye to Tuscaloosa Johnny, and we headed up to the front of the Rio where Lusky & Bleu picked us up. We headed out to the Red Rock Casino for some dinner & poker. IlliniFan was nice enough to pick up dinner with some of his winnings & I even got a free Lone Star from the waitress when I got the bottle cap puzzle.
We started off playing 4-8 Omaha8, but when the table got short we decided to switch to HORSE. It was a good decision & lots of fun. I ended up down ~ $40. Bleu was the big winner & IlliniFan was the big loser. The highlight was when I hit the case jack on the river to best Illinifan's Kings full of Jacks with the one outer! I love to play poker games! We got back to the IP ~ 4:00 AM.
SATURDAY - After less than 2 hours sleep we checked out of the IP before 7:00 AM & took a cab to McCarren. Security was brutal as usual there. Flight was delayed 30 minutes because the pilot hadn't landed yet on his flight in from somewhere. Got some sleep on the plane & re-read ~ 100 pages of Harrington on Hold'em II.
Took one final bad beat when we couldn't find the ticket when we tried to leave long term parking. Luckily I still had my boarding passes from both flights, but they wouldn't give us a discount with a lost ticket (wtf?).
All in all a very good trip, but it's good to be home!!!
