One Last Push
At last a result of sorts. As soon as I saw Nick Slade double up on the first hand at the Bellagio on Friday I gave him the nod and we swapped 5% and the boy done good and went on to chop it up (this happened the other way around at Walsall the other month and I got to chop).
I had a great shot in the same comp yesterday and had so many chips it was embarrassing, but bluffing into quads with eleven left probably wasn’t the smartest move I’ve ever unleashed and then I got a little unlucky to get my Q-Q busted by A-3; lets try and be positive though, the deficit is at least slowly getting nibbled into…
Recent upswing aside, twelve days in and the trip so far has been pretty disappointing. I’m aware how important an asset confidence is and I do at least still feel upbeat about the remaining week and the main event which starts for me on Sunday, that’s today, in about an hour, gulp.
The game plan is sorted, nothing fancy or unique, I’m prepared for a long disciplined/boring day and just need to be a good boy, on my best behaviour to see it through.
Percentages-wise we’re looking at eleven swaps, mainly 2’s and 3’s, predominantly with grinders (Bushey) but there are one or two chip getters in there (Milkybarkid) just to keep it interesting.

Come On Form, I Know You’re In There Somewhere
I squeezed two comps in today, the first of which was the $1500 limit shoot-out. It’s worth pointing out that I survived three situations where I would have gone broke had it been NL;
A-A on a ten high flop vs. 10-10,
A-6 on an A,J,6 flop vs. A-A in a limped pot and
5-7 on As,4,6s,8 board vs. a flush draw.
Inconceivable not going broke in a NL game and of all the short stacked events at the series this was the one I felt had the most play.
The second comp of the day was my sixth buy-in at the Bellagio. Six and all I have to show is a $100 saver from Bad Girl; god bless that little lady. That coupled with almost $15,000 of WSOP entries sure is a wake up call for someone who is used to getting William Hill to pick up the tab.
Tonight’s effort was truly woeful, please, somebody slap me around the chops quickly. Not only was I calling when I should be passing but what is probably even worse is that I was calling when I should have been raising. My spidey senses are normally a lot sharper, but I have to put my hand up and admit to overdoing the comps and after tomorrows last $1500 shot at the Rio I intend to start winding down before I play the main event on Sunday.
A poor tournament showing aside the cash games have been a revelation. Gone is the pressure of the rising blinds and of going broke in one hand. In Nottingham the cash games have had a very mixed reputation in the past and of course you can only get a game from about midnight to 4am. Over here the selection is huge and I’ve definitely found my comfort zone in the $2-5NL. I won $1500 in two hours at the Mandalay Bay on Saturday - here’s my favourite pot:
I raised with something like a Q-6s, bet $50 into a $80 pot on the A,7,7 flop, got two callers and bet a winning $10 into the $230 pot when a third seven hit the turn - pure hilarity.
It’s good to see that at last the brits/irish are slowly warming up with John Shipley going close once or twice, blondeite Bad Pab making a tough final in the $5000 short-handed, Stuart Fox, Julian Gardner and Padraig Parkinson grabbing some third spots and the nice guy John Gale winning a bracelet in the $2500NL.
Finally on a slightly unpleasant note, I got to witness Phil Hellmuth very, very slowly walking towards me on a very, very long and deserted corridor in the Rio yesterday evening; dressed in black, collar up, shades on, cap pulled low. I didn’t know which way to look.

I Want To See The Bright Lights
The tournaments out here continue to frustrate although I felt I’d saved five grand on Thursday; intending to play the $5000 short handed we ordered a cab for 11 o’clock but it didn’t arrive until 1.30 by which time I was way too wound up to even consider it.
I’ve checked my records and it’s nine tournaments in Europe and another nine out here since I’ve made a final; come on sample size, do your stuff! There has been some sloppy play in there but I feel I’ve been playing pretty well during the last few days and am confident that I should go deep soon.
Since the last post I’ve played another Bellagio comp losing with A-10 to Q-10, I quickly got a big stack in the $2000NL but got into a “mine’s bigger than your’s” re-raise fest against the wrong guy and lost three coin tosses and in yesterdays $5000PL I actually turned the nuts on fourth street holding 6-7s on a 3,4,Q,5 board but his trip queens filled up on the river.
Xuyen and Steve arrived on Friday and after bumping into Danny Samson we headed over to the Mirage; my form in the cash games continues to surprise and it’s now four wins in four sessions. I haven’t ventured further than the Mirage yet but am told the Venetian and the Wynn both have games that are worth checking out (show a WSOP entry card at the Venetian and you get your rake back).
I move into the Luxor today; it’s only my second trip out here and whilst the house has everything we need it is too remote and the promised 10 minute ride from the strip is at least a half hour trip. Womble and Ariston move into the Rio on Thursday and with the main event starting on Friday it’ll be good to have a base in the hotel.

Not Good Enough
Three days in and still no joy. Thankfully my confidence is being kept steady by some modest draws in the cash games. I got to last a full thirty minutes in yesterdays $1500NL on a table where the majority of the play truly was woeful with hands like A-8 being worthy of a pre-flop re-raise. Unable to capitalise on this though I eventually got pot stuck with K-Q on a king high flop but let the other guy hit his 10 kicker when I tried to get cute; not a good idea with so little chips in play.
Taxi! and straight over to the Bellagio (again) for a second shot at their daily $1000 event. I made the last four tables in good shape but got into a bit of a mess when I picked up a flush draw whilst out there on a random blind steal with a Qh-6h. The SB check raised me all-in with two pair and I got to take my medicine. Not very tasty.
I got to witness a pretty freaky hand whilst grinding out my refund for the comp in the $2-5NL game; a friendly table, it was on their backs after the all diamond A,K,Q flop. The hands were A-A and A-K. The dealer put a Jd followed by a 10d out there and they got to chop.
Talking of freaky hands Carlo Citrone told me of this pretty sick run of events. Bubble time with nineteen players left at the Bellagio and he’s huge chip leader:
Finds K-K, raises, short stack pushes with A-J and hits.
Next hand Carlo finds K-K again, raises and the same short stack pushes in again, this time he has 7-7 and hits trips.
Very next and last hand Carlo finds the K-K again, raises and the same guy pushes his stack in again with 10-10 and hits the 10. Now that’s gotta hurt.
I played my third WSOP event today, the $2500NL. The 2500 buy-in meant we got a much appreciated 2500 chips, almost enough to apportion the odd 6 or 700 for some gambling. I made it to the giddy heights of level 2 but my check raise all-in with a flush draw and over cards failed to materialise.
Overall I’d say I’m not playing great, yet; the no.1 culprit is patience and given the long levels some adjustments are needed.

New Brat In Town
After a very long eleven hour flight we got a ride to the house, dumped our gear and headed straight to the Rio, buying into most of the events which got rid of most of the cash.
Five or six of the big online cardrooms have ‘player lounges’ and we popped into the Full Tilt one to see what was on offer. Once we realised that there were no free snacks or beverages we did a U-turn but not before one of the dolly birds pointed out to us that we could get our pictures taken with our favourite Full Tilt players in the lounge at the back; I popped my head in and got to see the lone figure of Andy Bloch, slumped in a chair, head in hands. I wasn’t tempted.
We ended up at the Rio’s American Diner with Ian Woodley, Mad Turk, Denis O’Mahoney and Kerry Taylor. Denis chose some very fine Texan red and a jumbo shrimp cocktail and mini rack of ribs later we really felt we’d arrived.
Late nights and odd sleeping routines mean that most poker players are pretty adept at warding off jet lag and I was very pleased with the nine hour sleep I managed last night. Our house is right at the foot of the hills behind the city and Ariston and myself nipped out to find a local shop for some milk and coffee. Luckily we set off early as it ended up a near 3 mile hike - 3 miles in this heat is a mighty achievement and luckily we did eventually manage to find a cab to get back.
All that walking in the morning sun took it’s toll though; bracelet fever took hold and against my better judgement I decided to play the 12pm $1500PL Omaha which lasted all of 20 minutes; the less said the better, but for the record and the sake of accuracy it’s only fair to point out that Ariston lasted just 15 minutes.
But this is Vegas and I saw a way out of it, immediately heading over to the Bellagio for the 2pm $1000NL. I lasted an hour in that one so the first Day has been far from successful, but hey, we’re talking tournament poker here so I’m far from despondent. I bluffed off 2/3’s of my chips and whilst I have no regrets about the play, the size of my bet on the river may well have cost me the pot:
We started with 5000 chips and at the end of level 1 I called a 600 re-raise with A-Qs from the BB. We both checked the ten high flop and I felt obliged to fire out a 1000 when a blank hit on the turn. The re-raiser mulled this over and eventually called. He had 2500 left and I had him covered by about 2000. The river was a blank and for some reason I elected to bet 2000. He thought for a good while though and eventually made a nice read, calling with A-K. What I should have done was either bet about 1250 which really does look like I want the call or bet the full 2500. In hindsight the 2000 is a fishy looking bet and there’s just too good a chance that the 500 I left him with if he was wrong might have swayed his decision towards a call.
We’re taking it easy this evening, it’s holdem all the way now and tomorrow we all play the $1500NL.

Commence Countdown
Yes I am counting and yes I know that’s unlikely to speed the waiting process up but I just can’t help myself. Everything appears to be in place and I train it up to Manchester airport on Saturday evening. Woohoo!
Monday will be our first day out there and as it’s an Omaha comp at the Rio I’ll probably head over to the Bellagio and play the daily $1000 freeze-out.
Leading up to the main event I‘m pretty much intending to play all of the holdem events, including the $5000PL and the $5000 short-handed. I might even have a pop at the $1500 limit shoot-out; I know it goes against popular European practice but I can see myself having a grand old time gradually calling-off all my stack in a Limit event as opposed to fishing around in a Pot Limit Omaha game, never really knowing where I am in hand, where I’ve read somewhere that it isn’t always a bad idea to quietly pass the nuts on the flop. I mean, how sick is that?
Hopefully I’ll save a buy-in or two by making a few Day 2’s and maybe even a final table, I guess I’ll just have to see how I run. I’m not overly confident that my discipline will be good enough out there; sat here, counting down the days, the need to get over there and play, play, play is steadily building and it will take a lot of restraint to not over-do things and completely burn myself out during the first week.
(I think) I play the main event on Day1d which suits me just fine after what is bound to be a manic first week. I’ve actually booked my flight home on the rest day between Days 2 and 3 figuring if I’m out I’ll be pretty desperate to get home pronto and hey, if I get through I shan’t mind re-booking a later return flight.

WSOP Madness
In one 24 hour period starting at 6pm on Saturday 15th July William Hill Poker are running six $140+14 super satellites with THIRTY ADDED $14k PACKAGES to the World Series Championship Event in Vegas.
As the blurb says, "WE MUST BE MAD!"

Zzzz
I spent the majority of last week at the Maybury Casino in Edinburgh. I wish I’d stopped at home; five comps without ever getting my hands on a large pile of chips or getting a whiff of a final table. I played pretty solid and perhaps even a little too much ABC, but whatever the problem was I just couldn’t get any kind of momentum going and all the key confrontations went against me.
Being an optimist I'm viewing this as a positive, happy to get the dull and non eventful performances out of the way before we hit Vegas.
I had to go shopping for some new strides (cream corduroys/Gap sale) as my poor jeans had a small rip in each leg and I was warned that I wouldn’t be allowed into the casino a second time sporting such eclectic apparel. In fairness though it wasn’t all bad as sandals and male handbags were deemed to be OK.
It was pretty hot in there and unfortunately my trusty Brookstone fan just recently packed up. They’re impossible to find in the UK and I’m tempted to fill my suitcase with them for the return journey. I’m also tempted to push the boat out and give this bad boy a shot:
“The pump-action atomizer of our Mr. Mister™ fan cools you with an ultra-fine mist the second you need it. Flexible fan blades won’t hurt fingers. And the water reservoir holds up to 500 sprays.”
$25 and that baby's all mine.
Come to Papa.