RK Vegas

vegas (no more poker)

2007-08-23T05:11:00.000-07:00

So yesterday represented the end of playing poker live and online
in vegas, the good thing with london guests(LGs) over, and who had
no interest in gambling, we had to find other things to do.
If ur not gambling in vegas , then during the day shopping
is the next best thing. Luckily the LGs were organised and
as i woke up at lunch time, they had already organised to see
a cirque de solei show later that night and to fly in a helicopter
to the grand canyon. In an accumulated time of 3 months
of vegas i had not been to the grand canyon and still not
seen a cirque show in vegas.

Headed to the shopping mall, R who gets teased for being quite
ghey/gay when shopping is actually very useful when ur shopping
for clothes. He can spot all the good things straight away. In fact
he looks at a pile of jeans and i see the same thing, and somehow
he distinguishes them all. That being said i didnt end up buying
much.

Saw the cirque show, mysterre, which wasnt bad, the human
strength section which was two guys , when i saw a similar
bit in the adelaide cirque show it was a guy and a girl. Anyway
two guys suspending one another above the ground was
a lot more gay, tho very impressive. Picture someone grabbing
your ankles while your lying face down, then the person
who grabs your ankles is doing a hand stand so they are
perpendicular to one another, then the guy lying down
start lifting the other guy up using his calf and hamstring
muscles. Crazy !

I explained to the LGs that americans have an unhealthy
appetite for lining up, none more apparent than the
fact that people lined up for an hour and a half before
the show to get in, despite the fact that everyone
had reserved seats. Even the guy selling the tickets c0uldnt
explain it.

Vegas and some new guests

2007-08-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

so ive finnished with the wpt event, out of my last
vegas poker tournment till next year, but ive still
got another week in vegas, as a couple of friends are
coming from London. I actually think they are coming
tomorrz, and today being Sunday ill play some of
the online tournaments but luckily they call me up
b4 they leave. Anyway i decide to play them and work
it out later if im still in. 10 hands into the FT tourney
they arrive, and they feel like doing something so i
pester Ed to take over. We head to the bellagios noodles
eat the usual. Rewind a few hours as R(cousins wifes
cousin, who i stay with often when im in london, whose
4 years younger ), his 2nd question to me after
arriving was whether i had seen transformers.
I hadnt so after dinner headed off to the Orleans, a budget
looking casino out of the strip that has a cinema complex.
Transformers was pretty pretty good, tho there were
a lot of things that could have been better, ie: more robot
character development etc.

Then we headed back to the rio to check up on Ed, who
miraculously was still in the tournament and a bit annoyed
that i had disapeared for about 6 hours. I think he thought
i was just going to lunch, not to mention he still had to write
abd take photos covering the wsop. so i took over the
tournament, my london friends went to bed; and playing
in the media room i had a few spectators and Ed who
had a 50 percent stake. Soon enuff i was at my second
table in as many weeks in big online tourney, this
time i busted in 6th running into aces, but that
was good for 38k split 50_50. Ed and i got some
drinks and i crashed at 7am , R sleepily asked how
i went, i said good and hes right when hes around
i seem to run good

WPT bellagio

2007-08-14T04:58:00.000-07:00

(my blog is now oscillating between the past and the
(i was going to say present, but unless i write that
"im writing in my blog" then really, its the past or
ill call it, the not so past)

July 2007, So im eating at noodles at the bellagio
for perhaps the 25th time. And i get joined by
an english poker player, and some of his friends.
I find out that the WPT bellagio actually has a day
1c, meaning i can still enter this event ! I manage
to get 10k in cash, and i buy in . I wasnt happy
with how i ended the WSOP, moderately annoyed i didnt
push all in on the last hand, and like leaving a
bitter taste in a mouth i thought a final table
here would definately make this a good vegas trip.

Day 1c, walking across to the bellagio, i discover
i dont have any cufflinks for my shirt, which is no
big deal, but i figure i can get some on the way in.
Hermes has reasonably priced cufflinks for $400
pause not , i mean ..... .... .... NOT. So i find
some for a $100 which still seems ridiculous, but
5 weeks into vegas , represents the only shopping
other than some books.

Being moderately retarded i spend the first 45mins
of the 90min level, trying to get the cufflinks onto
my shirt. However the rest of the day goes pretty good,
building up to 40k , before i have aces into 2 pair,
but at least keep the pot small , but hit a full house
near the end of the day, to finnish with 38k. Ralph perry
says i played well afterwards, which is kind of good
to have someone tell u that after. He was in the infamous
tony g send off. See the video RPerry v TonyG

Head to buffet, but due to the WPT having sensible playing hours
the day finnishes a lot earlier than normal, and i have time to
go out, but figure ill take it easy as ive got day 2 tomorrow.

Day 2 starts off meandering along, i have a few hands that seem
to connect with the flops without getting paid off. And my stack
just floats along. I then have i think k-4 suited on the button,
and someone limps in early pos, i call and the blinds come in.
The flop comes 10-4-2h, limper bets, i call and blinds fold.
Then the turn comes another 4, he bets a lot of chips, i raise,
and he goes all in. He shows 5-5 ?? I win a nice pot and im up to
about 80k. Mike mattusow is on my table, and tells me how he has
only received "charity" twice before. Mike mattusow tho is playing
great, in fact i dont think ive really seen anyone play that good.
You play with a lot of name players, and most of them arent ever
on their game or just not that good. But today, as he explains that
he played really bad in the WSOP is determined to play good in this
tournament. I re-raise him with AA, and he mucks AK very quickly.
His re-raises etc are all timed perfectly and im very impressed.
Generally ive stayed out of his way, but at least beaten him
in the few pots against him. Then i have a hand where i re-raise
with AA again, against someone else. I check it to the river before
better, on a k-10 suited board which is risky but what the hell.
Then i bet and on the river and the other guy folds QQ. Mattusow
tells him he made a bad fold, I said later i had Aces, and he
said hed bet me a $1000 i didnt have AA. Shame there are no
hole card cams, and he offers for me to do a lie detector test.

Dinner break comes up, and i end up eating with mattusow and
a couple of other guys. He talks about how poker players talk
a lot and dont band together to do anything about Harrahs, which
are basically like the evil corporation , much like the empire
in star wars. Its very true, but the players are generally
getting shafted.

After dinner, not much goes right, and i seem to be going
backwards fast. The bubble has burst which is actually a 100ppl
in a 560 player event. Thats the WPT weird payout system, but
at least im getting my money back, which is not the goal.
I am trying to play, but get short stacked , push all in a few times,
then get called with JJ agaisnt AK, hold up, then 2 hands later
AQ vs KK (button v bb), guy who has re-raised me a few times
before, does it again , i make the call. Spike an ace on the
river ! Up to 160 and comfortable. That was actually the 2nd
race of 5 that i won, but luckily i won the ones when my tournament
was on the line. Very next hand i have QQ and run into short stack
AA :( Down to 100ish, and finish the day on 95. Which is not great.

Enter day 3. There are about 60 players left. I am at about 100k,
when i raise with KQ. Flop comes Q-8-2 rainbow. David Benyamine has
called from the bb, he checks i check. Turn comes a Q. I bet
he puts me all in, i call pretty quickly, he has q-10, i double up
to over 200. Check on the flop paid off. I hover around 200, not
getting much, when i pick up KK. Thinking i need to try something
here especially with aggressive ppl on my left who might re-raise,
i flat call the raise, but no one else re-pops and its me and
some other guy. Flop come A-7-7. Dang ! He checks, hmmm, i check.
Turn comes a 9, he bets 25k the same size as the raise preflop,
so i just call, reasonably confident, he will check the river
unless he has a good ace. The river comes a Q. He bets again, ifold.
He shows AQ, i lost the minimum i guess, but my plan to double
thru backfired. The table gets broken with some 30+ ppl left. I
have AK, i reraise all in, the guy i had dinner with the previous
night calls with a9. Flop comes a 9, and thats it. No WPT final
table :(

Disapointing but i thought i played pretty good for most of it.
Mattusow ended up finnishing 2nd, here were the results

Reviewing my progress in 10k events so far.
2 aussie millioms - 0 cashes
2 wpt - 2 cashes
1 ept - 1 cash
London Party Poker - 1 cash
2 wsop - 1 cash

5 cashes / 8 events, but no final tables, yet ... London
party poker and now this wpt being my best chances.

Amsterdam

2007-08-14T03:37:00.000-07:00

So i arrived in Amsters a couple of days ago. The taxi driver
didnt know where the hotel was, but i was strangely confident
as he had GPS and was driving a good car. Anyway, we didnt
find the hotel for a while, we could find the street, but the hotel
didnt seem to exist.

Not sure how u miss a hotel this big, but it was night time, and
the problem was their was no naming anywhere. Oh well found
it eventually. The rooms were kinda like my apartment in adelaide
high ceilings ! I could live here, except the nightly rate was about
50% more than my weekly rent, hmm. Played some poker
the next day, ate a big meal of duck and bok choi finally (only
been pasta/pizza/seafood) for the last few weeks.

Had AA beaten with only 5 ppl left in the pokerroom tournament,
by some guy who was on tilt. For some reason the hotel had
free mini bar ! So i drank all the beer and juice and took all
the little alcohol bottles !

Caught up with B and P the next day, and moved into the new apartment,
a lot of stairs and very narrow, but very cool nonetheless. Apparently
built in the 1600s , the golden age of architecture in amsterdam.
Lucky Australia's golden age was in the 1600s, otherwise we would be
leaving eucalyptus houses built by koalas.

Amsters apartment-video

Walking around amsterdam, i was like a kid in a candy store, looking
at the mushrooms on offer, but due to poker tournaments and
hallucinogenics not combining, i have resisted... so far.

Day 2 main event !

2007-07-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

(a rare smile)

after cruelly busting out of the sunday million on stars, my hope lies with
the main event ...

Entering day2 with 21k , the starting table draw and early hands are going to be crucial.
Luckily I get hit by the deck, with a good range of raising hands, tho not getting
much action, but still good enuff to get to 35k within 30minutes, before my
unfortunately soft table is broken. The new table has a bunch of big stacks and I
get re-raised str8t away after raising with 99. Except he re-raises the minimum,
confident he has Aces, I call, getting the right price to hit a set and bust him. The
9 doesnt come on the flop, he bets I fold, and sure enuff he shows AA. I pick up KK, and someone limp re-raises me, and I go with it, he has AJ, i double up to about 40ish.
Then not so long after i have KK again and since everyone plays back at me, I double
up to 80ish. Which is average, and plently of chips.

After this nothing goes right and i strugggle to win any pots. I dribble down to 50k,
get moved to another table, try and keep the pots small go down to 20k get up to 50k.
And head to the dinner break in not great shape, but still not out of it.

Sitting around at 45k. I raised to 6k with KQ, and the i get 2 callers. Hmmm.
The Flop comes K-5s-7s, I bet 13 and i get the caller from the blind. The turn is
the 9s, and he just pushes all in. I have 21k, having put 1/2 my chips in there is 67k
and it costs me 21k to call 3 to 1. I also have the King of spades, and i have ruled out the
nut flush. I am still worred out about a smaller flush, tho with blinds 1 and 2k , it will
be difficult to come back. And i still might be ahead as he doesnt have AK or a set i
feel. I call , he turns over 4-6 spades, so i need another spade that doesnt come.
Perhaps i should have push all in on the flop, but he would have called anyway prolly,
tho this was the best way of winning the pot as if he misses the turn , i push , and
i can prolly win the pot. And he folds with one card to come.

Tho its not to be, as my head is spinning and i get up busted out of the main event,
knowing that perhaps it wasnt my day, still the standard of play was pretty bad, so I had
to hang in and maximise my opportunities. Disapointed I leave through the side door,
into the carpark that is the rio, in shock that i busted out ....

Day off

2007-07-27T09:49:00.001-07:00

My day off is somewha a bit of mess after coming back to ballys at 8am, and i decide
i want to play the Sunday million on stars and a few other tourneys , After a few hours
im still in the sunday million and busted out of the rest. Anyway with 250 ppl left
i am the chip leader ! I play well , and i get good cards at the right times, picking
off ppls ridiculous plays, and holding it all the way to the final table. Then I have AQ,
and perhaps mistakenly re-raise a tight guy who also has a lot of chips. He calls, and
then check raises me on the K-x-x flop, i fold and he shows KK. Now 2nd in chips, i
have AA in a few hands, and i re-raise a late pos raise out of the blinds. He calls.
The flop comes Q high, i bet big he goes all in. And my aggressiveness a few hands
earlier has paid off, he has KQ. But he spikes a miracle K on the river ! I miss out
on reclaiming the chip lead, and crippled i lose a 60-40 to bust in 7th. The lucky
guy goes onto win a 150k and i get 21k. Dire but the main event is on the next day,
perhaps i will be lucky then ??

After Day 1 : Rumble in the rio ...

2007-07-27T09:44:00.001-07:00

So with a day off inbetween my next day in the main event, i have time to wind down
after a long 12 hour day. Ed suggests that we go the bar in the Rio casino, also
dubbed as the hooker bar. So we are sitting down at the bar , its about 4am. On Ed's
left is this English drunk guy, who has busted out of the main event about 12 hours
earlier and has been drinking non-stop since then. He looks a mess, but he is still
going strong, tho his diction has somewhat gone out the window. On my right is some
random girl, tho i dont really pay much attention. I get out my phone, and then this
girl starts talking to me about it, asking some questions. It seems a little bit bizzare
to me, anyway i turn back to Ed and start talking to him. He says you know that
girl is a hooker your talking to. I say 'ofcourse', but really i mean 'ofcourse not'. One
my mind is not thinking straight , and the reason why its called the hooker bar, is
because hookers are hanging out there. Then i look across at the girl and it starts
to make sense. Then i look further along and some "other" girl is talking to a guy,
suddenly i realise, there are hookers everywhere ! Its kind of like that scene in police
academy, of if you go into a bar in sydney and you see that there are no girls in the
bar, and people seem to have a strange attraction to wearing black leather pants,
and then bang , the blue oyster music is playing.

Anyway since i realise the situation, i go back to drinking my corona with ed, enter
ST. ST is a random english guy 2 seats down, who is about 45, and thinks he
is James Bond. He also thinks hes the funniest coolest guy around, and has the
dress sense of an Armani model. He is actively talking to the hooker#1 . She however
is a good judge of character, and can sense that he is a douchebag, however
if hookers ruled out talking to the douchebags they would have to talk to themselves
and other hookers primarily, which is not so profitable. Even then she manages to
determine deicde she has standards. So ends up talking to Ed and I. We find it
hilarious that the guy with the most ridiculous shirt is giving tips to others about fashion.
Hooker#1 leaves , which leaves us talking to ST. Drunk english guy has bought us
some shots of pitrone, and is now dribbling out of his mouth. It is at this high point
he attempts to talk to some other "girls" at the par. Now ST has cornered us and is
reguiling us with stories of how wonderful he is. Turns out he is a poker player, and
has also busted out of the main event. Tho apparently he is some tournament specialist,
even tho i dont seem to recognise his online name. He tells us how in he was in vegas
and he ended up inviting himself along with a dad and his daughter who has turned 21
at the bellagio. Anyway the dad ends up leaving him with his daughter who end up
together for the whole weekend, and the dad picks up some random asian girl. Interesting
21st birhtday present, leaving with the biggest douchebag in vegas.

And then it become apparent what a douche he is , he starts insulting the girls around
the bar, calling them chubby checker, and telling them to lay of the donuts, and how
they are going to crush them with his american thighs (i guess a reference to the
led zepplin song), and telling this black hooker, shes a nigger and all sorts of other things.
Then he starts claiming that the girls would have to pay him, if he was to sleep with
1/2 of them.

Its at this point we challenge him to try and get hooker #1 for $200 who is currently
charging $500 tho a bit desperate coz no one has any money at this bar, tho we figure
even shes not this desperate. He claims she is going to come back and he is going to get
herfor $200.

In the meantime while we're waiting he plays 1 hand of blackjack, never have
i hoped the dealer wins, but miraculously he hits Bj ! Shit. Anyway we wait and wait,
and she doesnt come back. We claim he has lost, and he basically admits he has, but
he wont pay us ($200) ! Ed seems pretty pissed off, i kinda expected it. Then he says,
he will play bj , and if he wins his hand he will pay. We say the 2 are not connected. He
tells us to fk off basically, Even tho he has $5k on him. He then says he will fight
us out in the car park , and if we win we can keep the $5k. Ed is very much in favour
of this, but its 7am, and even tho beating up an english douche in the car park of the rio,
would be satisfying, I dont think its worth while.

So we see what will happen at the BJ tables. Unfortunately he starts badly , and
within 10 minutes hes down 2.5k , meanwhile we're givinghim shit for misplaying his
hands, he is getting more annoyed and althought the chanceof getting our money is
diminishing, this is still entertaining. Then in one shoe, it all turns around, and from
a 2.5k loser hes a 3k winner ! Fk! We get our money, $100 each, and leave the rio at 8am, confident we have met the biggest douche ever. Perhaps my biggest regret , in my
vegas trip might not have been taking him up on the offer to rumble in the rio.

Pre WSOP main event ...

2007-07-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

Pre main event practice. ed and i decided to play in
the venetian ($500) tournament, i figured it would
be good practice before the main event as it was a
seepstack event. I got off to a good start from 10k
up to 35k, then everything went wrong, I lost
a lot of races, and busted out 1/2 way thru.

This wasnt the worse thing, as bluff was hosting a
party at the saphire club. I guess most poker parties
seem to be at strip clubs. Got in time for free
drinks, apaprently some stripper dont do coke
contrary to popular belief. Im not sure why ppl
think i am some source of drugs when im out.

Anyway we decided to go back to see Ed in the venetian
and try and get into Tao. At least saphire provide limousine
service to where u want to go. Unfortunately there were
no limos so after complaining a bit, we got the bus ,
and had an english guy who is in an oi band , a fusion
of rock and punk rock and lots of ois ! He was pretty
entertaining, and their band is playing in vegas, might
be worth checking out.

At venetian, ed busts out, but we deal with the most
annoying ppl serving drinks who insist our IDs are
no good, then the security guard who can give you
clearance has lost his ability to laugh, and is a complete
douchebag.

(security guard looking at id)
Friend (who is 35): be careful the ink is strill dry (ie its a fake licence)
security guard just stared at my friend for 20 seconds
Friend: Im only joking
Security guard: we dont joke around here
(more staring)

What is wrong with these ppl ? Anyway ed busts out
in a classic 64 v J4 sb bb conforontation . Try and
get into Tao.

Ok tao has a dress code, and 3 of us have collared
shirts and 2 dont. No shops are open that sell shirts,
so we have to pull the switcheroo. ie. ppl walking
out with collared shirts to give ppl waiting outside,
while ppl inside are shirtless . Tao is pretty
quiet downstairs, tho im the only one who manages
to walk upstairs, is it because im black and they cant see
me ?

head home 6am , with a day to rest b4 the main event ...

Main event !

2007-07-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

Day 1 of the main event, has arrived, the moment ive been waiting for !
Well actually after being here for so long i thought may be when
the main event came id actually a bit blassiez. But nope , I was
actually excited and desperate to play really good ! I was almost
a little bit nervous before. So far it hasnt been the best wsop 3 cahses
out of 18 is ok but not great. And this is definately my best event.

First hand of the day and I win ! Ok things looking good. But unfortunately
i dont really know what happened somehow my chips disapeared. I
would re-raise the button with ak then bet and hed call, and forced
to slow down Id lose a pot. Then someone was bluffing or were they ,
i couldnt hit a flop. And oh my god im down to 3600 chips, starting
with 20k. The key hand came up where I called a raise with JJ.
On a flop fo k-4-2. I called the flop bet, The turn he checked, and i checked,
and on the river k-4h-2-7h-2h, he puts me all in. I wasnt sure where
i was i thought his body language was that I was ahead, tho i couldnt
bring myself to calling there. And i folded like a little girl. I figure
i can make a stand on my own terms

I pick up Aces slow play them , win a ok pot for my stack, get up to 6k, then
last hand b4 level 2 all in with KK against some guy thinking
i was making a move , he had 10-10 and up to 12k. Then
i have 10h-10d , i raise and i get a caller. Flop comes
8c-7c-4c. He bets 1200 i call. Figure no point allowing him to
re-raise me with a draw and overs on that flop. So i call, then
the turn comes 9d. I check again, he best 4500, 1/2 my stack
and i just much the 10-10s, turns out he had 9-9 with 9 of clubs,
now i felt good ! Raise with qj flop qj9 and someguy makes a move
with aj and i double past 20k ! back in it.

From there i get moved to a new table, where there are 2 crazy
old men. Standard crazy old men moves:
1. blinds 200-400 , open raise for 20k
2. 6k in the pot, bets 500 etc etc

I get hammered by one of the old men on my preflop raises, but
im winning a lot pots, and i just march all the way to 65k value
betting and slowplaying hands in all the right spots.

Then the hand that ruined my day in the last level has to come !
Blinds 400-800, 100 ante. Crazy old man limps cut off, solid
guy limps button i call sb with 8c-9c , BB (berry johntson, 1986
main event champ ) checks.

Flop Kc-10c-4c. (4200) in the pot) Flop is checked around,
planning to raise against crazy old guy. River Ad. A good
card for me, now someone can make Aces up or a str8t.
I lead out and bet 2800, Berry calls, crazy old man pushes
all in for +25K. Solid guy folds. I think about it a bit worried
about berry, but theres so many hands he can call with there,
and im 99% sure crazy old guy has aces up or str8t. I call
with flush. Then berry pushes all in. Now theres over
a 100k in the pot, and its 10k for me to call. Im very sure he
has the nut flush but i call hoping for a set, or may be a smaller
flush tho very unlikely. He shows the nuts, and my day
is ruined.

I hang in to the end of the day , with 20,700 chips. And
a lot of work to be done in day 2 .

4th of july fireworks

2007-07-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

4th of July

2007-07-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the 4th of July in Vegas and the US of A.
Which means fireworks and crazy celebrations ?! I heard
that the casinos let of fireworks from the tops of the buildings,
and its amazing . But that wasnt the case this year, as it
wasnt on for some reason. Anyway I learnt that Canada
day, which has no significance is on July 1st and is a poor
a cousin to July 4.

Rewind a few hours, afternoon, I was playing the stars tourney
($320 Wednesday) got off to a decent start, someone told
me how terrible I was, which is always encouraging, seriously
I like people to tell me how bad I play online from time to time,
it means Im gambling somewhat. Then i realise im suppose to
meet some people earlier than anticipated and need someone to
take over. I sms frage, magically like a genie he appears on msn
and willingly obliges. Its lunch time over there, he says hes
hungry, so i call up beyond India (restaurant in adelaide that delivers)
Find out they dont deliver unless u order $60 at lunchtime, oh well
what the heck order some food attempt to pay for it. Then i speak
to him on msn, and he says hes not at home. Fk it ! Tho luckily
he turns out he was joking. So hopefully he enjoyed it, i followed
his progress a bit, tho he busted out 3/4 in. I think i would make a good
boss , look after the employees, may be...

HEad out to dinner at Pho So 1, a vietnamenese place , in what seems
to be little vietnam in vegas, we are the only non vietnames eating here,
which is a good sign. Pho , chilli chicken, vietnamese beer etc etc. All
good stuff, and super cheap.

As we are leaving we see fireworks (small ones) being shot up in the
distance, hey that would be cool if we got fireworks and set it off in
the rio carpark ? Turns out there is a small fireworks store just
up ahead. Like a kid in a candy store, years of repressed pyrotechnic
urges overflow, and I ask them for "The Big Bang : Maximum Charge"
A massive box of fireworks worth $500, (illegal in seventeen states,
perhaps) Unfortunately they dont stock it, but we get a few other
boxes of fireworks. Head back to the rio, our voice of reason explains
that perhaps setting them off in the rio would be a bit ridiculous,
so we drive to this empty lot in vegas, one of many. Are we walking
over buried bodies in the ground may be.

Open the box, discover that there are no rockets which is disapointing,
but still enuff strange flashing lights , bruning fizzing objects, that
you can throw in the air to have some fun. Lightly burn my hands
a little, and wend up throwing up a whole bunch of fireworks together
and set them off, which results in a series of bright flashing light,
loud sounds, and a small fire. The only residential place within
seeing distance at least hasnt called the police. a few coronas
and a couple of boxes of fireworks later, we search for rockets
to shoot up in the air. The country redneck fireworks guy refuses
to sell us any and says they are banned in this state, but u can
got to these other places, which wont be open at midnight, and
our 45minutes away in an indian reservation. Damn.

Head back to rio, go with a friend to the Wynn , damn the wynn
is nice. Its all new and done up. Get up some more beers,
head out to some poker party at a strip club, hosted by K&J jett.
Whom we saw earlier in the night whilst buying fireworks. Anyway
we get there, and our friend tells us some rapper pacman, was involved
in some shooting earlier this year here. Which is understanable coz
it feels pretty deserted. Well this place is pretty pretty bad, in that
no one is really here. The 4 of us almsot double the non-stripper crowd.
I guess they have no friends, or they already left, or there was
another shooting. At least the first round of drinks is free and its
free to get in. The first stripper uses the pole more to lean on to
support herself instead of dancing. Pole leaning, may be thats the
new craze in the US. Tho the next girl is ridiculous amazing at pole
dancing, and im not easily impressed. I dont know what the
terms for the moves are but, apache helicopter descending at high
speed could have been one of them.

In the corner the husband of the couple that organised the party
is getting a lap dance whilst the wife is sitting right next to the stage,
putting $1 bills into the stripper, that was unexpected. But why
organise a party there if your not going to be into it, tho next time
invite some friends. Steve Z famous poker player and bookie, had
a party the night b4 with a 1000 ppl , why didnt we go to that...

By the end of the night, we are the only ones there, and as a result
the strippers descend on us like seagulls, and its not even the "good"
strippers as they have left. In fact my friend has to pay $5 for a stripper
to get off his leg, as the pressure from her weight is like a tourniquet
cutting off circulation. At least they have wheelie chairs which you
can spin around and scoot around the floors . But by the end enuff
is enuff. Tho one of the black strippers knew where adelaide was,
I was very impressed, no one knows where adelaide was. But then
this was the converstation the same stripper had with my french
friend during a lap dance.
S: So where are you from ?
B: France
S: oh thats nice, thats part of the UK isnt it
B: No its France
S: Oh france , but its still the UK
B: No we are seperated by water, we are seperate
countries, and we actually hate each other
S: Ah, yeh I was never that good at maths
B: You mean georgraphy ?
S: yeh thats right.

COmedy Gold !

Then one of the guys who was there, left
and came back 20mins later saying he was mugged by
some drug guy using a box cutter (retractable razor) but gave
him his decoy wallet (which he always carries). Then a stripper
said oh your friend is here, he was in the private room for the
last 20minutes. What a douchebag.

Head back to wynn for another drink, back to ballys. Ed crashes
over , he has lots of famous ppl on his phone , especially poker ppl.
Non poker ppl include tobey macquire and corey feldman , but
poker ppl include hellmuth , chan etc etc. Ring up hellmuth, but
they all go to voice message, he has a very ghey message, which
goes on for about 2 minutes about how he is playing in the wsop.
Ring up Jonny, his is very short , leave a message
"Did you have it, Johnny ?"

Which at 5am after a few drinks seems funny, fall asleep, non-poker
days seem more fun :)

And then ...

2007-07-04T17:41:00.000-07:00

So after sleeping thru the limit event starting time, with dual alarm
failure . 1 = am/pm and 2= not turned on .
I tired to sign up for the main event, after picking up
the cash from ozgary. Yep 10k in well not so crisp 100s.
Earlier in the day i found out neteller had blocked my account
but that was coz i tried to log on in the US which is a nono,
so its ok i havent lost a whole heap of money. Anyway
go to the cage to sign up, theres a special place for international
people, which can skip the other stupid line, I have only
really discovered this 6 weeks into the wsop. Better late
than never. So i register and find out for day 3, im drawn
into the tent*

*tent -this big pavilion/marquee thing harrahs has constructed
which used to be the food area last year. It is airconditioned but its outside
in the 40+ degree weather and hence its not that cool, and it smellls
like poker players in there. One of the days it was really windy,
people actually thought it was going to blow over, and someone
was walking outside and got cut by a piece of flying metal. So the
tent, is not optimal.

As a result im not that thrilled about this. But what can you do ?
Also you could be stuck in there for 10 hours +. The lady says
well you can change your day if you have a reason. Being
a nice lady, she says its ok you dont need a real reason, and tells
the superivsor, that i changed my mind a bit late, and i wanted
to play day 2 ! She redraws for me, and yep maximum, im in the
tent again for day 2 ! Fk it , there are 60 of 240 tables in the tent,
so im a 1 in 4 shot of being in there. She says well come again
tomorrow and try.

So after that grab dinner with a friend, and for some reason
i feel like playing blackjack. 10 hours later, $3500 down ,
in a bid to get my room comped. I go to bed after 7am.
Tho the funny thing while playing, was i realised i didnt
actually need to be anywhere at any time, it was kind of
surreal. Not having any obligations, commitments. I felt
very unproductive in terms of usefulness to society. The
dealer wanted to be a nurse, but dealing pays a lot better,
so she chose to do that . At least a nurse is useful, being a lawyer
is just as evil.

Tho at the end of the blackjack session, this absolutely pissed
chinese guy comes in. I was playing in the higher / high
stakes room, and he can barely keep his head above the table.
Orders a few drinks including a glass of louis something. Which
usually costs $140 a glass, and is the strongest smelling brandy
ever. But he was highly entertaining, tho casinos are so wrong,
basically taking money from him, giving him a $5k marker, and
getting him more drinks.

evil evil ppl ....

1K Rebuy

2007-07-03T00:20:00.000-07:00

Gutshot webpage - excerpt

http://www.gutshot.com/e/coverage.php?tourna=80&day=32&amp;amp;limitvb=10&limitb=0&limitt=10&show=s&search=
(scroll down)

So after the above incident i came back with 10s all in
hitting quads, and for the first time in 20 tournaments i sucked out as
more than 60-40 underdog with 99 against KK. And i was back in it!
The frustrating thing is , it was the first time in ages that i pushed all in
and well of course Ks are going to call but still, cmon ! So i try and just
call with AQ fromt he blinds and a3 sucks out. Get moved to a new table,
and in trouble push all in, no callers. Look down at AK, figure wat the
heck ill just push all in and not raise , looks more desperate. (plus i need
chips) And lee watkinson in the blinds call, KK again . No suck out , and
thats it. Oh well really its barrys fault for ruining my tournament

busted out 200th (99 cash)

1500NL

2007-07-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

The 3rd biggest WSOP event ever ! 3200 ppl. Not many
chips a recipe for a quick exit. First hand , a guy in the cut
off limps, i have AdKs in the bb and raise 3.5x. He calls. Flop
comes K-9d-3d. I bet he raises, i call. Turn comes a 4,
I check he bets again and I call. River comes the 4d. I check
again, and he pushes all in. So much for him slowing down,
tho his bet on the turn looked, weak. The only hands he should have
really are KX diamonds, 3-3, or may be k-9. Betting a weak
king doesnt make a lot of sense. But its a 1500 event. So i call,
he has KJ, phew i double up first hand. Slow play a few more
hands, and up to 15k (starting stack3k). After that i get
nothing and everything goes backward. AK against 6-4 os
holds up hours later and AK against a7 and im up to 25k
at the end of day 1 and in the money !

Day 2 i dont get much, kj holds up agaisnt 9s, knock out a
small stack win a pot, and im up to 70k at average. Tho
once again, i dont seem to pick up any opportunities to
steal or pick up the antes, or re-raise, perhaps im blind.
Down to 40 i have to steal with j-8 etc, and finally i get
caught moving in with 7-6 agaisnt 10-10 and bust out
in 68th. Not bad , and i survived as along as possible whilst
trying to get on a rush that didnt eventuate.

Folding another hand - i think this is where
i folded aq to the early pos raise and short stack allin.
Which was correct, but early stack had 66 and and short
stack aj , and hit an ace, doh !

went to capital grill the night b4, and had a big juicy
steak, vodka cranberries and other beverages. Great
way to wind down after a night of poker.

1/2 Day off, I wish i was a little kid

2007-07-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

After i busted out of the 2k, decided to do some non-poker stuff.
French friend went to new york to go on the roller coaster.
Which he said was two slow, but i thought it was fast enuff.
A bit short the ride, but flipped upside down a few times and
i thought it was pretty good , especially since i was asleep an
hour ago. Then did the zoltar fortune like in Big. I dunno
if i wished to be a little kid or win the world series. Anyway
my fortune said something about success coming, but to give
it away to the poor.

French friend got a not so good fortune, i guess their all not
good. Played blackjack, got beaten, and also got the most
obnoxious annoying dealer, who was a stickler for all the stupid
rules. Off to fix to eat kobe steak, cocktails etc, highly recommended,
then sign up for the 1500 event at the rio, then midnight 10 pin
bowling, which somehow i won !

2K NL + 1000 High Lo Stud

2007-07-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

So i played in a couple of events the 2K nl event. Which was
a quick short affair. I had a nut flush draw that didnt
come, another missed flush draw, folded 2 pair on a flop
of 7d-6d-4d, pushed with JJ ran into KK (turned into quads)
and that was it .

So the high lo stud event was on the next day. There was a line
up and i ended up buying aussie player van in, which turned
out to be a mistake. After a few hands here and there, I got
involved in a big hand, where i ended up with a 7-6-5-4-3,
a str8 and a 7-6 low , against Van and some other person.
In the end i was all in, he had a better low possible, tho prolly
not a better, high, and the other person had nothing. In the
end he showed a 6 high str8t for a better low and not a better
high. As the dealer pushed me my 1/2 of the pot, he realised
oh i have a flush. Which he picked up on the end. Damn, got scooped!
and out. Tip dont buy other people into tourneys.

2k limit

2007-06-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

So i woke up in time to play the 2k limit event. Ive always
enjoyed playing limit tournaments for some reason. Generally
you cant go bust in one hand ! And you get to play some flops,
which i like to do. The latter stages of a NL can be very, pre-flop.

To start off with things didnt go that great, and i was almost
out, but my aces held up and i managed to survive. From
there things went my way, connecting with flops , and i was
up to almost 20k. Then of course it went pear shapes for
a bit and i was down to 10k. Then a key hand came up where
a late position guy raised, i re-raised with Askd, and he 4 bet
me. The flop came j-2s-4s. He bet i called. Turn came a 7,
he bet and i called. Then the river came the Js. I checked
and he bet virtually putting me all in. I thought for a while
and called, he showed a-5, bang ! I was back in it. Ended
the day on about 22k. I was playing a mixed bag of hands,
even tho ppl were tightening up, I prolly coulda played a few
hands better.

Day 2 64ppl left, 45 ppl get money. I got off to a good start
just playing solid hands, and catching a few breaks, and
i was up to 50k (avg 42) with 40 left and in the money !
Then the Key hand comes up. I 3 bet with 9s he 4 bets.
The flop comes 8h-6-5. He bets i call. Turn comes a 9h,
he bets i raise he calls. River comes a black king, he
checks and i bet, and he calls. Do u have a str8t he says?
I say no, he shows Ks :(( Set over set argh ! 70k
pot slides his way.

Then i raise with Ad-4d, early position, same guy calls
me , flop comes 5d-4c-3d. Im all in he has 10s. And my
17 outs dont materialise, and just like that out in 36th.

$5500 for 36th, which for some reason they dont
tax me, great break ! Which was also good, considering
we went out after the tournament after day 1 and played
some crappy craps.

I picked up the full tilt book the previous night, and
read the limit section, which surprisingly was very
informative !

hot tip buy : Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide

Anyway getting closer !

Poker is a 100% luck and a 100% skill

2007-06-26T01:18:00.000-07:00

Thats right theres 200% in poker, and most of its bs. Theres
so many jokers winning tournaments, cashing deep in events.
I figure it may as well be me ! Unfortunately theres not
many good events on at the moment. May be i should
play tomorrows limit. I played some interesting online
tourneys today. If you are playing like the maniac on the table,
remember people wont fold much to you. Which is obvious,
tho usually i play solid so i forgot, stupid!

Vegas newly born child , vegas ...

the tide is turning

2007-06-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

Ive managed to switch the online drought, and in the
space of a few tourneys , im back to square (online)

I final tabled the $109 rebuy ($950), 55th in the stars
million ($3700) and 1st in Stars 100k (25k).

Went out last night and got too drunk, which made
playign the tourneys today tuff, but what the heck !
Ended up in some dodgy pool hall near the ariport,
drinks at the bellagio, trying to walk across a fountain
at caesars and then playing craps at casino royale at 7am.
Oh and we got into a food fight at the mirage, well it
was really just a friendly fight, when a guy frisbeed
a pancake from the next table to ours. My friend
took a bite out of it, then i frisbeed it long, hit a girl
in the head 5-10m away. She looked around in confusion,
and the staff came in and confiscated the remaining
frisbees/pancakes.

Now to try and win some live events !

Vegas little infant , vegas ...

Spirit breaking

2007-06-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

So i decided to play the 2k pl. Which suits my game , nice
slow structure, no antes. I catch a break early having AA
against QQ, and end up running my starting stack
from 4k to 16k , playing really good. I mean im not making
crazy bluffs, but just picking up small pots here and there,
choosing spots carefully. Anyway its all too painful, I get
blinded down a bit, even tho i raise virtually at every opportunity,
9-8 suited etc. And then i hit some good cards, and make some good
plays and im up to 35k (around average). Then a few minutes
later, there are about 60 or so ppl left, im 2nd in chips on the
table. So im looking at making the money, and then keep the
roll going! Suddenly i look down at Kings , and 30 seconds
later the chip leader has all my chips, as were both all in preflop,
and of course he has Aces. Another kick in the pants, lucky i
was wearing cricket box. Anyway as far as poker goes, its a
bit like scarface , with all the bullet holes !

The weather is still hot, the poker is still cold , but there
is more to life than poker, except when ur in vegas in the wsop.

Apparently the forecast for cheetas - is for scattered panties,
and partly covered dancers (thats a quote from the add)

Howard hughs

2007-06-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

may be i can spend a week like howard hughs living in a room,
and never leaving, i wonder what thats like. Didnt someone prop
bet a guy that he couldnt live in a bathroom for a month ! Also
why did howard hughs start pissing in jars. Couldnt he have
got a room with an attached bathroom. I guess its a good way
to come up with movie scripts.

new day new event same result

2007-06-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

today was the $1500NL event. I got there with a positive
outlook knowing the poker gods, were eating peanuts
and mocking me. But i was in the waiting lounge, on my
way to something better happening.

When things arent quite going your way, sometimes you
change your game, become more defensive, play scared
etc. etc. or get impatient. i think ive been ok

These events are a bit tricky coz u dont get many chips.
Anyway i started off good picking up pots with nothing
and running my chips up from 3k close to 5k. Making
good bluffs and playing the ppl. Then i raise a limper
with KK the flop comes AQQ, he is short stacked, i bet
he pushes all in and i fold Still get my chips up to 4k.
Post a few blinds (100-300), and my stack is 3300, when i pick
up QQ in early position . The guy (new2 table) under the gun makes
a small raise. After assessing all my options i decide
pushing all in is the best move to isolate against him. He
calls instantly with Aces, and thats it, fking fk it.

Played some online tourneys, which went pear shaped.
Running total somewhere around now -75k. Good news,
is i can play that jackpot game. And the jackpot is greater
than my current deficit ! weeeee

tomorrow is the 2k pl event, gluck me.

Is this the sexiest women on earth ?

2007-06-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

A friend sent me this link , with the above claim :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1G-3laJJP0&mode=related&search=

Anyway i clicked on it and it was this french news reader,
whose unbelievably good looking and has the sexy french accent,
but ultimately its just a series of her reading the news
with some stupid background music.

My french friend attracted by the sounds of french speaking,
came over to take a look, and was like oh yeh thats
the newsreader melissa ....

2 thoughts came to mind, one who cuts musical montages,
and it seems like the equivalent of someone on youtube
watching a montage of sandra sully clips, and saying how
hot is she ! With obviously no knowledge of what shes saying.

Asshole week

2007-06-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

So my friend whose staying with me did an asshole test, but
its in french, and he claims that he was only a 19% asshole.
Frankly i think its closer to 90%. But who knows what 90% is
in french.

In the morning i wake up around 12, the heads up tournament
starts around 12. I figure i could go down and register, but then
i was going to play some games online which I can remote desktop
into. But that doesnt work ...
So i decide what the hell may be ill go and play the heads up
event. Then my friend, says why are you going to go down there?
Youve got no chance. Save the 5k. B "ill be down there in an hour
and ull be left with 3 chips"

I dawdle a bit longer, go down anyway, and may be luckily im too
late to register.

But im thinking may be i should spend a week in vegas being an
asshole.

Imaginary conversations from incidents ive had with ppl who ive run into

1) I see a lady reading a book sitting on the edge of a wishing well fountain.
I have a strong urge to push her in.
rk "sorry i didnt know you were only suppose to throw coins in"

2) Im eating a crepe , the guy is coming around cleaning up. like macdonalds
Your suppose to throw your rubbish in the bin. I leave the rubbish on the table. He
looks at me.

rk "may be if you provided forking forks that werent plastic, so you could
cut the crepes, id throw my rubbish away"
him "sorry sir, thats not my department"
rk "hey i always tip, perhaps if u save 1c out of each tip, you could provide real cutlery"
him "we dont get those tips"
rk "perhaps youd get a tip, if everyone didnt have to do your job"
him "your an asshole"
rk "at least my name tag doesnt say fking douchebag"

he rechecks his name tag i leave

3) i forget my room key card, and have to line up to get another one

hotel clerk "mr nathan this is the 5th room key card we've issued"
rk "im staying here for 6 weeks , get fking use to it"

4) i get into the lift , and the lady and i press the button at the same time,
it turns out we are pressing the same floor, she looks across at smile
(thats a funny coincidence)

rk "theres only 12 floors on this lift, its not that much of a fking coincidence,
and frankly its not a useful coincidince as your old and ugly"

life as an asshole, may be may be not...

razzzz

2007-06-18T19:45:00.000-07:00

So after bombing out of the 3k NL event i decided to play the $1500
razz event. Quickly the NL event started off ok, as in the first 30
minutes i didnt bust ! Then a key hand develops. Blinds 50-100,
early pos raiser to 350, and 3 callers. I have AK in the small make it
1950 (out of 6k). And the first person folds, the 2nd callers, calls ?
Now this person has commited 40% of their stack. Flop comes
k-j-2. I pretty much put the person all in who goes all in , with
Js, so ghey ! Down to under 1000 chips i get back to 4k, with
my new table having hellmuth and devilfish. I decide to re-raise
a button raise who looks weak, with KQs, who calls with decent
odds with a7 , and i dont hit.

So off to play the razz. The first few levels of a limit event
are slow torture. But i learn as i go along, that playing
speculative hands against even the donkeys is not
that profitable. So i ran my 3k stack to 6200 by the end
of the day, slightly under average.

Day 2 i busted a short stacked todd brunson, before
all my good hands ended up in smoke, as is the case with
razz ! 6-4-2, 6-4-3, razzed out. Busted out in 70th,
which was very disapointing.

Anyway whats good in vegas. The crepes , nutella crepes.

Horses for Courses

2007-06-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

After getting so close in the FT qualifier to play the 50k horse. Naturally I assumed i could play horse (wat do they say "assumptions are the mother of all fuckups")

So i entered the 5k horse event against some of the best players in the world and a few

randoms. At dinner i was up to 15k , up 50% of starting stack in limit is pretty good!

However after dinner it all went pear shaped, 4 card flushes

with low draws in studd didnt come thru, trips lost to str8ts

etc etc. And perhaps there were a couple of spots where i didnt need

to gamble, but it was disapointing after what i thought was going

to be my day. In the end i busted just before the day ended, even

tho most of the ppl still remained. An aussie still is in, after being

short stacked, and has made a good comeback so may be i could have hung

around and waited and waited , tho frankly i doubt it . At least i got

to play against Doyle, even if he schooled me in one pot.

Yep, maximum !

What in Vegas costs a $100 a minute and lasts 15 minutes ?

2007-06-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

Interesting question ? Youd hope after spending that kind
of money youd be reasonably satisfied. However unfortunately
the answer is the $1500 plo event.

So early on i limp on with a speculative hand , against a big
blind not sitting in. 3 others limp in. I have A-9-10-2 suited.
Ok thats a bit junky, but thats the how i play PLO... badly !
Well not that bad usually. Anyway flop comes Kc-j-8c I have the
nut flush draw + str8 draw (7 or Q for the nuts). I bet the pot
the guy raises me. After thought i consider him to have JJ
or 88 or may be may be a wrap draw. I re-push representing
KK , he thinks and goes if you have KK you have me beaten then calls.
The board pairs on the turn and im out. Whoops, oh well,
tomorrow is the horse. At least im not playing scared, im hoping
the limit will limit the damange. And may be there are things in
vegas at a $100/min that are better value?

Are you black or white ?

2007-06-14T22:01:00.000-07:00

Some ppl know I like to bring up the fact im "black" as
to why I cant swim well and when Im on a rant how
the racial minorities need to group together to fight
the white opression. Of course im not really serious, but
ppl often say, "your not even black!"

Well today whilst playing blackjack at Paris, there
were 2 african american women playing and a younger
african american female dealer. Even tho i was wearing
a hat, after a while of playing they
thought i was african american or a mixture , 1/2 black 1/2 other.
Then i said i was sri lankan in origin, and they were like
oh, we were only talking to you because they thought
I was "african american" . Then they started laughing, I didnt
get it. So may be im not black, but i can be confused for one ,
or perhaps im just confused.

Also my accent apparently is english, must be the "posh"
adelaide accent. No one assumes im aussie, i dont look
aussie, i dont speak aussie according to the americans.
Some quasi looking black english speaking person. Freak !

Very nice , how much ?

2007-06-14T21:48:00.000-07:00

According on how to fit into the vegas scene and not to act
like a dork there are some fundamental rules according to
the style show:

1. Dont say "vegas baby, vegas ..." This phrase was popularised
in the movie swingers. I prolly dont say this when im vegas,
but when talking to people before coming here, i can think
of at least a couple of times i slipped it into conversation, but
i was being funny !

2. Dont wear sunglasses in a club ! Unless ur blind apparently
wearing sunglasses in a club is not cool. Hmm im sure it was
cool in adelaide in London when i did it , perhaps not...

3. Girls in vegas are not either strippers or hookers. So when
they walk past, saying "very nniiice, how much" , probably is
inappropriate. But may or may not be funny.

Tho prolly the funniest comment of the day came from benjo,
on the female poker players. "would you rather sleep with
kathy liebert or antonius". He rationalised patrick
anotinus has more money, weird , who things along those
lines...

Extremes - plus or minus 45

2007-06-13T17:37:00.000-07:00

As the weather is starting to heat up , my poker results
are turning ice cold. In fact I think there is an inverse
relationsip. Currently the weather is more than 40 degrees, and the poker
losses have slipped below 40k. Oh well wat can you do ? Get a new job ? haha

Todays event was the 5k NL. All the good players were playing,
and my table was pretty good considering, as only Nam Le was there,
and also some other guy who plays 100-200NL tho I didnt know
who he was. I started off trying to see some cheap flops and connect,
but everything missed. When I bet someone would call with a gutshot
and outdraw me. Gradually my chips almost 1/2ved. I managed
to win a pot finally with a5 under the gun flopping 2 pair, and later
a donkey pushed all in over the top short stacked with AQ against my
AA and i was back in it up to 11k . (starting 10k).

Then tuan le, got moved to my table, with a lot of chips.
He was playing quite a few hands, and was pushing ppl
around. I didnt get anything, and a raise with 3-4s didnt end up to good,
as i bet a 10-10-9 flop and got re-raised. I had aroudn 8k when the following
hand came up just before the 2nd break. Tuan limped in, somone else called,
I called with 3-4 spades on the button, and the blinds came in. The Flop
came J-6s-2s. He bet 800 in about 1200pot, I could have called here, but
he would bet a range of hands that he would prolly fold here if i raised, plus
i had a big draw, and i could push out the other players. I made it 2400, and
he called quickly. The turn came a red 4. Giving me a pair. I put him on something
like j10 , qj or may me a big flush draw like k-10spades. He checked and I pushed
my remaining 5k chips in. I figured I would do this with a set or KJ, and he would
fold a medium j or prolly a higher flush draw. Tho even if he called with the flush draw,
I had now turned a pair so i would be ahead. If i check he may bet big with
a missed flush draw on the river, and I wouldnt know where I was. He thought
about it for a while and ended up calling with j10. I had 17 outs , of course
it came a blank. I was happy with the way i played that hand the rest of it.
I was a bit disapointed he called with j10 there, coz my image had been
tight, and I had only showed Aces and barely played that much. If i had a better
jack he was drawing almost dead.

Oh well, i hope it doesnt get much hotter.

Other stuff in vegas

2007-06-12T13:55:00.000-07:00

Seinfeld moment, was in the open air carpark at the rio looking for
our friends car. There were 4 of us, wondering around, but
we didnt end up splitting up. I actually needed to go to
the toilet, and I didnt have my public urination pass ! Luckily
we did find the car within 10minutes.

Walking around vegas, you get lots of mexicans handing out
cards for "girls". Interestingly they guarantee the girl to your
room in 20 minutes ? Are these girls just driving / being driven
around in cars waiting for a call ? Surely the petrol costs would
blow the margins. Tho i guess nothing in vegas is really much
further than 20 minutes away, still it takes me 20 minutes
to walk from my room to the next casino along. Perhaps
they are on roller skates, is it like pizza hut, not here in 20minutes
and its free?

Phil hellmuth won bracelet no. 11, I think I can play his style, that
means i should be able to at least win one.

I was listening to my french roomates ipod during the last event.
Its interesting to listen to someone elses taste in music , tho there
was a lot of overlap on my ipod. Except the french music and the
heavier stuff. He did have motivational tracks on there, tho i chose
to skip over them, may be next time ill try and listen to one. Then
he had some hanibal audio book thing, listening to hanibal stories
isnt ideal when someone on ur poker table is tilting you...

2500NL event no x

2007-06-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

So i played in the 2500 NL , with expectations of doing well, and feeling
like I was playing well. And frankly I thought I played really good,
not pushing all in or risking my chips, and without really ever backing
down either. I unfortunately got my good
cards in the first hour, where i picked up a few hundred chips, where
they would have been priceless at the end. From my starting stack
I still managed to work it up to near 15k (avg 18k) after the dinner
break, with 250 ppl left of 1000. Then I picked up the worst run
of cards, after folding an AQ preflop to a re-raise. I couldnt event get
a suited connector to try and steal the blinds :( Finally with 160ppl
left I was forced with a8 to go all in, and ak called me, and that was
it ! 1 race , and cya later. I guess i can be happy with the way I
played, but busting out after everyone else around me was getting
lucky and doing crazy things just hurt. Lee Watkinson, said to
Michael Binger, whats a PHD physicist doing wasting their time
playing poker ? The only positive about all this, is Im starting to
think of some of the movie ideas I would want to do.

Internet Sunday !

2007-06-12T13:41:00.000-07:00

At least when your in the US, internet poker sunday falls on a sunday,
and not at 2am in the morning. The 2 big tourneys of note were:
FT horse qualifier (1k) for a 52k horse seat and the Sunday Million.
Down to the last 200 in the sunday million AA got cracked by 99,
and I ended up busting out in about 120th when AJs got beaten by
99 :(

Disapointing but not as bad as the horse, down to 4 ! Not all in once,
and chip leader at one stage 4 handed. Played 1 or 2 pots of stud
badly, but still doing good, then lost a race and then ran out of cards
and luck. So painful, nothing for 4th, a 52k swing and perhaps the
most disapointment ive felt after playing an online game.

My view on poker is changing ...

chinatown

2007-06-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

In the space of a few days, Ive not only been to a show,
but got in a car and for a drive in vegas, with someone
who is not a taxi drive and didnt go to a casino or shopping
centre. Although it felt like we were driving for a lot longer,
it turns out we pretty much went in a circle due to the highway
set up, and we were pretty much next to the rio still but in
chinatown. Had some vietnamese and bubble tea Went out
with some media guys, apparently poker media covering
is as to playing poker as masturbation is to sex.

$1500 NL event - Saturday

2007-06-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

Event 5 for me. The $1500 event, I get off to a good
start after picking up 2-2 on 10-2-10 board against someones
a-10. Up to 5k, drop down to a bit over 4k, when i call the
cut offs raise on the button with 10-8 of hearts. The big
blind calls, and the flop comes 10s-7h-4h. The preflop
raise bets out i come over the top, and after much thought
he pushes all in. I call having covered by a few chips. He
flips over QQ(no hearts). I have 14 outs , and the turn
comes a 9 giving 20 outs, but nothing comes. From 300chips
back to 1500 when i make a move against a guy who has been
limping in late position with junk, this time he has a-10 and
calls, i suck out then he re-sucks out and thats it , adios!

So whats the deal with ...

2007-06-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

Friday night went and saw a show in vegas ! Finally after my
3rd visit to vegas i did "something". Tho as Seinfeld pointed
out, ppl like to feel that they are doing something , so they go
out. I wonder tho now thats hes older he has some of the old
man qualities of complaining, tho he always had that, but he
still seems to have the little kid qualities of being excited about
candy etc still. Caesar's coloseum was the venue, which of course
looked like nothing like the coloseum, but still was impressive.
It was handy spending a week in vegas beforehand, so I was in
tune with some of the jokes he was talking about. Of course there
was a quick shot at paris hilton, and he said now she knows what
its like to spend some time in the hilton now, except she doesnt even
have to pay $160 a night. Then there was this commercial on
tv for a viagra like drug, and it said if your erection lasts more
than 4 hours please contact a doctor ! I was thinking the same,
who is going to wait 4 hours before picking up the phone ?

Also are bathrooms in public places made up of the most sound reflective
materials. During a poker tournament, u inevitably spend time
in bathroom stalls next to people seeing their feet under the
dividing wall, making strange unsettlting noises. Ive taken to
keeping my bose headphones on. Thats what bose should be advertising,
who cares about noise cancelling in planes ! Seinfeld said since toilets
were stalls, why didnt they make it like horse stalls, and have the heads
sticking out the top as well .

gold jerry, gold ...

Quick day 2

2007-06-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

Well after making it to day 2, I had a small chip stack, and
after pushing all in once early and picking up the blinds,
i bought one more lap of the table. Unfortunately the
blinds went up, and A-3 suited in medium-early position
was good enuff to make a move. Pocket Ks on the button,
strangely enuff decided to move all in as well. And although
the 2nd card of the deck was an Ace, the 3rd card was a king,
allowing for the shortest celebration possible. The board
paired on the turn giving me 2 Aces to hit on the river, which
didnt come. So after cashing for 4k, i then found out i was
taxed 30%, what a kick in the pants! I might be able
to get it back one day, however. I need to consider
getting another nationality passport so i can avoid this
stupidness. Perhaps Tunisia..

Had some drinks after and played some blackjack which
seems to be more profitable.

Today (fridaY), i decided to take the day off, and play some
online cash games (25-50NL), which are tax free. Unfortunately
I was better off sleeping in and lost 10k. I played one
or two hands badly, but other than that I played pretty good.
Lost a 7k pot with Ks to AK, and didnt hit a set etc
and had Qs against set etc.

And lost some money playing Omaha online as well, but
definately on the end of some not so good luck.

Tonight is Seinfeld (stand up show) at Caesars, and tomorrow
is the $1500 NL event , which is a bit of a crapshoot.

On a side note, quite a few poker players seem to have attention
deficit disorder. Is ADD contagious ?

3 strikes and your out !

2007-06-07T13:13:00.001-07:00

After my first 3 WSOP events, and no cashes, things were looking
a little bit sketchy, also considering 2 of them were on the expensive
side.

Tho lucky number 4, the 2k NL event ! I have managed to make it
to day 2, unfortunately short stacked on 14k with blinds on 1-2k.
The frustrating thing, being about 20 or 30 spots before the money,
I was cruising along with close to 60k (average less than 40), and although
I had an agressive player on my left, I wasnt getting into much trouble.

Then a key pot arose where I called a raise with KJs from the big blind.
The flop came q-j-9 and I called his smallish bet. The turn Q, went check
check, and on the river a blank, he thought about it and bet about 11k into
a 20k pot. I didnt think he had AQ, and AK was a possibility as was 10s,
I had ruled out a big pocket pair. So in the end i called and he turned over
9-9 for a full house. From there I got re-raised a few times, and ended
the day alive, with 125 left and with a WSOP cash.

Earlier in the day i got to play with hellmuth for a few hours. I managed
to beat him out of a few pots which got him talking, one hand i slow played
AA against him, although I didnt show. He got a bit annoyed as he usually
does, but he shook everyones hands, and now after being short
he has a ton of chips. I wouldnt mind a another match against him, I think I
have him worked out :)

I prolly would have been disapointed with my day if I had just been
on low stack all day, but to get some chips and some momentum, was
encouraging even if I couldnt maintain it. Day 2 kicks off in about 30mins
or so, with the same starting table and a need to push in early!

Rebuys !

2007-06-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

Ok today was the rebuy event, $1k a rebuy, and if you wanted
to do all necessary rebuys and addons (double), it would cost
4k. Due to losing a few races AK v QQ and another one, I ended
up spending 6k and ended up on 12k in chips which was ahead
of average after the break.

Daniel Negrenu missed being moved to my table by one, which
was a big disapointment. As most people know, in rebuy tournaments
he spends a lot of money, last year he spent 47k ! This year he
seemed more subdued.

After a good start everything that went wrong post flop seemed
to. Id raise with KQ the blind would call with 8-4, and flop came
Q-8-4. Then id raise with Qs and it would come K high, and
theyd re-raise me all in. Then perhaps i made a mistake when
I pushed with 7s against a guy on 8-4-2 flop, not putting on
an overpair, but he had 2s. Somehow i survived a few races,
and held around 10k, till there were 160 out of 850 ppl left.
Money started at 81, but I needed chips ! With blinds 400-800
my AQ ran into AK and the youngest bracelet winner ended
up knocking me out near 11pm. I guess I was pretty happy
how i played pre-flop, just post-flop wasnt the best :( Anyway
no money, but more encouraging. Tho encouraging pays
shit.

At least Benjo, the French frog came along. We had a few
beers after , got IDd at the paigow table at ballys. Where
they dont accept foreign drivers licences. Had another
beer went and at least managed to pkay some pai gow,
which is similar to chinese poker, but of course the casino
always wins ...

Don't cry for me Argentina !

2007-06-04T20:28:00.001-07:00

A quick note: the general vibe sometimes of this blog may seem
negative, after all Im the recipient of so many bad beats !
But like the news theres no news like bad news, so why
not focus on the negatives , unless there are big positives !
Which there are really none, but doesnt mean there arent
any good things going on (like.. tumbleweed blows across the
screen....) Anyway just in case people were feeling sympathetic
to my "plight" after a few bad tournaments, Id like to reassure
everyone thats is all ok ! Tho if you were rushing over to vegas
don't let me stop you !! Lets face it Im in Vegas, and I can pretty
much do what i want when i want. And I can go for swims in
hot(35+) weather [ahead of europe and australia] and in
a non crocodile infested body of water [ahead of south america
and africa !]

So to allay your fears , im ok , drink some beers :)

I walked past shannon elizabeth again today, she still hasnt forgiven me
for the Melbourne incident, that or she doesnt remember me, take
your pick !

Limiting the damage , event 6 !

2007-06-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

So in a bid to limit my early bad run in tournaments, I thought
Id be able to minimise the damage by playing event 6, the $1500
limit tournament. After all in limit you cant really lose all your
chips in the first hand ! Id have to be able to get a few hours of
good tournament play in.

I get off to a steady start, tho after making a couple of marginal
calls, and having someone turn a gutshot straight against my top
pair my chips start to slip below par. Then a key pot develops
against a shorter stack. I have q10 suited in the small blind,
against the aggressive short stack's raise. I call and the big
blind calls. The flop comes k-10-3, i bet , the bb fold and the
preflop raiser raises. The turn comes a Q. Im confident that
he didnt have a King on the flop, or much of it all , I bet and
he goes all in for his last few chips. He flips over j-9 and im in
trouble ! No river house, and im in big trouble. I manage
to push someone out of a pot with Js on an Ace high board,
to steal a couple of chips. Then 2 hands later I have Ks,
I 3 bet it and the guy to my left 4 bets it. I know he doesnt
have aces so im feeling good. Tho the flop comes Q high all
spades, i check call down worried that he has QQ, and
sure enuff he has 3 Qs :( Great read but not much you can do, with
Kings there. Few hands later its all over, and my 2nd wsop event is in the bin.

I play the FT 1K tourney and stars tourneys, more bad beats,
and by 8pm there is no more poker to play. Luckily i managed
to fit a swim in the middle of the day, so it wasnt a total loss !

Tomorrow $1k rebuy event ?! After a week , I hope something
turns around soon. 6 weeks of this could be testing.

Alternative ways to make money, play chinese poker, blackjack,
keno or golf course hustling !

Tomorrow my Frenchy friend comes over to stay, he should at
least provide some comedy.

Daniel Negreanu is laying the odds of 5 to 1 that he will win a
WSOP event this year. He is playing quite a few events, but those
are very juicy odds.

Paris

2007-06-03T19:36:00.000-07:00

Yep you can walk a 100m in vegas and end up in a new
city, or at least a new hotel. Due to not being organised I
have to spend one night in Paris (the hotel), which comes
along with a mini-eiffel tower (50% replica) and fake sky.

Think about getting a crepe, its an hour long line to get
a frigging crepe. Americans can be annoying sometimes but
ill give them the fact their perseverant. Funny that a french
style casino would be popular in the US tho, didnt they rename
french fries to freedom fries due to their contempt for the french.
I guess vegas is truly a level playing field , if your hotel has bright
lights , slot machines, we the people wont discrimate, that or the
US are hyporictical, noooo that couldnt be.

So i play the big sunday online tourneys, come out slighlty down,
but feel an onset of poker form. The final hand of the full tilt
tourney was goofy. I raise with a9s (to 3600 leaving 33k left),
guy calls on the button. Flop comes 3-6-9 (rainbow) I check
feeling he would come over the top with a lot of hands here,
if i led out and bet and willing to let a free card come and play the pot small.
So he just pushes all in 38k , im worried about 10s here but i figure
hes got a 9 or a str8t draw or something??? I call, he has KK,
hmm that was a bit stoopid.

Tomorrow is the limit tourney, im pretty keen to start playing
some wsop events, i think i have this poker thing a bit more
sussed. 2 rules to "THINK" about whilst playing

1 - put your opponent on a hand or range of hands
2 - give your opponent a decision ?!
(ala rounders -" the key to NL holdem is to put your opponent
to a decision for all their chips, give or take a few" )

Sometimes I should think more, anyway, ive decided im smarter
than these ppl therefore i should be winning !
(work in progress, being smarter and the winning)

I may step outside for a swim, ring up the concierge
doh its 8pm and the pool closes, cmon
its 35 degrees outside perfect for an evening swim, ah well fk it
ill fill up the tub with water and go for a swim in there. Safer for
a black person anyway ..

aurevoir

WSOP downtime Hotel uptime

2007-06-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

So i travel half-way around the world and decide that I cant
be bothered lining up with these crazy americans and
conclude I am better off playing poker in my room than
play at the Rio. Then i remember the bellagio are
running tournaments, so I ring them up and ask when and
what time their tournaments are on ? The lady on the phone
kindly tells me they wont be starting for a week or so. Grayte,
so i head down there anyway to get lunch, and guess what,
theres a $1000 tournament on now ! Incompetence is a growing
disease, at least say "you" are not sure instead of giving a definitive
answer that is 100% incorrect. Luckily I can still register for
the $1,000 tournament. The bellagio poker staff are all top
notch, and the food as usual is fantastic. What is great is that
in my 15 minutes break i can get BBQ duck and poker rice, go
to the toilet and still have time to spare.

So far my strategy of eating and playing hasnt quite worked out
as planned. Recommendation , dont order buffalo wings and pizza
while playing a WSOP event, you just dont have enuff sourviettes
to not make a mess. But the main reason why I did this the day
before , was because Gus Hansen was in the line ahead of me, and
he ordered the same thing. So if its good enuff for gus its good enuff
for moi. Anyway the bellagio food is neat and easy to eat.

So im doing pretty decent, even after AA gets cracked by the village
idiots A6. Then i decide to raise to 600. with j-10. I had about
6k b4 the start of the hand. But wait the dealer who was on speed,
yelled all in b4 so loudly i blocked it out. Turns out under the gun
went all in for 2100. woops, now im getting 2 to 1 to call . So
I decide to call. Everyone folds to the small blind who pushes
all in. I figure he has a monster and fold , so stupid my me to get
myself in the spot. He has AA, phew, but the flop is 10-4-10, woops.
Then my chips yo-yo around till i get busted out.

I go back to the hotel watch a few more movies, so far have watched,
ghost rider (yawn), stomp the yard (some amazing dancing) and blades
of glory ( will ferrell makes me laugh , so stupid but funny)

Event 1

2007-06-02T12:19:00.000-07:00

The mixed $5K NL / Limit event. Harrahs organistion was
once again complete shambles, what were they doing in their
year off preparing this event ? Who knows ? Apart from
all the lines to register, they brought in new playing cards,
that were impossible to read. Especially 6s and 9s.

All around me people were misreading the board, luckily
I didnt make that mistake. Mainly coz my cards were so
crap and i couldnt really get anything going. During the limit
levels the one where i was worried most about, I didnt
lose many chips to the very last hand where i had Qs against
AK and lost most of my remaining chips. Rest of the NL
section consisted of me raising missing flops betting sometimes
and getting raised out of it post flop. With the best hand
being 99 followed by 55 no ak or aq in 5 hours of poker.

One interesting hand was where i limped on the button with
56 clubs. The pot was 5 handed. Lee Markholt on my right
bet 350 into 750 pot, i made it a 1000 on 10c 7c 6d. The
turn came a blank. At this point i wasnt a 100% sure whether
he had 8-9 or just some other draw. I checked and the river
came an Ace which i perhaps could have bluffed. He turned
over 10-8 and perhaps I shoulda bet one of the streets.
Tho i had 14 outs against his hand which i would have bet
if i improved.

Anyway Barry greenstein rocked up 4 hours late, then
proceeded to finish the day in a strong position, perhaps
I should adopt that strategy as well.

Queues

2007-06-01T11:00:00.001-07:00

Like any good theme park, and lets face it vegas is just another
theme park, but aimed primarily at the pudgy 40 year old american
white male, there will be queues.

First queue for the day, "the bank". Not really that exciting but
when u have to take out 20k to pay for upcoming tournaments,
some strange feeling always hits you. 20k is a lot of money!
So its important not to flick through the bills and get too attached
with it and re-enact the scene from indecent proposal lying on the
bed rolling around in money, coz the money comes in and goes
straight out. At least the taxi driver waited for me at the bank,
and didtn even keep the meter running, i gave him a good tip at least.
I am actually in favour of the tipping system , customer service seems
pretty good in Vegas, and may be they are friendly people, but people
try.

2nd queue "WSOP registration" - Unfortunately incompetence is
never that far away when Harrahs are in charge. The room for the
tournament is not ready despite being 1 day to go, which also means
that the usual registration desk is not ready. To their credit the room
actually looks pretty good this year. However the line up to register
although not that long, took some 2 hours. The guy ahead of me lined
up for 2.5 hours only to find that they wouldnt give him the seat unless
he was paying for it, he actually had already paid but that was bad luck.
Some guy discovered a new "bubble" the printer bubble. That is
when its you turn to pick up the ticket, the printer conveniently dies.
Unfortunately it is the only printer that can print these special tickets,
and it requires 2 tech guys. The good news is that we are told that
it is a "priority 1" problem. Tho no one can be too sure if priority one
is the highest or lowest rating. Finally get my ticket, table 72 seat 6 !
I saw Allen Cunningham join the queue as i was at the front, for someone
who had about 4-5 million in winnings last year, you thing Full Tilt the
sponsors would sort out this sh*t for him, but hey he seems like a nice
guy, not wanting superstar attention.

Queue 3 - Hotel accomodation - I was suppose to get the players rates
for the hotel anyway after an hour of being sent from one desk to another
I finally managed to get this one sorted out.

Queue 4 - Yep there was a line up for "noodles" - my regular eating
spot at the Bellagio, but the upside of eating for one is you jump the
queue pretty quickly !

Queue 5 - Luckily this was a quick one, took me a few minutes to
get onto an online game, where i could lose my money on limit holdem.
Tho i feel i have a strategy for the limit section of tomorrows tourney,
dont play it. I did play some no limit, which at least i won a nice pot
b4 bed.

NL hand - question is did i bet too small on the end ? prolly coulda
pushed all in. In my favour there was a hand before where i bet
the flop and turn against this guy , and I had nothing

rkruok [$2,825]
VodooWizar [$10,105]

Dealt to rkruok [9d Td]
bluepitcole: folds
rkruok: raises $100 to $150
VoodooWizard: calls $150
Grimstarr: folds
IfIHadItAll: folds
*** FLOP *** [7c Tc Th]
rkruok: bets $250
VoodooWizard: calls $250
*** TURN *** [7c Tc Th] [Qs]
rkruok: bets $500
VoodooWizard: calls $500
*** RIVER *** [7c Tc Th Qs] [4d]
rkruok: bets $1100
VoodooWizard: calls $1100
*** SHOW DOWN ***
rkruok: shows [9d Td] (three of a kind)

VoodooWizard: folds [KcQd]

good end to a rather strange day !

Arrived in Vegas

2007-05-31T15:09:00.001-07:00

After a quick stopover in sydney, caught up with cousin and brother
for dinner, also had breakfast b4 i caught my flight, dumplings !
Pretty much as good as mandarin house .

Plane trip to LA - 12.5 hours , 2 hours sleep, 8 hours movies.
Finding Nemo, Music and Lyrics (hugh grant), About a Boy (hugh
grant), History Boys - pretty good , Simpsons episodes

Arrive at LA so tired rush, to catch connecting flight, its been
delayed 2 hours. Go to Qantas lounge, have a 30minute shower,
highly recommended. Plane gets re-delayed, have a nap, wake
up i think in time, plane has left !! Doh, have to go to another
terminal catch a plane to vegas, finally i make it there.

Vegas still looks the same, and at night i still think it looks amazing,
I must have been a moth in my past life, judging by my attraction
to bright lights.

Quick stop at Noodles (bellagio), eat chicken rice, meal comes
to $50 US so wrong. Find out that bellagio cup is on during the
WSOP so i have a million tourneys to choose from. A million
tourneys will also cost a lot of money !

Fall asleep for 15 hours, wake up 2pm Thursday better do
something !

2006 WSOP main event retrospective ...

2007-05-28T18:45:00.001-07:00

When you play in the biggest poker event of the year, and your life,
its hard not to have the occasional flash back. Sometimes I
look out the window much like in a (viet)nam flash back, and see
pocket 7s , see my bloodied body leaving the table , and going
to the cashier to pick up $47,200 stuffing it in my pockets and leaving
confused but happy.

The 4 days - poker and more poker ...

Day 1 - I get off to a good start for me , 18k 1/2 way through the day,
cruising along not doing anything too stupid. Then I get moved to another
table, where of course there is a generic blonde scandinavian maniac, with
all the green ($25) chips , and lots of other brightly coloured chips. I find
the table move an easy process, as I dont usually have a million chips to carry,
much like moving house , its best to travel light. Tho traveling light in poker
has a distinct disadvantage when you arrive at your desitination. I dont
really pick up any cards, then play this pot with Joe Cassidy. Where I have the
nut flush draw on the flop, he has a smaller flush draw tho he hits his small
pair, i dont make a flush, and although we didnt go all in, I end up down to 5k !
I end the day on about 6k , dire by any stretch, but a situation Ive been in before.

Day 2 - I survive some races, grind my way dodging bullets, and get up to 28k
after finding Aces and doubling up against Jacks. With one hand to go before the day,
and using my tight image i raise with 4-4 in early position hoping to get over 30k,
unfortunately i find a caller. With about 8k in the pot, im not that thrilled about
being out of position with a small pair, but when the door card is a 4 , i could kiss the
dealer, the flop looking like 4-8-Q, rainbow. I bet out 5k , which looks weak, not
because of the bet amount, but because I always look weak, havent they read
Caros book of tells or watched rounders, Weak is Strong !!! The guy thinks
puts me all in , and I call quickly which seems to put a dagger thru his heart, he bemoans
Aces again ? Im no , 4s. He is drawing dead by the turn and I double up to about 55k
at the end of day 2 !

Day 3 - We are approaching the money, and I have a bad table draw, the 3 ppl to
my left all have over 200k which is plenty of chips at this stage, and not to mention
one of them is Ted Forrest. Ted Forrest once took his entire million dollar bankroll
against chip reese and andy beal and came out a big winner in a 10-20k limit game,
when he was almost down to the felt. He seems to be quite solid in his play but
always has a good feel for his opponents. When he raised the first hand , and
the flop came A-3-5 hearts, he managed to bust an opponent on the river, conveniently
Ted had raised with 2-4 of hearts and flopped a straight flush, no one saw his opponents
cards, but he disaperared into the crowd as so many do, during the first 3 days
of the main event. I was all in early in the level on a K high flop with Ak , but my opponent
also had AK. I was free-rolling on runner runner spade draw, that didnt eventuate,
so I maintained my stack consistent. It was difficult as the bubble approached as
most of my raises to pick up blinds were met by re-raises by the big stacks on the
left, and I eventually had to give up. Down to 35k I picked up 7-7 in the small blind.
The cut off raised, I called, and the big blind big stack called. Once again I could kiss
the dealer, when the flop came 7-7-3. I maintained my poker face checked the flop,
and by the river I could push my last few chips all in, which the big blind who had
conveniently slow played Aces could well afford to call. Doubled up to 70kish average
100kish. Tho the bubble still handt burst... Once again I couldnt do anything with
my 70k stack, so I ended up making the money. At that point, there was the biggest
freefall of players being eliminated, with some 200 players being eliminated in 15
minutes. By the end of the day i ended up on 70k. I remember having pocket 8s
which are my lucky hand about to call a raise. Which i didnt end up doing. The flop
came k-k-8. Tho it turned out to be convenient when the turn came a 10, and the
preflop raiser showed k-10 ! Woulda been busted out there , it seemed like someone
was looking out for me.

Day 4 - With some 400 players or so left, the pressure was off, I had made
some money and I needed to get some chips today ! Luckily for me I picked up
a pair of Jacks and Kings early, double up busted an opponent, and was sitting
on a 180k, suddenly i was on about average, now what was the plan ?? Daniel
Negreanu came to my table short stacked, gave me a hard time about my accent,
but unfortunately I got moved again. This is where I slid down the abyss. I couldnt
find any opportunties to play, there was the chip leader and a few other monster
stacks, and without hands and bad position, I couldnt do much. Hours went by
and with about 200 players left and a 120k in chips i had been moved to a new
table. It featured some random indian guy, annie duke, doug lee eventual final
tablist, and some guy who people were dubbing the luckiest guy in the
room. He had featured in a pot, where there 4 all ins ! AA vs KK vs QQ vs 10s.
He had the 10s and a hit miracle 10 on the river, to knock out 3 opponents
and take almost the chip lead. Scary thing was that he called about 2 or 3 of those
all ins with 10s. And here it was , 172 players left, Im in the small blind with 7-7,
theres been a raise of 24k , blinds 4-8, i call leaving myself a 100k, hoping for a
miracle. And bang the flop comes 2-7-9 rainbow. I could kiss the dealer again,
tho due to sexual harrasment cases being filed for my other inappropriate
advances, I decide to just check. The pre-flop raiser who i put may be an over
pair bets 2/4 of the pot, doug lee who I peg as being solid flat calls, which is
quite worrying , i know that one of them will have to call all in, and i casually
shove in my remaining 100k. They both call , hmmmm. The turn comes a Jack,
they both move all in !!!! And I can almost call the cards before they flipem over.
set of Jacks for the preflop raiser, set of 9s for doug lee, no one is really looking
in my direction tho when i flop over my set of 7s running in 3rd place, there
are some oos and ahhs. The case 7 miraculous doesnt come on the river, and instead
a blank appears, and ive been sent to the rail. At that point the supernatural
force that had been guiding me this far, making sure i stayed out of trouble,
and dodged bullets, seemed to have left me. Patiently i waited, and over 4 days
I get my chips in with middle set, (other hands i got all my chips in post flop,
were bottom set and quads!) only to come 3rd :( Perhaps the poker god looking
out for me was on a toilet break. It can be a bitch getting to the toilet and sometimes
u gotta sneak out mid level or run to the far toilet. Although quite pleased getting
so deep, I felt a bit disapointed. Sometimes u feel it and that day i felt it.

Interestingly I only missed one hand over the whole WSOP, which someone pushed
all in with AK, and hit two aces on the flop. It might seem like I flopped a lot of
sets and quads, but when u play for 12 hours a day and ur manouvering to find
the best opportunity over hundreds of hands, I probably was not that lucky ! Tho
to be truthful I did have the luck when it came to races !

2007 bring it on ! :)

Global roaming starts today ...

2007-05-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

Yep the "adventure" is about to begin, off to sydney today,
vegas wednesday, bankrupt thursday & home friday ! Or
perhaps ill be a millionaire on sunday, thats poker in a nutshell,
actually i dont know how u fit a poker table in a nutshell, it would
have to be big, a logistical nightmare, plus ud need electircity,
anyway...

Ive activated my global roaming on my 3 phone, thru one
of the helpful indian operators, so in the unlikely event
someone needs to call me or send me a msg, it will be possible
on the 0430 ... ... number.

Mental note: need to shave, so not to look like a terrorist when
entering the US.

I had to change the locks on my suitcase, cost of US compliant
locks : $80