Part Three-2006 WSOP Event 31 $2K NL HE

Friday 8AM: Wake-up call, shower and shave (hah). Decided to rent a car because, personally, $60 for 2 cab rides so far blows ass. Breakfast at the Rio then head down to the Convention Center to register early for the tournament and beat the lines. Nervous but excited; this is my first major after all. Find out Robin placed 30th and made a little extra dough, Sol made it into the top 100 as well. Action Dan is in the house as are even more pros that I didn’t see the day before.

12N: Cards are in the air. Start off with $2K in chips, blinds are $25/25, 1 hour levels. There is one pro at my table, the young Asian guy who was on FSN’s Superstars II, can’t remember his name for the life of me though. 2nd hand in I look down at AK in the BB. Flat-call after the pro raises it up from middle position. Miss and fold when he bets on the flop. AJs a bit later I elect to raise a bit from UTG. Pro re-raises me, I decide to gamble a little, especially since he pushed me out of that last pot. Jack high flop, I check, he bets, I call, turn is a blank, I check again, he checks as well. At this point I should have put out a value bet on the river because my Jack is probably way good. But I don’t, I check, and so does he, and my hand is good. Another player’s 44 flops quads in the BB, UTG had QQ and didn’t once raise to try to protect his hand, the lock puts a little bet on the river is how we find all this out. My folds becomes monsters; J7s flops flush, K2 turns boat. The pro gets eliminated from our table as the remainder of his stack disappears into another player’s.

Table change. 99 flops overs and I drop it. Limp w/66 in early position, raised behind me, 1 caller, I call as well. Flop A6x, I check, raiser bets, caller behind again, I push all-in. First AQ folds after deliberation, 2nd AQs calls. Turns the flush draw but bricks on the river and I gain a big piece of ground (the guy who called me someone said he was on TV before and I vaguely remember him but a name is way out of the question). A3 on the button, I limp to see a cheap flop with position on the one other limper who called before me, flop AAx, BB checks, early shoots, I call, 6 turn, shoots again, I call, blank on river, check, check, turns over 66 for a boat. I got off cheap on that one, it could have been real expensive for me but then again I probably could/should have pushed him out by raising the flop.

Table change again. Get moved to Kathy Liebert’s table, she is 3 seats to my left. First thing she says after looking at my stack is that she can double through me, to which I reply that she’s welcome to try. She’s actually a lot of fun today. The guy behind me has a banana and offers it to Kathy (doesn't anybody else find that thoroughly amusing?). 88 I raise in early position, Banana re-raises behind me, I fold after thought (he tells me a little later he had TT). 88 again a bit later, I limp, Banana again raises me again but another player behind moves over the top for an easy fold for me. I look down at AA and raise it to no action. Short-stack moves all-in, folded to me in the BB w/AK-I call and lose to a 62 when a 6 hits the table.

Moved again, this time to table 66, seat 6. Another AJs that misses the flop.

Table change yet again. Brett “Gank” Jungblut is 2 to my left, John Bonetti and David Williams behind us. Gank is hassling Bonetti and Williams is chiming in. A KQ of spades takes down a big one, as I am UTG and take a flop with 2 players behind me, flop Txx, 2 spades. I check, 2nd to act bets, and I have already decided to check-raise all-in, so after 2nd moves, I start to push, saying "all-in" but the other player in the hand before hadn't folded, which I thought he did, and he was also about to do the same thing with a smaller stack but then he saw me start action and froze. A floorman is called over and tells the player that he must at least make the min raise as he was caught in a foreward motion with his chips. So he does, asking me if I got a set and I am now all-in over the top of both with a shrug. Both fold, original raiser said AT, the guy who was going to go all-in said QT and I take a nice pot. Gank gets called on a move pre-flop and busts out. An AQs gets nada so I toss it.

The final #s for the event are: 2050 players, $3.7 million prize pool. I am not sure of my exact exit # but it was around 425, putting me in the top 25% of the field roughly. So to those who staked me, sorry I couldn't flip your money for you, and thanks for letting me try. I'm going back next year, and dammit, I'm gonna make the money.

8:30 PM: After coming back from the dinner break the antes were up to 50 and the blinds were 200/400, making my M a nip over 4 (I will go a little more into detail later about my last 10 hands). Suited 9T in the cut-off, folded around to me, I’m hoping to either take down a pot that will increase my stack by 1/5 without any confrontation, or if I get a call, at least I should have live cards. And that’s only if the button, the SB, or the BB wake up to a monster as it’s still a pretty solid raise. BB finds AK and calls from a big stack, K hits the board and it’s all over. All in all, I had a great time, it was a helluva experience-in fact I think this just became an annual outing for me. I outlasted many pros-Cloutier, Arieh, Chip Jett, “The Mouth,” Hellmuth, Huck Seed, Gavin Smith, “Bear,” Jennifer Harman (she is so cute!), “Fossilman,” Kenna James, and Kathy. (Post-note: Mike Caro and Jen Tilly made the top 200 in the money, Action Dan got as far as 23, and Justin Scott was the 1st place finisher, taking home $842,262)

9:30 PM: Voodoo Lounge, top of the Rio. Some friends are at the door when I get over to that side of the resort; apparently the bouncer won't let one in with jean shorts. I argue, the bouncer is a dick, a few minutes later we watch him let in someone else with the same attire, so I call him out, he finally gives up and lets us past. Without paying the $20 cover charge-so screw you bub. The hottest elevator ride ever takes us to the top of the Rio, where the FCP Army has gathered in full force. I actually have a couple beers to settle my system after blowing out of the tourney an hour prior. The view from the balcony of the entire area is pretty sweet. Daniel shows up and hangs for a while, as does an inflatable sheep. Much revelry ensues. I leave early, as my mind is still going over my play somewhat, and I'm not a big bar/club kind of guy anymore really anyways as most of y'all know. As I get all the way almost to the parking lot, I realize I left my credit card without closing my tab. As I am walking back I see Harry Demetriou, who tells me unfortunately he won't be attending the festivities at the Voodoo Lounge with us, as John Gale just won the PL HE bracelet and they're on their way out to celebrate. So all the way back to the lounge, and as I'm re-entering, DN is on his way out and I pass on the news of Gale's win. And as I'm once again on my way down and out to my car, Fidler is at the door, trying to get in and I tell him that Daniel had left already and he decides to pass on the 40-deep line waiting to enter. While I'm searching for where the car is parked, I come across a couple of young women with a rent-a-cop trying to use a wire hanger to unlock their door. I offer my assistance and after numerous tries am able to free the lock for the girls. My instant karma unfortunately isn't some hot 2-on-1 action but rather that my car is only 2 cars away from theirs. Oh well, a guy can hope, right? Drive back to Binion's and opt to blow some steam on the craps table, as well as a bunch of money. Finally hit the hay between 6 and 7AM, with the intention of playing the Caesar's daily NL tourney at noon...

Saturday 11AM: Wake-up call for the tourney, I am still in bed, enjoying my slumber, so I pass. Two minutes later, I am up and running down the hall to see if I can catch my party before the elevator. Nope. I hurriedly throw on some clothes and run downstairs to see if I can catch 'em at the front desk. Nope. I run into the parking garage and the car is still there. They show up moments later and we all head to the Strip. Some others are there already and we sign-up for the NL tourney. $130 total buy-in, which includes the re-buy/add-on. A pretty good tournament structure all in all, I don't make it exceptionally far, but one of us goes pretty deep but unfortunately runs into an AA in the BB w/his AQs UTG. Learn the basics of Badugi, which is Triple Draw with 4 cards and different suits. Back to Binion's before the big FCP Army dinner at Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba with Patty, Daniel's assistant and FCP Forum mod. I found the service and food to both be very good. The young pro who busted off my first table the other day is also at the restaurant while we were-still can't remember his name.