There was nothing better than getting back on the horse and riding again after my dissapointing demise at the World Series of Poker Main Event. The only cure for this would be to get in the $1k event at The Venetian. 401 players would enter and 36 would get paid.
I made my way over there after waking up at noon and catching a cab. I would get there with 15 minutes to spare in the first level. Most of the early action was small ball and picking up on people’s patterns.
One hand that happend in the first level would leave me with 37k after defending my BB with K-10h. The preflop raiser would make it 1,100 and get one caller in late position. With my 400 in there I wanted to see a flop which came Qc-Jh-7s. The original raiser made a bet that got the late position player out and we went heads up to the Qh on the turn. At this point I’m putting him on a set and hoping he bets small enough for me to get a look at the river. He oblidges and I call. The river Ah slowed me down cause I only think I have a flush, but am worried that he might have a full house with A-Q. He lead out for 7k (3/4’s pot) and I make the crying call. He flips over pocket Q’s for quads and the table gets juiced from seeing that. Then, I table my cards and the table is now whipped into a frenzy seeing that I have the ROYAL!
Not much in way of huge hands after that. How could I top my first royal flush? I did manage to pick up some nice pots here and there with A’s several times. Including a pot with a mp raise to 1,100. I make it 3k in late position, the button calls, and the original raiser folds. The flop is 8 high and I lead out and pick up the pot.
With the blinds at 400/800 with a 75 ante, this gentleman in seat 4 has been opening to 2,200 anytime he can. He’s been picking up the blinds and ante’s and is building a large stack with every pot. I’m in the BB when he makes the same play and gets a lat position caller. So, I opt to see a flop at a reduced rate with 5-7c. The flop was a monstrous 6c-8c-Qc! I check to the raiser who gets his pot sized bet in. The late player folds and I jam it in the middle. He calls with A-Qo (no club) and I take down a nice pot to get doubled to ~100k.
I managed to pull a few bluffs throughout with one being an 80k pot. And the the speed bump hits me. Utg, I make it 5,300 at the 1k/2k 300 level. It folds to seat 6 who only has 43k and decides to ship it in the middle with 8’s. The door card was an 8 and the rest was no help to me. The good news was that I was at 190k when it happend and I was still in good shape.
We would end the night at 2 a.m. with 50 players and me holding 176k. The average at the end was 125K and we would come back to the last half of the 1.2k/2.4k 300 level.
I managed to hitch a ride back to the Rio with another player named Alex Santiago. He was staying there and offered the ride. It’s much appreciated and he will be compensated with a trip to In-n-Out whenever we get the chance!
The only problem with making day 2 was that I was gonna have to give my seat in the Dream Team Poker Event to someone else. I passed it on to a worthy fill in and they will take this down. I will post more when I hear the results.
all in all, I felt really good to be in contention again. A good chance for me to come out on top after just being on the lowest of lows 24 hours earlier!
.gif)