Home, home again...

Well, I return to you both from surgery and from Vegas where the WPBT was recently held. It was my second WPBT and I was ay table 48:

me, Alan (not gay), Garthmeister (whos accent immigrated with him from Aussieland), Lori from FullTilt, Poker Princess, Cali April, Joe Speaker, Sox Lover, and Grubby. (Later seat 10 would be filled by Amy Calistri.)

It starts simple enough. Alan drops the hammer on Speaker, who folds TT.

It was the best of tables, it was the worst of tables. Everyone of us playing like it was the final table. We saw only 1 showdown in all of level 1 and a total of 3 by the end of level two. As we danced around, other tables busted out players and built stacks. By the 3rd break, we were forced into a position of recklessness. No a single player at the table "controlled" the tables. It sealed all our fates.

The first turn card was myself and Lori. I make a MP raise with KidRock (Cowboys, baby) and she calls on the button. The flop is T46. I bet 200 and she calls. The turn is a 3 and after I bet 500 she RAISES to 2000. This is half our stacks! I go into the tank, but in the end decdie that AT or JJ is just too probable and I move all in. She mucks AT.

The first offical showdown was Sox and I. We basically check down our Q7 vs. Q6 hands on a QJT board. The SECOND straight flush of the day is announced at another table. We just had our first showdown.

In level 3 the antes start. I must admit I was not prepared for this news. We ran out of time to maneuver and had to play even marginal edges. I knocked out Alan when he put me all in. I called (reluctantly) with AT, pleased to see 44. I won the race. Maudie raplaced him on my left.

I won the last hand before the break when Speaker raised from MP and I reraised from LP with KK. He thought a long time that I might have the hammer, but in the end he folded his TT.

So after the break it was hard to tell where we were at. the blinds DOUBLED to 400/800/100 so everyone at our tables had an M of 5 or less, even though we were average stacked (8000). It became a push fest :(

Speaker goes out. Then I do something HIGHLY questionable.

I bluff UTG with the Hammer for 2000 (mistake 1 this late, but it is a WPBT after all). I get raised to 3100 all-in from the button. Because I felt I needed the chips, I FOLD?!??!?! (mistake 2)

I am now in the BB and will have to go with any hand that is reasonable. Its folded around to the Button (grubby) who raises me all in. I folede the hammer so I could take this hand and I am forced to defend with K9o. I know now that Grubby pushed into me WITHOUT noticing I had to call because i was folede around to him and he had the blinds isolated. But with the M and blinds at this point, he could have any two when its folded to the button. Turns out it was KT.

Best Cash game:
Friday night mixed 2-4 Horse at the MGM was great. Is there a better run card room than the MGM? Ask and they spread. (insert good woman joke here)

Broken promises:
The tournament was run ok, but no cash games materialized for quite some time, the staff showed disinterest, and I think Ceasar's blew a golden opportunity to get 115 who write about poker to love them. Still, they fared FAR better than the Excaliber, who's "new" poker room sucks in so many ways I had to invent a new term "Tornadoing the trailerpark". The room is run like a storm, on the whims of whichever way the wind is blowing. And its smaller. And the wheel is not fun anymore. And the rake for the wheel is now noticable. And they take no game requests. And they treated us with total indifference.

I never thought I would say this, but "oh how I long for the IP".

Kudos to everyone who helped set up this event as it is always worth while! Any problems are because we got to have the event in the first place!

Time I laughed out loud:
Speaker pays off Shane for the THRID time (with his entire stack) with his BOTTOM PAIR when Shane had a SET. Speaker looks at Shane afterwards and just starts laughing. That's the way HE rolls.

Prop Bets:
Biggestron won the best prop bet of the weekend as we snuck out to Hoffbrau house for beer and sausage and bet on participants of the Stein Holding Contest. His scientific brain picked out one of the top two finishers and I paid him off.

More Surreal moment:
Iggy almost getting beat up by a fireman in a wheelchair.

Brush with greatness:
Screw the WSOP and the ton of poker celebrities I saw there. I ate dinner with the WPBT winner, F-Train. Words of wisdom for the night revolved mostly around anal-rape jokes (thanks HBO), so I will not post a list of who was at that dinner (StaticKling, Biggestron, Sox Lover, Mrs. Columbo, Dawn Summers, and Zeem). Oops. and we waited an hour for that table to boot.

Lord Admiral:
Great meeting these guys, but I was surprised they played ZERO cash games. What happened guys?

I now know how to play -EV games such as "Let it Ride". Bobby Bracelet's explanation of why he HAD to put the $1 on the sucker longshot payoff bet each hand was "because I am going to get a royal flush". Ah.

Before leaving for the airport, we took a quick trip downtown just to see the old strip. I wonder if one of those hotels would PAY us to stay and have our tournament down there in the winter?! Boring...

Thanks to everyone who let me introduce myself to them for the ump-teenth time.