LOOOONG day in tournaments for nothing ... and some bowling with the DC guys!

A long, long day in the 8-game tournament at Aria ... ultimately finishing with nothing. This 8-game tournament featured Badugi (rather than the usual 2-7 triple draw), along with NLHE, PLO & H.O.R.S.E. with the logic being that no-one needed to sit out in badugi, unlike 2-7. The field was small at 38, but with a 15k starting stack & 50 minute levels, it would be a long event. It took over 8 hours (well past midnight) to get down to two tables & with stacks reasonably deep, the pace slowed even more, with very few eliminations. At one point I was chip leader with 13 players left, having about 88k in chips when the average was 43k. Of course it was then when I managed to run poorly & find myself with strong second-best hands on multiple occasions. Unfortunately for me there were three big hands that I lost & I was out in 10th. The first was a razz hand where I had a 87 made, with a draw to a 75 & lost to my opponent's 75 (if I made my 75 I would have won the pot). I then lost a huge hand in O8, with AsKc8s8c & raised in late position, only to be called by the big blind, who was the other big stack at the table. The flop was KsTs2h & it wentcheck-bet-call. The turn brought the 4s & again check-bet-call. The river was a repeat 2 & my opponent checked to me again. My thinking was that there were a lot of hands that would check-call both the flop & turn that would also check-call the river (something like a weak flush with a missed low draw or a straight draw with a 2), so I bet again. My opponent then check-raised me! I was surprised, but decided to call, only for my opponent to turn over KKJ8 for top full house! I had (obviously mistakenly) thought that a hand like that (which makes sense for the check-call, check-call line) would probably lead the river, hoping to make an extra bet rather than risk missing a bet on the end. Of course I was wrong & I dropped a big chunk of my stack. Of course shortly afterwards I found myself in another big hand with the same opponent, this time with AAKJ. The flop was Q75 & we got the rest of the chips in on the flop & I was up against AJ73, which meant I was in decent shape, though there was a decent chance that the pot would be chopped (odds are 22-34 to scoop, with high hand being 65-34 in my favour, with the low being 0-63). Of course a repeat 7 came on the turn & I couldn't find the last A in the deck & was out in 10th place. What made it more disappointing was that this was the first time in over 6 hours that I had been all-in. The previous (and only) time I had been all-in in the tournament was in PLO when I was accused of slowrolling (though my opponent later apologised) when we got the money in on a Qc4c3h flop with my AcAdJd9c beating my opponent's 7654 when I made a flush on the turn (I thought for about 5-10 seconds after betting the flop & my oppoent raising to put me all-in before I called, which lead to the slowroll accusation). Of course with the top 5 being paid & my elimination coming just before 4am (the event started at 5pm), it was disappointing to have played well for over 10 hours, only to walk away with nothing.
The previous evening was the Deuces Cracked bowling night at the Gold Coast Casino. I played one game (scoring 117, which was poor for the lane I was in, but seemed like a decent score compared to other lanes ... a bit below what I would have liked, but its been a while since I've been bowling) before sitting down with Chuck Danielsson for an interview for my podcast. All-in-all a very enjoyable evening & I picked up a DC cap & duck while I was there. If there was any doubt as to whether I was part of a great community poker training site, the events at the WSOP have really confirmed that I made the right choice. Now I just need to find more time to improve my online game & make the most of the fantastic training videos Deuces Cracked have to offer.
Next on the agenda: UFC 116! Great card at the MGM!

Being a tourist & a sick, sick hand

I started the day with some exhibits around Las Vegas. First stop was the MGM for CSI: The Experience. Not a bad exhibit overall, where you are presented with a crime scene (there are three to choose from), and then after going through a series of labs, need to come to a conclusion about what happened at the crime scene based on the evidence you have examined. The type of things you look at include text messages on a phone, DNA reports, drug testing and a range of other forensic tests that are recreated for you to examine in a hands-on environment. Worth a look, but not something that I would call a 'must see' if in Vegas. After leaving MGM I headed to the Luxor for the Bodies exhibit. This had a range of exhibits showing pretty much everything about the human body, from bones & muscles to organs & artiries and everything in between. If I had more of an interest in biology or medicine I might have found it more engaging, but as it was it kept me amused for the 40 or so minutes it took me to get through the exhibit. Of the three exhibits I saw (Titanic, CSI & Bodies), I would be happy to see the Titanic exhibition again, wouldn't mind the CSI exhibit, though could go without it, while the Bodies exhibit is something that I would probably skip.
After leaving the Luxor I headed to Planet Hollywood for dinner (yes more Earl of Sandwich for me) before heading to the Hard Rock to see if the Pokerati/PokerNews/Deuces Cracked $1/2 NLHE/PLO game was going, but it wasn't, which was a bit disappointing. Rather than stay & play in the $1/2 NLHE game I decided to head back to the Strip & found a seat in one of the biggest games going around on the Strip ... 50c/$1 at Bill's Gambling Hall! I took a seat with $100 & had all but one player at the table covered & proceeded to lose almost every hand I played ... raise with 99 & I get one caller and we see a AQ8 flop & they shove over my c-bet; raise with AJ & get 3 callers with and 8-high board & there is a bet & a raise before it is my turn on the flop ... until a HUGE hand came up! I look down at red kings UTG+1 & make my standard 3-times-the-blind raise to $3 (yes, $3 is a raise at Bills & quite a few people raised to $2 throughout the night!), only to see one caller before the cutoff re-raised to $11. It folded back to me & I made it $25 total, which got the caller to fold, but the re-raiser called. The flop was pretty good for my hand - KKJ & I lead out for $15. The other player asked the question that is often a bad one to hear ... 'How much do you have behind' & I showed my remaining stack & cut it down to show the $33 I had behind. After this enquiry I figured he had a big hand when he just called the bet. Of course given that I had all the kings, this means that he either had a hand like AA (unlikely given that he didn't 4-bet pre-flop), JJ or a royal flush draw like QTcc. The 6h on the turn changed nothing & I checked it to my opponent, who bet $12 (yes, as Bills we make our bets smaller on later streets ... because that's how you roll at Bill's), which I called. The turn was another jack & I put my remaining $21 in the middle & my opponent couldn't wait to put his chips in the middle as well! He wasn't so pleased when I turned my hand over however ... I had quad kings ... which beat his quad jacks!! The whole table, myself included, were stunned, as the dealer called out 'high hand ... and bad beat' to the floor. As a bonus (and something of a consolation to the loser), we both recieved an extra $50 for the high hand bonus (quads using a pair as your hole cards), though there was no bad beat bonus. The dealer reminded us of this, saying that if this was a Station casino, the players in the hand would recieve $40k & $20k each, with others at the table getting $5k ... and everyone in the casino getting something as well! Quite a jackpot by the sounds of it. I must admit that I have never played a hand like that before in my life & its the first time I've had quads over quads. Guess it was somewhat similar to the infamous Sammy Farha hand from the WSOP a few years ago, when Oliver Hudson flopped a full house & was drawing dead! Of course just to rub it in, I managed to crack the same guy's kings a few hands later with tens when I turned a set (with another player at the table saying they folded a ten) ... One of my own MBN monents ... and yes it was! The table died down shortly afterwards, with a few players leaving, so I left with a $130 or so profit ... not bad for a few hours at 50c/$1, even if I do say so myself!
Next on the agenda: A haircut, some more poker (might try to get to the other places on the Strip that I haven't played at) & an evening of tenpin bowling with the Deuces Cracked guys! Should be fun!