November 2009 - Las Vegas - Day 3

Meet David for breakfast at the Wynn where I rather confuse our not unattractive waitress with my bacon requirements. I try to explain the concept of streaky rather than “Canadian” bacon – which is basically spam. I like eggs Benedict but prefer proper bacon. We get there in the end but clearly she thinks we English are all mad.

I play in the midday tournament which today only has 22 runners so the top 3 get paid.
Manage to work my stack up to 30k from the 20k start in the first session of 3 levels. Won a nice pot against a clueless foreign woman sat to my right with KK in the BB. Also hit a couple of nice straights with KQ and later TJ after a lot of limping.

However after the first break on Level 4 25/300/600 I nearly tilt myself completely when playing 66 from mid position after a limp and a call from the blinds. The flop is JJT and when it is checked to me I think I might as well have a stab at it and attempt to bet 1500. Unfortunately I throw out a 5000 chip instead of a 500. I am called by the BB after much amusement at my rather loud “oh sh**” gives away my rather strange bet sizing. When the turn is Q and river T my hand is so absurdly pitiful I flip it over to complete my advertising of idiot Englishman. So by the end of Level 5 I am down to 15k.

Rather curiously they are showing English football on the Setanta channel – I though they went bust?? It turns out the guy to my left is an Arsenal fan so we discuss the joys of the good old days of 1-0 to the Arsenal. We also spend some time explaining the concept of the Champions League to the locals when that is shown a bit later on. I manage to do well to not weigh in with sarcastic comments about how world series should involve other countries. Having said that I think I heard somewhere that the US baseball world series were originally called that because they were sponsored by a newspaper called the World – not sure if I believe it.

We are just approaching the second break on Level 6 when blinds are 100/800/1600. I have been waiting to move all-in but no opportunity has arisen. However the Frenchman to my right has been raising a lot pre flop and when I am on the button with Q8 (perhaps I should adopt the Rag Queen as my poker name rather than the Balham Cowboy) and he raises again I decide to go for the resteal and push in my 15k chips. Unfortunately the button goes over the top with AQ but I Sanderson him when my 8 hits.

Shortly into Level 7 200/1200/2400 we are at the final table and I double through with QQ vs JJ to get up to 65k. I then keep out of trouble for the next level and we lose a couple of players including the Arsenal fan who attempts a resteal with 64 but gets caught.

When we get to the last hand on Level 8 400/2000/4000 I pick up AA UTG and standard raise to 12,000. Get 2 callers. When the flop comes KQJ my all-in of 46k is only a pot size bet so I get called by a big stack with TJ. He does not hit so I win a massive pot to get over 120k of the 440k chips in play with 5 left. I got AA 3 times this trip - once all folded to me another let me knock someone out late at Caesars and here a good double through - makes a bit of a change...

Soon we are 4 and we agree to put in for the 4th place to get his money back. Chips go back and forth and the blinds are 50/3000/6000. There is a young Asian guy who is clearly the best player. There is a tight tourist who wants to go to dinner and an old guy who likes to chat. Old guys has 140k, I have 120k, tourist 90k and young guy 90k. He proposes us two big stacks get an extra $100 each and we split the rest 4 ways (prize pool is $4200). The old guy wants $200. No deal. We play another hand (tourist steals my blind). Old guy now happy and we do the deal. I can’t be bothered to argue with it – it being such a crapshoot and so I get $1100 – which is quite acceptable. Someone has to sign for first prize so I do the honours – the rather nice blonde tournament director asks if I would like publicity on the results web site – I rather graciously say that will be perfectly acceptable...and here it is check out the 22 runner on 24/Nov http://www.wynnpoker.com/winners.cfm

Just have time for some food before heading off to Caesar’s for the last time.
Only 50 or so runners and I have soon reduce my stack to 9k when have to give up AQ after heat post flop.
I try to get clever on Level 2 with the blinds 50/100. I get 57d in the BB. There is a raise to 300 and a call from mid position the button and the SB so I call. The flop is T62 with 2 diamonds so after a check I think I might have a bit of a stab at it so I bet 1000. There are 2 callers. Turn is a T. Pot is 4500 and I have about 7000. I decide to represent the T wanting to defend against a draw so move all-in. This works perfectly to a certain extent when I discover one of the flop callers had a better diamond draw – but unfortunately the other caller actually had a T. Oops. I failed to SuperSanderson him and am knocked out.

So not a bad trip overall. Total buy ins $1250 – total prize $1500 – so $250 up – and really I should have done better in the first tournament.

So out of 3 trips to Vegas this year I was ahead in 2 out of 3. Unfortunately it was the expensive WSOP one I did badly in!