The Final Table, Times Two

Tuesday was my day to rage solo. I unexpectedly had the afternoon off from work while Pauly was down at Bellagio all day covering the WPT Championships. After grabbing a late breakfast with him at the Cafe Bellagio (I went for the lobster omelet and suggest you do the same) he adjourned to media row in the Fontana Lounge while I walked back out to the Strip, contemplating what to do with my day. Obviously poker was on the agenda but the hour being not yet noon, there would be hardly any good live games running. An afternoon donkament was in order. I snagged a copy of Card Player and decided on the $60 buy-in 1 PM NLHE freezeout at Planet Hollywood.

When I arrived at the poker room, the manager informed me that the tournament start time got moved to 2 PM about 2 weeks ago, so I bought into the only cash game running at the time, $3-6 LHE. The lineup consisted mostly of players waiting for the tourney to start, including a piss-drunk German tourist with stringy blonde hair who played every single hand. He was still awake from the night before and was still pounding Heinekens. Between him and the passive, limping tournament donkeys, the table played like a Commerce game. I won a huge pot off the German when I flopped top pair with T-7 from the small blind, turned two pair and rivered a boat. He called three bets on the river with ace high. I was praying for him to be at my tournament table.

Alas, that wasn’t the draw I got, and I found myself seated at a relatively tight table. Two guys had played the $25,000 WPT Championships after winning $300 satellites. One was a guy with greasy hair in a UNLV shirt who knew all the dealers, and the guy on my right was a dealer himself at a different casino. We got 4000 chips to start with 25-50 blinds, but they doubled every 20 minutes. I was very card dead to start and hardly played a hand in the “unofficial rebuy” period of first three levels. Players who busted in the first hour could re-buy back in as a new player. The German guy did this at least four times. With blinds of 200-400 and about 2900 in my stack, I moved all-in on three consecutive hands just before the first break. The first was K-Q of hearts from the cutoff, the second, A-T, and on the third hand I picked up A-A. I decided to shove again just in case anyone did pick up a decent hand behind me and decided not to be pushed around. instead, they all folded and I went to break with only a little more than my starting stack.

I hung on until we were down to about three tables and the average stack was under 10 big blinds. Nine spots would be paid. I still wasn’t getting much in the way of cards, but my tight image let me steal a lot of blinds and pick up homeless pots on the flop from position. In true donkament fashion, I took exactly one bad beat (A-5 vs. Q-Q, he flopped a five and rivered another) and gave exactly one (all-in with J-T vs. K-K with 12 players to go, flop was a miraculous 7-8-9).

I hit the final table (and the money) with a short stack. I managed to double up once and to keep stealing, but the blinds were astronomical at this point and the only moves available were all-in or fold. Finally, I moved in with K-7 from the cutoff and was called by the big blind with J-9. The flop was J-J-J and the entire table let out a collective “whoa!” I burst out laughing. If I’m gonna bust, i might as well go out drawing dead on the flop. I finished in 8th place out of 81 players for a little over 2x my buy-in. Add to that the $100 I won in the cash game beforehand and it was a profitable four hours.

There was a Sephora less than 100 yards from the poker room and I couldn’t resist a stop there, and at the adjacent Urban Outfitters before heading back to Bellagio. I ran into Linda just as I sat down in an early evening $4-8 game. She has these awesome blonde streaks in her hair! I sat in the $4-8 for a little over an hour and won one decent pot. An early postion player raised, three players cold-called, I called wtih the 8-9 of spades on the button, and the blinds called. The flop was 6-5-2, the raiser bet, and everyone called. I turned the gutshot when the 7 fell, raised, and got it down to three handed. The river was an ace and I got two bets out of the guy on my left, who had rivered two pair. He moaned and grumbled about me hitting the gutshot, but the pot was too huge on the flop to fold. I cashed out just before 8 because without TiVo…American Idol waits for no one.

* * * * *

Thursday morning, I played in the media event at Bellagio. More players than expected showed up given the 10 AM start, and we had four tables in play. Schecky, Shronk, Pauly and I represented PokerNews. The structure was super-fast– steep blinds and 10 minute levels. Everyone was playing loose and crazy, especially Shronk who took the early chip lead. Four places would be paid. Fourth got some Bellagio swag, third 2 tickets to any show at any MGM Mirage property, second dinner for 2 at any MGM Mirage property restaurant, and first place won 2 free nights at the Bellagio plus the dinner and show tickets.

I didn’t make any major mistakes and played very tight to counteract everyone else who was gambling it up. I hit the final table with a below average stack, but I managed to get it in with the best of it and double up in three all-in pots. I got heads-up with Craig from Gutshot after
folding T-T to Criag’s A-A when he reraised me all-in in a three-way pot with the eventual third place finisher. After about half a dozen hands heads-up, we had about the same amount of chips and the real tournament’s noon start was closing in. Since he lives in Vegas and didn’t need the hotel stay and Pauly thinks Cirque de Soleil is uber-ghey, I gave Craig the show tickets and we chopped.

I’m just glad I could represent PokerNews well and didn’t donk out in the first level.

The good streak continues as I play live, with two final tables in two days and 3 out of 4 winning cash game sessions. We have a quick breather between the WPT Championships (where THREE L.A. residents made the final table– Tim Phan, Guy Laliberte, and Paul Lee…represent) and the start of the WSOP Circuit Event at Caesar’s Palace on Monday. Hopefully I can get a bit more playing time in.

Oh, and if you want to find out how to get ejected from the Bicycle Casino in L.A., read Gonz and Michalski’s account of their trip to the City of Angels over on Pokerati. I’m sorry I missed those guys!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.