PokerWorks

A blog of sorts, a story to be told, the true depth of poker is about to unfold:

It’s been awhile since my last blog so I have a lot to cover in not so many words. First, I didn’t do so well in the 15k at Bellagio; I got close to the money and had slightly below average stack and then lost a race to Allen Cunningham with A-K to J-J in the blinds. It was a pretty stacked tournament and I was happy to see Chino win it, so congrats to him.

After spending a lot of time playing poker at Bellagio, it was really nice to get back home and celebrate Christmas with the family. I got to spend a lot of time with my sisters and even though most of it was organizing gifts and going shopping (which is not my favorite thing in the world) it was good to catch up with them. We had Christmas Eve at my grandparent’s house and then went down to San Diego on Christmas to visit my Aunt and Uncle and some cousins. There was a lot of traveling, but it was worth it to see everyone that you don’t get to see more than a few times a year.

New Year’s Eve: WOW! I went to Vegas with a big group of friends, I think there were about 35 of us, and I can’t tell half the stories that happened. I must say that the strip on New Year’s is pretty ridiculous; the only thing I could compare it to is Santa Barbara on Halloween. Everyone is walking on the street, shoulder to shoulder and everyone is wasted. We went to Tryst at the Wynn for New Year’s Eve and had a lot of fun. They had an open bar from 9-10 which my friends took full advantage of and a few people didn’t make it to midnight, lol. Lebron James stopped by our table for awhile which was pretty cool, but then he ran off with one of my bottles so I guess that’s the cost of a cool story and chillin with Lebron. I’m actually going to the game tonight to watch him get stomped on by Kobe, so he’ll get his karma ha-ha.

Back to New Year’s… By the end of the night out of the 20+ of us that started, 4 of us barely made it out, not blacked out or kicked out, to take the 30 minute walk back to Bellagio. It probably would have been closer to 15 if we didn’t get in fights with random people throwing shoes at us and getting in peoples’ face about nothing. But that’s 5am in Vegas for you.

So after surviving New Year’s it was on to Atlantis… my liver was just going to have to tough it out. Honestly, this is my favorite place I’ve ever been. It was my 4th straight year going and there’s no way I’m missing next year. For those of you that haven’t gone, there is a giant water park outside with amazing beaches where you can go jet skiing, parasailing, swim with dolphins, the works. Inside there are pieces of art that are pretty amazing, a casino, and there’s really good food at every restaurant.

The first day I got there, I chilled on the beach while the room was getting ready, and then went to the welcome party at night. There were a ton of familiar faces and a good amount of entertainment including a band, and poker players embarrassing themselves, dancing in front of everyone. I hung out with Dan “Wretchy” Martin and two girls the majority of the night and got pretty drunk because I didn’t have to play day 1a the next morning (veteran move :-).

The tournament itself was fun as well, the only person at my starting table that I recognized was Eric “Peachy Keen” Liu who is always fun to talk to at the tables and between the 2 of us, we ran really well and each picked up aces about 7 times. At one point the table was real tough with guys like Russell “rdcrsn” Carson, Marco Johnson, and Eric Baldwin. Eric Liu and I finished with 120k and 90k respectively, and it was interesting to watch all day how a great player like Eric, who uses a different style than me, can accumulate chips on a day 1. Day 2 was a bit of a grind, but I was able to get into the money. They paid out 199 out of 1365 players which is paying out a lot. I got up to 150k in chips and then ran Jacks into Kings and finished 129th.

The only other tournament I played in besides the Main Event was the 5k and I did well in that too. I flopped quads and doubled up early and then woke up with Kings against 2 players all-in in the big blind. So the way I accumulated chips wasn’t very tough and I was chip leader early on. Later in the day, I lost with aces twice and then cracked aces with jacks, so it was not a good day to get all in with aces. We finished at about 2 in the morning and got in the money with 27 people left, but I was one of the shorter stacks. About the 5th hand of day 2 I ran aces into kings and the guy hit a king on the flop and I finished 25th or something, I’m truly becoming a master of the mincash.

The rest of the trip was fun and there were a couple good nights at the craps table and at club Aura inside the casino. This trip ranks right up there with the best of them and again, can’t wait till next year.

I should have another new blog up sooner rather than later I’m going to be grinding online a little more and I have my birthday to look forward to in a couple days, so we will see what that brings.

*The editor apologizes for posting the wrong picture.  Corrected 01/22/09*