The blind v blind thing in Vegas is a bit strange but I actually quite liked it. If felt like a bit of table etiquette when the usual position as you say is to slow roll etc. I can imagine it does get abused from time to time though as there was the odd time people looked at their hand before agreeing to chop lol!
Really pleased and happy for you.Sounds amazing, will read your update later today..... At work at minute and was just checking "emails"/Tinternet and happened across this thread!Finish at 8.30 will sleep till 2pm.Will read later!Viva Las Vegas !
Started with a fun wander round about 100 shops looking for some perfume for Penny that she isn't able to get in England anymore. The last place told me it had been discontinued
Then I got ready for the tournament. Was quite meticulous as I didn't want to forget anything. We got to the Rio nicely in time and then I saw someone had their passport.
"Don't need that do we?"
'Err, yes Paul, you do"
Sam was apologetic for not mentioning it before we got in the coach. Not his fault at all. Hard to legislate for someone being that stupid. Got back to the Rio just in time for start and we were off.
I had a really nice table. Quite chatty and the players weren't very good in truth. The guy on my right was an instant hero for me. He announced when he sat down that he was a donkey but a lucky donkey. He played pretty much every hand and bemoaned his luck each time when his massive draw missed. His massive draws were mostly gutshots and he was calling sizeable bets on the turn to try and hit them. After every hand he was saying in his fabulous Texan drawl "just not getting no luck, I knew where I was at. Hope I run better in the main event. That's $10k to enter ya'll know?"
He was my hero due to his outfit. Huge Stetson, sunglasses, shirt tucked into his jeans, an incredible pair of boots and the biggest tattoo that I've ever seen on his arm, which was the American flag.
Sadly he wasn't with us for too long.
I ran pretty good for most of the day. I made a huge mistake in playing the afternoon flight. We started at 4pm and finished at 4.25 in the morning. The last 2 levels were really hard work and I was pretty card dead. Was really pleased with myself that I didn't lose my patience and spew for once, the structure was so good that there was no need to do anything rash.
I didn't get to play with any big name players which was a bit of a shame. I did nearly knock Barry Greenstein over coming out of the toilet though. He gave me the same contemptuous look that I've seen a million times before on high stakes poker.
Got to the end of the day and had 30100, which was 30 bigs going back.
I only slept for about 4 hours and so felt pretty rubbish when we left for the Rio. Had my passport with me this time. Didn't need it.
Got to my table and things were instantly noticeable as different from the previous day. Very serious. Very first hand and some pleb with the sunglasses, headphones and many pimples look, got arsey with the player who won the hand. Another guy made a comment to which "knob" as I'd already christened him in my mind, told him to shut his mouth and then followed it by "I got me a table of dipshits"
Ilene the dealer who seemed very nice and competent to me was getting grief every hand about nothing at all. I got a 3bet shove through and then the table broke.
Was very happy about this
I couldn't really play much poker (sure many of you will agree with that) as I was so short stacked. I managed to get a few shoves through and then was moved to table Carlos Mortensen. Plus there was a Jonny Chan impersonator on there as well.
He was exactly as I'd always thought he was, a really nice guy. He also had a stack and was playing pretty much every hand.
We'd started the day with over a 1000 left but the numbers were dropping incredibly quickly. Utg who was only playing 10bigs raised and I looked down at Kings and shoved. He's gotta call right? Nope, he passed. Mortensen raised and I looked down at Kings and shoved. He's got a monster stack and it's a 10bigs shove from me. He's gotta call right? Nope, he flashes an Ace and mucks. Although I hadn't got the calls my stack had increased into a bit of a safer position. I had around 16 about 30 off the money. Nice guy on my left who I'd played day one with had folded 99% go his hands. It's folded round to me in the small and I shove. He finds Ace Jack and calls. Oops. A few hands later and we go on the break.
I chat with Neil and Tikay. I've got 16k and we're going back at 1000/2000 and 400 ante. I'm also in the bb first hand back. The screen is showing that we're 23 off the money. Can I fold to the money? Neil doesn't think so and I tend to agree. We go back and it's actually 20 from the cash.
I fold in the blind and look at the screen. We lost 5 first hand. This could be close. It's not exactly my normal strategy but I couldn't care one bit. This was likely to be my one and only WSOP event ever and it would mean everything to me to cash. The money obviously would be nice but just cashing was the main thing on my mind. It would be heart breaking to get so close and miss out,
I fold the small blind. Another couple of players have gone. I have around 12 hands before I'm blinded out. Tikay and Sam are railing me. Tikay tells me Deadman has just knocked out 2 players in one hand. I've always loved Simon
We're maybe 4 hands from my bb and the TD tells the dealers to stand up at the end of the hand they're dealing. Stone Bubble time. 469 left and 468 paid.
It seems to go on forever. They start to break a table near me. Surely that means someone has gone yeah? A few more minutes pass and then...
"Congratulation everyone, you're all in the money"
Was quite happy
Carlos raises and I try and bully him by shoving. He's not scared unfortunately and calls the extra 200 chips or so. He wins.
It was kind of a perfect end for me. It took an ex World Champion to knock me out!
Comments
Good luck today Paul.
How did your preparations go, did you arrive nice & early?
I noticed that too Mick, gotta love a bit of modernism, by all accounts old man Jac was there first time round ;-)
It has been fun following your exploits on the thread.
was it tense on the bubble?