Macowwwwwww!

So, it’s like 8am on Monday morning, I haven’t slept all night and am on the train to Heathrow in order to catch my flight to Hong Kong and eventually end up in Macau in about 2 days time with the bloody time difference. Pretty exhausted, hoping to pass out for the majority of the plane journey, however it may provide an incoherent blog post, so apologies in advance.

Online I’ve been playing cash again, mainly on bambampoker (ipoker) and usually at 5/10nl or 3/6nl. For the past 3 weeks I’ve been running way below expectation in nearly every session and it gets pretty demoralising tbh and makes me not want to sit down and play, for people that know me I slack a lot on the hours anyway considering its my ‘job’. I was $15k down playing no higher than 5/10 up until about 4 days ago, then things started to turn and I clawed it all back by Saturday just gone, ;-) $16.5k upswing in 3 days roughly. Doubt I’ll be playing much more this month because of the first event in Macau, the APT. This is then closely followed by the APPT Macau. I hope to make deep runs in both and finally get a 6 figure score I’ve been within touching distance of so many times over the last 3 years or so.
Before the APPT even finishes the WCOOP will be underway, where I plan to play all of the NL events except the $10k hi roller and the $25k HU. If I have a touch in Macau ill probably play the $10k but no chance you will see me in the $25k HU. The prize pools will be immense for all the WCOOP events and once again i'll be chasing that 6 figure score, but as with the nature of tournaments it will likely be 18 days of heartbreak, lol.

Just a quick mention for all the GB team at the Olympics, was an absolute pleasure to watch and restored some national pride in sport once again. That’s about all for now, my train just pulling into kings cross so got to wrap this up. Anyone who has read my blog for a while will know I went to Macau last year but the trip was a disaster sorting money then getting food poisoning. This time I’m way more prepared and will hopefully to get experience Macau a lot more.

GUKPT Luton

Luton is a fair trek from me, and I had planned to travel to a friend’s house in Milton kynes on the Wednesday to prevent having an early start, however that plan went to pot after a big night out Tuesday and feeling like death all day Wednesday. So Thursday started with a 7.15 alarm clock to catch the 8.30 train to London kings cross, short walk to st Pancras and another train to Luton see's us get to the hotel about 12pm. Meet up with allinstevie/moorman/flushy/geeforce at the casino and steam through a couple of red bulls to keep me going. I haven’t played many of these gukpt's, this was my 4th I think, but all I hear from the people who play it regular is the amount of value on offer from the vast number of bad players. However my first table there were 4 of us in a line, Sam trickett, mark goodwin, me and Jen mason, so where's the value? Well the rest of the people on my starting table were a combination of bad/rocky/predictable but I was struggling to take advantage of this due to the complete filth I was getting dealt. Meanwhile it took moorman about 4 hands to get a full double up with AA vs KK on another table, mbn etc.....

I don’t get involved in any big/interesting pots or situations until we reach the 150/300 level. I have a super tight image and about a 9k stack. I already know that if I get a big hand I can’t really re-raise anybody as it’s just going to get a ton of respect and more than likely win a small pot. Not long after the start of this level I pick up QQ and there is a raise to 1k in fairly EP, I call in the cut-off and the BB then squeezes to 3.5k total. The original raiser folds so it’s back to me and even though he is never squeezing light in this spot I’m still far enough ahead of his range to get it in here and hope I don’t here the 0.25 second call and him flip AA in my eye. He doesn’t snap which was good but does make the call with AK, standard and I win the race to get me to 18k just before the antes kick in, :-) Just to demonstrate how tight I had been playing, on the very next hand I pass, and the dealer says to me, 'no queens this time'. Pay £1000 and get abuse from dealer, nice, lol.

When the antes kicked in I started to use my tight image to build chips and started playing a lot more pots getting up around30k without much fuss. I then move tables and have to rock up again because there is a 10bb stack directly on my left, sigh. For most of the 300/600 level I am passing, taking 1 or 2 pots to keep me roughly around the 30k mark. Mid-way through the 400/800 level the short stack busts and unshackles me to a certain extent to open lighter without the fear of having to call his shove. I take a few pots uncontested and then I open AJhh to 2200 in the cut-off playing about 29k and the guy on the button makes it 5k total. I have no idea what to make of this raise, as I had never played his guy before but did later learn he is a circuit regular (plays a LOL pot on the last hand of the night but I’ll get to that). I have to call really and either flop a big draw or made hand or make some kind of move post flop. Anyway the flop comes T86 hh :-) and I have the perfect stack to check raise all in. I check he bets 6k, I count my stack up a few times and move in for 25k total, he instantly starts shaking his head talking at me, saying ' I know all you have got is a fucking flush draw'. In reality if he knew this he would have high-fived the dealer and called already. Once he made that comment I had a pretty good idea that he was just trying to save face and make out as though he was folding a big made hand. After about 1min 30 secs he sighs and passes and I’m up near 40k, and feeling good.

The blinds go up to 500/1k and this was to be the last level of the night. I open to 2800 a few times and take the pot uncontested, and then a short stack pushes on me with A9, I am obliged to call with my QTs, and get there, :-). My final confrontation of the day would come when raising the button to 2800 with KJs, and the guy from before makes it 6k total from the small blind. This raise looks a lot stronger than the last mini-3bet since he is OOP for the whole hand, but now way I can pass for 3200 more to see the flop making a 14k pot. Anyway the flop is A94 giving me absolutely nothing and he checks to me. Since I have almost no equity in this hand If I check I take a stab for about 7k (1/2 pot) and he folds pretty quickly, leaving me on 58.8k going into day 2.

Friday was supposed to be a quiet day, relaxing and coming back nice and fresh to play day 2. That didn’t quite go to plan with us all drinking until 5am playing 1/2nl cash in the casino (except moorman who went back early evening to play FTOPS, lol) finished up a bit down in the cash game but the banter was quality and some guy when faced with the statement 'nice call on the turn' in a sarcastic tone came back with this gem: "Well I was either going to hit or outplay you!' lol. Stumbled back to the hotel at around 6am and somehow managed to set my alarm for day 2 of the main event. Woke up Saturday obviously feeling pretty ill but after a shower and a subway sandwich I was feeling a little better and ready to make my assault on day 2.

The re-draw for my table was interesting with Alex martin on my direct right as well as Flushy 'James Dempsey' on the same table and the banter was flowing. I managed to win a big pot from flushy pretty early doors with AA vs TT on a 8 high board and I was up and running. I then eliminated Alex with AK vs AQ in a late position battle and things were looking rosy. I was then starting to take control of the table, opening a lot of pots mainly winning them uncontested or with little or no resistance post flop. I then got muffed by flushy who defended the BB with 68s to my LP raise and check called all in on a T 8 2 flop but was in trouble vs my AT, nothing a 6 on the turn wouldn’t solve though, 50k pot down at 1600 BB. Over the next couple of hours not a lot happened really, I had 2 races with short-stacks, lost both and also lost a QJ vs AQ off another short-stack. When the blinds reached 1.5k/3k I was down to about a 100k stack and was now seated on the same table as moorman. It folds to moorman in the cut-off and he shoves for 30k, and I call with 55 in the SB and he has A6o, unfortunately I lose the race and a lot of my flexibility around the bubble. My exit hand comes not long after the bubble bursts, pushing A5 on the button with around 8BB's but running into AQ in the big blind and getting no help, blah!

Moorman ran golden on/around the bubble and then built up a big stack which put him amongst the leaders with 2 tables left. However in a massive confrontation with another friend of mine Sam trickett, moorman lost a huge pot in a weird hand. The video clip of the hand is here:

http://www.thenutz.tv/videodetail.php?video_id=67267

Shame that this wasn’t to be moorman's live breakthrough but that is just a matter of time imo. On the other hand Congrats to Sam trickett who ended up taking the whole thing down for about £95k, great player and a nice guy!

On the Sunday I played online, and as far as Sundays go it was very successful. I won an APPT Macau package on Doyle’s room worth $9k taking place at the beginning of September. I am going to Macau a little earlier though to play the $5k APT event which is the week before, when in Rome...... Also on the same Sunday I won a gukpt package on blue square, saving me £1k for the Blackpool event as well as coming 3rd in the $100r 1 a 6 max event on full tilt for little over $10k.

I have played a few FTOPS events over the last week, coming close on a couple of occasions, finishing 53rd in the $1k 6 max for $3750 as well as a deep run in the $2500 event, finishing 65th for just over $5k. I was cruising the whole time in the $2500 until the last 2 hours when I got into a couple of sticky situations including getting cold 4 bet on the very last hand of day 1, sigh. I came back for day 2 short and eventually bust with AJ vs 88, flop Axx, turn 8 (ty f.tilt)

Was hoping to make it to DTD this week for the deep stack festival but with too much to sort out at home before Macau I have unfortunately had to cancel that trip and will keep my DTD virginity for the time being. Hopefully the next update will be about my 2 deep runs in the APT and APPT Macau, here’s hoping, gl at the tables

Pab

struggling for motivation

Not a lot been going on to be honest, lots of catching up with friends and family which has been cool, although nothing has changed since I left 15 months ago. Walking through the town centre there are a few new shops/bars n stuff but basically it seems as though time has stood still and I haven't missed an awful lot in my time away. Finally seem to be overcoming the jet-lag i was suffering from after my trip across the Atlantic which is helpful.

As far as poker goes I am severely lacking in motivation/drive to play at the moment and its pretty annoying. Weather it be cash or MTT I seem to lose all interest in less than 1 hour at the computer and get the feeling I'm burnt out after almost 2 months of solid poker in Vegas. Still going to Luton on Thursday to play in the GUKPT but should be lots of drinking/socialising to balance the trip out nicely. After that I'm thinking of taking a holiday somewhere for a week or 2 with no laptop and not play poker for the entire trip but we'll see what happens.

The little amount of poker I have played online has gone OK, made about $8k in cash games, been playing pretty small stakes on betfair trying to build a roll on there to play higher but i don't like depositing big chunks of money into sites. As far as mtt's go Ive had sever near misses, as always, getting 13th in the stars 1k, and 8th in the stars 300 the first tue/wed i was back. Then the following Wednesday I had a pretty disgusting day coming, 9th in tilt $75, KK < AQ, then 13th in stars 100r, QQ < A6, then 21st in tilt 100r 6 max, and 15th in tilt $100 1r 1a.

Gonna be a mug again and try to play a Sunday schedule but i probably will be too tilted/annoyed to even reach the stars million, sigh. That's all for now, will post a tournament/trip report after luton,

pab

Vegas done for another year......

Obviously my day 2 of the main event was pretty short live otherwise I would have blogged again before now, lol. i doubled up my micro stack pretty early with AQ vs A6 and found myself on a more playable 14k at 250/500. I'm not the type of player that will sit and wait for things to happen so as soon as i have some flexibility with my stack ill look to start building chips. This ultimately proved to be my downfall not long after when I raise with Q6 suited and the BB defends. The flop comes T high 2 of my suit but I have around 11.5k stack behind and don't want to get check-raised all in as I would be getting my money in bad most of the time. With this in mind I elect to check behind and take the free card which duly arrives in the form of a 7 on the turn completing my flush and the BB checks again. I now bet 2.2k into a 3.5k pot hoping to get check raised all in which also happens, however he tables the A4 flush and I'm heading for the Rio exit for the last time in 2008.

I played 1 more live tournament which was a $5k buy in WPT preliminary event at the bellagio. 15k starting stacks and a 1 hr clock allowed for a fair amount of play but did miss out some blind levels IMO which still made the action pretty fast n furious in the mid-late stages. My first table was pretty soft with 3-4 older guys limp calling raises and giving up most pots post flop, allowing me to build steadily and never risk a significant % of my stack. My first big confrontation came up when UTG and UTG+1 both limped, i completed the SB with 36 clubs and the BB checked his option. The flop was T 6 3 two hearts and me and the BB both checked which prompted a small bet from the UTG guy which was called by the UTG=1 guy, back to me and I check raise the 600 bet to 2400. This gets the BB and UTG out of the way but UTG+1 thinks for about 30 secs before declaring all in for 11k total, this was a baffling line and could only really put him on some type of flush draw, maybe combined with a straight draw. With the money already in the pot I called fairly quickly and he turned over K4 hearts and didn't get there, I was up n running, :-)

I continued to chip up on my initial table, avoiding big confrontations and applying pressure at the right times to the weaker players at my table, when this table broke I had around 55k at 300/600 and was happy. My new table was a little tougher with bracelet winner david kitai (sp) amnon filipi, stuart rutter and we would later be joined by michael mizrachi. I stayed quiet early on the new table trying to get a feel for the dynamics etc..., However when i did get involved nothing went right for me. Kitai opens for 2100 at 400/800 in MP and I call in the next seat with TT, we are both playing 50k+, filipi in the next seat also calls and then the middle aged guy in the next seat leans forward looks at all our 3 calls of 2100 then at his cards and quickly declared all in for around 19k total. Kitai quickly folded and I high fived the dealer and isolated all in, this got filipi out of the pot. The squeezing hero turned over A7s which was a better hand than I expected to see given his obvious body language regarding the squeeze but i was still in commanding position, unfortunately he makes the nut flush on the turn and I'm not amused, lol. My next decent pot comes up when UTG opens for 2500 at the same blind level and rutter goes all in for 12.5k ish in the next seat and I wake up with AA and re-isolate again, everyone else folds and Stuart turns over KK, but a K right on the flop gives me another kick in the balls. I then win a small race with AK vs JJ to knock a guy out then make 2 marginal river calls vs filipi n grinder that were both right and got me back on track a little. I then went super card as the blinds went up again and we started to approach the bubble. I had about 60k and the blinds were 1000/2000 -200 when I misplayed 1 hand pretty badly. I raise KJs in mid-late position and the big stack with probably 200k + flats on the button, the flop is T xx rainbow and I c-bet but as soon as i do it i know it has a super slim chance of working. I know if the roles are reversed and I have that stack I'm flatting stacks like mine on the button and raising them on flops just like this one. I only have to wait for about 10 seconds before he puts it right in my eye and I obviously have to fold, sigh. Even though its weak I think i just need to check fold this flop, check raising all in is an option but not one I'm too fond of given his stack. The very next I get JJ raise and get re-raised all in, standard call for me and he has AK and hits and I leave about 10 places short of the money, blah. I ran really bad on the 2nd table but sometimes it goes like that but a little disappointing as it was my final tournament of Vegas 08, ah well always next year...................

Didn't get up to a lot after that tournament, took the whole house for Kobe steak that i had to pay for since i lost the PLB bet to moorman, $2100 in my eye. Some heavy drinking sessions in the house and a little bit off online play rounded off the trip. Online I had lots of last 2 table finishes but was either getting unlucky or blowing up falling short on more than one occasion. I did manage to win the $30r on UB for about $5.4k busting my housemate allinstevie 3rd in the process which was sweet, :-).

I am now back in the UK for the 1st time since June 2007 and its good to catch up with family n friends. I plan on attending the GUKPT festival at luton in early august which should have a pretty good social side to it as well. There is a blue square online festival running at the moment, and I hope to play the $500 main event on Friday. They have odds on the blue sq website, I believe I'm 50/1 and will be playing as Bobvance if any1 wants to waste some money, lol. Moorman may be playing as 1namroom and is joint 40/1 favourite. Congrats as well to moor who is now number 2 in the pocket 5 rankings and is only a matter of time b4 he gets to number 1 imo. Shame he doesn't run as good at life washing his passport 3 days before leaving Vegas, lol

That's about all for now, pretty jet-lagged and keep falling asleep at random hours hopefully that will change soon and ill get into a routine again.

Drinking, playing online and main event day 1

So, since my last post there has been a few mammoth drinking sessions, a few online sessions and i completed day 1 of the main event, just. The first drinking session involved going to the Orleans and playing 1/2nl while ordering White Russians at record pace. The night became super messy with shots of sambuca coming into play later in the night. There were too many funny pots to recall them all but stevie was stuck like $5k in the game, I lost a $2.8k pot to moorman with 2nd pair and moorman had over $3k on the table and managed to lose it all before we left. We headed to the rhino at 7am on Tuesday morning so wasn't exactly busy and somehow made it back home for about mid-day via KFC drive through. The rest of the day was obviously a complete write off with me occasionally moving from my bed in order to get water.

On Wednesday I played online and had a pretty sick day, playing 3 tournaments on stars and making the final of all 3, as well as an 8th place finish in the 100r 6 max on F.tilt. My best result of the day was a 2nd place in the $300 f/o 150k on stars for just shy of $28k, I had massive stack at the business end and played it really well IMO but went a bit card dead at the end and entered heads up with a pretty big deficit. I managed to make the stack a little bit more even with my 800k playing his 1.1m when the final hand occurred. I had JJ and he had A4, basically he called my bet on the flop with a gutshot, then called my big check raise on the turn before binking it on the river, pretty sickening but a nice result nevertheless.


Thursday saw me play day 1a of the main event at the Rio. confidence was high going into this tournament after several good showings so far over the course of the trip. i had a nightmare start dropping from the initial 20k starting stack to 9.5k at the first break mainly from 1 big move where i check raised the turn with and up n down str8 flush draw and put in a pretty big bet on the river when I bricked. I was pretty quickly called by A- high, sigh, and that was a pretty big set-back. I grinded all day long, never getting back above 10k stack until mid-way through the last level of the day when my QQ doubled vs KQ to take me to around 14k. From there I quickly built up to 23k as the guys on my table were playing pretty tight and with 5 mins to go before the end of the day i looked like coming back with a playable stack for day 2 when the blinds start at 250/500. However the most disappointing hand of the day then arrived when I raised KJ UTG and then randomly fired 3 barrels vs some old guy with no pair no draw and left myself with a mere 7450 going into day 2. I have no excuses it was poor judgement and terrible play on my part and will need to get lucky at the start of day 2 in order to have any chance of progressing.

Thursday night after the main event turned into another drinking session including multiple jager bombs. Sunrise swimming then ensued and multiple injuries were incurred but no-one knew until they woke up the next day. Stevie has a massive gash on his foot, and I have 6 or 7 big cuts on my arm as well as several on my feet, o well, nothing too serious, all good fun. Friday was spent recovering again before waking up early today (Saturday) to play the bigger buy in online tournaments. I was really tired after a terrible nights sleep and was really unmotivated and got nothing going early doors and tried to tilt shove out of my last few and go back to bed. However in the $50r I got a lucky treble up and hit a 20k stack at 150 bb and was chip leader so decided to play properly. I one tabled this for the rest of the afternoon and eventually won it for $7.4k or so. That's about all for now, I plan on playing a full Sunday session before a day off on Monday then short-stack my way to glory on day 2 of the main event on Tuesday.

So lazy with the blog but lots to update

So i should have updated my blog a long time before now, but I'm super lazy so will now have to briefly recap most of whats happened in the last 2 weeks of so as its pretty much a blur to me right now.

I have played quite a few tournaments with a small cash in the $2.5k 6 handed and a deep run in the $2k Pot limit holdem event, eventually busting 21st for $5.5k ish. I got pretty unlucky on day 2 after building my 65k stack up to around 100k with no showdowns in the first hour. With blinds at 1k/2k it all went pete tong, firstly clonie gowen opens in the cut-off and I re-pot from the BB with AK, she goes all in and I have an obligatory call, but brick vs her JJ to fall back to 60k instead of being at 150k and one of the chip leaders. A few hands later I find AA and raise UTG+1 and lee watkinson calls from the BB. He then check raises all in on a 532 flop for around 40k total, I snap call and he flips 57, turn 4, river...............6, yawn. That pot would put me back over 100k but instead I'm nursing a shortstack. Just on a side note, pokernews are absolutely useless they claimed I paid off watkinson on the river even though it was clear my AA had been outdrawn, talk about putting me on life tilt. They have yet to report a hand correctly on anyone in our house and we are considering wearing t-shirts in the main event that just say FUCK POKERNEWS on the front. Anyway back to the tournament I get 30k in AQ vs A9 and chop to tilt me more before eventually re-shoving 88 with 14 BB's to find the original raiser with JJ and no miracles for me. The race against clonie gowen was pretty crucial as it gives me around a 160k stack with 40 ppl left, some guy made the final with 110k, sigh.

Next event was the $1k rebuy, the less said about this the better. I spent a total of $10k and didn't get a stack, losing 3 preflop all in flips in the rebuy period and a few other bullshit pots along the way. After the rebuy period I busted in under 1 hr, getting all in with A9cc on a K34 cc board vs 25 spades, he binks the off suit 6 on the turn and I'm on suicide watch, lol.

The next day saw my favourite event of the WSOP, $5k 6 handed NLH. I finalled this event 2 years ago when i was pretty inexperienced and not half the player I consider myself to be now. I got a good start in this event running up my 10k starting stack to 40k+ before the antes kicked in and 55k at the dinner break. I made 2 pretty big river bluffs in this period that both got through, and also made a big overbet on the river with the nuts and got paid off so my timing was immaculate so far.

The rest of day 1 was pretty smooth sailing, picking off shortstacks and putting pressure on the medium stacks steadily building my own stack t0 167k and finishing 8/96 going into day 2. My table draw for day 2 wasn't ideal with Keith 'The Camel' Hawkins on my immediate left i knew he wouldn't allow me to take liberties so I decided not to force any issues early doors. I never really had any big showdowns but was playing great poker and constantly chipping up reaching a peak of 535k stack, and being 3/25. The the wheels came off slightly, losing AT vs 88 to a 12 BB stack and then bluffing off 140k, oops. This put me firmly back in the pack with around 300k and a new table. First pot i played on the new table, I open ATo for 21k (4k/8k) and sam trickett, a v.good young player form the UK, defends from the BB. the flop is T45 and sam check calls 30k and the turn repeats the 4, sam checks again and i decide to check behind for a variety of reasons. I was very confident i had the best hand I checking behind would get me max value from worse Tx hands on the river or sam could make a bluff with a missed 67, or pay me off with any 5 or 66-99 if he thinks im bluffing. The river is a 9 but sam now leads for 20k, i deliberate raising for value but don't think he would pay me off with worse and could have a boat/quads already. I call and he flips T9 for rivered 2 pair, sigh. I get some chips back from sam when he bets the turn with a flush draw and bluffs the river when 1 to the straight comes, i have the straight tho and he insta-passes to my raise.

Down to 18 and the tables are re-drawn, I have 360k stack with the blinds at 5k/10k so am comfortable but no real room for crazy moves. The 3rd hand of the new table alex jacob opens for 25k on the button playing a 240k stack, i make it 85k from the BB with AK ready to insta-call a shove from him, he thinks for about 20secs and says all in, I call and he flips the mighty 33 and holds, sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Blinds go to 6k/12k and my 120k stack is in trouble, I find AK and got no action on my shove. next orbit I find AT and shove again this time im met by an instant all in from Leo kam in the very next seat so i know im in 3 outer territory, sure enough he has KK but I spike an A on the river, :-) The next hand I play, Alex jacob opens to 35k and i make it 100k on the button with AQs and 180k behind and happy to get in vs jacob. Then sam cold 4 bets from the BB, jacob insta passes and I cry a little and eventually fold, ugh. I blind down to 140k again before shoving KJ and getting called by A9, I don't manage to hit and bust 15th for $31'700.

I thought I played great throughout just wasn't meant to be, 2 decent bracelet opportunities passed me by in the space of 1 week, not easy to swallow but ill have a break now and come back for the main event as well as another $2.5k at the venetian just before.

Non-poker wise, plenty of drinking has been done resulting in a few messy nights out. the first was when the girls in our House booked a massive party limo thing to take us round Vegas for 4 hours while we all got smashed in the back. Saw the bellagio fountain show as well as some of the old town and a great night was had by all. The next was a farewell night for the 4 friends we had staying with us, me dave and stevie agreed to pick up the bill for everybody and make it special. We went for dinner at craftseak in the MGM where everyone had japanese 'wagyu' steak, google it, and its just amazing. After that we moved onto the voodoo lounge at the rio with a quick stop off at NY NY to ride the roller coaster. We had a VIP table in the voodoo lounge with bottle service and the Dom Perignon did flow. The whole night cost close to $5k for 8 people, weeeeeeeeee.

Thats about all for now, will be playing a little online between now and the main event so will probably do a quick update about how that goes.

WSOP $5kNLH and $2.5k venetian

The $5k was a pretty tough tournament, I got put in some really tough spots early and my table gradually became more difficult as the day progressed. During the first 4 hours the following players were moved to my table : Andy Bloch, Jonathan Little, Men the master, Humberto Brenes and a hyper aggressive Scandinavian player I had played in a previous event. In this event my 10k starting stack peaked at around 15k when the blinds hit the 150/300-25 mark. I make my standard open to 800 in late position with JJ and Men the master moves in for 5k total from the SB giving me the classic line 'all you can eat baby'. Its a routine call for me as I crush his range but he has woke up with QQ and I'm down to 10k. I am a mere spectator for the rest of this level and the majority of the 200/400-50 level until my exit hand occurs. Hyper aggressive scandie opens from the Hi-jack and the button flat calls, I squeeze 20 BB's with A9s from the SB but run into QQ again, no suck out for me left me still in search of my first dinner break of Vegas 2008.

A day off and then to the venetian for the $2500 event which had $20k starting stacks and a 1hr clock, :-) I was up n down a fair amount quite early busting chad 'lilholdem' batista with KK vs JJ to reach 30k pretty early but then slumped back down to 15k after raising K6hh and flopping Kxx two hearts versus AK and I bricked. Over the next few hours my stack dwindled down towards the danger zone. I got a timely double up when i raised KQ from the button and the BB defended and then check raised all in with middle pair on Kxx board, :-). After that I started building my stack without needing to showdown hands which is how i prefer to do things. The next big confrontation is where I get lucky with QQ vs KK for around half my stack but a pretty big pot in relation to the blinds and finish the day with about 220k blinds resuming at 3000/6000 - 1000.

I started off pretty badly on day 2 spewing off some chips and having 100k when the bubble burst and blinds about to go to 4000/8000 - 1k. We were down to 2 tables pretty quickly and I found a timely double once again with AQ vs AJ just before the killer blind level of 6k/12k - 2k started. Before I knew it they were drawing seats for the final and I had 20 BB's and realistic shot at the $190k first prize. Unfortunately that wasn't to be though as I lost a 500k pot race almost straight away after re-shoving 88 on a LP raiser and he called with AK, QQ4K2 board sealed my fate to a 9th place finish and a $12k score. Not too bad but I am of course left wondering what could have been.

Have a few more tournaments to update on and will get round to it over the next few days, chow for now,

Pab