6/27/09 to 7/2/09 Las Vegas -- WSOP.
I played the $1500 buy in for the WSOP at the Rio. I stayed at the Paris. I really enjoyed the crepes and gelatos. Went to see Bally's Jubilee, to the top of the Eiffel Tower, won a lot of money playing blackjack from the dealertainers at the Imperial Palace, hit a jackpot for $275 on an elvis quarter machine. Had a lot of fun but was awful at poker.
I lost at every session of poker i played.
First, in the WSOP i did enjoy being at the table with Men the Master Nguyen. The table was very tight and very aggressive. We had 10 at the table and started with 4500 in chips.
Notable hands for me were as follows:
Early on picked up KK. made a small raise, got a call, and flopped top set. I checked the flop and so did the other guy. I made a small bet on the turn and he folded.
I also had a hand where I had ace 9 of spades. I limped and the flop came with two sevens and a flush draw. I bet on the flop about200. A conservative player raised me about 1000 and I called that. I made the nut flush on the turn and checked it. The conservative player checked behind. He checked the river and I moved all in. He folded.
After those two hands I was up to about 6000 at the first break and doing well.
I went card dead after that. I picked up a few small pairs and limped with them, but never caught a flop.
A big hand arrived when I had ace king suited in the small blind. The table folded to me and I made a substantial raise. I got reraised from the conservative guy in the big blind and put him on a pocket pair. I called the raise. I missed the flop and checked. He put in a big bet and I folded. I showed him my suited ace king and he showed me pocket kings. I was happy to dodge elimination on that hand.
After that I was card dead for a long time and was gradually getting blinded off. My M got down to 4. I picked up Ace 4 in early position and moved in with it because I felt it was an inflection point. there was about 600 in the pot and I had about 2600 left.
I got called by a Russian Pro. He turned over AceKing. I was calling for a 4, but ended up surviving by making a straightw ith the 4. Men the Master laughed and said I was calling for the wrong card.
That gave me a little lift but I was still very short. I limped and missed a few other flops with suited aces and small pairs and my stack dwindled down again.
I had a M of six and I I picked up ace king suited utg. I moved in with that and the russian called me with pocket 9's. I did not improve and got eliminated. I lasted about 7 hours.
My overall observation was that everyone in the WSOP is a good player, so its basically a luck contest.
I lost a thousand dollar pot at the Planet Hollywood in a side game. I got sucked in a three way pot with a pocket pair and nut flush draw. I was forced all in on the turn and did not improve. Before that I had been winning. Lost to 2 pair. I had 14 outs so I made the mathematically correct play and lost.
I lost at the Hard Rock, I lost at Bally's.
Overall poker was bad me. The day I got home, I lost $340 in Jim's home game. Luck had turned hard against me.
I found a nice place to get a reasonably priced massage. I enjoyed the pool at the Paris. I saw Miss USA at the Serendipity in front of Caesar's Palace.
Las Vegas is a nice escape from reality!
