WPBT weekend Part 2

9:00 AM
Got up....went to Starbucks in Harrah's....which is attached to the back end of the I.P. There is friggin' cowboys everywhere...especially in Harrah's where Toby Keith's bar is like the Mecca of Cowboy bars....even at 9:30AM Its funny but there where whole cowboy families milling around. I didn't really notice too much until Sat. morning. Took my time getting ready for the WPBT winter classic

12:00
I haven't played any live tourneys for a few months...feeling a little rusty...found out you can't register without an Aria/MGM card. registered just in time for the tournament to start after a long walk from the I.P.

First table for a couple of hours :
Seat 1 : Change100
Seat 2 : California April?
Seat 3 : Penner or Metsfan or Geek and Proud
Seat 4 : PokerGrump?
Seat 5 : Blinders
Seat 6 : C.K.
Seat 7 : Shelly?
Seat 8 : Grange
Seat 9 : Me (I did prove to be rusty...a bit nervous for whatever reason...I am also probably wrong about this starting table somewhere)

I don't know why...I was nervous....I'm sure it showed. I haven't played a 100.00+ buy in for ages. This was 100+25...or was it 30? Then the last longer team bets...5.00. My team was myself, Yestbay, and Lightning36...we would be named 'Imperial Phallus'. So with the best team name in the books it was time to go to work. I built up a small amount with a couple of blind steals and early position raises and continuation bets...nothing substantial. Most of the action involved C.K., Metsfan, and PokerGrump? I believe. The guy hosted the announcements was also the tournament director and I have to say I'm quite impressed. He was damn funny as well..."yes people...there are still no bust outs...you know..the point OF a tournament is to build your chips and take others away!" etc. He had a couple of good ones in queue. There were some pretty sweet bounties to be had for knocking out some people. I grabbed a small bottle of 'Tums' on my way....that was my pathetic bounty...but at least somebody could use it at the final table.
C.K. had the best bounty at the starting table..it was a tall ceramic mug that had the logo of a Black Widow on it. Just after the second break Grange took the sweet bounty and then there seemed to be a slew of knockouts on the rest of the tables. The hand that had me nervous was of course Aces. I raised in middle position to T350 Bs were 50-100....I figured everybody would fold per usual...but when I limp with aces I get slapped...hence the raise. I was playing a little tight but not anything noticeable. So unknown to me on the other side of the dealer Change100 raised to T1000. Everybody folded around to me and I thought everybody folded and the measly blinds were taken....I held out my aces as I was about to muck them...then I pulled them back and realized I'd been raised. I had a headache from the night before and it was around 3:00 PM so no drinks were to be had yet...that's why I probably got a little nervous. So I pull back my aces from almost mucking them and I tried to calmly re-raise. I should have called but I bumped it up to T3000. Change100 looked over and studied me for a minute and folded...then the table broke soon after.
I walked over to her and kind of apologized for what I thought looked like a 'Hollywood' move...or pretending to fold only to raise....I genuinely didn't hear her on the other side of the dealer after she raised. I almost mucked my aces. This is a huge tell...she says..."I didn't care about that...I folded because your hand was shaking like crazy when you re-raised me!" I was a little hung over and a little embarrassed...I thought to myself...."She's GOOD". When the case is that I actually SUCK...I thought I'm going to have a to get a drink to soothe my nerves a bit. I was about to leave the table and move to the second table with about 15K in chips. The tables consolidated after that and we all moved. The new table I was at was loaded as could be expected.

Seat 1 : Penner/Metsfan/GeekandProud
Seat 2 : Ryan/Absinthetics
Seat 3 : Pebbles of Pebsn'BamBam fame
Seat 4 : Me
Seat 5 : Dan/Poker Peaker
Seat 6 : Otis
Seat 7 : Hoodie Sunglasses dude - made final table
Seat 8 : Jordan/HighOnPoker
Seat 9 : Special K
Seat 10 : BadBlood

So I get to my second table and I know I'm not going to be long for this tournament unless I double up...at this point I only have 15K and the blinds were rising fast. There were probably less 50 left...people were getting knocked out fast though. I think that we went down to 30 pretty soon after this...or maybe because I started to pound Sam Adams lagers it seemed to go by fast....what the hell....1$ tip for a Sam Adams...gimme until I fall over. This is where I got wind of three of the participants at the table were running in the half marathon on Sunday....Otis or Brad(who I had no idea at the time that his father passed away very recently....My Condolences sir..can't imagine the grief but condolences nonetheless), Dan or PokerPeaker and BadBlood (who didn't know that the 'Gin Blossoms' the band was a huge influence on the band 'Skeleton Witch'...LOL).I would push with Ax-Kx and folded to most all pushes as well. There are a couple of hands that yo-yo'd my stack. all 3 in Team Imperial Phallus was still in.
The action on the table was predictable....the big stacks were pushing around the short stacks...I needed a double up and I got it....Pebbles who fell victim to my Aces. I got aces twice in the tournament and this time they paid me off.
I had Aces in the BB and Pebbles apparently had Ac-Kc....Special K raised in mid position with 7's.(I found out later on the cab ride over back to the I.P.) Peb's raised all in from the SB and I insta-called with my aces. Special K really tanked for a while...then folded. the flop was Xc-Xc-Xh....she flopped two clubs! The board ran out with two rags and I dragged a large pot and now I had doubled but there was quite a while to go. I got the sweet sweet Peb's bounty...I forgot to take a picture but it was a Pebbles pin and a wind-up Pebbles that actually crawls when you wind it up...much fun would be had with that for the next 12 hours or so.
After there were probably 20 more bust outs and tables consolidating I had 16-17BB's left and Ryan pushed all in with 7's in the SB....I looked down and saw A-Ko and insta-called. Much to my chagrin I didn't spike a K or A so I went down to about 8BB's. There was 25 left and I pushed a few more times.
There was a raise in early position by Jordan and I pushed...we had a banter between us but that was before I knew who he was and I don't think he knew me either. I pushed with A-Ko again and tried to get him to call but he tried to steal the blinds with 'the Hammah"! I was genuinely surprised when he flipped over the 2-7o but didn't call. (Later he came over and said..."hey your PokahDave?...if I knew that I would have pushed you all in every time you were in the Blinds!") I think everybody did anyway so...somehow I survived. Apparently Jordan also got some sweet deal from the website 'The Pokerist'...here is a description on April's blog about the website and all the sweet things they added for the WPBT.
I was fueled by Sam Adams at this point and NumbBono came over and introduced himself. I am currently 9-3 in both my FF leagues on ESPN going into this weekend and it looks good for playoff mobneys!. CaityCaity also made herself known as my opponent last weekend...and she was also running the last longer pool money. Also at this point I was the last man standing in the LL pool. I would have had to win to also get that money.
Some guy by the name of Tim...or Timtern as it where sat at the table and I was running good against him..I won multiple races against him but I was still running on Sam Adams and fumes when it got knocked down to 18...and we also moved/consolidated tables.

6:00 PM

So we moved down to two tables and I didn't last too long after that. I basically had to push with Kh-Jh under-the-gun and got called when girl next to me had A-Ko...she pushed all in and everybody folded and I got knocked out 18th (which comes with a whole lotta nuthin'!) I stuck around and talked to Numb and Astin who was staying at Aria and soon after came over with a handful of 100's after he won 900.00 on a 5cent slot...lucky bastard. So the final three chopped the pay 3 ways and then played for the trophy...it was Some lady that AlCantHang brought who won the trophy...not sure what her name was. A guy named Dave from St. Louis (Chilly's friend), and Timtern who couldn't knock me out but finished in the top three so good for him and his wad of cash! The hoodie dude from the table I was on before that had 1 BB left after a race and the guy actually came back to bust out 5th or 6th? He tripled up twice and then doubled after that to get back to a normal stack at the final table...it was pretty incredible and gave new meaning to the phrase "a Chip and a Chair is all you need".

6:30
So after the tourney we headed back to the I.P. for massive amounts of drinks and cards...I jumped in a cab with Shelly, BrainMc, Heather aka Pai Gow princess , NumbBono and, Special K. I met most people last time I was in town for the WPBT in '07 but I didn't meet BrainMc and Special K before that....come to think of it I didn't meet Shelly either. Everybody wanted to play some more poker...I was needing more card games but I had enough of NLHE Poker for the day.

I missed another meal so I was starving....I went straight for the Hash House A-Go-Go as soon as I went to the I.P. I got this freakin' incredible fried chicken sandwich...this was almost as good as the BBBLT I had the day before. I could have fell asleep after that...but I got my second wind soon after. I'm trying to think of how many beers and drinks I've had up to now but I was feeling it...I went to the Pai Gow table...soon after I was joined by Heather, Chilly, Dave friend of Chilly who chopped for almost 2K and did not care about the trophy...I mean...why would he?, and a few people who stopped in to say Hi. I ordered a thousand beers after this and was doing pretty well on Pai Gow for my second time playing. Heather was spillin' drinks and cussing up a storm and had us all laughing. She managed to piss off the waitress who looked at me...pointed to her massive fake boobs and said "by the way...they are fake!"....I said "...and they are beautiful....can I have another Bud Light please?" She didn't seem to mind too much and I didn't have to sit on the toilet after she may have pulled that old waitress trick for obnoxious drunks...you know...add a little Visine to the drink and you get to sit on the toilet for 24 hours after. So anywayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.....the bar was rockin' at the I.P. somebody bought me a shot of SoCo...I bought a few shots for a few people. I look up at the clock and suddenly it's 12:00!

I played Pai Gow for 4-5 hours at the I.P.....my chips were floundering...I didn't care...was having fun. Pretty soon after everybody moved out of the I.P. and I found myself ready for a solo rager. I went over to O'Shea's and walked around a bit. There was a bunch of beer pong tables but I just kept walking...I figured I wanted more Pai Gow so I went over to Harrah's. This is where...things get a little foggy.....I somehow lost the Peb's bounty when I wound it up and sent it crawling to the dealer at the first Pai Gow table I went to...not sure what happened but I was wearing Cargo pants and I thought I kept it.....somebody probably STOLE it! After a hundred more beer and bankroll killing games like 'Crazy 4 Poker' and 'Texas HoldEm Special' and some craps...I went back the Pai Gow table AGAIN! Next thing I knew it was....

6:00 AM...Oooops....I'll get up in time for the WPBT/Pokerist football at the Aria Sportsbook tomorrow...noooooo problem!!!