Vegas, July 28 (Day 3)

I wake up psyched to see the WSOP. I heard it's a madhouse over there, and I was looking forward to see how a lot of these online qualifiers (who beat me, grrr) played. I waited for a cab and ran into a Scottish guy I played 1/3 NL with a few nights back, and took a cab with him and his dad to Caesar's so he could play a tournament there, then went to the Rio with his dad. Gotta save the cash.

Rio for WSOP
The place was insane to say the least. Every poker related company you've heard of and dozens of them you haven't had big tents and displays, giving away tons of stuff. You have to walk through this place to get to the Amazon room where the tournament was held. I walked in a little after noon, and about five minutes later, "shuffle up and deal" was heard, and cards were in the air.

The room was amazing. It was like a huge airplane hangar with over 200 poker tables, easily 3,000 people in that room. Unfortunately I didn't get to stay long as they kicked spectators out until alternates were seated. I went to wander around the Rio for a while, and ran into 2005 WSOP ME Champ Joe Hachem in the hallway. I talked to him for a minute, as he had to get to the PokerStars booth, but he seemed like a pretty cool guy. I think you have to be chill to live in Australia. I got a picture with him too, so that's a keeper.

I blew some money on video poker and roulette (no luck today) and then went back to the Amazon room. The first player busted in 6 1/2 minutes. That's over $1,500 per minute dude. Ouch. I watched for an hour, and some of the plays I saw were simply atrocious. 3 betting all in with 99 on a Q86 rainbow board versus a preflop 3 better out of position? Seriously? I know I can play reasonably well in this tournament, and with another year under my belt, I should be pretty confident going into 2007.

There weren't many big names playing on the first day, but I did see a few. Scotty Nguyen was at the ESPN feature table, Gus Hansen and Juha Helppi played at the same table for a while, and I also saw Humberto Brenes and Minh Ly. I must have missed some of the others, as the room is gigantic and you can only really see the people at the tables closest to the rail.

I watched for a few hours and then left to go play a tournament at Monte Carlo. Unfortunately by the time I got there it was already sold out, so I went back to the Excalibur to hang out for a bit.

Session Total: -$75 (damn you roulette)
Trip Total: +$67

Excalibur
It all unravels in this 3 1/2 hour session. After taking so much time off poker, I feel refreshed and I'm playing brilliantly, by far the best I've played since I got here. Playing live gives you so much other information you don't get online, and I feel it really suits my analytical mind.

I start off a little rough, not hitting sets, or big hands, but with a stack of about $170 I get J9 of spades in the hijack, and limp with two other limpers. Flop comes A93 with two clubs, and the guy from California who I played with yesterday bets $10 int0 a $15 pot. I call with position and everyone else folds. The 9 of hearts comes on the turn and I have trips. He bets $6 (weird, looked like a blocking bet) and I raise to $30, which he calls. No blocking bet for you son. River is a dream card, the 3 of clubs. He bets $40 and I push as I had him on a club draw, he calls, and I scoop a $320 pot. Up $120 for the session.

I raise preflop with AK and miss a chance to cbet v. 66, so I drop a little (but not much) there. Then the wheels fall off.

Hand 1: A loose guy who's been drinking raises to $18 in EP, the CA guy calls, and I call from the BB with 44. Flop comes AA4. It gets checked around (I know I know, I should've bet). Turn is a blank, I bet $10 (horrible bet, not extracting enough value. I know this is terrible.) and drinking guy calls (I know he has an A now). The river comes a J and I get a funny feeling I just got fucked. I bet $30 and villian raises to $90. I pause and I swear I almost fold, but I have to consider he might be overplaying AK or AQ, so I just call. He has AJ. Ouch. Was about an 85% favorite before that river. That one REALLY hurt, but I played it horribly. I would rather lose more money knowing I played it well than lose less and play it wrong. (Lose about a $425 pot)

Hand 2: About an hour passes, I'm taking stabs at small pots, etc., and I'm at about $170. A guy in glasses who looks smart but isn't poker smart raises to $15 in middle position, and I find QQ. I ask how much he has left, and it looks to be about $75. I go all in from the CO, and he says "OK I call." I'm worried til he turns over AQo. NH SIR. Of course the A flops and I'm drawing to the case Q which doesn't hit. I'm down to $87. (Lose a pot of ~$160)

I get AK about 30 min later in the SB, and raise three limpers, including one who I swore was a fat motorcycle chick, but found out he wasn't when he started talking. Where do they find these people? Anyways, I raise and he calls. Flop comes 822 and I push. He says he's folding a pocket pair which is clearly BS. Whatever, I'm back up to $140 or so.

Hand 3: This is the clincher. Middle position guy (friend of AJ guy that took hand 1) raises to 20 after a limper. He's shown tendencies to call big bets with weak hands. Whee I find AA in late position, so I push. He tanks and says to me, "There are only three hands that beat me here." I'm giving off fake tells left and right, and he bites and flips over JJ. Of course the first four cards are blank, but the river brings a J, and I lose a ~$300 pot.

I'm so shocked I just shake his hand, say "whatever" and walk out. I played almost every hand very well (minus that 44 hand) and I got hosed. I know I can beat those games, it just sucks to see people go on such insane heaters when they're awful players. The long run can't get here soon enough.

So I blow a few more dollars on video poker and head back to my room. The game was still pretty good, but I felt I lost a lot of my edge over the rest of the players when I lost those hands. I wasn't in the right mental state to play, so I am pretty much packing it in for the rest of the trip.

Coming here was a good learning experience for me, and gave me confidence in a. my live game, and b. my NL game. I'm happy I got to see some of the WSOP and experience the atmosphere. You may think I'm some kind of crazy gambler, but I am pretty honest with myself and understand where I stand in relation to the people I play. I made some great plays and the deck didn't cooperate the last few days. But I don't feel terrible, as I know I played pretty well. Things will come around eventually.

I fly out at 2:30 or so PT tomorrow, and return to Michigan around 9:45 PM ET. I might head back to the Rio tomorrow, not sure yet though. I start working on Monday which sucks, but it was bound to happen at some point. Looking forward to seeing y'all at home.

Session Total: You don't wanna know.
Trip Total: Ugh.