Vegas: Trip-Report Part 4: Blogger Tourney

In true Helmuthian style, I arrived fashionably late to the blogger tourney. It was still the first round, so it really wasn't a Helmuth mimic (nor was it on purpose!), but I'm not sure who else to plug? Speaking of Helmuth, I literally ran into him last night at the WSOP. He was yapping to someone as he raced to the bathrooms during a 15-minute break. Although closer to it than me, he is not the center of the universe, and nudged into me while looking the opposite direction. No "sorry," he just kept his conversation going. I bet he was thinking, "that kid will probably write about being nudged by Phil Helmuth in his blog, I don't have to say sorry! I can dodge bullets!"

You win, make-believe Phil Helmuth's thoughts, you win.

I plopped down $80 (most I've ever paid for a tourney), and took the 1 seat at a table with:

2: Empty
3: Mrs. Spaceman
4: Poker Gnome
5: Mr. Spaceman
6: Kram420
7: Miami Don
8: Blinders
9: ?
10: CC

The night before, I sat with Poker Gnome and made him my bitch at prop betting, so I knew he had some gamble. I didn't really know how any of the bloggers played at my table. Don and Blinders were chatting it up, and I knew they played lots of poker. I didn't who Mr. and Mrs. Spaceman were until after this table broke.

The first key hand for me had me involved in a large pot with Mrs. Spaceman. I'm dealt black tens in early position, raise it up and get called by Mrs. Spaceman and CC in the BB. Flop comes 7,7,4 with two hearts. CC checks, I check, Mrs. Spaceman fires 350 or so. CC Folds, I call, planning to fire the turn. Turn fills the flush, and I bet out 500. She considers calling, then folds. I'm pretty sure I had the best hand. And she saved herself some chips with a good fold.

Second key hand at my first table came in the third round, when the blinds were already starting to get pretty high. I look down at two red tens this time, and CC pushes before me. I go AI over the top and he flips over either AK or AQ and doesn't hit. I'm not really sure if getting into a coin-flip in this situation was smart of me, but I was putting him 50% on AK/AQ and 50% on JJ-77 or so.

Our table broke shortly thereafter, and I got moved over to a table with Grubette, a few other ladies, and Miami Don. Don was directly to my left. The blinds grew pretty quick, and the game turned into a push or fold game for all but the big stacks. There were probably 30 people left when I started at this table, and an hour later we broke for the final table of 10.

Third hand of note was getting involved in a 3-way pot with presto. I just played it because I wanted to show presto, but it turned out I was ahead preflop against the QJ of diamonds for Carmen and the JTs of someone down on the far end of the table. Not way ahead, mind you. But the flop brought a ten and two diamonds, which pretty much had me drawing to one non-diamond five, which didn't hit. Carmen's flush hit on the river, and we were all left alive (Carmen won, other guy won the side pot, and I had the most chips going in).

Fourth key hand I think I sucked out against Miami Don short-stacked with QhJh in the BB. He pushed from UTG with ATo, and I pretty much had to call with my 2 or 3 BB's. I would have played his hand the same way, and he said he would have played mine the same too, just a mild suckout. That pretty much summed up my day, I didn't deliver any mind-blowing suckouts, but I got into a lot of 60/40 and 40/60 situations, and won more than my fair share.

Fifth key hand would be mildly sucking out on Astin with Q5o against his Ax. I think I was in the hi-jack, and pretty much pushing with any two to steal the blinds if it got around to me. Astin was in the SB with a tiny stack, and he was definitely playing any ace. I had a tiny stack too, but just a bit bigger than Astin's. Hit my Q on the flop and Astin didn't re-suck.

Shortly thereafter, we broke for the final table, which had a star-studded line-up:

Seat 1: Iak (I think??)
Seat 2: Bayne
Seat 3: Miami Don
Seat 4: Grubette
Seat 5: ??
Seat 6: Brain_MC
Seat 7: Mrs. Spaceman
Seat 8: Me
Seat 9: ???
Seat 10: WAFFLES

Here are a few pics of the final table:

Seats 1 and 2 (I think Iak and Bayne?)



Waffles charming the ladies!



He is such a gentleman, his eyes aren't looking the same place Carmen's are! I'm pretty sure IG was showing her boobies?

The final table was a lot of fun. Seat 5 suggested that we take $80 from the each of the top 5 spots, and pay spots 6-10 back their buy-in. It was fine with me, because I didn't mind everyone getting paid in the crapshoot. I might have had the 5th or 6th biggest stack, so my place was pretty much in the hands of the poker gods.

Play at the final table was pretty tight for the most part. Grubette had a MONSTER stack, and was doing her part to bully the table around. Miami Don got knocked out first, on a pretty funny hand. He was the short stack at the table and moved all-in, to get called by two players (Iak and Bayne I think). The flop comes out and Don flips over his cards--pocket 2's. Iak and Bayne still had money behind, so Don quickly flipped back over his cards, and kept shouting, "TWO!... DUECE!...DUECE!" at the flop. He had me laughing pretty hard. Iak hit the flop and pushed Bayne out of the pot--no 2 spiked on the turn or river.

I pretty much just clung onto my chips at the final table. I didn't have many hard decisions. Stole a few blinds, and doubled up with JJ against Qx (or knocked someone out?), but for the most part was card-dead and just folding my cards.

Seats 5 and 6 got knocked out on the same hand, and we got down to four players relatively quickly. Waffles and I with short stacks, Grubette with a monster stack, and Mrs. Spaceman with a healthy stack. I got knocked out in 4th when I found Kh7h in the SB. Grubette folded and Mrs. Spaceman made a bet at the pot. She then drummed her hands on the felt a few times. For some reason I took the drumming to mean a weak hand. I'm not really sure why, but at the time it made sense. Waffles folded and Mrs. Spaceman quickly called with AdKd. She had me dominated, and even more so when the flop came with two diamonds, and the turn filled the flush.

Waffles finished in 3rd shortly thereafter with a Q on an A-Q-x board. He pushed on the flop and Mrs. Spaceman went into the tank. Mrs. Spaceman asked: "Do you have an Ace?" Waffles shrugged and Grubette (who wasn't in the hand) answered, "No!" Then quickly covered her mouth, but she got a roar of laughter from everyone observing. Mrs. Spaceman eventually called with JJ, and JJ was golden when one their brothers spiked on the turn. Ouch!

The tourney was down to Mrs. Spaceman and Grubette. Since Mrs. Spaceman knocked both me and Waffles out, she had close to, if not an equal stack to Grubette:

Mrs. Spaceman and her huge stack when it got down to heads up!





Mrs. Spaceman eventually took it down with some aggressive play heads up. Both Mrs. Spaceman and Grubette earned their place heads up, with very aggressive play throughout the entire tourney. Grubette was completely dominating the 2nd table I was at, and she even had her Aces cracked by KTo AI pre-flop.

The tourney was a lot of fun, but not because of the structure or the Tourney Director. Like many others have chimed in, that guy was a dick. "OK, everyone not playing, please leave." He rushed us when we didn't particularly want to be rushed. Lots of talk about going back to the IP next time. The bloggers definitely made the tourney what it was. At the final table, I saw lots of money being tossed around on prop-bets. Pauly had Mrs. Spaceman as his horse, and I caught some money being passed around on the videos I took after eliminations took place.

Up next: Saturday night, then a recap post of the entire trip