Back from Vegas, back to Vegas

Back from Vegas on Friday mid-day. Uneventful weekend followed. Vegas was an excellent time as always. Absolutely crushed the 1-2 NL at the MGM, including a five hour session on Thursday for +$800.

Will probably try to get a little bit of online poker in on Monday or Tuesday. Flying back out to Vegas on Wednesday and staying there through Sunday, so I'll be in limited contact then as well.

Going to Vegas, Sweating Rizen

Its no surprise to any of us, Rizen is still alive in the Main Event. He ended day six sitting around average stack in 16th place with 27 remaining, just behind Prahlad Friedman.

So I'm hopping a flight first thing in the morning, heading to Vegas to do anything I can to help Rizen out.

If you're in Vegas and haven't ever met me in person, here is a shot of me from the WPBT Winter Classic. I'll be in from around 10am Tuesday flying back out Friday morning. Then i'll actually be back in Vegas next week, the 16th - 20th.

Talked to Rizen, played a lot

Talked with Rizen from Vegas this afternoon about his table draw for day three, his opponents, some strategy, and how he's going to win $12M and a bracelet in a couple more days. Energized from our conversastions, I decided I was going to play a lot of poker tonight.

And so, in order of firing off, I entered: The $109-level $40k Guaranteed on Party. The $150+13 $22k Guaranteed on Tilt that ended up with a $36k prize pool. A $22 180-man on Stars. A $33 SNG on Party to fill up some spare screen real estate. The $24+2 $20k Guaranteed on Full Tilt. A random $22 MTT on Party with almost 900 entrants. And finally the $22-level $40k Guaranteed on Party.

Sadly my best finish and only cash was 10th in the $22 180-man, one off the final table. I was sitting fourth in chips with eleven players left when I got tangled with a guy sixth in chips overall, who'd been aggressively restealing from me - either that or he'd been getting big hands every time I raised. I tried to re-resteal from him with JTs - one of my absolute favorite non-premium hands - and ran in to his AKs, and couldn't suck out. That crippled me. Next hand I saw 72d and figured I'd let my luck run under the gun with the suited hammer since we were six handed and I had a mere two big blinds left. I got called twice, by AK and called for less by A9 - seven on the river, but the ace that came before it on the turn KO'd the shortest stack in 11th and me in 10th, and put the rest of the players on to the final table. Nice.

In the random $22 Party MTT I was about 25% over average with 140 left, top 100 paying. I then pushed AJ on an ace-high flop in to a player I had identified as a calling station who I was sure didn't have the ace, but ran in to his AQ to drain my entire stack. A frustrating misplay on my part. Then in the $22 level $40k Guaranteed on Party, I sucked out with ATd vs AQc (money in preflop, ten on the flop and another on the river) to double up to just above average halfway through, then gave the chips back to the guy just three hands later when I went busto there - an aggressive player raised a pair of limpers from the button and holding AKo I pushed over the top from the big blind, as his raise was about 1/4 of my stack. I didn't want to call off 1/4 my stack and fold if I whiffed, and I'm not upset if he folds a medium pair there either or if he calls for a coinflip.

40kG cash

Yeah, so I'm not in Vegas as I'd hoped to be. After a minor heartbreak in the massive stars WSOP seat satellite, I hadn't played poker online since. Wasn't really an intentional break - just out of town the following weekend (where we did play some live poker) and then had a house full of people over this past weekend. Between that, working late pretty regularly the last few weeks, and buying a bike (and spending time riding it after work) I'd been out of the online poker realm for fourteen full days.

Got back on the horse tonight: failed to cash in a Pokerstars $22 180-man (out 92nd), the Full Tilt $20k Guaranteed (out 221/1264 after building a stack early including stacking somone first hand), and then a decent run to finish top 25% (110th) in a Party $109 with ~400 entries (but still about 50 people outside of the money). Finally, managed to cash in the Party $40k Guaranteed again, finishing 78th place out of 2572 entrants. Top 220 paid, so I managed a decent run once ITM but was absolutely card dead for the last portion of the tournament. I doubled up twice with A8, once right on the bubble and once with around 150 left, and those were by far my best hands between the bubble and going out. Overall a losing night despite 300% ROI on the $22 invested for the $40kG - I should have played some SNGs in the background to get the hourly rate up, but was browsing 2+2 instead. Still a decent run, and pretty close to a decent payday. Might be my top finish in the 40kG, which is one of those tournaments I'd really like to pull out a final table for my resume...