Vegas Recap Part 3

If I thought sleeping after Day 1 was difficult, then sleeping after the completion of Day 2 was totally impossible. I tried and tried, and I'm sure I managed to drift off for a nap every once in a while, but there would be no good sleep this night. Once it was daybreak I got online and checked the seating assignments and chip stacks. It turns out I was aobut where I thought I would be 15th in chips with 27 to go.

I checked Poker Pages to get some insight into the players at my table, and then noted that Leo had already provided me a pretty good rundown of several of them. It was going to be a tough day for sure.

We repeated the room service and hanging out in the room start to the day. We got down to the Amazon Room about a half hour early. Just hung around by where the final table would be.

Sat down about 10 minutes before the start of Day 3 and unbagged and stacked my chips. The day started with me winning a couple small pots unchallenged. Typically we were seeing a raise and everyone folding, or a raise and a reraise / push and folding around. There were some really dubious calls of all ins. I wasn't invovled in any.

One memorable hand had me sitting in the BB with 8d 9d. It folded to Marco Johnson in the SB, who completed. The flop was 7d Td Js. Nice. I flop the nut str8 with an open ended str8 flush redraw. Marco made a min bet of 16K. I raised to 51K. Marco folded. In retrospect I may have played this hand too fast, and could have gotten more value by flatting the flop bet, and inducing a bet on the turn.

Joe Simmons who started the day as chip leader went card dead and didn't drag a pot through the first blind level. In fact, early in the second blind level he was sitting in the BB, and it folded around to the small blind (Jason Potter) who thought about raising, and then laid it down. Joe Simmons turned over KK and was apparently on "walk tilt".

Mike Eise is to my immediate left and is getting hit in the head with the deck. He's showing down monster hand after monster hand, and had more than tripled up to take the chip lead with 1.3 million, before my last hand.

With blinds of 10K / 20K and ante's of 3k I have 265K left. I'm in the BB and look down at 88. Joe Simmons raises under the gun to 55K. I reraise all in and get snap called by Mike Eise. Joe Simmons goes in the tank for a bit, and then folds AQ. I've got my money in good against Mike's AK. I was a 55 / 45 favorite preflop. Way behind on the flop of 4s As Kc. I picked up a flush draw on the turn to improve my odds to 23 / 77. No spade or 8 on the river, and I'm done.

I stood up and worked my way around the table congratulating all of the players. I waited for the floorman to give me my payout information. As I leave the area the One Outers and the folks following Mike Eiese are all congratulating me. It was a truly, truly awesome feeling. Somehow I managed to not break down in tears, although I was close.

We go to the payout area and it takes a while for us to go through the process. After we get paid out we head over for beer and appetizers at McFadden's Irish Pub. It was great to celebrate with everyone who made the trip. We then headedout to the pool for a dip before going to a great steak dinner that night at Voodoo Steak and Lounge at the top of the RIO.

I've played in only a handful of tournaments with a buy-in over $300, and managed to do well in most of them. Of the 7 tournaments that fit into this category, I've got this 21st place cash, a 9th place cash in Tulsa, a 2nd place cash at Choctaw, a 20th place cash at Winstar, and bubbled out of another Choctaw deepstack tournament. What I've learned about myself is this...I'm definitely a better tournament player than cash player, and the better the blind structure, the more it suits my play. What I've derived from this is that everyone plays the game differently. Everyone's A game is different. If I play my A game, which is tight and aggressive, as well as I can play it, I can do well. If I try to play someone elses style, say LAGgy, I'll never do as well as them. I need to stay in my comfort zone and play the game as well as I can play it. My style won't work for others who are Loose and Aggressive. But if they play their style, they'll be successful. So if I were to give anyone any advice I'd say explore everything, know the theory behind every action, never stop learning, but find the way you are most comfortable playing, and concentrate on playing that A game. And then I'll repeat what Tommy Angelo inscribed in my copy of The Elements of Poker. "You must be good at losing to be a good poker player".