turbo updates

Since the last update a few interesting things have happened. First, congratulations to a friend of mine from the Waterloo area, Sean Furfaro for making the money in his first wsop tournament, it looks like he may repeat that in his second today (both large field no limit hold'em tournaments). Secondly, Andrew ended up finishing 44/2800 in that tournament the other day. He was slightly disappointed in the spot he got it in with but he dodged a massive bullet earlier with AK vs TT and QQ which he would have lost so he was on a freeroll of sorts after that. Congratulations Andrew on the first cash of many, I still feel like there's a massively deep run in him this trip (since the main event's the only thing left for us, I'm excited).

I played the $1500 Stud 8/better and I was rolling the first few hours. I got up to $14,500 from $4500 even with running a AKJT7 flush into a royal flush when two guys made lows (meaning that we needed to punish the lows so I lost the absolute max to his royal flush). Then the great table I was on broke and I got moved to Barry Greenstein's immediate right. I've never had the opportunity to play with Barry but I had met him last year through Pat Pezzin really briefly. We ended up taking a bunch because he was on that final table with our buddy from Vancouver in which he won so conversation jumped off from there. That didn't dissuade him from scooping me in 3 pots and crippling me back to starting stack to end the day. In stud 8 I feel the game has some interesting nuances and I do feel it's one of my better games. The hands I ran into Barry's were, I open (3Q)Q in the steal spot and he 3bets with (xx)J. I ended up folding to what was his buried KK on 5th street, saving some important bets. Then I defended vs. his (xx)7 open with (5d6d)2s. I peel off the Jd Qd 8c so I have a 4flush and a 4 to a bad low vs Barry's board of xx769A. Since I have to really live diamond draw to beat his possible Ace's up and if he's just got a low I may have a live 8,5,6 for high if I can pair up and perhaps he's got another big pair in the hole in which any baby diamond might scoop. Anyways, I pair the 6 on the end and essentially crap out the hand and he bets in the dark on the river. Now interesting thing is it's hard for him to dark bet any high hand unless he's got a full house or flush (both highly unlikely on his board) so usually this is indicative of a low, so I call with the 66 hoping for half and sure enough barry shows me his made 7 low (started 24 buried for a 2476A) but on the end he paired his 6 of course so his Ace kicker plays and I get scooped. Beautiful and perfectly understandable for me to lose this hand to close the day out. Again, though I had cased the hand well enough but can't win a crucial pot in this event. I end up coming back for day two with a really short stack and I can't win my all in with 688 vs 7KK which is a 44% dog in a Heads UP showdown. Anyways, go out in 100 or so which isn't close to the money. Just can't get it going right now. Barry (who's book I've read a few times and who I think pretty highly of as far as a person and poker personality) was really nice and engaging and more than happy to shoot the poop for 2 hours pretty much non-stop. I really enjoyed the opportunity to play with him and bump heads, the scoop will be on the other foot next time.

So I am done with the preliminary events of this world series until the main event. For an overall accounting of it, excluding the main event that I've registered to play day 4A on Monday, I've played 15 events this year costing $32,500. I've cashed for a bit over $15,000. ($42,500 with main). If I had puckered on past the bubbles on those 3/4 that I was 20 or so out of the money it might have been like 22,500$ in cashes. If you take into account expenses and then online winnings and live cash winnings since I've been here, I think I'm no more than $5k winner since this all began. I've been winning on full tilt and the freeroll in the main event leaves $12k in equity still out there. Hopefully I can at least cash in that and have a small winning wsop.

For the first time this whole trip I can convinced to play a life cash games session last night. Andrew was all amped to play 100-200 at the Wynn last night so the three of us (+ Wes) went over there around 8pm. Andrew and his buddy Steve (Zugwat on stars and ftp, total nosebleed HU no limit specialist) were on the list for the big game. In wait we decide to start our own game. So Andrew, Zugwat and I started a mix game of 2-7 No Limit Lowball ($25-50), 2-7 Triple Draw (100-200), PLO ($25-25) and No Limit Hold'em ($25-50). We played for 4 hours or so, Andrew won big, I lost $300. I tried a reckless bluff in Triple Draw as a result of being card dead and somewhat frustrated, ended up getting snapped off :). Anyways, Around 1am I joined Wes at 10-20 no limit holdem in which we decided to swap 25% before we left the place last night. Long story short, I won $3800, Wes won over $13k. Andrew jumped in the $25-50 5k capped PLO with Steve Yea, Elky, John Duthie and a few others. He won that session too. Good night for the team, nice to stop the beat-down elevator for a bit.

I think some more live cash will be the plan this week before closing this thing out with the main event. Jay-Z's coming to the Palms on the 2nd as well, pretty sure we've got tickets locked up for that as well. Time to have some fun before this trip's over. Hope everyone's well.