Another Bellagio 2K

Ok, so I'm going to try my luck again at the Bellagio. I've never had any good tournament results there. Not even when playing the daily 5 hundo.

While driving down to there I have this overwhelming sense of dread. Turn around and go home. Now. Go play Call of Duty 4. You can always win at that. I can't turn around, I'm already 3 blocks from home. Pot committed. Guess I'm going to be pissing away 2K again.

Seat 1: RWG
Seat2: RWG
Seat 3: Random young Asian internet kid
Seat 4: RWG
Seat 5: Our Hero
Seat 6: RWG
Seat 7: RWG
Seat 8: Random old white guy with a large pinkie ring that has the letters O and H. So I don't know if its HO or OH.
Seat 9: Richard Tatalovich (who always reminds me of a mini Rudy Tomjanovich. I wonder if Richard has ever been laid out on the hard wood)
Seat 10: Mark Seif*

Ok. This should be a good table. A bunch of nits and a wildman. Let's get it on!

Unfortunately it starts out as a repeat of the first 2K. Can't really get anything going but this time I'm actually winning a few hands, and losing a few. We lose a couple of players and they are replaced by a crazy french guy to my left (who's mumbling to himself and every so often he sings out "Viva Las Vegas!") and Chris Vaughn to my right. I chat a bit with Chris before we realize who each other is and that we met at last years WSOP. At one point he proudly claimed, "You know that whole Sorel getting banned from Full Tilt? That was me." Yeah I know.

At break I have a fit of deja vu as I end up with 1300 again. Shortly after break I find my spot to move in. There is an early limper, this guys been playing a lot of hands so probably doesn't have a strong hand, and I shove with 44. Old guy with the HO pinkie ring calls pretty fast but I have him covered. Early limper doesn't think long before calling with A8. Pinkie Ring has KT. Ok, not looking so bad until the flop comes 8 7 2. Turn comes a 6. I say, "How about a 5." I'm being greedy. I want the straight but I wouldn't mind a 4. Ding! 5 on the river. I more than triple up. Now I can make standard raises and I can play poker. I've be waiting 6 levels for this.

I pick up a few more pots and get my stack up to 14K before getting moved to a table with Jean-Robert Bellande in the 10 seat. I've never typing Jean-Robert again. He's Bobby. Thats what I call him and he's from LA. No one from LA is named Jean-Robert, it's Bobby.

A few hands in, I'm on the button. Alan "The tightest man in poker with the most money" Smurfit limps under the gun, next to act, a younger guy wearing an Affliction type shirt, raises to 2500. Based on his choice of apparel I put him on a weak to medium Ace. Its folded around to the player to my right who reraises to 8000. I look down at two black queens. Damn. I gotta think about this one.

There's no way I'm good here. Alan could have taken the TJ approach and limped with aces. Already have my read on Affliction guy. A 4x raise makes me think this guy has a big hand. I have just over 10K in chips. Arrghh. I apologize to the table for taking so long and a few seconds later Affliction guy calls the clock on me. Fucker. Lemme think this out. Bastard.

I'm getting the right price. I'm short. There's 30 people left in the tournament. 18 pay. I can fold and lose only the ante, play short stack ninja and try to cash or I can push in and see if I can hit a 2 outter. Theres no way I'm ahead here. I briefly contemplate flat calling and shoving on the flop regardless but there's no reason to do that. The floor counts down the final ten seconds. I can fold. 9. I know I'm beat. 8. Fuck that, I 'm here to win this thing. 7. Wwgd? (what would gus do?) 6. Fold damn it! 5. "I'm all in."

Small blind, big blind, Alan Smurfit, and Affliction guy all fold. The guy to my right opens up two black kings. I don't open my hand because he hasn't declared that he's calling my raise all in. Can I angle this? The dealer asks me to open my hand. I can open my hand and let the board run out, if he wins I give him his 8k and I'll still have 2k left. If the floor rules in my favor. So I go right ahead and tell the dealer that he hasn't called. She says to me, "Don't worry he is."

This is the first time that I ever wanted to slap a dealer.

Whatever.

The board falls 4 hearts and an ace. I'm outty . Affliction guy announces that he had AT. I know you did buddy. Douche.

I guess I can go play the Venetian Deep Stack now.

JDN

*One of my favorite drunk gambling nights was with Mark and Gsmith in Turks and Caicos. Down to my last 400, Gavin and I headed for the craps table. Of course I had to give him half of my bank roll to play and that left us 200 each. The craps table in the casino could not be longer than 5 feet. I pretty much could place my bets anywhere on the table without too much effort. Needless to say we had all of the $25 chips before too long and it was our turn to roll. Gavin and I made a prop bet on the number of points we would each roll. $1k for every point rolled. I was first. Don't you worry. I snap off 4 points before I 7 out. Up 4k. There's no way Gavin can beat this. He might get 2 points but he's more than likely to roll a seven right out of the gate. I consider betting the dark side to jinx the bastard but I don't because we're running hot. Mofo rolls 4 points and 7's out. WTF? Its hard to be in a better spot than that and I do is break even. Blackjack!

With a couple of dimes in our pockets when head over to the blackjack pit which is all of 10 feet away. This casino is the size of the bellagio poker. At the bj table we start firing. Two hands each starting at $50 a bet. We're pushing our bets, winning all the double downs and the dealer is busting. Mark sits down at a table on the other side of the pit, the dealer shuffle the shoes and he's off to the races. Before long Gavin and I have all the $100 chips at the table. They bring out the $500 chips and obvisouly we start betting bigger. Not satisfied with that I decide that I need more action and I declare to Mark that I will be taking half his action on the current bet. Of course he loses and I throw him two black chips. This kicks off a chip throwing party as Mark and I start throwing a couple hundo back and forth between each hand. The pit boss finally has seen enough and he tell us that we have to stop throwing chips over the pit. I tell him, not to worry, I'll catch everyone as I toss 4 black chips over to Mark.

When we decide to cash out I notice 5 consectutive red numbers on the roullete table. I throw down two $500 chips on black. Red number shit! I gotta get even. Two more $500 chips on black. Red number fuck! Ok, I'm stuck 2k now. So if I put another 2k down and win, I'll be even. So I put 3k down on black ignoring the table limit of 2k per bet. Mark asks the pit if its ok for me to make that bet. The pit says with a smile, "Oh yeah."
Black number! Snap! Ship it!

After cashing out the casino manager gives us a ride back to club med not wanting us to get robbed and so hopefully we would come back the nice with our winnings. I loaned most of my money to Mike Matusow, which is like being robbed, the next day.