We all have a few friends and family in town for the 4th weekend so the roomies decided to host a bbq on the 4th and then check out Rehab for the 5th. The bbq was a great success, culminating in Allen Barri prop betting not one, but two of our boys to drink an entire bottle of hot sauce. The stipulations were as follows. $1500 to the first attempt if he a)finished the bottle in under 8 mins and b)did not puke nor drink anything for 8 mins followed said completed act. :56 secs in Tyler was spewing red all over our wall. With 1/3rd of the bottle drunk a second bet was now on the table. 7-1 on a $100 that the bottle couldn’t be finished off in under 6 mins w/the same stipulations to follow. 3 mins in most of the hot sauce was gone and the bet was looking to be beaten. Unfortunately, not another sip would be taken as time ran out another victim was in the rocks heaving up a days worth of dogs and brews. *video to follow*
Sunday was a blast. We made it to Rehab along w/most of Vegas w/us. This place is insane if for no other reason than the girls have the greatest taste in bikini’s. For those who haven’t heard the hype Rehab is like a giant pool party at the Hard Rock. The place was packed and everyone got shit canned. Jamie Foxx made a cameo, taking over the DJ booth for a couple of hours. Only downside is I don’t think spending much time in the water is a good idea. Between people pissing, condoms floating down stream and Lord knows what else going on it seems more like a cesspool than a good place to chill.
After a fun weekend it was time to focus on the Main Event. I arrived 20 mins late, but quickly found my table to be quite soft. Crazy Marco was directly to my right, but we played very few pots together given the structure and how deep we were. After folding/limping for 45 mins I found myself in the bb w/a starting stack and 5 limpers in front. I decide to raise to 700 w/99. First limper flats as well as the button. Best way to describe the first guy is 45-year-old satty winner who is barely competent. Flop T77 rainbow. I lead 1200 into 2400, first guy flats button folds. Turn 7. I check. He bets 2k. I know he has a T here a lot, a 7 hardly ever and Ten’s full/bluffs some of the time. Pretty easy fold that I make 99% of the time. But given that this is the WSOP ME and this guy is obv scared money I thought it to be a good spot to rep QQ+ and bluff. I ch/r to 6k he tank flats. Ok I’m done. River 2. I check knowing it’ll get checked down unless he has quads or Tens full. He checks and mucks when I show 99. Oooooooook? He told me later he had 88 and that I “had to have AK there.” That would be the last hand I would have a start stack or less until my bust hand.
Move ahead to dinner and I’ve chipped up to 55k w/o much resistance. My table has been a dream. Very chatty and allowing my free rein to do as I please at very little risk. I’ve limped a lot, playing small ball and getting extra value out of limp/3-betting my premiums. No one has really iso’d me light since I don’t really give any credit to anyone being able to go that route(cept Marco who is always oop to my limps). At about 1:45 into level 4 (150/300 25 ante) I limp KK utg. one limp behind me and the guy who mucked to my 99 raises to 1600 with 38k behind. Joey Cappella(live guy who I have a good repoir with) flats the button(~30k behind). I decide my squeeze should be large since I think orig. raiser always has a hand. I raise to 6k. He snap calls. Pretty sure I can narrow his hands to TT-QQ and AK, AQs. Joey tank flats what I assume to be a small pair. Flop JJ8 two diamonds, I have the K of diamonds. I decide to blatantly tank check as this guy loves to make me for AK/hands he can beat. (*side note shortly after the 99 hand I flopped quad 2’s verse same player and almost had him 3-bet shove 522r flop w/AQs to my ch/raise.) I check and he leads 9k into ~18k w/23k behind. Ez shove as aside from JJ and 88 I don’t think I’m beaten here much. I expect to see him either hero call off or hero fold TT, QQ, AQd and fold AK. I can’t imagine much else being in his range. He snaps my shove, tabling J9s…PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKE. I now have 13k.
Very next hand I take the bb and wake up w/86h. utg + 1 is very competent and opens to 825. He’s called in 4 spots. I didn’t even consider it at the time because I am 42bbs deep, but there is quite some merit to shoving here and picking up the 4800 out there. With the first guy being the only competent player in the hand/the fact that he has/will open light often makes it much more +ev. Anyway I flat. Flop K87 two hearts, gg tourney life. I end up getting it in verse Cappella’s K8s…sigh talk about worst case scenario. Just like that I find myself on the rail after having had just shy of 200bbs only two hands ago.
I’ll never question how blessed I’ve been in this life and I certainly won’t lose any sleep over taking the short end once in a while. But I do find it more and more difficult to take solace in this idea that all poker players(especially winning players) seem to manifest:”My time will come…” Sounds good in theory but not exactly a lot of fact to back it up. What gets me out of bed each morning is the grind. I may not ever reach the results I strive for or “hit the poker lotto” but as long as I am still involved in this game I will make a better than average living…
My apologies for the time lapsed between updates, wsop is a crazy time of year.
DTO: Due Theory Optimal 