VEGAS SUNDAY

I slept until noon. Tom's wife called at 7A or so and after talking with her, Tom was up for the day. He walked over to the Palms and won $600 playing $2/5 NL. Once I got up and showered, I went downstairs for some grub, then came back up to the room to settle in for the $200 Fult Tilt tourney.

There were 1205 runners and I managed to bring my A-game. I played only the good stuff early on and I steadily stacked up and kept myself around average. My big break came with blinds of $100/200 when I got QQ in first position. I had been relatively active lately and recently there were a couple of min-raises from first position. It usually hints at a small pair or an AJ type of hand. I min-raised to $400, which was called by second position. It folded around to the button, who went all-in for over $4k. It was the classic Harrington squeeze play. He thinks I can't call with the caller behind me, and the next guy doesn't have a strong enough hand to call or else he would raised me already. Well, it was just what I was looking for, so I made the call and he showed 44 and busted. This got me over $11k and I stayed above average for the next three and a half hours.

When we were at the bubble, Andy Bloch was at my table, putting a lot of pressure on the smaller stacks. When he wasn't, I was, and so was a player named PorkyChops. The three of us had most of the chips at the table. Once the bubble burst, we got back to playing flops. When I was on the big blind with 64d, Bloch raised from early position and I made the call. The flop came 973 w/two diamonds, giving me the flush draw and a gutshot. Even if he held an overpair, I wasn't in horrible shape, but if he's unpaired, then he surely missed the flop. I decided to check/raise him all-in. He had me covered by $21k and he made the call with top set. I still had 12 outs, so it was roughly a coin toss and I hit my gutshot on the river. The rail hated it, but I think it was a good play and now I had a stack of $120k.

Bloch was on the ropes with a $200 bounty on his head. On his big blind, it folded to me and I pushed all-in, a massive overbet, with KQh. I wanted to hint towards I could be holding anything and I just wanted to collect the bounty, which was certainly true, but there were two other players to get past before Bloch. All three folded. On the next orbit, Bloch managed to double up and then some, so he was around $53k the next time he was on the big blind. Again it folded around to me and I woke up with a hand - AJh. I pushed all in and when it got to Bloch, he called and showed AJ. While I held a small advantage by being suited, it looked like I wasn't going to be collecting the bounty just yet. But that's not the worst of it - his AJ managed to four flush me to steal the pot, dealing me a massive and unexpected blow.

Bloch went on a tear and soon became the runaway chip leader with 450k, while I kept tasting defeat over and over - kind of bitter tasting. A table change put him and his huge stack to my left which was death to me. The blinds and antes got to be where winning them would increase my stack by 30%, so I waited for a good spot and pushed with J6d. Bloch folded his monster stack but the next guy woke up with KK and it was over. I finished 25th and cashed $880. I would have liked more for making the final three tables, but I suppose I'll be happy for the top-heavy payout when I manage to make the final table. Bloch surprisingly only lasted to 18th, so he wasn't destiny's child after all.

Tom and I met up and went to Caeser's. I signed up for the $70 tourney at 11P, leaving me with an hour and a half to play $1/2 NL. Tom played the same stakes and skipped the tourney. We were at separate tables. Tom lost $400, erasing much of his profit from the earlier game. I lost $84, then moved to the tourney, where I busted out in level two. We went back to the room and talked politics/history until dawn.