Moon Makes a Score

A lot of news.

First off the Bag will soon be finishing his full, heartpounding account of his run in the $2500 shorthanded tournament from Tuesday. He finished 42nd and cashed for over 6k. Half of this went straight to me, since I bought 50% of his action. Clearly a smart move from the resident professional gambler. His play was absolutely inspiring.

Second, the Rio sucks. First there was the whole "woodpecker on acid" fiasco which led to a room switch and an annoying series of jumps through hoops after I realized I left my cell phone charger in the old room. Then tonight Sanders got locked out of the room. Not because he didn't have his key but because inexplicably it didn't work. Then the water shut off. No sink, no shower, no toilet. Again I was able to snag a $50 comp but this is getting ridiculous. I can't wait to get out of here. The casino is always packed and noisy and it makes my head spin. I really need to be in a chiller environment. Tomorrow is my last day in the Rio.

I made a score tonight at the Palms $200 + one $200 rebuy tournament. Honestly I did not bring the A game until the end of the tournament. Early on I made some mistakes, siphoned some chips, and got shortstacked very early even though I rebought. The last hand before the first break I was lucky to dodge some draws after I flopped two pair in the big blind and I tripled up. I later doubled up with A3 against 77 and K9 against A8s, tripled up with 77 against Q9s and ATs, and tripled up with JJ against 88 and another player who was forced to fold. Once we got to the money (27 players) I was able to win some large pots with uncalled all-in moves and pushed my way to the final table (my first cash and first final table at a casino tournament). This was not virtuoso poker by any means but rather a series of lucky breaks and minimization of mistakes. The blinds were so huge that the play was basically Russian roulette and I was just lucky that the gun assigned to me kept firing blanks.

Down to 9 handed I had 45k with the blinds at 1.5-3k and a 500 ante. So I had 15 times the big blind...and I was second in chips. Everyone had between 25 and 60k with the average around 42k. After a painful negotiating process which brought out the worst side of a couple personalities we agreed to split the money evenly, giving everyone $6600 and the chip leader an extra $1k. With the blinds so huge and almost all the money in the first three spots I accepted the deal even though I felt my expected value was probably more than $6600 in that scenario (since I have a lot of experience in crapshoot Sit 'N Gos.) Jeremy Barr you would have known how to play the hands as well as anyone else.

In other news I am considering bailing out of here. I'm not feeling that confident about my game right now and more importantly I think I would be having more fun in Boulder. I am 100% sure I am going to play in the main event on July 7 but I think staying here for another month straight until then might be too much.