Let's take Michele first - he has done well by surviving day 1 and will continue the fight for the championship! However, he is down to $6,150 in chips and will need to double up a couple of times to stand a chance in the long run. I hope to get a more detailed interview from Michele Saturday.

Meanwhile I decided to give it another go at Harrah's - after all I won it the other night, so the mojo should be alright and my confidence in my game has rarely been higher.

Wednesday we were 80 players total, today Friday we reached 90. This time however, I came off to a very dry start, saw hardly any cards at all the first 4 levels before the break. After the break I managed to double up once with AJ vs. 88, and later once more when I trapped with AK, and another player decided to try a squeeze with AJ. All of a sudden I was above average again and doing well. They broke up our table about 2 hours into the tournament and I was seated in seat 7 at a much tougher table han the first one. My first hand UTG was QQ, (blinds $1,000-2.000 my stack at $28,000) I raised to $8,000, I had a caller from a huge stack in seat 9, then seat 10 went all-in! Fold around to me. Hard decision I think, and since I did not know the players and yet and my tournament life as at stake I decided to let it go. Seat 9 also let go, and the Italian player in seat 10 showed QQ - we had the same hand!!!

Next hand I showed to the table was KK in an all-in situation where I busted a player, so my image was good and solid, and at the later stages I got a lot of respect from the table and managaed to steal quite a number of blinds and antes.

It's late - or early if you will - and I will make it short: I made it to the final table as the big stack and managed to build it even more until I sat on $350,000 of the $900,000 in play. 6-handed I first lose an all-in with KK vs. A6s, then my AK can't win vs. AJ, and when a strong agressive French player in seat begins to play back at me I lose a chunk of chips. When the forth place finisher is out the three of us were at $240,000/$330,000/$330,000 and we decide to chop the pot 3-way, still a nice chunk of cash with a little more than $2,500 to each of us, not bad for a $150 investment, eh?

Saturday I will most probably play either at the Golden Nugget or Venetian, both places have a $1,000 2-day event. Mike will be joining me and change from the $4-8 game he has been grinding succesfully over the last days.

Goodnight!

Michele looked fit and redy to play. Butterflies in the tummy I think, but his wife is on ringside to support him, and she has made sure he holds on to the cross she gave him today. "He does not respect the Lord enough" she told me as we gave him the last wave and encouraging words of advice.




Next door to the playing rooms the Poker Palooza show has opened its doors. It began yesterday and despite the name change it's all the same mix of crap and goodies for poker players.

I picked up the cards for the TPT and the new club, saw the people I had appointments with, ran into the defending World Champ who was suffering from a severe hang-over from the Drunk Danes game at the Venetian the night before, and bought a few things here and there.

In the afternoon Greg Raymer gave a free seminar for the visitors, Joe Hachem and a lot of other big names ran around and had their photos taken with everybody who wanted it.



Later in the day I tried the Mandalay cash game. As promised the table was super-soft, most of them limpers and calling stations, but nontheless I was down more than $200 before I finally managed to double up through my neighbor who caught the nut flush on the river while I had slow-played a flopped set of queens which filled up with the very same river card - thank you 6 of spades!!

Later the fish swam out of the tank and let some young sharks in, I left the table with a decent plus and went home to crash.

Tonight I might try the Harrah's tournament again, and tomorrow I am eye-balling the Main Event at the Golden Nugget's Grand Series of Poker, we'll see.

I am wiped out, tired and card drunk from a long night at the tables. I had decided on an easy-going day after the long haul at the Venetian yesterday.

Today took off when I met with Michele and his wofe to sign him up for the Main Event. We met for a cup of coffee at Starbuck's and continued to the registration desk and the cashier with the $10,000 in bills from Banco Nacional. Michele was awarded a seat at table 39 i Blue Amazon, seat 6 - a good spot for the spectators, and I hope I will be able to give updates during the Friday the 3rd.

While Michele took off to play at the Venetian in the afternoon, I took a ride with Jeff in his rental car to go shopping (don't tell Marian, shhhh!!). We were back in the afternoon, I had lunch and took a  nap, and later I went to the Bellagio while Jeff went to Harrah;s to sign up for the 8 p.m. tournament.

I joined him just half an hour before tournament start and paid the $150 entry fee. The total number of players added up to 80, a decent stack size with $10,000 and blinds of $25/50 to begin with. 20 minute levels, though, but this is also the maximum you can expect from e one-nighter, so no complaints here.

Jeff was busted about 2 hours into the tourney, while I had a good run and a table where I think I had a pretty picture of the player types, and I was able to adjust to them accordingly.

I made a lot of solid agressive plays, one or two good laydowns and the couple of suckouts you have to make i order to win a tournament like this - so I did! When we reached the final table I was third in chips, but I played my way to the chip lead. When we were 3-way I had the double amount of chips of the other 2 players, so when one of them took out the other we were as even in chips as you can get, so we decided to chop the pot of aound $6,000 - a nice payday finally!!

Tomorrow Thursday is the first day of the Poker Palooza, the usual poker show with tons of offers and free stuff. Jeff is headed back to Costa Rica, but I will hook up with Diego and check out the action , and probably later on try the cash game at Mandalay Bay which so far has proven profitable to Diego by a juicy margin.

Updates coming....

Event #54
As a regular reader of this blog you will know that Mike was MIA last night, but we finally got some life signs from him today. Here is what he wrote:

"I ran into AA again with KK.  Took half my stack when I built up to 22,000.  
  
final two hands went like this.  Blinds are 400-800 100 ante...... guy to my right raises to 2,200.  I move all-in in the cutoff with AK off for 13,000.  Big blind calls me for 12,200, original raiser folds.  JJ in the big blind.  I lose.
 
800 left, next hand.  folds to me and I have AJ, I call for the 700 I have left....big blind is the only player in against me, he has wired 3s.  Flop comes 3 10 10"

Julian continued today on day 2 of the $1,500 bracelet event #54, with about 2/3 of the average stack. He played himself deep into the money, but unfortunately not all the way to the bigger pay-outs. Nonetheless Julian finished in 156th place of the 2,800 field and doubled his investment - he should be proud of his accomplishment as the first Guanacaste player to cash in the WSOP 2009, congrats big guy!

Main Event
Michele and his wife arrived today, they ran into me while I was playing at the Venetian (I wonder what authentic Italians think of that place...) and we will be signing him up Tuesday morning. Michele expects to play day 1A on July the 3rd, I will of course follow the action and keep you all updated on this blog.

Deep Stack Extravaganza at the Venetian
This tournament series has become extremely popular and well attended by pros and amateurs alike. The casino has enlarged their poker capacity, and today's $340 buy-in tournament attracted more than 950 players! Compare that to the similarly structured tourney at Caesar's which had 279 entries. Actually Caesar's tournament has more chips and longer levels, and start at a level lower in the blinds, but with the number of players at the Venetian they would not be able to finish the event in 2 days if they were to keep a structure like that. Still, plenty of chips and room for plays and maneuvres.

Both Diego, Jeff and I signed up, confirmed the now almost obligatory last-longer side bet and agreed on a small hedge. My table 35 is good enough, 2 or 3 very solid and tight players, plus a small handful calling stations, but nothing ridiculous. At the first break after two levels I connect with Jeff on the phone, but he is already out! 2 minutes later I run into Diego, also on his way home - WHAT!!? As the lone musceteer - but at least $40 richer - I sit down again and start building my stack. I make it all the way to $18,000 (starting stack $12,000) before I lose a smaller pot - when my table is broken into the 6th level (blinds $300-600, ante $50). I am moved a few tables down the line, and from being the chip leader at my table I become the small fish in the big pond with 4 of the stacks at the table larger than mine. I am UTG in the 1st hand and have to fold both my hands in the BB and SB. When I get the button my stack is at roughly $15,000. Everybody folds to me and I look down on

 

I raise to $2,000, and the SB immediately goes all-in over the top of me with a stack similar to my own. Now the audience has to know a couple of things: 1. I know the guy - a Venezuelan "loco" I know from both San Jose and Panama City, super and overly agressive and the thing that makes him tick is getting away with big bluffs - a classic latino macho donkey (with all due respect) 2. He does not remember me 3. I ain't folding this baby.

So I call, and to no surprise of mine he flips over

 

The "Doyle Brunson" hand proves it's magic by flopping two pairs and I am knocked down to $475, less than one big blind!!

I fold the following hand to the sounds of the moaning and groaning from the players around the table, but I laugh and give the dude a fist for good sportsmanship, ready to tighten the straps on my 3 Kings nylon bag and head home to Rio. In the next hand I get

 

- perfect hand!! I push my massive stack towards the middle, and now my brilliant Venezuelan friend decides to move all-in and leave thousands of $$ of dead money in the pot for me should I win the hand. Of coruse I do, his A 8 o ws no mach for my powerhouse when a 6 came on the turn - now I am at $2,200!! A couple of hands later I push again, twolimpers fold, my South American benefactor calls with 10 7, and my K J holds up - now I am at almost $6,000!!!! I will spare you the details of the next couple of hands, but within my first 20 minutes at the new table I build my stack back up to where I was and more - I doubled up with aces vs. A 10, and with my beautiful loose image I later doubled up again with KK vs. JJ. When my 2nd table broke I was the chip leader and the bully, my Venezuelan friend was on his way to the airport and my stack was at a very healthy $57,000! (average $24,000)

I find my new table, ready to conquer new territory. A real cooler when I sit down and see that the guy to my left has $125,000, his table mate, a cute Chinese poker dealer from upper state New York has $70,000. hmmmm.... not what I had hoped for, now I had to sit down and wait for opportunities while getting reads on my table and try not to tangle too much or too loosely with the big stacks to my left.

Slowly but surely I get the picture at the table. I am in seat 1 with around $60,000. In seat is a young dude who talks too much, a lot of chips arrive and leave his stack. In seat 3 and even more loose player who I see win and loose around $85,000 over the next 2 rounds of hands. In seat 4 the chinese poker dealer, seemingly very tight and knows how to play back at seat 2 and 3 when in position. She basically takes $100,000+ from both of them while I am there, without ever showing a card. In seat 5 Mr. congeniality who nevertheless hates seat 3 and loudly expresses his discontent when the young players gets away with plays seat 5 don't like. Of course he himself does nothing about it, in fact I see him lay down 4 pre-flop raises when other players put him to the test with all-in moves and large re-raises. Seats 6-7 are tight players, a new older gentleman arrives to seat 8 and plays surprisingly agressive. The first times he does that everybody backs down, but then we get the picture and I give him a hard tme when I push all-in against his position raises, he folds both times and I build my stack.

The field is now narrowing but our table has a lot of chips in play, and nobody is leaving anytime soon. At dinner break we are down to 170 out of the 950 starting, payout begins at 71. We play 1 level after the dinner break, and I take out seat 2 with A 10 suited against his 10 8 suited. I hit the $100,000 mark, average is around $75,000.

Blinds increase to $1,200-2,400, $300 ante. I lose a couple of steal attempts and a knocked down to average again, when a crucial comes up:

A young tight "idiot from Northern Europe"-type player in seat 10 who still overplays his cards open the pot in 2nd position to $6,400. He's got $50,000+ behind, I look down on

 

to his immediate left. I re-raise him to $25,000. Everyone else folds to him, he thinks about it for a long time and I am happy, confident I am way ahead. He finally decides to call. The flop comes

  

Seat 10 moves all-in immediately and I snap-call faster than you can say "suck-out!"

His pocket jacks are joined by the nasty



on the turn, so instead of me cruising towards the money and perhaps a realistic chance at the 1st prize a $100,000+ I am now sitting with $15,000 left in front of me and a nauseating feeling to my stomach. A fucking 2-outer with 2 cards to come, I was nailing the last nail in his coffin when the corps jumped out like a jack-in-a-box!!

I managed to steal the blinds and antes once, but the second time I moved all-in the Chinese dealer in seat 4 woke up with cowboys and this time they held up. Out on 137th place.

Still, I have been playing some of my best poker here in Vegas, I have run deep in all tournaments, I am just missing the last bit of luck to make my first big live score.

stay tuned

Just like the case was for the Guana Guys in event #51, we only have one player left in the field - we think! Tyler is out, and we could not find Mike anywhere at the end of the day, but so far is only MIA until further notice.

Julian is ready to rumble on day 2. Was doing well sitting at around $40,000 when a hyper-agressive player flopped two pair with 53 while Julian had made top pair with his signature hand - the A 10. That took half of his chips, but he is sitting at $20,200 before action begins on day 2. Average is around 33,000 with about 380 players left, 297 of them will be paid.

On another note I followed the last stages of the Final Table of event #51 - an old acquaintance from my backgammon days in Europe emerged as the bracelet winner: German Carsten Joh, a professional backgammon and poker player residing in Spain. He was the coolest, most calm and collected, and I know he is tough as titanium and cold as steel. His young opponent heads-up cracked under the pressure - you could tell from miles away who would win that battle!

Tuesday I will make another attempt to get a phone number and then I will head for the Venetian and their Deep Stack Extravaganza, a structure and tournament format much like the Mega Stack at Caesar's. Diego will probably be joining me.

We've had one more unfortunate casualty since last update - Diego went out when his top pair top kicker lost to a flopped set...

We all just had a great burger dinner, exchanged stories, advice, jokes etc. at the Sports Deli, and the guys are already back in action, now hitting level 7. Blinds will be $200-400, $50 ante, and the chip counts are

Tyler - $17,300 (aces vs. 10s, flop comes 10 (!) - x - A(!!))
Julian - $22,000 (kicking ASS!!)
Mike - $15,625 (lost a large pot with Kings vs. Aces)

In other words, they are all above average and doing great, I'll try to get an update later tonight, if not then check the update tomorrow morning.

Back at day 2 for Caesar's Megastack Series, I checked out the chip count sheet for the remaining 27 players. I was in 25th spot with a meager $69,000 starting in the small blind, chip leader was at $616,000 at another table.

My table blew up from the get-go. First hand we saw AA dobling up, secnd hand we saw the same player crippled with 77 vs. QQ, 3rd hand he was out. The player in seat 8 suggested a bet on how many players we would have left in the tourney by the end of the ccurrent level with 43 minutes remaining, and I took the over 16, he took the under. I joked about slowing down the action, but when he pushed in the 6th hand and I looked down on American Airlines I saw no need to take it easy, and it got even better when a 3rd short stack pushed with us - and my aces held up!! From zero to hero, I was now at $215,000 and cruisin'!

A few minutes later we redrew for the final 20 players and I was seated at a chip heavy table with three guys bigger than myself, among them the chip leader. The atmosphere was great, a lot of laughs as players were squatted left and right. I took out a young Swede with a short stack, which boosted me to $320,000 taking third position at the table. "Roethlisberger" in seat 6 and "Donkey" in seat 3 were bigger with $600,000+ and $500,000+.

Blinds now $8,000-16,000, ante $2,000. $40,000 in the pot to begin with. We were now guaranteed $1,218 in payout, but no really incline in prizes before top 5, which meant there was no reason to fold your way to the Final Table, a lot of pushing and gambling was bound to happen.

Now "Donkey" in 2nd position raises to $44,000, everybody folds to me in the SB, I am holding

 

My stack is at $302,000, I re-raise to $150,000, basically telling "Donkey" I am pot comitted. He shoves and I call, a little bit surprised to see him flipping over

 

It was either the chip lead or the heavy walk to the cashier, so I can't say I am entirely unhappy about the scenario, however the board gave me no help and I walked away in 15th place.

I might not be the gambler he is, and maybe he would only have folded to an all-in from me. I might have over-estimated his observation skills, but I know he was keeping a keen eye on my stack, we had talked about it he and I at the break. Now I am frustrated over losing the hand this way, and maybe I should have shoved instead of getting cute and require more finesse from my opponent, but I seriously thought he would get the hint and be able to fold a small or medium pair, after all 9's are really not that good a hand when you know you will be playing for $300,000+ instead of just taking the blinds and antes.

something to think about....

WSOP Event #54 update - chip counts after level 4

4 Guana Guys and Diego Quesada playing today - and they are doing relatively well, with one exception: Jeff got his aces cracked by KQ - 2 pairs on the flop completed by a king on the river to fill up.

Julian took most of Mark Seif's chips and is now at $11,000, Tyler is at average $7,000, Mike at a nice $17,000 and Diego just around $10,000. I'll get a new update after the dinner break.

Kevin busted as no. 304 in event #51, just 7 places before the money, aaarrrgh! His pocket jacks did not hold up, so the sad status is that none of our six players made it to the stage where it got really interesting. Hopefully that wil change today when Mike Schaefer, Tyler, Jeff and Julian are pressing the RESET button in event #54 starting at noon. Also Diego Quesada who came to town Sunday evening will be playing, let's wish them all good luck!

Yesterday Jeff and I trickled down to Caesar's to play their Megastack tournament. En excellent structure (a LOT better than the WSOP) with $15,000 to begin with, blinds start at $25-50, levels of 50 minutes. I played this event once last year myself and came 12th out of 500+ players, paying for my entrire Vegas trip back then, so I returned to the scene of the crime with happy memories.

This year the buy-in is $340, we had 279 entries. Unfortunately Jeff never caught pace and exited a few hours into the tournament. I managed to stay at average most of the long afternoon, but after the dinner break I started growing my stack and when we were down to 40 players (27 places get paid) I was in the top5 and cruising. Then a table change, two other big stacks on my left impeded my freedom to make moves, and I lost 4-5 hands significant hands in a row - making good laydowns at least - and I was knocked down to below average again.

Lat table move of the day when we hit 30 players, I was now down to $114,000, average at $130,000+, blinds now $4,000-8,000, $1,000 ante. We would play down to the final 27, hand-for-hand when at 28. When we were down to 29 I pick up

 

in the cutoff seat. I have a smaller stack on the button to my left, the SB is a big stack while the BB is probably the smallest stack at the table at around $50,000+ while I have around $100,000.

I push my stack, and Einstein decided that

 

would be his choice of hand to risk his tournament life. Naturally he filled out his inside straight on the turn, leaving me - ME!! - on life support as the shortest stack. Volcano, explosion, eruption, foamy stuff coming out of my mouth.....

Anyways, I actually managed to get a walk in my BB once, and when somebody else at another table stood up and walked away I realized I had miraculously made the money and will be playing day 2 today at 2 p.m. holding $69,000 in chips with an average of $155,000. Minimum pay is $812, $16,000 for the winner.

Updates coming later today

So, back from dinner break I get AKs in the very first hand, I open the pot woth a raise to $1,200 (blinds $200-400, ante $50) only to be greeted by an all-in from a small stack of $3,600. I called and made full house on the turn, back to almost average!!

My new table got broken up again, and I was moved for the second time tonight. I played myself up to almost $20,000, then down again to $10,000 tangling with the big stack to my right, who was not only on a rush, but also extremely active.

Everybody folds to me on the button, and I raise to $2,000 (blinds now $300-600, $75 ante). SB folds, while Big Blind completely buys my weak hollywood acting and reraises me all-in.I call immediately of course, and he flips over 10 5 o - SWEET!! Up to $22,000 and above average again!!

Meanwhile the big stack in seat 1 has grown to $50,000+ and keeps bullying the table. We're 45 minutes from the end of the day, and we're down to 550 players, 298 get paid. Everybody folds to him in the SB, he calls, I check with K9 resisting the urge to raise him. Flop comes AKJ. He leads out with $2,000 I raise him to $5,000, he calls rather quickly, haven't yet seen him fold to a raised bet on the flop. The turn is the deuce of diamonds, he checks. There is now $12,000 in the pot, and I have about $13,000 behid, so I go all-in, convinced I have the best hand.He snap-calls with pocket aces and I am drawing dead, nice play Sir, good luck and good night!!

Kevin was still in when I left, but nursing an extremely short stack, let's hope at least one of us will make it to day 2 and the money!!

Mike did not register for the event, so it ended up being Jeff, Kevin, Julian, Tyler, Harry and myself.

Jeff and I could follow each other in the Amazn room as we were just a few tables apart. After the first 2 levels Jeff was more or less even, while I was down to $2,700 (start stack $4,500). Third and forth level however, were a lot kinder to me, especially one big hand helped:

I am holding

 

in the SB. The big stack at the tabe limps from the cutoff, I complete while the BB checks.

The flop comes

  

Pretty sweet, eh?

everybody checks.

The turn brings



check-check-check

The river comes



Now I bet $300 int the $450 pot. BB folds, big stack raises to $750.

I am sure he either has a flush or a full house, so I puch all-in, and after a coupleof minutes of twisting in his seat he calls with pocket 5's for the smaller full house.

That brought me up to $13,000. Later I hit $15,000, was at $14,450 at the 2nd break.

The last 2 levels have been hard o me though. First I double up a small stack on a 762 flop, I had pocket jacks but he had hit a set, down to $11,000. Since then  have been card dead, and I am currentlu at $7,625. The same is Kevin who is the only other left from our Guana Guys group. We've decided to chop the last-longer prize pool, so cough up the rest of you!

Hopefully we'll be able to double up soon to stand a fair chance of advancing in the tournament. Blinds will now be $200-400 with a $50 ante, so we need to push soon. 1,030 players left of the 2,800 starting at noon, top 280 pays. More than $600,000 for the winner, but we're not among the favorites right now - that will hopefully change!!

stay tuned