Monkey Business,--Beau Review

I figured it was about time for a blog entry. Glad I didn't write it after the last day of my Beau Rivage tourney. Yikes. Glad I let the smoke clear a little bit.

As I write this they are down to 27 in the Main Event. 1st place, a cool million. Mmmmm.......millionnnnnnnn. I got a text this morning from Jena, that's JENA...Cardplayer keeps wanting to call her JENNA...whatever....she tells me she has a half million chips and a shot to win. I would love it for her. Hell, anyone that I am close with I would love it for. Because I know if she wins, she is taking me and Squirrel on a cruise, right Jena!?? Ha. Good luck Jena.

Gabe texted me a short while later to tell me the same. And tell me about Jena's stack, as well as his bad beat exit. Holy crap. FOURTH hand of the damn tourney...and dude, when you start with 30K...the last damn thing you expect to be...is OUT on the fourth hand. But what are you supposed to do when you pick up KK....raise, get a call from some lady (guessing one of those ladies who had a lot of chips after day 2) and the flop comes K-5-4?

Are you going to fold to ANY bet? including an all in? She leads out, he raises....she goes all in. Or maybe she just open shoved on the flop. At any rate...it ALL got in on the flop. She has AK. 2 on the turn, 3 on the river..wheel. Are you kidding me? About how my whole week went at the Beau Rivage.

Look, I had a crappy week. At one point though, I was 19 for 38 in SNGs, so was clipping SNGs at a nice rate. But then my last two days I go 1 for 8...getting one-outed THREE times in one day, 2-outed twice, and 3-outed 6 times. I lost $120's like that, $230's like that, and even two $540's like that.

FUN hands: Donkey who likes to min raise, min raises again....I have 10-10...and knowing it will take a lot for me to fold to this clown after the flop...and running bad with 10-10 anyway..I smooth call. The biggest clown at the table moves all in behind me. This is a $230 btw.

I know this guy is making a move. First idiot goes all in. Im in there. Screw it. Donkey A has A-7 offsuit. Donkey B has 7-7. Hmmm okay, let me fade the ACE. Not even thinking about the 7. Till it comes flying out on the flop. Give me a break. OUT!

FUN hands: In a $540. Late night. Lots of drunks. Lots of women. Horror show. Pick up KQh. Raise UTG. Get called by Miss "any ace is worth calling with" A3h. Flop comes AKQ, one heart. Think about a check raise. But don't. Bet 750. (blinds 50/100) She calls. Mmmmhmmmm. 4 of hearts on turn. I shove 1300. She calls. And yep....slap us another heart on the river dealer. You rock! OUT.

FUN hands: In a $230. Down to 3. This guy has button raised the last 5 times. I have folded one good hand after another. This time I have AJs...and CALL this time. He has me covered by a mere 200. He flips over A7. Nice. Yeah....nice...seven on the river. FUCK! OUT.

FUN hands: IN the $1000 tourney...the one I REALLY, REALLY wanted to cash/make the final table in....to get (a) some early season POY points (b) some respect (c)some Rounder points and (d) some DAMN MONEY! Had literally played like a pussy all day. At the first break I had the same 6K I started with. Should have had 18K. UTG raises. Middle RE-raises. And I muck AK. WHAT? yeah...I muck AK, in the SB.

Flop comes A high. Second guy had QQ. So I started drinking bloody mary's and started playing like I had some balls. Rula the dealer pushed in and I offered him a deal. I was sitting on 2250 chips. Told him if I had 3x that by the time he pushed out I would pay him $50. I go on a tear! I get up to 8500. Last hand before the break, and his down...and I get 88 UTG. I raise. Shortstack goes all in. Shit! I have to call. he has QQ. And it holds. Leaves me with 5200. Rula gets hosed. Sorry bro. I tried.

I manage to chip up to about 9K. Then it happens. Guy in early position, who I have never seen/played against before, limps in for 200. It folds around to me in the SB...with, again...AK. Time to play like a NINJA MONKEY. I raise...to 700. THE BB CALLS (he has AQ I learn later) and....our hero calls. The flop comes A-4-J. I lead out for 1200. They BOTH call. WTF>??? Set of 4's? AJ? My gawd. Turn was nothing. I bet the only bet I can make...all of it. The first guy folds.

The moron....calls...and rolls over ACE FOUR! COME ON! Are you kidding me?

Dealer...please....put a K or a J on the river please. NO? DAMMIT! OUT! Guys sees me later, in
a SNG...taps my shoulder and says "I hope you aren't upset about that Monkey." I don't remember what I said...but I think it was something like "No I'm not upset, I'm playing for 100K, have only showed top 10 hands all day, and I get knocked out by a guy calling a big raise with A4 and flopping perfect? No, I'm not upset. I would much rather be playing this SNG."

Anyway...I think you all know this song and dance. Bad Beats. Period. Took a LOT of them. Didn't make a SINGLE damn DINNER break the whole week. But I feel like I played good all week. Avoided playing ANY cash game. Final tabled a 2nd chance, and won a bunch of SNGs, and should have won more.

Got to see a LOT of people I hadnt seen in a long time. It was fun. I have nothing to feel terrible about. I would have liked to get out to a good start to the year...but hey, lots of poker to play. My outlook for the year is positive. I am anxious to get out to Vegas and play ALL the Deepstack events and hopefully cash about 8 of them and final table 4 or 5. That is my goal.

On the last day, I did a lot of losing. But Frank Kasella showed up and we ended up having a great day. We played a couple sit n gos together. Then he got hungry. Well, I had already bought into a $230 SNG....and refused to walk away from my stack for the $300 he was offering me to go eat. Finally, I look down at QQ...hmmm, another chance to lose with QQ...I move in for $1100 (blinds 200/400) and run into two other all ins. AA and AK.

Nice. They flop the ACE! Of course. Whatever. We leave to go eat...and decide on B.R. Prime, my 2nd experience dining there this week. But this time instead of eating at the bar, we get a table. Cub ends up being sat next to us 15 minutes after we get started eating. He is with some young thing, didn't remember her name. Nothing special.

Frank is like me, LOVES the KOBE steak medium rare. So we both had one, some sides, I had some great oysters, and another bottle of the fabulous BINK pinot noir, which he LOVED as much as I do. Our service was great. Great meal. And he comped it. My favorite part of the meal! Frank is hilarious, lots of fun to hang out with. Cant wait to get out to Vegas and hang out with him and Allie Prescott. The three of us will probably shoot over to L.A. together and play some of the LA poker classic.

Again...I want to thank Johnny Groomes and Ken Lambert for letting me come back. I also want to thank all of you who supported me in my time away from there. For those who came up to me and welcomed me back, it meant a lot to me. It was great to see all the dealers again, too. 85 to 90% of you I really, really care about and regard very highly and appreciate all the nice things you guys say.

The other 10 to 15% who dont like me, or who I just tolerate (barely, in some cases), well...I'm back, deal with me! It was a great event for the Beau. Big fields. Great looking room. Good dealers. I just wish that it would have been longer and entailed more events. And that there would have been a cool 'shwag stand' out front like the one two years ago. And that I didn't have to leave early, and could have played the Main Event. But...you only have one Mother...and I made a pledge 5 months ago.

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