SATURDAY 1K in the MONEY....continued....

Okay I am now awake!

Yeah...I slept a whole three hours. Guess I am just too fired up for today. And can't stand that I left you all in suspense. I wish we were back at 4 instead of 2. I know today's $340 is going to be huge and I want to attempt the famous Back-to-Back Cash and/or Final Table move. But I just don't know if I can chip up enough in two hours to weather the potentially 2 to 5 hour 'out period' that could ensue in todays continuation of the $1k event. Nevertheless, I like the challenge! And I am pretty much freerolling as I am guaranteed no less than $2500 right now.

So yeah....when we left off the guy I smacked with Quad 4's was pulling the magical min raise play on my BB....with QQ....when I called with K8c...behind a call by BJ McBrayer. I bet out 7500 into the guys' 17k stack on a k-7-J flop. He pauses then states...."I guess I'm all in." BJ folds...after pondering a bit and assuming I have him outkicked (which obviously I don't) I do some math, kick myself for calling the min raise, almost certain that he has AA or maybe AK....and make the boneheaded call (at least I thought it might be) and he tells me good call. Wow. And no two outer spikes. Nice pot there...and I was rolling.

We get it down to 36 finally and do a complete redraw. I get moved to a table with almost all new players to me on the day. But there is BJ again on my right. BJ McBrayer....ohhhhh boy. BJ is my friend, but I will say this, there is NO love coming from BJ at the poker table. If he has a chance to felt me, he is felting me. He has the killer instinct no matter who is in his way. Not exactly how I roll, unless and until we are at the Final Table. So I know I can count on him to sit there and drill me in the BB whenever he gets a chance.

We play for close to an hour and a half. Not sure but I think I raise 5 times during this period. Get folded to three times. Bet out on the other two (both times with nothing) and get folded to. On the last one, BJ was trying to exploit the bubble, raising from cutoff when I woke up with QQ on the button and raised him from 6k to 20k. "Ya ready to play for it all right here Monkey?" You aren't calling BJ and you know it. Nope. Fold. Keeping up with the average stack was a freaking race that kept getting harder and harder to keep up with.

Met a new player last night. Dwyte Pilgrim. Just looked him up on CardPlayer...and sure enough...he is as hot as he claimed to be. 37th in POY this year...this guy is destroying everything he's been playing this year. Now this is kind of funny....Dwyte is black. And buddies with another really cool dude that I have known for a couple of years...Mo, who's last name I don't know. Somewhere in the course of playing with Dwyte I decided he needed a nickname...and since I am kind of the master of the Nickname...I came up with "The Duke" as in.....'well, lookie here Pilgrim!' which if you know your American Movie History....will recognize this as a John Wayne one-liner. Pretty sure Dwyte loves it...and I hope to see Dwyte "The Duke" Pilgrim on a leaderboard soon!

Well, Dwyte had a lot of chips most of the night. Then he gets moved behind me...to the table with CHIPZILLA! This guy...forgot his name...but I'm sure I will remember it by the end of today, has, at the end of the day...FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND (450,000) chips! Well, 'THe Duke' decided to finally start drinking with the Monkey...thinking it would be helpful to his stack...it wasn't. He gets it all in on the button with AQ...vs the 44 of Chipzilla....and the 4's hold. That took us to 28. Right before him this kid who had started out on my first table...and who I KNEW would be very dangerous....and was glad to get away from when our table broke...would pull the FLAMEOUT of the DAY! BJ told me he bubbled the guy in a recent 5k somewhere and that he blew up the same way. It was utterly retarded. The guy had like 120K. Here is his brilliant move. Chipzilla raises him from the SB with AK. Dodo re-raises him with A5. The Chip Monster tells him....TELLS HIM...."I am going to re-raise you ONE more time...and if you shove, I am calling!" The Genius doesn't listen very well. He shoves. CALL! Dude is GONE! Sick.

Don't remember who the bubble was...but who cares. I was too busy finishing the delicious pizza that Birol Lemir had sent up here from his pizza joint, Pizza Fiesta down on Bourbon Street....thanks Birol...YOU ARE THE MAN! It was time to bag up our chips! In the money baby! Monkey has 86k. Average is 93k. But that average is majorly skewed due to THE MONSTER and his 450k. With 2.6 million in play that makes the average more realistically...about 83k per player. So I am right there with everyone.

Regardless, this is my 2nd consecutive cash in this event...getting 2nd last year. But its been a lousy year for me...I NEED to get deep today. Wow, I REALLY want to go over there and play this noon tourney...but I look at my clock now and its 11:52 right now. Havent showered. And Keith says we may have to vacate our room today. Yikes. Bad recipe there for going to play at noon.

Just called Steve Frezer...they have just over 400 right now. Wow. Surprising. Might not top the 572 from last week. Hmmmm. Ohhhh there is that itch! Should I scratch it? Side note. Usually in tourneys we play until 2am or Final Table, whatever comes first. We had one player...who shall remain nameless, but which rhymes with FANNY...bitching ALL night about how 'stupid' and 'idiotic' it was that they were making us play until the money...which didn't happen until 4am. I got real sick of listening to him bitch. Because frankly...who the hell wants to play a 14 to 16 hour day...go to bed...and STILL NOT BE IN THE MONEY? Unless its the Main Event in Vegas!?? NO one! How stupid, go home for the night with 35 players....which means you can't play at noon today (unless you are crazy like me!) and then you take a bad beat, go out 31st, miss the money....then how mad are you!?? So to the tournament guys I say this....GOOD JOB! You did the right thing, and just about EVERYONE agreed.

To that lady who called the State Police on me yesterday? I hope some very strange Karmadic thing happens to you today! To all my friends who have been Facebooking me and text messaging me their support all day and all week...THANKS a TON! It means a whole lot to me! You guys are the best 'family' I have! Now then....let's go get this done! Or go down fighting!

MONKEY