Saturday, Day 4 of WSOP...and the $1k at Venetian.

Well, its the homestretch here in Sin City...things are heating up. Day 4 in the WSOP...and as I scroll down the list of remaining players I see a lot of familiar names, both to the average Joe and to us guys who frequent every event and hang out with other poker players. I've sent out my good morning, good luck text messages and Facebook greetings to guys like Brent Catalano, a buddy of mine from the Atlanta area who is sitting in REALLY good shape heading back with 513k, to Matt Brady, Mike Beasley, TK Miles, David Diaz, Dan Schmeich of Houston, Mark Wilds, and then to be a good sport I even gave a little shout out to our favorite guy to make fun of and clown, Phil Hellmuth himself...whose Facebook status updates have been borderline nauseating! But he is in good shape to go deep. As are a few other top pros like Phil Ivey. Elky Grospellier is just destroying the field. Man...that guy is a freakin beast, isnt he? I've had a chance to get to know Dennis Phillips this summer, a really nice guy. It's pretty cool to see him deep with a nice stack. Maybe he will shake that 'one hit wonder' tag from a year ago if he can cash deep again.



Just heard back from Brent. He says he made the TV table with Joe Hachem yesterday...sure he made some extra coin for that. Awesome. And TK just texted back...dissappointed that he doesn't have around 400k, but we both have confidence he can make a late run. He also has a UFC ticket available that he hopefully won't be able to use, priced at $550...that takes place at 4:30 at Mandalay. I would LOVE to see a UFC fight, and will go if I bust...but I plan on NOT being out that early at Venetian today. But hey, if I take a bad beat I take a bad beat.



Well, so anyway...good luck to all those guys today, I know they all have to be pretty anxious and excited. I can begin to feel the large throngs starting to leave Vegas. It was just like this last year...as people get knocked out of the Main Event...and others start getting to the bottom of their bankroll. Event numbers start getting smaller and smaller. I spent two hours at the pool yesterday morning and just couldn't resist the temptation to go back and try for another win in the Venetian $550.



I arrived and bought in and was handed my ticket...TABLE 60!!!!! Oh my God! The Table of Doom! Seated one table over was Maurice Hawkins, my primary competition in the Leaderboard chase for Best All Around Player. Joe Cutler and McLean Karr arrived just after I did. Mike Terrill made his 'final forray' for the summer, badly needing a cash. Things would start well for me. I had a table with three women, who were so predictable, raising 4x with what we ALL knew was either JJ/QQ/KK/AA or AK....and getting called by everyone and anyone that had a pair or suited connectors, then getting drilled. I called a UTG 4x raise by this cow...knowing she had QQ or JJ....me with 10-10, and perfectly content to fold if I missed. I didn't. Flop came 10-7-3 rainbow. She led out on that 'perfect' board for her. Knowing she would pay off...I didn't even bother smooth callling her. I raised her 1200 bet to 2500...and she immediately shipped her whole stack. No!?? Did she really? Of course she did. She turns over....??? Duh...JJ. See ya.



I hung around for 7 levels. Then when I saw Maurice get punched out....after Mike had lost and Joe had lost...and then McLean....I sort of lost my sense of urgency a little. Made a bad fold after raising this French chick kept shipping on me every time I raised her BB. Then I made a bad read and a bad call on a guy who moved in UTG...with only 8bb's and thinking my AJ suited may have been the best hand...and with me sitting on half the average thought it would be a good spot to at least get back to average if I was right. Things went totally haywire when the guy behind me insta-called us both with QQ. Ouch. That ended the day for me there.



Joe and McLean and I walked around trying to figure out our next move. Unbeknownst to me, there was a nice little $540 nightly tourney at Bellagio that started at 7. 10,000 starting chips, great structure...and registration open til MIDNIGHT! Wow, really? Wish I'd known that when I was busting out at 11pm three nights in a row at Venetian earlier this week. So we climbed in my car and shot over there. Walked in to the Fontana room and immediately saw a bevvy of top players...who were there playing the noon Bellagio Cup $5k event. McLean and I got seated at the same table...along with 'Prince' Gaspar from the New Orleans Main Event. It was a pretty good table. First place, with 112 players would end up topping out at 18k. Nice, juicy little payout. I'd get low early...then win a few pots. And with the last hand before our second break...and me sitting on 8k...I pulled a sweet little move. In the SB and having peeked at AsKs...6 players limped in for 800 when I announced..."Okay, I am all in dark! Hope I have something playable!" I get two callers....KQ and J10 suited. Nice. I hit an ace and triple up to over 25k. How nice!



Seated in the 8 seat was this fat Euro who was an obvious cash game player. I was in the 6 seat. On one hand I would raise 3x with AQ...only to have this jackass reraise me 4x...but then the BB wakes up with KK and re-raises all in the same amount...to which I fold, and the fat euro prick insta folds....getting less than 2 to 1 to call. Total thief. Jerk. So when I looked down at QQ a few hands later...and made the same raise...only to have fatty do the SAME thing again...followed by a SMOOTH call by the BB....ridiculous play there....it was easy for me to go over the top ALL IN for 14k MORE....only to be followed by two FLAT CALLS...the second guy leaving himself with only 6k after that. So strange. I'm now thinking...holy crap...what am I up against. When an ACE hit the flop I KNEW I had to be dead. Whats funny is that these clowns CHECKED IT DOWN after the ACE hit! So weird. EURO FAT would have A10...you heard me....ACE TEN...and second clown had JJ. I was out. But at least I was ahead, with an excellent chance to chip up to around 48k right there with the average at 27k and only 32 players left. Whatever. I was out. McLean still had a fat stack when I left, and Joe was in decent shape too. Not sure how they made out. I'll find out today.



Wow, is it now seriously 11:30 am already? Damn! I need to try and get over there on time today....those early levels are a great opportunity to chip up early. And with hour levels...a guy can do some serious work early. I might have the Overall locked up with Maurice going out yesterday. Not sure...maybe I can get the guys at Venetian to update the standings today. The thought of winning that thing has me very excited. That and shooting up the POY leaderboard, hopefully inside of the TOP 100 if my calculations are correct. And we finally had a current issue of Rounder Magazine show up here...and I am NOWHERE to be found in ANY of the standings...thats a bummer. But this Venetian run should change that too. At least I've given them more PUB, as I was sporting my Rounder hat for the Cardplayer photo they took at the end of the recent win. I wish I would have had my GCP hat with me that day, I would have quickly put that one on. Sorry boys...that was kind of stupid of me not to grab that hat that morning. Please don't fire me as a blogger!!!!!



Okay...thats it for me...going for one more BIG SCORE today...then tomorrow is Mega Satellite day for the $5k Main Event that starts on Monday. Hopefully though, I will make it back for Day 2 of the $1k, win a bunch of money, and just buy in direct for $5k, not worrying about Mega'ing my way in! Stay tuned!



MONKEY