Another 10 hours. Oh for Two.

Hmmmm.

Today sucked. Arrive an hour late. No biggie, we started with 10k in chips. Have 'a very large man' in the 8 seat. I am in Seat 7. Good start. Guy on my right is a cigarette smoker. Very nice guy. But has that 'breath' that some smokers have. When he breathes on me I almost puke. This happened for 10 hours.

Our table would have 7 of the original 10 for ...well, until I busted out. Large man was one of the most annoying human beings I have ever played poker with. All these dealers are hopelessly awful. But 96% of them are really nice, so I am completely conflicted. The poker player in me is coming out of my skin. Slowly...I am coming completely unraveled. But the human being in me is trying so hard to put on a happy face.

Well 'His Largeness' had no problem offering his advice. In fact, from Level 3 to Level 9 I felt as though I was attending the Crescent School of Gaming. This one poor dealer had to listen to the putz correct him on probably 8 things during his down. I think my favorite was when we came back from dinner break. A dispute broke out as to where the button was supposed to be. Long story short....a full 6 minutes went by before we saw a damn hand. 11:28 seconds in our 2nd hand was finishing.

I got the worst cards today. How I made it to 10pm was somewhat mysterious. I had a grand total of 7 pairs all day. Deuces...FOUR TIMES. 4's once, which I had to fold preflop....as two guys got it in...one with AA, the other with AK. I flopped a 4 of course. Yay! Also had 66. Nothing. And then oh...in the BB...everyone folds to the SB, 'Smoky.'

We sort of playfully agree to check dark all the way to the river. The board had 4 diamonds, and an ace. He turns over 2-8, no diamond....but an 8. Hmmm...I turn mine over. One ace...oh, winner...and ANOTHER ACE! You kidding? Granted, any raiser would have probably crushed my set of aces with a flush. And that was at 150-300...could have been out SO much earlier.

But instead I would hover below average....get smaller, and smaller....watch as my 10-7 would have made a boat vs. AK and AQ. Watched as several other hands would have won. In fact...on the 2nd hand of the day...I was going to limp in with 3s5s. But Smokey raised to 300 behind me. So I folded. Flop? 2s-4c-6s. No efffing way. The first guy had a set. The 2nd I don't know, but I would have tripled up. Should have known there how this day was going to end up.

Whatever. I lost. Finally, at 500/1000 and sitting on 3600 chips, I had Ac8c UTG...and moved it in. Got called twice....the eventual winner had AQ....we both hit the A. I shook his hand and wished him luck. Then found a $280 SNG.

On the third hand I about killed the dealer. Same dealer from last night. Old guy, wearing ridiculous suspenders. Last night he tried to insist he wasn't new. Right. I was in the 10 seat last night. Which I hate. But when I'm there, I always lift my hands while they deal out the cards. This coot....tells me "you gotta move your hands when I'm dealing!" I am sir. In fact, I couldn't lift them any more. No, he wanted me completely out of the way. Strike one!

Well, tonight...on the 3rd hand...I'm in the BB with 33....three limpers for 50...and this lady makes it 300. Here we go. I fold. Middle position calls. Flop comes A-K-9. He checks. She bets 600. He makes it 1800. She shows the guy next to her the cards in her hand. The dealer is looking at her. She folds. I am waiting for him to turn the cards up. But he doesn't. I ask him..."Sir can we all please see the cards?" He looks at me and says "she folded. Her cards are in the muck." "Sir, her cards are not in the muck, they are right there! And not just that, when you see her show her cards to the person next to her, you are obligated to take the hand and turn it up." Well he freaked out. I said nothing. I just sat there, actually shocked that this guy was going off on me. I said nothing. Then he says to the effect of "If you're gonna tell me how to do my job, I will just call a supervisor over..." to which I said...'Sir, don't bother. You just keep dealing. No sense in upsetting everyone else's time. I will go find a Supervisor myself."

Which I did. I very calmly explained the situation. She was very understanding. She agreed with me. I told her my background, my reputation to attract trouble. That I came up here with the intent to avoid it at all costs. That instead of getting into with him, I elected to simply report the incident to a supervisor. I am getting smarter. I refuse to let this kind of crap get me in trouble anymore.

I go back to the table. Dealer is glaring at me. Lovely. I now have a strong desire to either win this thing or hurry up and bust out. I get my wish. I pick up KJc. I limp in. Middle guy makes it 200. Gets one call. I decide to call. Flop comes 8c-ks-10c. Nice. I check. Middle bets 500. Other guys calls. I raise all in. Middle calls, other guy folds. He has AA. Oooof. But no club. Just give me a K, a J or a club dealer. No? Fine. I tell the other guy "nice hand sir...good luck...see ya tomorrow" and leave.

Come back to my hotel and forget what room I'm in. Try three floors before I figure it out.

Squirrel starts texting me. She got off early, and decided to play cash game at the Beau. Big mistake. Now for you people who KNOW Squirrel you will know that she RARELY curses. She can't stand it when I do. Its one of her real 'things' about me. Well, to get her cursing takes a lot. I got 12 text messages from her. Whats that movie? Umm....can't think of it...where the guy leaves like 15 voice messages...and they start out all sweet and nice...and gradually get worse and worse and stalkerish...until he completely comes unglued by the last one? Well that was Squirrel's chain of text messages.

The final one? "I hate this guy. I want to stab this fucker in the eye!" Awesome. I laughed for about ten minutes. I LOVE IT when she gets worked up like that. I think it even turns me on. Too bad I'm 1200 miles away. Aparantly this guy was a real douche. Calling every raise....and never folding. She flopped a set of Kings, lost. She had AA.....lost. Pretty much every decent hand she had this clown busted. She just went home. Poor thing. I hope I win something up here decent so when I get home I can just plop a couple grand on her nightstand to ease her pain.

Its a real catch 22 up here. The structure is, truly, fantastic. The room is great...so spacious. But the bad and the ugly is just that; bad and ugly. The dealers are just so doggone bad...it really affects the play. We just aren't seeing any hands. And the constant mistakes make it so difficult. The floor people are never anywhere to be found. There is no real control being demonstrated. I have no idea who the actual tourney 'point man' is, ever. Its always someone else giving tourney info. They don't ever post the total players and remaining field. The payouts don't show up for 7 or 8 levels. At one point...a floor guy walks behind our table and fired this seat card at the dealer in the box. One of those laminated seat cards, 3x5 in size. The thing whizzed right by my left eye, missing me by inches. I was like..."Holy fucking shit dude...are you kidding me!!!!" Oh...I didn't SAY THIS....I was thinking it. I was actually stunned.

Just curious, that guy puts my eye out? Or just cuts my face...what happens next? Does anyone have that answer? I probably get 86'd for getting my face in the way of the flying seat card.

So I am oh for two. And have logged 20 hours. Tomorrow is a $1k. Bigger buy in. More chips, longer levels. Promising. There are better players up here than I have been seeing in places like Tunica. Which is nice. But there are also some real bad ones. But they are the good kind of bad, if that makes sense. The kind who have exactly what you THINK they have. I don't mean the guy who insists on chasing his flush draw, or his gutshot...those guys live in the South. No these are the bad kind who you know just have a single pair....when you have a set or a straight. The non-dangerous bad players. THe ones who double you up at will. The are the ones I need to hook up with for some nice double/triple ups. I haven't gotten that lucky yet. But I've watched it happen all around me. So I will remain hopeful.

Patrick Swayze passing away really made me sad. George W. Bush's former speech writer has written a book. Shocking. What's the over/under on this guy ending up in a river or a trunk somewhere? Oh and OJ's old girlfriend of 13 years shows up on a tell-all interview, about the abuse she endured. Come on! Oh...and Jessica Simpsons dog was 'scooped up by a wild coyote' and taken away. I love dogs. You all know I love dogs. Immensely. So why did I find this kind of funny? Is it because its Jessica Simpson? Must be. I heard that Chad Brown won the Main Event at the Beau. Thats great. He's quietly having a really good year. 4th in Tunica, winning the Omaha event down there...then winning the Main Event. Cool. He must be doing something right. Good job Downtown Marty Brown. [inside joke, sort of]

Still havent gotten my 5k from the Beau Rivage. Over/under bets now being taken. The number is 27 days. Closest to the number wins. What do you win? Good question.

The food here is pretty good. I mean, the food they are offering in the poker area. They give us all $10 food comps. Or maybe you have to make the dinner break to get one. Not sure...made them both so maybe thats why I got one. Relatively affordable. There is no dedicated area for the Final Tables, which is kind of surprising, given the size of the room. There is a lot of holes in this production. I think if they brought a really good poker person to run this tourney...it could be one of the best events in the world. Truly. So much potential. And the Borgata itself is just gorgeous. The casino staff itself is very friendly. Played some table games last night and all the dealers were really cool. As were the people in the pits.

I guess thats about it. I need a cash tomorrow. A good, deep one. Time to get me some East Coast Cred. No better way to do it than by Final Tabling the $1k right?

GOOD NIGHT

MONKEY