Heartbreak in Aruba.......

Man...I tell ya, I am getting really sick of going out of Main Events around the planet with QQ. Its very painful, especially when you are ahead all the way to the river.

Yup. I am out of the Main Event. The total number of entries was 475. The first place prize was $750,000, which is less than the $925,000 I was shooting for up in Borgata two weeks ago. Well, at least I am throwing down with the chance to win some real, life-changing money. That's kind of nice at least.

On the way to play, I decided to take a shot on Joe Cutler for 10%, he's one of the better tournament players I know...and if everything went to hell for me, I wanted a backup. So I bought 10% of him. Only one guy out of our group played Day 1a, Tristan Wade...who would bag up a nice 65k. The rest of us played yesterday. We started with 15k.

At my table the only real notable was Jeff Madsen. Granted, I knew about 7 of the others. Not sure if most of you guys would. So I won't mention them. Jeff played (mostly raises) EVERY single hand until he busted. He flopped a set of 5's against this old guy, who was VERY tight. I immediately put the guy on AA/KK. And the way the hand played out...Jeff hung himself. The old man turned his King after a series of check-raised re-raising occurred on the flop. Jeff shoved into him on the turn. See ya Jeff. Go work on your next rap song sir.

I would hover around 13k for most of the first two levels. Then I lost a big hand to this guy I may or may NOT have had beaten. Wasnt sure, and it was too damn expensive to risk calling so I folded and left myself with 7500. Ran that back up to 12k before our table broke near the end of Level 3.

The levels were 90 minutes long, with a fantastic structure. Just want to thank Matt Savage and Bill Bruce for running a GREAT tournament. They brought down an excellent group of dealers with them too. Just a really awesome event. The screwyness was reserved exclusively for the cash area in the casino. Whoooof. Yikes. My only real gripe is that tourney room players have to pay for ALL alcohol drinks..while the cash game players in the casino don't. Sucks.

My table broke and I was moved to a table where Tony the Terminator has JUST busted from. Seat 2. On my right was some fat hispanic lady I had never seen before. In Seat 4, Gavin, who gave me an acknowledging nod of the head, and Shawn Rice in the 10 seat. Then some others who I recognized somewhat. A pretty interesting table. First two hands were folding hands.

Then on the third hand...the lady behind me raises from 75/150 to 450. I look down at those bitches that love to ruin my hopes and dreams, pocket whores. I look over at Gavin and his semi-short stack of about 6500. He is acting antsy. I know Gavin is prone to make a re-steal to chip up and climb back into contention....and coupled with my disdain for the QQ hand...I decide it might be a good chance to induce Gavin into a move...so I merely call. Now, had I known EVERYONE was going to fold around, I may have re-popped this lady and it would have made my next play a little easier for her to fold to.

Yeah, no one else calls. Flop comes J-6-6. Rainbow. She bets out $800. I re-raise her to $2400. She thinks about it...not very long, and calls. A harmless 2 hits the turn. She CHECKS! Okay, I know I have her...and actually think she has AJ or KJ. I bet out $3875. She asks what I have left. Hmmm. Well, I am not folding now. Most of my stack is in the pot. She puts me all in. I call and ask her if she has AJ....."Yep". Okay good, well....so long as the dealer here doesnt FUCK me...which....is exactly what she did. BOOM! Ace on the river. Gavin and Shawn both give me that look you give your friend when you find out he has either (a)lost his job (b)caught his woman cheating (c)lost your favorite dog, or (d)been eliminated from the Main Event after getting fucked on the river. I said nothing....just collected my shit and slithered out of there.

Joe would follow soon after. One by one, all of my posse fell out. Allie would lose near the end of the day. Only two of our group remains in the tourney.

Upon losing I went and played a $120 SNG. My heart was truly not into it. But I would manage to get heads up with this older lady...who was just getting assaulted with the deck. It was insane. Me getting 2nd place was like a miracle. Even more miraculous was her chopping the last longer with me! Thanks maam! She had me 8 to 1 when we got heads up. SO I booked a nice little $350 win there. Played another one and was the first one out. Made a bad read. Thought this lady had AK on a J-3-3 board...and holding 5-5 moved in on her c-bet on the flop. Oooops, she had AA. Nice hand maam. See ya.

Just in time to go play the $530 tourney at 7pm. It was a pretty small field. 52 players. First place was almost 9k though...so I had my hopes on winning that thing and turning this trip into a profitable one. I started out pretty good. Ran 3k up to 9k. Then lost a couple of big coin flips and was down around 3k again. We would get to 3 tables (only paying 9 spots) and I was literally the shortstack the rest of the tournament! Every time I needed to pick up a pot I did. I made one big laydown after another. By this time all of my new buddies were hanging around and rooting me on. It was very cool of them. Its always a nice feeling to know everyone is pulling for you. Well I miraculously made the Final Table. Then I won a couple decent pots and now was looking like I had a chance to maybe get deep. Also at the Final Table with me was Adam Lippert, another of our friends, who is having a really good year. Something like 12 or 13 final tables for him this year.

Well, I will keep it short and sweet. I managed to stick around til there were only 5 left...when I got it in behind a guy raising...me with AsJs him with QJ offsuit. Not a bad spot to be in for a double up, one that would cripple him. But a Queen hit the damn flop and held and I was out in 5th, and won triple my buy in. Oh well. I played well, and made the final table, but, honestly, it barely took away the sting of getting zapped from the Main Event. This was NOT the FINAL TABLE I was hoping to make. But I tried to take some positive from it. The guys were all very supportive of me and that felt good I suppose!

Well, they are all buzzing around me right now, wanting to go do lunch, and do some sightseeing. I might go back over and play the 7pm $530 again tonight. Not sure. Was going to spend the day laying in the sun...but it has literally been raining ALL DAY...yeah! In Aruba. How much does THAT suck!???

Late last night we had a great time...all of us goofed off in the pool like a bunch of junior high kids...having 'swim the furthest on one breath underwater' contests...going down the slide and trying to land in the intertube....stupid, child like shit that was actually a blast, and really helped me get over the Main Event punch out.

I'll be okay. It happens to all of us. The good ones, the bad ones and the average ones. Its just part of the game. I am getting a LOT better about dealing with it. Now I just need to take the last 5 days here and try to win enough to pay for the trip, maybe a little more if I run decent...and try to enjoy myself as much as possible.

Monkey