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Sunday, April 8, 2012

Disaster with 20 Minutes Left....

Happy Easter to all of you readers. Hope you had a lovely day with your family, or watching the Masters...which is about two holes from being complete. I am about to leave my room, and play this last-ditch 6pm $250 Mega they have. Yeah. You heard me. Mega. I know, I know...I already won the mega. And played the Main Event. Yesterday (last night). So what's the deal you ask?

Around midnight...my Dad's birthday (April 7th) changed over to Easter...and I was sitting on about 9k in chips...having lost 5k of my 20k early with QQ vs. buck-toothed, bald guy with thin upper lip and fat lower lip who has irritated me in the past. He either thought I was sitting on AK and decided to get cute and check raise me on the 8-4-2 flop...or after I three-bet re-raised him...and just smooth calling, only to bet another huge amount on the turn, which led to me folding, HAD a set, and I made a good fold. Or he was bluffing me the whole time. Whatever. It was another QQ debacle in a long line of QQ debacles. Picking up AK on the next hand and losing another 2k was no picnic either.

Then I went card dead. I mean....DEAD....like, I looked at 3-9 about 15 times. And when I did get a hand I might think about opening with...some guy behind me was raising. It was frustrating. Very, very frustrating. But I was willing to be patient, with over 250 players in the event, and surely a 1st place of $200k or so, it was WORTH it to not panic. 

Kai Landry, my roomie and friend, would have his table break...and of course, gets moved to my table. He sits. He posts his BB, and I get AQh. Of course. I raise. No one calls. He folds. Cards turning? Maybe. I get AKc a short time later...and behind 4 callers at 400 I raise...and they all fold. 

Charles "Woody" Moore...who was at my Mega table the night before, and made some of the most insanely tight folds I've ever seen (99 on a 7-high board with no straight or flush draw present, then AK on a K-8-3 un-flushed board) was playing totally opposite last night. Of course he was also hitting every....no wait...E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G!!!! He was doing a lot of 3 and 4 betting...running the table like a Red Pro on Full Tilt 'back in the day.'

On one particular loose call...he raised to 1050...then the guy on my right, who (to Moore's credit) had played fairly wild all night, shoved 9400...with AQ, and got called by Woody with A10 off. "Whoa" I thought. So when the board came 2-2-9...there was no doubt in my mind that the dealer would put either a ten or a nine on the turn and/or river. He did. He put a nine out there...for a chopped pot. Sick.

I've known Woody and his wife Becky for a lot of years, and have always liked them both tremendously. We've played together a lot, mainly at Venetian. So when I encountered the hand that I'm about to tell you, I'm not going to lie, I was both surprised and shocked. And well as disappointed. 

Yeah, my Easter was about to get fatal. Woody raised UTG with A7c. Clearly not a real solid hand...but one that might make you think...since you are sitting at 60k and seemingly having your way with the table, that you can play it. I 'woke up' with 99 on the button and my 9200 chips. Woody's raise at 400/800 was to 2600. I shoved all in. He tanked. Which told me I was way ahead. And I'm not sure...but I think maybe he was about to fold, then he tells me "this is a donation Mr. Monkey" and makes the call. I saw his hand and felt pretty encouraged.

Dominic the dealer put to rest and feelings I may have had about doubling up with 15 minutes left in the night...when he conveniently kept Woody's streak of 'run good' going by placing not only an ace but a 7 just in case on the flop. And no miracle 9 would hit for me. And BOOM! I was out. Dead. Killed. KIA. I waited for Kai, while playing blackjack, which saw me win $65 on the first shoe...then lose $145 on the next one, as Kai joined me after bagging up $24k...and we rolled to the luxurious Days Inn, where I ingested an Ambien and pounded a fist full of cold medicine, and slipped off into REM-Land, where my dreams have been very, very bizarre lately.

Well, it looks like the Master's is going to overtime, or sudden death, or playoff...or whatever they call it. And its now 6pm...which tells me I'm late because I decided to post a blog instead of being on time for this last ditch Mega attempt. Not a big deal. I will miss ONE level.

Yeah...so today is a day off for the Main Event. They had a $350 Turbo event at 4pm. Non ring, non points event. I skipped it. So I could play this $250 Mega. Win it...and I get to go back for another shot in the Main Event....tomorrow, when they restart at 11am. I will go in with 20k, or 20 big blinds. Which might not sound like a lot...but its about exactly what I would have had if my pocket nines had held up. And it means I would still have a shot, ANY shot...and going home with the kind of money that would see me bring my baby into this world with an UN-stressed out Daddy looking on!

So that's it. Gotta run. If you are a praying man/woman, I ask that you go deep for me on this next 24-48 hours of your prayer time!!!

MonkBunny

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