Alive and Well in Tunica!

Here I am, laying in my hotel room at the Goldstrike, which cost me $0 thanks to Ken Lambert! Thank you Ken!!!! In 30 minutes I have to be back at the table to defend my stack in the $5000 Main Event. Things could NOT have gone any better in the last 3 days. I can't, however go into great detail, as much as I would like to anyway...because I need to catch a shower before heading down.

These nightly 'Survivor' poker Tourneys have been my bread and butter...and have ensured that no matter what happens today I will at least be going home showing a profit...not to mention having a tremendously fun time. That's right...you are hearing correctly, I just spent 5 days in Tunica and am in a GOOD mood, having fun, meeting lots of great new people, pissing off NO one...having issued no bounties on anyone, having had ZERO floor calls against me. I mean...just when I thought I was starting to hate everything about poker, I have had an unbelievable week that has renewed, to a degree, my passion for this game.

So let me summarize real quick...because I am finding out just HOW MANY of you out there are reading this blog..."Monkey...whats up? No update in 5 days? Give us SOMETHING!!" I hear you all...so I am shooting you SOMETHING!

I won the nightly tournament on Wednesday....then Thursday....and on Friday, Mega Satellite day....I played the Noon Mega....started off good...got way too many great hands early, including AA twice...which caused me to get that "Oh shit, too many good hands early/I'm doomed" state of mind to set in. But when I got down to THREE BB's...and got it in with 33....I got it to hold against AQ. Then I got AQ and got IT to hold against two other callers...to triple up...and I never looked back. 14 seats were awarded to the Main Event and I got one of them. I was ecstatic! And since we finished at about 7:20pm, I had time to get into THAT night's 7pm tourney...and with a desire to go for three in a row, and at least leave Tunica with a decent profit if I failed to cash the Main...I made it in...and again, got down to 5 BB's before going on a tear and AGAIN winning the nightly. What a three day stretch!

In Day 1 of the Main Event my first table was awesome. Nothing but good players...which I love! And it played like a table of good players...very few big pots...not many people losing. So through 6 levels we didn't have any big stacks. Then magic happened. I limped with 77 UTG....and five callers...and the BB made it 1000. Wow. We were at 100/200. I had picked up 66 FOUR times already without flopping a set once. So I figured I was due to hit a set. I called. Which I guess triggered everyone else to call too. 6k in the pot. Flop came Q-9-7 with two spades. Hmmm. The original raisers leads out 1700 into a 6k pot. Wierd. Not sure what to make of that...but I was about to find out where this guy was. I raised to 5500. The others folded...and this guy took about 1 minute to shove all in. My brain was telling me KK. My scared little bitch self was fearing AKs. If I lost I was all but dead. Can't play scared. I called. He had KK. I held. And I was stacking chips!

A little while later my 77 again whacked a guy with an over pair. This time Woody, who a lot of people know, who's day had been going just terrible for him. Well, he found AA with only 2300 left after I had raised to 800. Jacob Bazely...seated on my left...folded 6-7....but I still flopped a set....and no ace came, and I was rolling.

I went on dinner break with 46k. Frank Kassela and I went to the buffet...and somehow I managed NOT to get sick, like I usually do after the buffet. We came back, I picked up KK on the 1st hand...raised and got NO action...then got moved to a new table. On my right? Tyler-freaking-Smith. Who had about 55k. Frank was in the 8 seat. It was a relatively decent table.

15 minutes left. Let me wrap this up. I promised Tyler this entry was going to be all about him...but due to not having enough time...I will have to elaborate later. But lets just say, I was incredibly entertained and feeling as though I was in the presence of greatness as I watched Tyler just KILL our table for the last two hours of the night. Add to that a great conversation between us...and I really enjoyed the last five hours of the night, even if it was at the expense of me and my tables' bad fortune as Tyler demonstrated in picture-perfect form how to destroy a tourney table.

I had my fleeting moments of good fortune. A small stack raised my BB and I woke up with AA, reraised, only to see him make a great laydown. Then cutoff raised to 3000 from 400/800.....Tyler flatted him, and I woke up again with AA. No way I was getting cute and letting Tyler put another epic beat on an opponent holding AA. I made it 10k to go....watched them both fold and took down a nice pot.

When we got to the end of Level 8, and were bagging up chips, I counted out 68,000...which was 17,000 above the average of 51,000. We started with 91 players and by the end of the night were down to 36. Today we play to the Final Table...and WOW do I hope that one of those 9 is me! We have some great players still alive. And some good friends. Dwyte "Duke" Pilgrim was at the table behind me and was grinding ALL day and night. With 32 minutes left I assured him that he would end the night with 50k.

"I sure hope you're right Monkey!"

At the end of the night he hussled over to my table to tell me he had gotten up to 51k! Awesome!

Vanessa Rousso is 3rd in chips. Tyler is, of course, chipleader with 122k. Justin Allen has a healthy stack. Tom Franklin is still in. The Baze man is still in. I am real excited going back today. May the poker gods smile on me! But again...if they don't, and I fall short...I have no regrets or disappointment. I feel like I played great this week...and no matter what, I am leaving a winner. But you ALL know what I am really hoping for today!

Thanks to all of you for your shoutouts, both here, on my Facebook...and through your text messages! I hope I can provide some excitement today!!!!!

MONKEY