DAY 4...The March Continues...

Yesterday's post touted Day 3 as NOT being uncharted territory....well today...IS uncharted territory. I have never, not once...ventured into Day 4. Wanna know why I wake up this morning with 397,500 chips? And still battling in the worlds largest and most lucrative poker tournament? I will tell you why...and a lot of you probably know why.

BECAUSE I NEVER SAW POCKET QUEENS YESTERDAY!!!!!!!

 I didn't sleep too well last night...waking up off and on. Between the excitement of today...and the money bubble that will pop somewhere in the first level probably...as we have like 50 players remaining, to the havoc that this climate is wreaking on my sinuses...turning my nose into a piece of my body I would like to have removed! I wake up this morning...and there is some eerie shit going on. First of all...its Friday the 13th. Secondly, the boys at WSOP/Caesar's Entertainment...decided it would be neat to pay 666 players. This was the same number of players paid a couple/few years ago...and I thought it was creepy then, too. And if all that wasn't enough...I look out the window and its RAINING. In Vegas. What's going to happen next? Chad Burns moving to Africa to donate his life working with starving children and making sure they all have vaccinations? 

Yesterday, I sat down in my seat...took a look at my table mates, read the scouting report on all of them, from the reports several of you sent me...and decided that I really had my work cut out for me if I was going to survive to the money round. I was dead right.

Early in the action...we saw a limp from the kid who came to be known by me as Mr. Min Raise...a young kid who is an internet beast (Nicholas Augustino) and played lights out all day...his limp was met by a raise from Kyle Bowker...another incredible player who opens pots about 7 out of every 10 hands...Kyle's raise was met by ANOTHER raise by the player next to him...only to be RE-raised by the ultra-aggressive Asian guy in the 5-seat....which led to all of them folding, and him showing 10-3 off suit...with Kyle looking at him, smiling, and uttering "easy game, isn't it!??"

This was just an appetizer of what the day would incorporate. So I had to really make the most of every situation when I was fortunate enough to get a hand where I could maximize value. The poker gods, admittedly, have finally smiled on me this week. In the Main Event now, I have picked up AA a total of TEN times...and am 10-0 with them. Three times now I have gotten all in with them and gotten clean double ups. Once in Day 1 against David "Nightmare on Every Street" Krueger...my former nemesis from Tunica...when he couldn't let go of KK in level 2 when I did everything to tell him I had aces. 

But yesterday was the most critical use of aces you can imagine. At 800/1600...the Crazy Asian raised to 4000 from middle position. I had just gotten my pulse back after bluffing off all but 27,000 of my chips an orbit before. Well...I say 'bluffing off' except for the fact I actually thought I was good. I started that hand with about 100k. And I really wish I could have played it over...but live and learn. I raised to 4000 at cutoff with 33. I got called by the BB, a semi-aggressive cash game player. He called, which wasn't shocking. The flop came K-5-7...with two clubs. He checked. I bet out 8500. He flatted. Hmmm. Flush draw? Or just floating (which he did quite a bit). The turn was an ace...and not a club. He checked again. I kept betting, hoping that I could represent the ace and get him to bug off...can't even remember how much. He flatted again. Hmmm. The river seemed like a brick too...and when he checked, I really should have just checked behind...but felt like I could get him off whatever it was he was clinging to, so I blasted out a 22k bet. Which he called. Huh? He turns over A5. Two pair. SHIT! And suddenly I was on life support. 

My head was spinning. I was breathing in short breaths...feeling dizzy. Oh shit oh shit oh shit. Is this it? Am I done? Not another Day 3 flame out. Okay...focus, focus...I still have 27k....27 bb's. I've done a lot more with a lot less in the past. Don't freak out...don't panic. Stay calm. Turn it around. Just breatttttthhheeee. Then I got some of those same encouraging words from my friends, family and loved ones. I looked at the picture of Carley Grace on my iPad...and felt emboldened to turn it around.

A couple hands later...Kyle (once again, as usual) raised my big blind. He was called by the small blind..and when I looked down at AJh...I figured an all in would take down the pot...since I had a 'super-nit-like' table image. I was right. They both folded to my all in shove. That's a start. Two hands later...I called Kyle's raise holding KQ suited, from the button. The flop came Q-high. He led out for a good amount. I decided not to gamble on letting an ace hit the turn...raising him a fair amount...to which he folded. I was now up to 57k...right back in this thing.

That is when everything took a turn for the awesome! Back to that lead-in two paragraphs ago. The Asian guy raises to 4000...and I look at AA. For the 9th time this event. I re-raise him to 9500. It folds around to him. He starts eyeballing me. Asks me how many chips I have. I literally tell him "I don't know..." and lift my arms. This seemed to irritate him. Then all of a sudden he grabs enough orange (5k) chips to put me all in and does his patented 'quick flick' to which I softly announced "I call" and turned over my aces. "Whooops" came from his mouth...as he turned over AJ. Of course a jack hit the turn...for the sweat...but I held..and suddenly, was sitting on 124k and was right back into contention.

I see time is creeping up on me, so I'm going to have to speed up this entry. I will cut to the next time I got aces, again against this same guy. He would open for 5500 (at 1200/2400). I re-raised him to 11,000. Folded back to him...he put in a third raise...to 25,000. To which I 4-bet him to 60,000. He didn't even wait...jamming all in, to which I snap called...causing him gasp..knowing what he had run into, again. He had the Kings. The first card I saw in the window was an ace! Yes! I turned a full house (A-5-2-2) then rivered the fourth ace. That put me at 307k. I spent the rest of the night calling Augustino's min raises and Kyle's 2.25x raises, and hit a flop every once in awhile...taking down nice pots each time...mostly by either check-raising or milking the pot on some juicy flops...like where I flopped 8-8-7 rainbow while holding 8-9h in my hand with both of them betting the flop and the turn. I never got around to raising til the river....when they both folded.

The last two levels went very smoothly. I finally got out of the damn Brasilia room...being the second to last table to break in there. Getting to the Amazon room (finally) was like going from a nightly tourney that no one cared about to, well...the WSOP Main Event. Tons of people on the rail, camera crews everywhere. Holy smoke. We got down to the last 6 hands of the night...and were about 50 away from the money. I was sitting on 345k. I had Christian Harder (a great player and a guy I know pretty well...and who I'm pretty sure views me a a Super Nit) at my table, and figure he'd waste no time getting after my blind...which he did. Raising to 8500 (at 1500/3000) and getting a call from the OMRG in the 1-seat, who I'd already watch play a hand very bizarrely. I look down at A-8 and decide to make a move. I re-raise to 25k. Christian insta-folds...but nut bag OMRG asks "so how much more is that? 16k? Okay I call." Standard OMRG modus operandi. 

A flop of Q-4-3 comes out...total air...whatever. I bust out a bet of 34k. He instantly folds. Thank you. The pot got me to over 395k...which puts me, I think...74th out of the remaining 720 players. Right where I want to be. My finishing stack of 397,500....falls just below my good buddy...and best friend of my wife, and more or less, Carley's 'Aunt CC'.....Claudia 'Claw' Crawford...who had the same up and down day that I did...after having a big stack the whole tourney so far...she got down to 41k and was panicking a bit, before she too got a double up with aces...and never looked back. She sits at 398,000 going into today. Biloxi doing work!!!

For those of you who read here regularly...or are on my Facebook, you are very familiar with a longstanding tradition I have with my good buddy Kai Landry...wherein, where one of us makes it back for a second day, or Final Table...the other one presents him with a 'Good Luck Rant' on his Facebook wall. Well, Kai has brought us some classics in the past...but none like yesterday's...which had me laughing so hard at the table I was wiping tears out of my eyes. Now you have to understand...to have the personality that I have, that being a sarcastic smart ass who likes to make little witty digs at people when I have the opportunity, it also calls for me to be a little self-deprecating, and possess the ability to laugh at myself. It's never been an issue. So with a good friend...it kind of personifies your relationship when you can throw barbs back and forth at each other the way we do. Some women don't get this...and think we are just 'mean' to each other. Naw....that's not the case! Squirrel's mom once saw one of Kai's 'good luck rants' before a Venetian final table a couple years ago:

"Cheryl...did you see what that boy wrote on Will's Facebook wall? It was horrible...what kind of people does Will have as friends on there?"

To which she laughed uncontrollably and had to explain to her what that was all about. Well...here was his 'Good Luck Rant' yesterday...for all of you to enjoy!

Kai Landry

So, Corey...
This is almost EXACTLY the spot you busted out last year. CREEPY, isn't it?!
Quite Qoincidental.
Quite Qrazy.
Its like dejq vu qll over again, huh?!

Let's hope for the sake of the youth of America you don't make television. For one thing, they're in bad enough shape having to get educated in our school system, then having to seek gainful employment. The last thing they need is your behavioral mentorship in their living rooms...

"Mommmm, Timmy put a bounty on my ass!"
"Where did you learn that kind of behavior, Timmy?"
"From the PokerMonkey on TV, Mom! And no I didn't! Besides, even if I did I'm sure he deserved it! Jesus Christ, his elbow touched me when I was blogging! There's no legroom in this Goddamn house, Mom! WTF! Are you bringing the Snappers or what, mom?! Huh? Yeah I'm watching poker on tv. Yahtzee! Giggity! Mom! Do you have life insurance? It's such a good deal! Huh? Yeah, I got thrown out of shcool today, but it's like a 24 hour 86ing. It just means...Look don't worry about it...Fuck! Dude! Mom! Johnny's totally changed the channel and he is watching Kung Fu movies and I wanna watch American Idol now! Dude, mom, where's those Snappers, damnit? No I don't want chocolate milk! If I wanted chocolate milk I would have said I wanted chocolate milk! What I want (pause for dramatic effect) is a Red Snapper! Huh? I don't know what's in it mom, just make one! Damn! You're so slow you should work for Delta Fucking Airlines instead of being a stupid whor.."
***SMACK!!!***

That's all we need is coast to coast television-educated tweeners repeating your idiotic drunken catchphrases. And worse. The thought of you eating through $8.5 million at Ruth's Chris all year, clogging up your arteries all over again and having to seeking staking again this time next year sickens me.

What America needs on TV, Corey, is a better role model. I'm thinking Claudia. Anyway, good luck cashing tonight, chump! I know if you don't there's a certain someone in Houston waiting to paint the town orange tonight! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Okay....well it appears that I am out of time to write any more. There is plenty more to talk about...for sure...but I am not going to be late for the biggest day of my poker career! Thanks to ALL OF YOU for your support and well wishes...it really does mean a LOT to me! And to Squirrel and Carley....I love you both!!!

MONKEY