It's Tuesday morning and like I said before, I'm up at 5am after 2 hours of sleep and a bunch of drinks. I decide to get some work done and I write up yesterdays blog. It's at this point I figure I'm going to have to change something or I'm literally going to go crazy. I've been hurt, so I haven't run for a couple weeks, but I've still been working out. Since I've been out here I haven't really done anything physical and I'm getting soft (Ok, softer than I already am). I need to clear my head as well so I figure today is as good as time as any to get back on that horse and go for a run. I step out the back door and the 95 degree heat smacks me in the face. About 100 yards in, it seems every ounce of water has been sucked from my body. My mouth is so dry it feels like I'm breathing sand and I still have over 2 miles to go. I try not to think about it, as I have more pressing issues on my mind, and proceed to weave my way in and out of the pedestrian traffic on the strip. It's like jogging through fumble island. No one gets out of your way, you have no idea when someone is going to stop to take a picture, and people are just staring at me for being so stupid as to run in this heat. As awful as this run sounds, it was much needed, and perhaps the best of my life. I was able to get out a lot of nervous energy, and it feels like I'm getting some sort of normalcy back in my life. I don't know if I'll be doing it again, but this was what I needed. I get back into the casino and it's like I just swallowed an ashtray. I guess being inside you don't realize how disgusting it is, but after a hot run, it's the last thing I want to breathe.
I've never really liked strip clubs all that much, I find them depressing. It's not the bachelor parties and businessmen that are there to have fun and drop dollars, it's the weird guys you always see with their eyes locked in on the strippers, hoping to make eye contact so they can perhaps start up what I'm sure is an awkward conversation. You can see it in their faces that they truly believe the girls like them and have a chance to date them. This is what it's like in a casino at 10am. The same look of desperation on the faces of the guys at the club is the same look on the faces of the masses that drop endless change into slot machines, hoping to hit the big payday that way more than likely won't happen. The chance they're going to hit a big score on a nickel machine is the same chance the weirdo has of bedding the stipper, but neither can stop trying. I generally ignore these people, but this particular morning I wonder if this could happen to me. I know there's a huge difference between what I do and what these people do in terms of the odds and the skills involved, but sometimes after a long session where I've only won a little bit, broke even, or made a correct decision and still lost it all, the gamble aspect of this game lets me know that it's still in control. If I lose my whole bankroll out here, but play correctly and make all the right moves, I'm not going to stop. Does that make me the same as these people? I'm still telling myself no.
I'm going back to the Venetian for the same 7pm tourney as yesterday, but I have some time to kill so I sit down at a 1/2 table at the IP. There's a guy there that has been cut off from drinking wine because they said he's had almost 30. 30!!! He's almost incoherent, his chips are everywhere, and within the first 10 minutes he's literally thrown $50 in $5 chips at me because he says I look like somebody famous so I'm going to order him wine. The only thing I can understand out of him is that he keeps saying he'll be dead in 2 years. I give his money back and leave after playing for about 20 minutes. I don't need to see this before a tourney and while I enjoy picking off fish at a table, this is not my idea playing poker.
Get to the V and they've got a great turnout, 260 players, which will put the winner at a little over 6K. I don't play a hand during the first level, so my image here is tight. I am talkative though, as I don't want them to think I don't know what I'm doing. I proceed to put a play into motion I've been using....I may have talked about it before, but here it works to perfection close to 10 times. Call a min-3x raise preflop. Check call the flop, then lead the turn. They folded to this play every single time. No one thought to look me up once. This built my stack from 7500 to about 10500 to the first break...almost exactly the same amount I had going into yesterdays first break. I coming out of the break I make that same move a couple more times. I've won every pot I've been in, and they've never seen my cards. This is also letting me play my style of small ball poker that is crucial at this stage of the tourney. I finally get AQ suited in mid/late position. Blinds are 300/600, and under the gun + 1 raises to 1700. I flat call and the BB calls. Flop comes out AQ5 rainbow. BB leads for about 2K, original raiser folds, I "nonchalantly" (this is on purpose) toss out a raise to about 5K. BB pines for a minute, finally realizing that no one has seen one of my hands. He mentions the way I tossed my chips out there and tries a power move of all in. I of course insta-call and he's crushed with an A9. I'm up to about 22K at this point. A couple hands later, a guy who appears to be Pable Escobar sits at the table with a gigantic stack. I am no longer table captain. He is very aggressive, raising every pot. This sucks, because for about 4 or 5 consecutive hands, I had great suited connectors and such hands I'd like to play on the cheap, but not for 10-15% of my stack preflop. I finally look down at A2 diamonds and am determined to call a raise from him when it comes. He of course raises preflop to 3600, I'm the only caller. The table is clearly happy when I call because they know I can play post flop poker. Flop is A106, no diamonds. He immediately leads for 4600. I tell him I'm positive he's just double barrelling a Cbet and pine for a minute. He's tough to read, and I don't want to piss off the cartel by busting him up, so I eventually fold. I did talk to him later and he said he had AJ in that spot. True or not, I believe him. We're to the next break and I have about 18K, with blinds going up to 800/1600, 200 ante. I go absolutely card dead at a new table again...I'm running almost exactly the same as yesterday. Down to about 10K, I get moved to a table where there's about a million total, with 3 guys having over 200k. Not a good spot for me. The blinds at 1k/2k, 300 ante. I'm in the BB with 59 suited. A super aggressive big stack raises, as is the norm. The guy next to me that I'd been talking to says, "you get 1 more caller, you have to shove that." I tell him thats the plan regardless of what I have. Get another caller, I shove my last 8K. Flop a 9, river a 5 for a gigantic triple up. Luckbox or not, I still made the right play mathematically and it worked. These are the kind of hands you need to win for a deep run. I'm now at the chip average with 33K, 40 players left, 27 get paid. My chips dwindle again with raises in front of me and no cards to call or shove with. Down to 20K again, I'm able to position shove a couple times to build the stack back up to 35K. Good, but still short at this monster table. A young Londonite had been to my left and he was great to talk to. He's an internet player, but he's solid and we use a very similar style of play. We showed eachother our monster lay downs...he layed AQ, 66, 77, and AK and would've been beat every time. I showed him 77, 88, and AJ 3 times, and I would've been beat every time. My style is sometimes ridiculed by the new breed of player, so it was nice to be able to discuss my style with someone who plays the same AND we got justification in that our reads/laydowns were correct.
Now in the money, I'm still short but by no means am I in a "shove any" frame of mind. Now that I'm here, I don't want a min cash. It's at this point my buddy Chip got off work and he and the chef, Chris come to cheer me on. Chris doesn't know poker all that well, so Chip is explaining to him what's going on. Just as he's saying, "Terry only has 40K right now, but in a minute, he's going to double through that guy across the table with all the chips because he's too aggressive and Terry knows it." I look down at AJ suited...are you kidding me? All this way and that's what I'm going to have to hang my tourney on again? No surprise, Big Aggressive stack raises, I shove, he calls with 55. J in the window for a major double up for me. It's about time that hand does something positive for me. A few minutes later, we're at the final table, and a giant of a man Chip knows comes over and stands with he and Chris. They talk for a while and he's watching me play. Being this close to a win, I don't really turn around to pay attention, I can just hear them. He leaves and Chip goes, "there goes coach, he liked the way you played." I asked what the hell he was talking about, and it turns out it was Dauber from one of my favorite shows of all time, "Coach" (or the voice of Patrick the Starfish from Spongebob for you younger folks). Are you F'ing kidding me I ask Chip. Chip says he's in there all the time and had been playing so he came over to watch some final table. I would've liked to introduce myself to him, but was too wrapped up in the game...oh well. We see a couple guys get knocked out, and we're down to 6 players. I've made a few more monster laydowns that would've lost, and my reads are the only thing keeping me around. I'm sitting super short at 44K. The blinds are 6K/12K 3K ante. I'm under the gun with AQ off suit. I shove, get called by a guy with AA...tough spot there. Pick up 6th, for 1100. I'm definitely happy with this result. Given the cards I was dealt, and all the tough spots, I think I played one of the better tournaments I've played in a while. My reads were spot on, my small ball strategy worked early on, I hit the aggressive players in the right spots, and made huge laydowns. I've decided to play this tourney again tomorrow night (Wednesday), instead of the Rio Deepstack. I really like the Venetian. It's a beautiful place, great dealers, and comfortable poker room. From there I'll play the $340 Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza on Thursday.
I feel great, my mood is decidedly better. There's a huge weight that's been lifted off of me. Not that this is a big score or anything, but I'm glad I could get results relatively quickly, especially considering my mental state outside of the poker rail. Outside the rail I've been a wreck, not eating, sleeping, or being all that positive...but once inside the rail everything disappears and I've been very focused on my game. If only I can be positive in and out of the rail, I may be in good shape. Chip and I decide to get some dinner, since all I had eaten today was half a disgusting cheeseburger. Now only if I can get some sleep tonight we might be in business...
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