Almost got to bed by 7am last night, but not quite, so I woke up just before noon. I jump out of bed, shower, and head to the V for the next DSE event....
Now the rumor around town has been that once the WSOP Main Event starts, they will have to cancel their daily 1pm $200 Deepstack tournaments because dealers have been quitting at a pace that Harrah's hasn't been able to keep up with. So naturally when I walk up to the registration window an hour late (you can register up to 2 hours in) for the tourney at the V and saw a huge line, I assumed the Rio had, in fact, cancelled their tournament. This was not the case, it was just a giant field of over 800 players, with a top prize of $60k to the winner. I was anxious to get under way when over half the people in line didn't even have a V players card yet, which you need to enter the tournaments. This meant it was going to be a big, soft field...if only this could be the time I get the donkeys to ship their chips to me early and give me a stack to play with. Long story short, it was not the time. I played my brand of tight, anti-aggressive poker to chug along at a slow pace. I took a couple shots and missed, and picked up a bunch of dead money as well. I was always just below chip average, but moving along.
About 3 hours into the tournament, I was still at my original table and I had become friendly with the player to my left, a gentleman of about 60 that had a very respectable tournament resume. I was half using my ipod, and half conversing with this man. He showed me a lot of his hands and told me what he was doing to people across from us, and I'd give him a read or two on somebody to be friendly. At one point, I had my headphones on, and we are the blinds, I SB and he BB. Everyone folds around to us and I tell him I'm just going to be friendly and limp in (I have AJ off here). I half hear him say, "well, we can't be that friendly this time", and throws out a sizable raise of 5x BB. AJ being my nemisis, and knowing what he plays and what he would raise me with, I'm folding here easy. I laugh, and as I'm folding, hold the cards up so he can see what I'm folding, I realize that whole table needs to see them once I show him, so I table my fold. The V has some very specific rules for their tournaments, and one is if you show your cards in anything other than the act of folding, you will receive a penalty of one orbit. I still have my headphones in and am just giggling to the man when I hear the dealer yell for the floor. I don't even realize she's calling it on me until I hear her say I tried an angleshoot by showing my cards and should be penalized. I ripped my headphones out and say, "are you talking about me? What are you talking about? I laughed and was CLEARLY folding when I tabled my hand." The dealer says I held my cards up and paused enough to elicit a response out of the BB. I tell her and the floorman, that the only reason I paused was that I forgot I had to show everyone, not just him and when I realized it, tabled my hand for everyone. The dealer really wanted me to get a penaly, even as the BB is telling her he was 100% sure I was folding, and that I really wasn't even looking at him when I did it. The dealer pleads one more time with the floor supervisor, when I tell him how much time I've spent there and how many tournaments I've played in the last couple of weeks...I definitely know the rules. Supervisor rules in my favor and the dealer looks pissed. I still don't know what that was all about. The situation almost tilted me.
After this incident, we only remain as a table until just after the dinner break. I'm moved to my next table deep into the corner of the poker room. I like it back here, but am a little short on chips, so I have to be careful who I tangle with and when. I'm able to comfortably steal a couple blinds and antes, but don't get any hands that I want to get involved with. Just before our next break, Vanessa Selbst is moved to our table, only to be moved again before she is even dealt a hand. It took me about two days to remember where I knew her from, and I don't think anyone at our table recognized her at all. I successfully double up when I try a blind/ante steal from mid position with 66. I get called by QQ on the button. I start packing up my stuff as the guy has me covered by about $100. I tell the gigantic Mexican dealer that he's sexy and spikes a 6 on the river for me right in stride. I feel a little bad, as I saw this same guy take a bad beat a few nights ago, but it's about time I win from behind. This gives me enough chips to hang around a good bit longer. At 12 hours into the tournament, we're getting down to the payline, meaning if a few more people are knocked out, I'll be in the money. I was running low on chips again, as short stacks were shoving left and right and I had no hands to call with. This meant I was being slowly chopped down again. With the blinds at 2000/4000 200 ante, it was meaningful to pick up blinds and antes if given a chance. I took such a chance when everyone had folded to me, on the button. I shove with A6 clubs and get insta-called by the SB, a huge stack. He flipps over AK to have me dominated, and subsequently sent to the rail a mere few spots out of the money. 12 hours of solid play, so close to the money, and then it's all over in a flash with nothing to show for it. I'm glad I'm off tomorrow because I'll need it to get over the disappointment.
It's at this point the doubt in playing the Main Event is in full effect. I really, truly do not want to play in it right now. I feel with my play as solid as it is and my reading ability being fine tuned with every new tournament I play, I should keep firing away at the smaller ones. I'm going to have to tell everyone tomorrow that I'm not playing, or I'm going to have to go to the Rio and hand them a stack of $100's to the tune of $10k. I'm 60/40 at this point in favor of not playing.
I head over to Cut and talk to Chip about my play. He completely agrees with me in not wanting to play the Main. He's closing soon and I'm hungry, so I tell him to meet me at B&B when he's done. I knew the bartender, Eric from Long Island, so I took a seat at the bar to eat. His fiance is sitting next to me with her sister, and a Dutch guy named Iain. He was 33 as well, with long hair that he kept flinging around. Annoying and pretentious as he was, he told a lot of ridiculous stories and kept us entertained as I ate and they drank. Draped over the sister, he epitimized Eurotrash for the moment. I've met a ton of Europeans while here, and for the most part they've been extremely friendly and great to talk to. Iain was the opposite. He was a poker player here for the series as well, but I told him I didn't want to hear any bad beat stories...I was over poker for the day. I can summarize his attitude when out of nowhere he asked what the pink bracelet I was wearing stood for. The sisters answered for me, as they thought it was common knowledge when he cut them off and said, "well mine are better. They stand for..." and I have no idea what he said. I told him as serious as I could that I was very proud of him and ate my goat cheese tortellini, which was incredible. Chip arrived for a drink and we closed the place down, eventually all of us going to another bar in the V, where Iain bought us a bottle of champagne inexplicably...it felt like he did this every night. After chugging our glass, Chip and I said our goodbyes and wished Eric luck with "Thor".
Up way too late, drunker than I should be, I take solice in the fact that tomorrow is an off day. I've been putting in long days with no results and it's wearing me down. I lay awake for hours thinking about tomorrow. Am I really going to register? I just don't want to. Everyone's going to be pissed...
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