End of Day 2

All,

It is 2:29am and I am writing a quick blog before I head to be after a 14 hour day of poker. we started the day today at noon and I was in around 171st place out of 240 with the money starting at 100th place. I grinded my way all day making sure to take advantage when I had large hands. I built my stack up to around 70k by the 2nd break and was cruising along when I went completely card dead.

For rounds 3 and 4 of the day (each round is 90 minutes) I did not play one hand. I think the best 2 cards I saw was K9 offsuit. Everyone at my table was raising and re-raising. I looked for opportunities to steal pots but with all the raising there wasnt really any opportunity. So I just slowly lost my stack at about 40k we were only 4 from the money as we sat at 104 players for about an hour and I slowly went down to a little over 17k. Then we lost 3 and were only 1 away from the money. and then this hand came up.

I am the first person to act and I look down at QQ as you know this was not good in the WSOP so I thought maybe it would be better here. But I had a decision do I take the chance to double up and put myself in good shape. would everyone at the table think that the only hand I would move in with such a short stack and one from the money would be AA. So I pushed all in. and everyone instantly folded, so I picked up an additional 8100 in the blinds and antes which made it easy to cruise into the money. But it didnt stop there as the very next hand after we were in the money and at 99 players. I am now in the big blind. 3 people fold and a guy in middle position raises to 5k and everyone folds around to the button who declares all-in for 17k. I look down at AK of spades and need to make a move so I go all in for the 25K I have and the first raiser calls. 1st player has JJ second player has QQ and as I said I had AK. the flop comes A57 Turn 2 and river Ace. so I knock out one player and triple up. so now I am sitting at 75K; the very next hand I get pocket Aces in the small blind but everyone folds but the button who calls and I rasie and everyone folds.

I ended the day with 108K and there are 57 players left. we start at noon tomorrow and play down until there are only 6 players left.

Wish me luck and until next time...

End of Day 1 and in fine shape

As you all know today I played in Day 1C of the Bellagio Cup III. The tournament started with over 580 players and after today we ended with around 240 players. The tournament pays the top 100 players with 100th place paying over 15K and first place paying over 1.3 Million. We start Day 2 at noon tomorrow and play 5 rounds so we will be done tomorrow at 8pm. I am currently sitting with 27,025 which is a little under the average but when we return to action the blinds are only 400/800 with a 100 ante. so I have over 30 times the big blind which gives me a lot of time to build up my stack.

if you look at Cardplayer.com you can see a lot of the play by play action. A lot of big pros are already out but there are some big names left and 2 of them were at my table. Johnny "World" Hennigan and Erik Seidel. I will give more updates tomorrow.


Payout structure for top 5:

PLACE/PRIZE

1/$1,342,320

2/$671,320

3/$361,480

4/$232,490

5/$154,920

Wish me luck and until next time...

Day with Kenna before Day 1C at the Bellagio Cup

Yesterday I was invited to Kenna James and Marsha Waggoner's house here in Las Vegas for a group BBQ. There were about 15 of us in total including Kenna's 2 boys. His house is great; nice hot tub and Pool with a waterfall running into it. The house is beautiful with movie room, library, entertainment area, weightroom, and could not be without a poker room. Marsha and Kenna made a created a great spread that everyone got to eat beyone their stomach capacity.

Card Player Magazine was there to do a report on Kenna and his living style in Las Vegas. It was a blast a great day of relaxation before Thursday's Tournament.

I am just writing a quick update to tell everyone they added a Day 1C at the Bellagio Cup that I will be playing in today starting at noon. It is anticipated to have over 500 players so first place prize should be over 1 million. They play 5 rounds each day 1 and then they bring all 3 days together to play tomorrow. I will update the blog tonight after Day 1 is finished. Wish me luck in our 2nd tourney.

Until next time...

GOOD NEWS and BAD NEWS

The good news is I outlasted, Jamie Gold, Phil Helmuth and many of the other best players in the World. The bad news is I was just knocked out after 11 1/2 hours of play. Grrrrrr.... The Day was not too eventful for me as I seemed to be card dead the whole tournament (that means not getting any hands at all) and when I did the turn out wasnt so great. Example late in round 4 I raise under the gun for 1300 with the blinds 200/400 with 50 ante. 2 players later reraises to 4k and everyone folds around to me; I move all in for my remaining 8K with pocket AA. He immediately calls and has AA also. my luck on this day. the odds of getting pocket AA is 280 to 1 and when I get them so does another player. it is something like 78,000 to 1 for two players to have pocket aces; and to make things worse 2 spades came on the flop and he had the Ace of Spades and then 4th street brought another spade so now he has 8 cards in the deck to beat me (any spade) and all the others are for a tie. a club came on the river so we split the pot.
That is just one example. it was a frustrating day as I could not get anything going with the cards I had. now to tell you what happend on the final hand and how I was knocked out of the main event of the World Series:
I was in the big blind with the structure 300/600 with 75 ante. so before there is any action at all there is 1750 in the pot. one guy calls the 600 and then a reckless player raises to 2000 I have only 8000 left so I need to take down a pot soon. I look down and have A8 of spades. Not a great hand to reraise as if he has a pair or a big Ace he will call my all in preflop so I just calle the additiona 1400 so that I can move in on the flop and then he has to make a decision. Well the flop comes out perfect. J82 with two spades. So I have middle pair with the nut flush Draw (nut means the best) So I move all in, even if he does have a Jack or an over pair I am still a 44% chance of winning the hand if he doesnt and has AK or AQ then I am a huge favorite he would only have a12% chance to win. He immediately calls me and tables AJ so now I am a little behind but any 8 or spade and I win. The problem is no 8 or spade came and I was sent to the rail.
So this year we didnt get into the money in the main event. but we have a ton of poker left to play this year and chances to win a ton of money.

Until the next tourney...

PS... This thing doesnt have spell check so sorry if the grammer and spelling is off.

WSOP DAY 1D

Today is my day one for the WSOP main event. We start at noon and you can follow the event at pokernews.com. Based on the other 3 day 1's if we just double up to 40K in chips we will be at the average in chips for day 2. They are combining Day 1a and 1b for tomorrows Day 2; Day 1c and 1d will play on Wednesday for their Day 2 and then all the remaining players after the Day 2's will be combined for Day 3 on Thursday. The prize pools and amount of entrants have not been displayed yet as players are allowed to register all the way up to noon today, but I will update that information tonight when I get back to the room. It will be very late as all the day 1's go until 4am as they play for 14 hours + breaks.

until next time....