Quick news flash before day 2 begins:

I take my hat off and bow to the organizers - a field of 259 was a lot more than I would have bet on, and also a decent amount of interesting profiles. I saw David Plastik, said hi to my old buddy Paul Magriel, Leo Fernandez and his companion Veronica - now PokerStars Pros - were there, along with all the Breneses and the Latin American Stars pros.

The winner of the LAPT in Chile was seated to my immediate left, another excellent player to his left, and then Arturo Morales in seat 8 - I was in seat 4. I was struggling all day mostly under average. With about 1,5 hours before day 1 finished I was at 37,000 but I finished the day in $24,700 with average around $43,000, so it'd be great to double within the first two hours of play, blinds will begin at $500-1,000/100 ante. A couple of bigger stacks - but no monsters of bully-size - at my new table, but also 3-4 of my own size, so it could have been a lot worse.

wish me luck!

Before I start telling you all about the events at the Final Table I'd like to share a couple of memorable moments from day 1.

Buy-in $500, Starting stack $10,000, blinds beginning at $25-50, levels of 40 minutes. I started at table 8 seat 5, to the very right of Gustavo Echeverri whom I have had the pleasure of playing with a number of times in Guanacaste, but never in San Jose. Gustavo is an experienced and tricky player with a lot of moves up his sleeve, so I was not too pleased with the draw. The rest of the table was a mix of weaker spots and a couple of really good and agressive players.

Before I could get really comfortable and build my stack Gustavo was out as the first victim (big bluff called down on the river) and I was moved to a table with late entries. One of them was Karlo "El Mago" Lopez, an established PokerStars pro who happens to be an amazing magician too. What Karlo did not know was that I had had a clash with him online a year ago in a satellite tournament where he had been a little bit offensive and I had had to dosomething about it. That was the satellite where I was a huge favorite heads-up (Karlo busted in 4th place) but lost a $6,000 seat and was left with nothing, you can find that story elsewhere in this blog.

However, it was another player who got involved in a key hand against me. Jorge - a local San Jose player and a very likeable one I might add - had experienced a horrible bad beat against me in the Super Satellite for the Main Event. When we were down to 14 players and 11 would qualify, he and I went all-in preflop. I had Kings and was the chip leader, he had aces and was short-stacked but was now looking to double up and virtually qualify. The King on the river sealed his fate, he ran out of the room with tears in his eyes. Now he was sitting in seat 7, I was in seat 1. My stack was about average, his a little shorter. Blinds were $75-150, in 2nd position I pick up

 

If there is one thing I have learned from playing in San Jose is that you don't slow-play aces, you WILL get action. So I raised to $450, a Dominican player in seat 3 calls and so did Jorge in the blind. Flop falls

  

I made a continuation bet of $1,200, Dominican folds, Jorge calls. hmmm... flush draw? weak king? The turn brings a beauty:



OK, if there is a time to slowplay it is now, the ace has got to hurt Jorge and his feelings about the hand, check-check, hope he will catch something on the river:



Should be the moneymaker, and if it isn't I would never have been able to get his chips anyway, so I bet $2,000, he goes all-in with Flash Gorden speed, and I call. Jorge moans and groans. He had flopped the full house with K4 (that'll teach you not to play trash!!!) and was trapping me all the way, and now I had definitively and permanently become his evil spirit!

Chipped up to around $30,000 now and cruising, our table is broken and I am moved to table 5, seat 2

Seat 1 is a tight-weak Mexican of Chinese descent, seat 3 a nice but too talkative lady from Chile, seat 5 a North American girl with a crush on face cards regardless of value, seat 6 a solid Tico, seat 7 empty, seat 8 a robust young Mexican Peter Lego Fursund look-alike (for the Danish backgammon players out there), seat 9 a bluff-loving young Guatemalteco. As it turns out this becomes my seat for the rest of the day, other players come and go.

First big event at table 5 was the arrival of Don Luis Milanes. A living legend in the casino community, Don Luis is a soft-spoken gentleman of impressive dimensions. Years back he lost heads-up against Jose Rosenkrantz in Season 1 of the World Poker Tour at the only event in Costa Rica. Don Luis was the owner of the Casino Europa, but shortly after he disappeared from the surface of the earth, allegedly with hundreds of millions of dollars of investor money. 5 years later - last year in November - he suddenly reappears in San Jose, supposedly straightens everything out with whom he needs to and shows up at the PokerStars LAPT event, limo, chauffeur, bodyguard and all. Since then he has been everpresent and repossessed the Casino, and now he was sitting down at my table. He unloads 2 racks on to the felt, a total of $90,000, the overwhelming tournament chip leader.



He starts bullying right away, plays every hand, agression with turbo and afterburner. Mostly he will raise, sometimes limp. In a hand of the latter category he limps in mid position, it is folded to the blinds. In the SB I am looking at

 

and decide to call, expecting the Chilean Lady in the Big Blnd to check as she had done all day. Sure enough she taps the table.

Flop comes


  

SWEEEEEETTTTT!!!!! Keep cool, slowplay, action from Milanes is guaranteed! I check, and now Mrs. Chile bets the pot (around $1,200), Luis Milanes re-pops her to the size of her stack ($12,000), I move all-in for about $27,000 and they both call.

Chilean lady flips over

  Don Luis is gambling with  

the board bricks out, lady goes home to Santiago and I am the new chip leader with a chip count of $68,725!

It is a long night, I am projecting we will finish day 1 after 4 a.m., I maintain my patient attitude, charge the blinds when I find it opportune and otherwise just try to find good spots. Once I get in real trouble and lose a big chunk against Guatemala. He had raised an uncontested pot from the button (again!) and I decided to make a stand in the BB, but alas - this time he had aces and could not be bluffed off the hand and I drop to around $30,000 i chips.

A player from the Dominican Republic has taken seat 3 now, and for some reason he is convinced that I am on a stealing mission every time I am in a hand. In a crucial hand everybody folds to me in the SB, and I think about raising. He has me outchipped by 2:1, and I am worried he will reraise me if I go at it. I do however like my K9o heads-up, so I make it as simple as I can - All-in! He is literally fuming now, and he snap-calls with A7o!!! Wow, I am in danger of extinction now, but the 9 on the turn saves me and relocates half the Dominican stack to the Tico-Vikingo in seat 2!

The official payout rewards the top 8 finishers, the Final Table on day 2 will have 9 players. It is now after 4 a.m. and we are playing 5-handed at 2 tables. During a break I suggest to TD Mario Zeledon that we take money from top 2 and give to places 9 and 10 so they will not have fought this long and gruelling night for nothing, and so it is. We finally lose another player, bag the chips and I drive home while the sun is rising.

Day 2 - Final Table

What I did not realize before the final table began was that I was actually the big stack! Not by much, the second biggest was Karlo Lopez to my right with around $90,000, and from there it went gradually down to $35,000 for the young crowd favorite Uri Rosenkrantz, son of Abraham, one of the PokerHispano owners.

Blinds were $1,200-$2,400 with a $200 ante, meaning there were $5,400 in the middle at the start of every hand and that the average stack had only 13 M. Quite normal for a Final Table, but it also meant you could not just sit there and wait for a premium hand. So I didn't. I took down the blinds and antes of the very first hand with a mid position raise (KJs) and my stack grew from $101,500 to $106,700 just like that!.

After that first hand I faded out of the picture for a while. The rest of the table picked up the action, a lot of raising and moves were made. The blinds grew to $1,500-3,000 with a $300 ante, we lost the first player at the hands of Karlo and he took a solid chip lead, not really what I liked to see but luckily I was to his immediate left in seat 5 and would have position on him for the rest of the tournament.

Young Uri had an amazing run with pocket kings twice and had taken 2nd position knocking out Guatemala on the way. All of a sudden I had a mediocre stack which had dropped to around $60,000 after a couple of unfortunate flops. Meanwhile blinds were up again, now $2,000-4,000 with $300 ante, Mexico in seat 9 has the SB, Rosenkrantz in the BB seat 1. Seat 2 - a chubby tight-weak gentleman from Panama with a love for salsa music on the iPod says raise, then throws his card toward the muck!? The dealer caught the cards on the way and called the floor. It was ruled that the raise would stand and seat 2 posted 8 yellow chips for the min-raise. Folded to the button - me! - and I decide to take advantage of the situation by re-raising to $21,000 and steal at broad daylight like a deer in headlights etc.etc. That was too much for my Dominican friend in seat 8 (the one who called my all-in with A7o on day 1) and he moves all-in!! Everybody folds to me, and now all of a sudden my 78o ain't looking to cool anymore. However, it was only another $28,000 to call, and with the probability that my friend was holding less than premium cards hovering around 75-85% I decide to call. He flips over QQ and I get no help from the dealer from here. From chip leader to short stack on the Final table, I am left with around $20,000 in chips.

But that was not the end of my troubles, far from. I steal the blinds and antes a couple of times moving all-in and surviving when nobody calls me. Then a crucial hand comes, I am in the BB again, now it is folded to seat 2, who announces all-in! He's got a stack similar to mine, pretty short so I know his shoving requirements are "flexible", Karlo folds in the SB and I have AJs so I call. Seat 2 has AQ and I am dominated. The board bricks out, I stand up as the dealer is counting out the stacks, I shake everybody's hands, they say nice things about my play, I am thinking "damn! another 7th place finish (WPS 2006)" when the dealer announces I still have chips left!! Hey, how much? $300!!!! Next hand I will post my ante of exactly $300 and not be able to post my small blind!! My stack now contains 0.0484% of the entire amount of chips on the table - let's just agree I need to get lucky now! The famous chip-and-a-chair story gets retold and I am getting encouraging remarks from everybody, laughs all around as we all await my exit in the next hand.

The action is folded around to young Uri in seat 1. He chooses to raise the pot!! Everybody folds including Karlo, who is shaking his head in disbelief. Uri turns over A9d, I am holding 4h3d, not the greatest hand ever, but at least I have live cards. The board runs out another ace and my tournament life seems as fragile as a candle light in a hurricane, but then a fourth heart comes on the river and I make my flush!! Up to $2,100!!! Everybody criticizes Uri for not limping and Karlo says it could be a very costly mistake. He had folded the ace of hearts so had Uri not raised the pot I would have been out. Ever heard of the theory that a flutter of a butterfly's wing in China can create a storm in the Carribbean? Sometimes the most tiny differences can have a huge impact.

We go on break, the $100 chips are raced out,  back at the table my stack amounts to a whopping ante of $500 and half a small blind, we're at the $3,000-6,000 level now. For some obscure reason I choose to fold holding 52o, saying goodbye to 25% of my stack! Not wanting to repeat that mistake again I call all-in holding K3o in the next hand, two more players in the hand, can I only hit the flop! No such luck, the flop comes AJ842, Mexico flips 10 7, Karlo Q9 and my king high wins - all of a sudden I have more than $8,000!

Very next hand I am looking at A2o and I move all-in. I get two callers, they both check it down, one of them had made a pair of jacks, but it was no match for my turned set of deuces, ship it!!!

Now everybody was quiet at the table, fear in their eyes, and I was having a ball. There is really nothing better than having faced certain death just to survive, it's like being in a free-roll!

Next time I raised I did not have to push all-in and I took down the blinds and antes. I had decent cards, but most importantly nobody else had anything. Then I lost one pot and got knocked down again to push-and-pray status.

It is folded around to me on the button, and I am looking at a pretty hand:

 

My stack is at roughly $38,000 so I move all-in, expecting to pick up the blinds and antes ($12,500). The young Panamanian in seat 6 quickly calls and the BB folds. Uh-oh....

Panama reveals his ugly

 

and we see the flop:

  

hey, there is hope, now I have 5 outs!

The turn is



but thank God for inventing the river card:



another miracle has ocurred, Panama is down to desperation size and I am back as a force to be reckoned with!!

Next player out is in fact young Panama. He waited until he and I were in the blinds, and I put him all-in with AJ I don't remember his holdings, but he called and lost. We all moved up in equity now.

Over the course of the following 30 minutes we lost both Mexico and the other Panamanian. I was back as big stack at the table and the rest were in disbelief. Karlo was second in chips now. He and I had joked about ending heads-up, and now it actually seemed likely to happen. Then comes the biggest pot of the tournament so far - blinds are now at $4,000-8,000, ante $500. Karlo raises UTG to $21,000. I am looking at

 

Four-handed, I have position on Karlo, I have a hand with tons of potential so why postpone the duel? I call. The blinds both fold, we have $56,000 in the pot. The flop comes

  

not bad - sure there's an ugly ace, but I have middle pair with a good kicker and a backdoor flush draw on top of the backdoor straight draw! If Karlo does not have an ace,he's gotta be disgusted. Karlo in fact checks, I bet $32,000. Karlo checkraises me to $64,000, something that for some gutfelt reason seemed like an artificial move not backed up by reality. He has now around $55,000 behind. I know if I had hit the flop and would check-raise my opponent, I would go all-in Or if I really wanted to bluff I would also go all-in. Funky. I call. The turn comes



Now Karlo checks. Hmm. A lot of stuff in poker is technical, pot odds and shit, but sometimes you just gotta trust your instincts. Since I had Karlo covered substantially (about $70,000 more than him) I see no other move - all-in! Karlo dives into the tank, and I just sit head in hand and wait. He starts talking about how bad the 10 was for his hand, that I had called with A 10. A few minutes go by before he finally folds and I drag in the monster pot. At the table he said he had AK and I expressed my admiration for him that he did not go broke with that hand, that many chips in the pot and that I had hit 2 pairs on the turn.

Karlo is next guy out, we are now down to 3 players. Uri Rosenkrantz, the Dominican gentleman and myself. I have about half the chips in play, the gentleman in 2nd position and Uri in 3rd. Play goes back and forth, but the big action happens without me being involved. Soon they are both all-in preflop, The gentleman had made a weak call on Uri's push and he slides down to third position. Then they have another all-in, Uri has AQ and hits a set on the turn and he is celebrating just as a fourth diamond lands on the river to complete his opponent's flush. Uri is crippled again and steaming. Very next hand he goes all-in with 10 4 in the SB, I call wih J 10 in the bigblind and take him out of his misery.

Heads-up!! I have the chip lead, the blinds are now at $5,000-10,000, $1,000 ante. I was really happy to get this particular opponent as he in my opinion was the weakest of the lot. Over-playing his cards most of the time, making horrible calls, something that is really devastating for your chances against a better player determined to control pot sizes and be patient.

He actually took over the chip lead after the first 10 hands. We were at around $350,000-270,000 in his favor when the following hand played out. I am holding

 

on the button, I raise to $25,000, he calls. The flop comes

  

He checks, I bet $35,000, he moves all-in. I would be worried about this had it happened with 80% of the players I know, but in this case it was an easy call with top pair next bext kicker. Sure enough he flips over 8h 10d and no help for him from here, I gain a huge chip lead. Very next hand:

 

He completes in the SB, I check. The flop comes

  

This time I bet $15,000, he goes all-in, I call. He is holding 57o for the inside straight draw but another 3 on the turn fills my boat, the river changes nothing and I am the winner of the trophy, $9,170 in cash and a great come-back story firm enough to last much longer than a lot of my friends and family probably would wish.





After the photo shoot and the nice cheque we went to the Fiesta Casino in Alajuela where Poker Hispano had organized a very nice and generous award ceremony. Karlo made a great magic performance on the stage in front of a packed Saturday night fun-loving party crowd.Marian was pulled up on stage to assist him in one of the tricks, and it all ended with a public prize award ceremony where I received the trophy, and after me the winner of the main event Mr. Ingino from Panama who took down a field of 111 and a first prize of more than $50,000. At the party Karlo approached me and said (referring to the big hand I won against him) "I had K 9, what did you really have?" We both laughed and I returned the favor. It was a great pleasure to get to know and play you, Karlo, hope to see you soon again at the LAPT.





The only thing I could wish for now would that this event would have counted for the Guanacaste Player of the Year - I calculated the points I would have made, and it amounts to around 24,000, enough to distance Jeff Herrman by more than 10,000 GPOY points!!

really short here just before I need to leave for the Herradura. Yesterday's $500 event attracted a field of 62, 8 places get paid and today we're playing the Final Table of 9 at 3 p.m.

My stack is at $101,500, average around $69,000. There might be a live update on PokerHispano....

You'll get the longer story when this is all over.

Aces now!!!

My mouth is full of sand from a long walk in Sahara during day 1 of the Main Event. Trash cards after trash cards. I won the very first hand of the tournament after flopping two pairs, but it was literally hours before I won my next hand fair and square. My stack size kept shrinking as the blinds grew, and way into level 5 I finally saw a pair of jacks, reraised the guy in the cut-off and increased my stack from 8,000 to 10,000, while the average was now at around $22,000

Around the room the action was relentless and players had chips handed to them by one stupid macho play after he other, it was all about being in the right spot at the right time, and I was never there. On the contrary my table was dominated by morons and idiots with an impressive lack of both ethics and social skills. It created an urge in me to rob them of their entire chip stock, but alas - I came way too short.

Down to $6,900 I am on the button in seat 6. The guy in seat 4 goes all-in for $4,000, and I look down on

 

Easy all-in, the rock in the SB gets out of the way, but Humberto Brenes (who I have to add does not belong to the category I described above, he had joined the table 20 minutes prior to this hand) who was just as desperate and shortstacked as me and seat 4 - also pushes all-in!!

Seat 4 shows

 

and Humberto moans when he flips over

 

The flop comes

  

and I take out seat 4 while Humberto is left with just $850.

Back in business I can finally breathe again and I am ready to take on my table and chip up. A lot of players have now left for other tables, we are down to roughyl 60 players out of the 111 starting, the average is now at $30,000. My table is playing 7-handed for a while.

Just four hands later I am UTG, the action has been quiet and I decide to put my chips to work with a small preflop raise holding

 

Blinds are $300-600 with a $50 ante, so the initial pot has a nice chunk of chips to be picked up. Everybody folds to my $1,800 raise until we get to the BB (observations skills prevailing, I have played close to zero hands, and the only one I showed down ws the QQ). Steven hmpson in the BB calls me, and we are ready for the flop:

  

Steven checks, and I get ready to take down the pot, continuing with the best hand. My stack is now at around $17,000, while Steven has around $12,000. I throw out a brown $5,000 chip, but now Steven moves all-in. Time to go in the tank. I have played Steven quite a bit, and latest in the super satellite, so I am confident that if he had a flush draw he would have moved on the flop. If he had flopped a set of jacks I think he would have reraised preflop. I am thinking he is either holding the nuts with Q 10, or more likely two pairs with probably A J. His all-in reraise was so small that he was dying to get my call, and the pot odds were definitely tempting. I end up saying goodbye way too soon to my newly acquired chips with a well-timed fold when Steven flips over

 

"great fold" he complemented my play, a poor consolation prize.....

Three hands later I on the button again, an it is folded to me. I am holding


 

Humberto is forced all-in in the BB with a meager $450 (blinds meanwhile have incresed to $400-800, $100 ante) and I am very fond of this particular hand as it sent me to the WSOP Main Event back in 2007, so I call. SB calls too, we are 3-way, "The Shark" all-in, and we also have a side pot.

Flop comes



  

Pretty nice! Small Blind checks, I bet $800 - he calls! Now I just hope I can get all his chips as he obviously like the flop. The turn is




Not a good card for me if he is holding face cards or 23 for that matter. SB checks again, I too check ready to act on the river. The river is




SB checks again, and I of course bet again, but he starts whining about me playing an ace, so he folds his pocket tens face up!!
I take out Humberto and win a small but nice pot.

Soon our table gets broken up and I am moved to table 3 seat 9, next to Thomas Koo in seat 8 and Karlo Lopez in seat 7. I get to raise to $2,200 preflop once with 88, only to get reraised on the button for another $6,500 by a gentleman whom I played in the Super Satellite. Solid player, easy fold. I am moved again to table 5, this one dominated by medium to big sized stacks, I am definitely the smallest with $13,000, the average is now up to more than $30,000.

I watch the action for a couple of rounds not getting anything. Miguel in seat 8 and a Venezuelan macho-loose caller go at it a couple of times, Miguel loses a chunk. In the last crucial hand of the night Miguel throws in a $2,500 bet (blinds $500-1,000, $100 ante) in mid position, loose Venezuelan dude calls on the button. I am in the BB with K8s, and I have reached the point where I can't take it anymore, I need to o something now before they run me over. I think that if Miguel folds I will take down the pot and almost double my stack, so I ove all-in to squeeze! Alas, Miguel insta-calls and I am in big doodoo when his pocket aces are revealed.

ah well, tonight it is time for the $500 event!

Las Vegas and the WSOP is far behind us already, August and September belog to the past, now it's October, raining and another month of concentrated Costa Rican poker action has begun.

The crew and owners behind the first Spanish poker magazine PokerHispano took over management of the poker room at the Ramada Inn Herradura earlier in 2009. You will recognize many of the names, i.e. WPT winner Jose Rosenkrantz, his brother Abraham and Alex Brenes. Backed up and supported by the large majority of pros and celebrities in Costa Rica and with their excellent network throughout the Hispanic poker communities they have created THE place to play poker with action every day of the week.

Now they have introduced the Poker Hispano Tour. In an attempt to improve the efforts of LAPT and the World Poker Showdown and make it even more attractive to players, the stacks are deeper than ever before, and the tournament management is the best in the country, run by Fernando Obando and his team.

A big handlful of Guanacaste players made it to San Jose for the first two tournaments this week, i.e. a friendly $50 warm-up tournament (nobody cashed, Julian won the lastlonger bet) and Tuesday a $300 buy-in event. In the latter Tyler and I were the only Guanacas alive at the final stages, but while I busted in 13th place (95 players total) Tyler made the 10th place and cashed.

Last night it was time for the last Super Satellite leading up to the main event, and despite the organizers had it scheduled to 9 p.m. (and thus we would be playing until the wee hours) I decided to give it a shot. I'll make a long story short: In a field of 104 players there were 10 $1,500 seats and a $880 credit for the 11th finisher. At 4.45 in the morning I was chip leader and the 12th place finisher had just been busted. Everybody's eyes were puffy and we could hardly talk, so we decided that every body chip in to fill up to 11 full seats, and I decided I did not want to be the asshole of the bunch despite my 99,9% chance of qualifying so I also coughed up and I could drive home while the sun was rising.

Ready now to do the right thing, stay alive on day 1 (3 days total), hopefully double my stack during the day and be ready to go in agression mode on day 2. $150,000 is the guaranteed prize pool, it'll be bigger if we get more than 100 players, but I doubt we'll exceed that number in these days of cash crisis.

wanna know more? www.pokerhispano.com

Just received an e-mail from Michele. He busted three hours into day 2, short-stacked and looking for an option to double up. He found his moment holding

 

in the small blind. Nobody raised pre-flop so he got a cheap look at the flop:

  

Unfortunately his top pair never improved so it was the end for Michele in this year's version of the main event.

My Vegas trip is coming to an end. I just got back tomy hotel suite at the Rio, enjoying a cold beer before bedtime and thinking of today's events.

So, we were down to 35 players, 27 would walk home with money in their pocket, the best and luckiest of us all would cash a nice $81,000!

The 3rd hand of the day I am UTG. Blinds are $1,200-2,400, $300 ante, I raise to $7,000. A shorter stack to my immediate left reraises all-in for $38,000+, everyone folds to me and I obviously call with y pocket kings! He flips over 10 10, nohelp for him on the board, and I am almost at average - YES!! Just the start I needed.

From there I go up and down a bit, down again to $80,000, a big squeeze-play sends me back ovr the $100,000 mark, but we are still not on the bubble, the game is slow! Finally somebody busts and we re-draw for the last three tables.

I win some bi juicy pots with agressive play pre-flop, I squeeze some of the pros a couple of times and I build my stack to $326,000 when we are 17 players left, average at $226,000. I am feeling more and more confident and positive. I hit a bit of a card drought, and slowly fall to around $280,000.

When we come back from dinner break I am in the big blind. I have two big stacks to my right, those are the ones I plan to double up through! In the first hand it is folded to Canadian Paul in the SB. He completes, I check with 98o. A Q 2 on the flop, he bets I fold.

2nd hand it is again folded around to Paul. Blinds are $5,000-10,000,$1,000 ante. Paul raises on the button to $36,000. I look down and see

 

I shove for my entire stack, but the calm voice from the big blind is everything but soothing when he announces "I call".

Canadian Paul folds, and the Big Blind reveals his ugly

 

I am crushed and he doubles up through me, I am left with less than 1 big blind, and two hands later I am out in 14th place of the 272 player field.

Looking back on the week, my stats are nothing to be ashamed of. I have played 6 tournaments, cashed in 4 of them. In two of them I have chopped for first place heads-up and 3-way, and I have made it deep into the money in 2 out of 4 deep-stack tournaments with plenty of world class players around me.

Gotta start packing now, anxious to go home to Marian and the new 3 Kings Social Club. Looking forward to creating a great place to play with lots of value and action for my members.

hasta la proxima!

It ended up being the Venetian's Deep Stack Extravaganza again, their 4th of July $1,080 buy-in tournament, starting stack $15,000, levels of 60 minutes, starting blinds $50-100. Mike decided it was bad equity so he opted for the limit hold'em grind, and when I left him he was doing well and winning big.

My first table was a fine mix of good players and really soft spots, I was lucky enough to get a lot of the easy chips and most of the day I was at double average - until the dinner break.

After dinner it seemed like the cream had surfaced and it was no longer that easy to pick a victim at the table. A LOT of contested pots and agressive play. My second table was not that good for me, even though I was at $128,000 at one point when the average was around $40,000. I lost a big pot just before the table broke up again, but I was at $100,000 and doing well. Then I unfortunately doubled up a short stack and fell to $77,000, Later the same guy opened the pot in 2nd posiion. The blinds were $1,000-2,000 now with $300 ante. It was folded to the button where I was holding

 

I call, the blinds fold.

Flop comes

  

He checks, I check to trap.

The turn is



He checks, I bet $11,000, he goes all-in for a total of $30,000+, and I can't fold in that spot, I quickly call.

He flips over

 

and I am in deep doodoo, until the ace on the river came and the guy exploded out of the poker room!.

Phew, cruising again, we are now down to 55 players. Top27 get paid, minimum $1,300, 1st place pays $81,000, and I have $125,000+ with the average around $75,000.

A few rounds later, 2nd position raises to $6,000, a small stack goes all-in on the button for $35,000+, I go all-in over the top with pocket Kings, 1st raiser folds short stack flips over aces, aaaaarrrghhh. No help for me on the board and I drop to $80,000 again.

I lose a couple of pots with AKs and pocket 7s, and I am down to less than $50,000, but at least I won the last hand of the night with pocket 6s to end the day at $67,000.

Sunday at 4 p.m. we play again. We are 35 players left, average is around $117,000. I need to double up soon to stand a chance, plan B is to squeeze myself into the money, it'd be nice to leave Las Vegas with cashes in 4 out of 6 played tournaments.

cross your fingers.....

Let's take Michele first - he has done well by surviving day 1 and will continue the fight for the championship! However, he is down to $6,150 in chips and will need to double up a couple of times to stand a chance in the long run. I hope to get a more detailed interview from Michele Saturday.

Meanwhile I decided to give it another go at Harrah's - after all I won it the other night, so the mojo should be alright and my confidence in my game has rarely been higher.

Wednesday we were 80 players total, today Friday we reached 90. This time however, I came off to a very dry start, saw hardly any cards at all the first 4 levels before the break. After the break I managed to double up once with AJ vs. 88, and later once more when I trapped with AK, and another player decided to try a squeeze with AJ. All of a sudden I was above average again and doing well. They broke up our table about 2 hours into the tournament and I was seated in seat 7 at a much tougher table han the first one. My first hand UTG was QQ, (blinds $1,000-2.000 my stack at $28,000) I raised to $8,000, I had a caller from a huge stack in seat 9, then seat 10 went all-in! Fold around to me. Hard decision I think, and since I did not know the players and yet and my tournament life as at stake I decided to let it go. Seat 9 also let go, and the Italian player in seat 10 showed QQ - we had the same hand!!!

Next hand I showed to the table was KK in an all-in situation where I busted a player, so my image was good and solid, and at the later stages I got a lot of respect from the table and managaed to steal quite a number of blinds and antes.

It's late - or early if you will - and I will make it short: I made it to the final table as the big stack and managed to build it even more until I sat on $350,000 of the $900,000 in play. 6-handed I first lose an all-in with KK vs. A6s, then my AK can't win vs. AJ, and when a strong agressive French player in seat begins to play back at me I lose a chunk of chips. When the forth place finisher is out the three of us were at $240,000/$330,000/$330,000 and we decide to chop the pot 3-way, still a nice chunk of cash with a little more than $2,500 to each of us, not bad for a $150 investment, eh?

Saturday I will most probably play either at the Golden Nugget or Venetian, both places have a $1,000 2-day event. Mike will be joining me and change from the $4-8 game he has been grinding succesfully over the last days.

Goodnight!

Michele looked fit and redy to play. Butterflies in the tummy I think, but his wife is on ringside to support him, and she has made sure he holds on to the cross she gave him today. "He does not respect the Lord enough" she told me as we gave him the last wave and encouraging words of advice.




Next door to the playing rooms the Poker Palooza show has opened its doors. It began yesterday and despite the name change it's all the same mix of crap and goodies for poker players.

I picked up the cards for the TPT and the new club, saw the people I had appointments with, ran into the defending World Champ who was suffering from a severe hang-over from the Drunk Danes game at the Venetian the night before, and bought a few things here and there.

In the afternoon Greg Raymer gave a free seminar for the visitors, Joe Hachem and a lot of other big names ran around and had their photos taken with everybody who wanted it.



Later in the day I tried the Mandalay cash game. As promised the table was super-soft, most of them limpers and calling stations, but nontheless I was down more than $200 before I finally managed to double up through my neighbor who caught the nut flush on the river while I had slow-played a flopped set of queens which filled up with the very same river card - thank you 6 of spades!!

Later the fish swam out of the tank and let some young sharks in, I left the table with a decent plus and went home to crash.

Tonight I might try the Harrah's tournament again, and tomorrow I am eye-balling the Main Event at the Golden Nugget's Grand Series of Poker, we'll see.