25k Venetian... LAPC... Flood stuff... NBC heads up stuff

by Phil

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25k Venetian... I was the first one out on my table.  A very fast downtick.  My last hand was Kc 10c vs 5c 6c on a 2c 3c 4s board.  I bricked out and Super Josiah Cassidy not only won the hand, but won the heat.  The fellow who won both heats and therefore the whole event... Ashton Griffon.  I would later meet him at the LAPC and liked him out of the gate.  He is a smart guy, in his own world, and had a funny hat.  What's not to like?  (As a random aside I did some radio thing last week where I was told we would be the guests.  We were, but instead of being on at the same time, we were spaced one after another.)     : (            BTW, if you want to kill and hour of your life here is a link to that interview...   http://pokercast.twoplustwo.com/listen_and_browse.php

LAPC...  The LAPC was intricately woven into my flood fiasco... (The running tab on the damage from that is so nasty gross I nearly don't feel like putting it to print.  Whatever.... Ok, so I mega spaced donked and have now loast countless hours dealing with insurance people that are trying to underpay and contractors trying to get overpaid.  It is the biggest blunder I have managed in ... well....  maybe ever... not sure.)  The LAPC was woven into the flood mishap as I have not had such a demon desire to crush games in a long time.  The way I saw it was that I needed lots of money to soften the pain from the flood damage.  At times I refused to sleep.  There was one game that I was determined to never quit.  I gave up after 60 hrs as I had a flight, and missing it would have been bad.  It was a 100 100 plo / 100 200 nlh game that eventually morphed into a 100 100 plo game with loads of straddles and restraddles, super mega deep stacks and lots of testosterone.  I smashhed it.  It felt good.  (The 10k event became a tiny speck of a memory compared to all the sloshing about I did in the cash games.)  I can only thank the poker gods for those games.

Flood Stuff....  I don't want to get into it.  It is the only thing that has tilted me in years.  When I move back into the apt and the last bill is paid I will give you an overview of the whole thing from a hindsight perspective... This hopefully wont be as tilting as me trying to talk about it during the pain.

NBC heads up stuff.... First round pick.  John Juanda.  Won it.  Played good 'cept for one donk play... (Calling with A2 os where I should have folded... but other than that... liked how I played it.)   Second round was Phil Gordon.  That one went my way as well.  The really sick thing was how it all ended.  With a chip lead I made a speculative call to his all in with Qs9s.  He had K5os and by the turn I was down to needing a 10 or he was doubling up.  I binked it.  No problem.  10 ball.  10 of clubs to be exact.  Wow.  It fell on to the table like it was meant to be.  It was a huge card as now I was in the money.  But his reaction to it was super visceral.  It had been a while since I have seen a player have a mega twitch cringe reaction to a bad card.  But now I can say I saw it close up and very recent.  It is a massive favorite to make the cut as his whole body recoiled in pain.  Sorry Phil.  I can be decently sypathetic/empathetic on those moments... and for sure I could feel his pain.

In my third heat I was grinding Jason Mercier down for a bit, and it was looking rosy... but then, as it sometimes happens in poker...  things slipped away.  I had a few mega crowbar hands and failed to get max value as I played them (I think) too fast.  Also I am not a big fan of a big (preflop) call I made towards the end with only King high, but in hindsight I see that I was influenced by his multiple previous all in moves.  None the less, I think more caution was called for.  All in all I showed a profit (Entry 20k, won 25k, net win = 5k) and had some fun, though it would have been nice to penetrate deeper where the phat money was.  Ho hum.

I have been in a poker blur... which is nice... I like poker blurs.  This current blur is going to wind down with the BAY 101 10k event that starts in 3 days.  After that event I will be in chill mode from March 15th to about April 7th.  Not much poker (I predict) for those 3 weeks.  One thing for sure is that I will be finally racking out the surf board - stoked! 

I can be in mega poker mode for weeks on end (and have been) so it will be nice to get this 3 week break.  I love taking breaks as I always return hungry and sharp.  The music is sometimes in the space between the notes.  April holds great promise for turning into a poker blur as the Bellagio will be hosting the 25k event that month.  

More later....

Phil