So Marc and Casey were all fired up to play the $1K at Binion’s. We all assumed it would be a super soft field (being Binion’s and all) and they tried to get me to play it as well. I sold a few pieces and decided to go for it. Let’s just say it was not quite the soft field we had anticipated! We all agree it was the toughest field we have played all summer. It got around 95 runners and I would say 75 of them were very, very good players…mostly internet wiz kids.
We all managed to get pretty deep with Casey and Marc both busting out in the 20s somewhere. I had a hand I played really poorly that knocked me down a bit right before dinner, but the structure was really good so I felt like I had time to rebuild my stack. I doubled through the guy that owned me in the hand I played poorly when I played A9s kind of weird and managed to get him to jam on me with JJ on an AAx board. Then a few hands later I open KQss and get 3 bet by the table chipleader. I flat and the board comes QQx. He bet and I called. Turn was a K. He bet and I raised and he shipped it with QJ. This put me at 200K and in positon for a nice run.
Unfortunately on the last level of day one I took a rough hit when I flatted KT and the board came KTT. turn was a blank and I check raised setting up a big river bet. River was an A and I bet pretty big…the guy in the hand was a tight old guy and he thought for a second and jammed. I vomited a little but dont think I can ever fold, and he flipped over AT for a pot that would have made me chipleader and instead I would go to day 2 and the final table of 10 (paid 9) as 8th in chips.
I was pretty nervous that I was going to bubble my 4th tournament, but on the first hand of day 2, two guys got it in with AKdd vs AKcc and the flop was all diamonds and we were suddenly in the money. I think this relieved some stress and allowed me to play pretty well, although I really never was able to build my stack much past where I came in to the day. I ended up finishing 6th for $5200 which is a fine result considering I was not even planning to play the event. Plus the education I got playing against that field was worth the buy in all by itself.
Cougars4444 arrived last night and RonFezBuddy gets in tonight, so it would be a fun weekend. I’ll be playing the Venetian $400 this weekend and can hopefully continue the trend of making deep runs!