After just 3 hours of sleep, I head back down into the Flamingo casino to see if luck was still with me. It wasn’t and I manage to lose back $1200 of the previous nights’ gains on cold blackjack and colder crap tables.
As I didn’t leave a credit card on file when I checked in, the phone in my room would not allow me to make any calls. I found a pay phone by the buffet to call my wife. One of these days I’m going to breakdown and finally get a cell phone. The payphone I had to use had a gross armpit odour to it.
My wife was pretty disappointed that I busted out of the WSOP, but remained positive nonetheless.
At 8:45am, I was back in the room and my mother and I went to have breakfast at the Flamingo buffet. I was able to use the $5 off coupon from the MRB. Once again the new diamond card came in handy, and we were seated immediately.
There was a black swan preening just outside the window. I’ve never seen a black swan before and it was certainly less creepy than the movie.
There were also some giant Koi goldfish swimming in the somewhat dirty pond just outside our window. Fish are supposed to be good luck, and I hoped this was a good sign.
The breakfast buffet here was quite good I thought. They even had a crepe maker. As I like to try different foods out, I tried the cold crayfish.
Blah. Too fishy tasting.
My mother had me take her back to the Fashion Show Mall because she thought the sales lady who sold her the 2 purses forgot to give her a divider. It turns out there wasn’t a divider, and we ended up wasting a hour.
My mother would be seeing Donny and Marie tonight. I made sure she knew where the showroom was, and how to get back to our room.
I drove down to the Golden Nugget to buy into “The Grand” $560 PLO8 tournament. Up to this point, the Golden Nugget had been the only casino where I had won money. I hoped that trend would continue.
95 people bought into this tournament and first place paid out a little over $14,000. Only the final table of 9 players would be paid. Many of the players thought the field would be bigger since 700 people busted out of the same WSOP PLO8 event I did yesterday. I guess money is tight all around.
I had a few pros seated at my table.
The first was Chip Jett, who actually won the $225 PLO8 event here at the Golden Nugget last week. He doesn’t have any WSOP bracelets, but does have over 2 million dollars in tournament cashes.
The other player was Senovio Ramirez. Hanging from the ceiling right above our table was a banner that read “Grand Champion 2010: Senovio Ramirez” Apparently he had won “The Grand” main event at the Golden Nugget last year.
The year I finished in 16th at the 2009 WSOP he made the final table and eventually busted in 9th. He has over $300,000 in WSOP cashes alone. He was a real character, raising every pot in the dark and playing real fast. His main line was,
“Are you going to let them get away with that?” He would say this all the time in order to get people to call raises or bets on the end just so he could see what people held. Something else he would do, was ask the dealer to turn over certain cards on the flop. For instance, he once said to the dealer,
“Turn over a 9 dealer!” When the dealer actually flipped up a 9, he would bet at the flop and get everyone to fold.
He wasn’t all talk though. Twice I saw him predict what people actually held in their hands, and he even laid down trip 5s to me after I turned a full house. He obviously had skills.
Short 10 minute breaks were scheduled every 3 levels or 2 hours. That was pretty bad I thought. You barely had enough time to go to the bathroom. They did set up a hotdog stand just outside the ballroom to sell the players $2.50 soft drinks and $3.00 hot dogs. I took the time during the first 2 ten minute breaks to play some slots, since I’m a degenerate. As luck would have it, I won about $300 during those first 2 breaks which helped off set the cost of the buy in.
Through levels 7, 8 and 9, I ran completely card dead, and my stack was reduced to just $3200 with the blinds at 600 – 1200. I was going to be in the big blind after the 1 hour dinner break. Part of me just wanted to bust out and be done with it, since I could have driven back to the Flamingo to meet up with my mother. I stuck around though, ate one of their over-priced hot dogs and actually managed to win another $300 on the slot machines before I had to get back to my seat and play my all in blind.
Of course my blind was raised, and 1 other person called. The board ended up:
Q J 10 2 9
The 2 callers each had 2 pair, and I flipped my cards over 1 at a time. Lo and behold, I had a pretty good hand. A K 5 7. I hit the broadway straight and tripled up!
The very next hand someone made a pot sized bet and I re-raised all in with A 3 4 K double suited.. Once again there were 2 callers. The board ended up
K K 9 2 5
My trip Ks won the pot again and I suddenly had over 30,000 in chips!
Even Senovio who was sitting beside me couldn’t believe it.
When I won that second pot I exclaimed,
“Holy Frijoles!”
Senovio chimes in.
“Frijoles? We like frijoles where I come from.” I thought that was pretty funny and made it a point to find out the correct spelling of frijolas and to find out what they are. (Spanish for re-fried or mashed beans)
This hand came up a few hands later and gave me hope of finishing in the money. The pot was not raised and I called in the cut-off with A 2 8 9. Two other players called.
The Flop
5 6 7 all different suits.
GIN! I flop the nut low and the nut high straight. The big blind leads into me, and I just call, trying to drag in the last player. The last player makes a minimum raise, and then the big blind does as well. I don’t know what is going on, but once again I just call, and the button moves all in now. The big blind calls and so do I. I slam my cards down on the table.
“Double nut!”
“Oh my God!” The other 2 players groan.
Player 1 has A 2 K K for just the nut low and backdoor full house possibilities
Player 2 has A 3 8 9 for the second nut low and the same high straight as me. He could have hit one of the remaining 2s for ¾ of the pot though.
The poker gods were kind to me today though and my hand stands up. I end up winning 50% of the total pot which amounted to around $60,000.
By 11:30pm, we were down to 17 people and a deal was made to give all the players finishing from 10th to 17th $600 from the prize pool. I’m surprised everyone agreed. I guess everyone was tired. Although making just $40 for 12 hours of play is probably less than what waitresses make, it beats going home with nothing.
Your mind starts to play tricks with you once you make the money and sit at the final table. Here I was with a very short stack of just $56,000 when the average stack was about $140,000. I thought I had a chance to win and make that $14000. That would have pulled my mom and me back to even for the trip.
It was not meant to be though. At level 16, I made a stand with A 2 3 10 double suited and was called by the big stack with A 2 Q K. He flopped a pair and I didn’t. No low came and I was out in 8th spot. I was paid $1775.
I did outlast Chip Jett and Senovio Ramirez, and had a lot fun playing this tournament. Somehow making this small cash made me feel a whole lot better, and I suddenly wasn’t as depressed as I had been so far this trip. Just counting the poker tournaments:
Binion’s - $210
WSOP - $1500
Golden Nugget - $560
1 cash + $1775
I was down a mere $495 as far as the poker tournaments went. I was pretty close to even overall. Things were looking up.
I was starving, and decided to get a burger at the Sonic on Flamingo road. I really wish this fast food chain would move up to Canada, because that bacon double cheeseburger I ordered was fantastic.
I headed back to the Flamingo and found my mom in bed. She was awake and we talked for a bit. She loved the Donny and Marie show. She couldn’t believe Marie could still look and dance like that at age 51 after giving birth to 8 children. The wonders of modern science.
Day 7 to follow
As I didn’t leave a credit card on file when I checked in, the phone in my room would not allow me to make any calls. I found a pay phone by the buffet to call my wife. One of these days I’m going to breakdown and finally get a cell phone. The payphone I had to use had a gross armpit odour to it.
My wife was pretty disappointed that I busted out of the WSOP, but remained positive nonetheless.
At 8:45am, I was back in the room and my mother and I went to have breakfast at the Flamingo buffet. I was able to use the $5 off coupon from the MRB. Once again the new diamond card came in handy, and we were seated immediately.
There was a black swan preening just outside the window. I’ve never seen a black swan before and it was certainly less creepy than the movie.
There were also some giant Koi goldfish swimming in the somewhat dirty pond just outside our window. Fish are supposed to be good luck, and I hoped this was a good sign.
The breakfast buffet here was quite good I thought. They even had a crepe maker. As I like to try different foods out, I tried the cold crayfish.
Blah. Too fishy tasting.
My mother had me take her back to the Fashion Show Mall because she thought the sales lady who sold her the 2 purses forgot to give her a divider. It turns out there wasn’t a divider, and we ended up wasting a hour.
My mother would be seeing Donny and Marie tonight. I made sure she knew where the showroom was, and how to get back to our room.
I drove down to the Golden Nugget to buy into “The Grand” $560 PLO8 tournament. Up to this point, the Golden Nugget had been the only casino where I had won money. I hoped that trend would continue.
95 people bought into this tournament and first place paid out a little over $14,000. Only the final table of 9 players would be paid. Many of the players thought the field would be bigger since 700 people busted out of the same WSOP PLO8 event I did yesterday. I guess money is tight all around.
I had a few pros seated at my table.
The first was Chip Jett, who actually won the $225 PLO8 event here at the Golden Nugget last week. He doesn’t have any WSOP bracelets, but does have over 2 million dollars in tournament cashes.
The other player was Senovio Ramirez. Hanging from the ceiling right above our table was a banner that read “Grand Champion 2010: Senovio Ramirez” Apparently he had won “The Grand” main event at the Golden Nugget last year.
The year I finished in 16th at the 2009 WSOP he made the final table and eventually busted in 9th. He has over $300,000 in WSOP cashes alone. He was a real character, raising every pot in the dark and playing real fast. His main line was,
“Are you going to let them get away with that?” He would say this all the time in order to get people to call raises or bets on the end just so he could see what people held. Something else he would do, was ask the dealer to turn over certain cards on the flop. For instance, he once said to the dealer,
“Turn over a 9 dealer!” When the dealer actually flipped up a 9, he would bet at the flop and get everyone to fold.
He wasn’t all talk though. Twice I saw him predict what people actually held in their hands, and he even laid down trip 5s to me after I turned a full house. He obviously had skills.
Short 10 minute breaks were scheduled every 3 levels or 2 hours. That was pretty bad I thought. You barely had enough time to go to the bathroom. They did set up a hotdog stand just outside the ballroom to sell the players $2.50 soft drinks and $3.00 hot dogs. I took the time during the first 2 ten minute breaks to play some slots, since I’m a degenerate. As luck would have it, I won about $300 during those first 2 breaks which helped off set the cost of the buy in.
Through levels 7, 8 and 9, I ran completely card dead, and my stack was reduced to just $3200 with the blinds at 600 – 1200. I was going to be in the big blind after the 1 hour dinner break. Part of me just wanted to bust out and be done with it, since I could have driven back to the Flamingo to meet up with my mother. I stuck around though, ate one of their over-priced hot dogs and actually managed to win another $300 on the slot machines before I had to get back to my seat and play my all in blind.
Of course my blind was raised, and 1 other person called. The board ended up:
Q J 10 2 9
The 2 callers each had 2 pair, and I flipped my cards over 1 at a time. Lo and behold, I had a pretty good hand. A K 5 7. I hit the broadway straight and tripled up!
The very next hand someone made a pot sized bet and I re-raised all in with A 3 4 K double suited.. Once again there were 2 callers. The board ended up
K K 9 2 5
My trip Ks won the pot again and I suddenly had over 30,000 in chips!
Even Senovio who was sitting beside me couldn’t believe it.
When I won that second pot I exclaimed,
“Holy Frijoles!”
Senovio chimes in.
“Frijoles? We like frijoles where I come from.” I thought that was pretty funny and made it a point to find out the correct spelling of frijolas and to find out what they are. (Spanish for re-fried or mashed beans)
This hand came up a few hands later and gave me hope of finishing in the money. The pot was not raised and I called in the cut-off with A 2 8 9. Two other players called.
The Flop
5 6 7 all different suits.
GIN! I flop the nut low and the nut high straight. The big blind leads into me, and I just call, trying to drag in the last player. The last player makes a minimum raise, and then the big blind does as well. I don’t know what is going on, but once again I just call, and the button moves all in now. The big blind calls and so do I. I slam my cards down on the table.
“Double nut!”
“Oh my God!” The other 2 players groan.
Player 1 has A 2 K K for just the nut low and backdoor full house possibilities
Player 2 has A 3 8 9 for the second nut low and the same high straight as me. He could have hit one of the remaining 2s for ¾ of the pot though.
The poker gods were kind to me today though and my hand stands up. I end up winning 50% of the total pot which amounted to around $60,000.
By 11:30pm, we were down to 17 people and a deal was made to give all the players finishing from 10th to 17th $600 from the prize pool. I’m surprised everyone agreed. I guess everyone was tired. Although making just $40 for 12 hours of play is probably less than what waitresses make, it beats going home with nothing.
Your mind starts to play tricks with you once you make the money and sit at the final table. Here I was with a very short stack of just $56,000 when the average stack was about $140,000. I thought I had a chance to win and make that $14000. That would have pulled my mom and me back to even for the trip.
It was not meant to be though. At level 16, I made a stand with A 2 3 10 double suited and was called by the big stack with A 2 Q K. He flopped a pair and I didn’t. No low came and I was out in 8th spot. I was paid $1775.
I did outlast Chip Jett and Senovio Ramirez, and had a lot fun playing this tournament. Somehow making this small cash made me feel a whole lot better, and I suddenly wasn’t as depressed as I had been so far this trip. Just counting the poker tournaments:
Binion’s - $210
WSOP - $1500
Golden Nugget - $560
1 cash + $1775
I was down a mere $495 as far as the poker tournaments went. I was pretty close to even overall. Things were looking up.
I was starving, and decided to get a burger at the Sonic on Flamingo road. I really wish this fast food chain would move up to Canada, because that bacon double cheeseburger I ordered was fantastic.
I headed back to the Flamingo and found my mom in bed. She was awake and we talked for a bit. She loved the Donny and Marie show. She couldn’t believe Marie could still look and dance like that at age 51 after giving birth to 8 children. The wonders of modern science.
Day 7 to follow
