I squeezed two comps in today, the first of which was the $1,500 limit shoot-out. It’s worth pointing out that I survived three situations where I would have gone broke had it been NL;
A-A on a ten high flop vs 10-10,
A-6 on an A-J-6 flop vs. A-A in a limped pot and
5-7 on As-4-6s-8 board vs a flush draw.
Inconceivable not going broke in a No Limit game and of all the short stacked events at the Series this was the one I felt had the most play.
The second comp of the day was my sixth buy-in at the Bellagio. Six and all I have to show is a $100 saver from Bad Girl - God bless that little lady. That coupled with almost $15,000 of WSOP entries sure is a wake up call for someone who is used to getting William Hill to pick up the tab.
Tonight’s effort was truly woeful, please, somebody slap me around the chops quickly. Not only was I calling when I should be passing but what is probably even worse is that I was calling when I should have been raising. My spidey senses are normally a lot sharper, but I have to put my hand up and admit to overdoing the comps and after tomorrow's last $1,500 shot at the Rio, I intend to start winding down before I play the main event on Sunday.
A poor tournament showing aside, the cash games have been a revelation. Gone is the pressure of the rising blinds and of going broke in one hand. In Nottingham the cash games have had a very mixed reputation in the past and of course you can only get a game from about midnight to 4am. Over here the selection is huge and I’ve definitely found my comfort zone in the $2-5NL. I won $1,500 in two hours at the Mandalay Bay on Saturday - here’s my favourite pot:
I raised with something like a Q-6s, bet $50 into a $80 pot on the A-7-7 flop, got two callers and bet a winning $10 into the $230 pot when a third seven hit the turn - pure hilarity.
It’s good to see that at last the Brits/Irish are slowly warming up with John Shipley going close once or twice, blondeite Pab making a tough final in the $5,000 short-handed, Stuart Fox, Julian Gardner and Padraig Parkinson grabbing some third spots and the nice guy John Gale winning a bracelet in the $2,500 NL.
Finally on a slightly unpleasant note, I got to witness Phil Hellmuth very, very slowly walking towards me on a very, very long and deserted corridor in the Rio yesterday evening; dressed in black, collar up, shades on, cap pulled low. I didn’t know which way to look.
