blonde poker

 

Went to check out the laundry service over the road from the Rio at lunchtime yesterday (thanks anon), and stocked the fridge up with soft drinks and a few beers from the attached convenience store. Prices are about 1/4 what the Rio charges for the same products in the in-room mini bar (don't even mention room service!), so I'm a bit happier with the 'expenses' now.

So what about poker? Well, Dubai and Martin Green both exited in unfortunate circumstances in Level 1 of Event 2 yesterday (Martin had 2-2 on a Q-9-2 flop, opponent held Q-Q, Dubai had a set lose to a flush draw amongst others).

I didn't arrive to the arena until 4.30pm, and decided to enter a $500 daily 'second chance' tournament which kicked off at 5pm. This was to be my first ever multi in Vegas. 1,500 chips, 25/25 blinds and a 30 minute clock, 215 entrants. The overall standard of play I witnesssed was perhaps equivalent to the £15k guaranteed on Betfair (perhaps a bit worse). I like. Built my stack with Q-Q v A-5, A-Q v A-8, a couple of semi-bluffs, etc. Yes the players in these tournaments really do over-value A-rag. The funny thing is that so far I haven't witnessed anyone overplay K-Q, but players call raises (and sometimes reraises) with Ace rag all the time.

With an average stack and four tables left I was feeling VERY confident against these muppets. Of course there were some good players left in, but so much 'value' it was silly. Also, the antes were substantial; 300/600 ante 75, 400/800 ante 100, then 600/1,200 ante 200. And how many players adapted to these significant antes sitting in each pot begging to be stolen, well on my table three players at most. I had a couple of accidents where I doubled up short stacks, and by the time we made the money (27 paid), the blinds were 600/1,200 ante 200 so the average Harrington 'M' was a lowly 4!

With blinds at 600/1,200 I shoved my 9k stack in (average was 15k at time) wth K-K. No subtlety required here, I was sure 5-5, A-J etc would call instantly on this table! Sure enough I received an instant call from a slightly shorter stack, who confidently turned over..... A-10o. You know the rest, a ten high flop, a blank turn and he hit his ace on the river :-(. I then exited shortly after. Got my money back (ok, made a $86 profit) but that river hurt a little as I really would have fancied my chances with 20k+ out of 322k in play.

It turned into a bit of a crapshoot at the end, but that was six hours in, and I do like a fast structure. So I guess I'll play this tournament quite often.

Today however (it is now 10.30am on June 28th), I hope I don't play it, as I think I'm going to enter my first WSOP event, which is Event #3, $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem. This kicks off in 90 minutes time. Martin is playing (he finshed 4th in this very event last year), Dubai (left) is giving it a miss. I mananged 8 hours sleep last night for the first time since arriving, feeling fired up and confident.

I'm really enjoying being in Vegas now and I'm glad to be staying for the full six weeks (though will I be saying this in 2 weeks time?!). More later.....