So here’s my trip report, at least what I can remember cuz I’ve never played that long a session live. Back home, the MTTs I play have double the field but the blinds go twice as quick and the antes are larger.

First, all the big names I saw. TJ Cloutier played in the tourney, but I was never at his table and I don’t think he made it past the second break.

Another pro was the guy who won the WPT Atlantis event last year, I can’t remember his name. He was at my table from the beginning to a little after the third break maybe, or at least when there were 3 tables left and they shuffled the players up. This guy played sooooooo loose. He would steal HUGE pots with garbage seemingly all the time. He had a pretty nice stack for most of the time I played with him, but his loose play must have caught up to him as he got knocked out with 3 tables left. Great player though, handled himself with class the whole night.

Finally, towards the end there was a pro Asian player (can’t remember his name either, older guy) who made the final table and wound up chopping the final prize with along with 4 others. During the fourth break, I saw him walking in the bathroom with Johnny Chan as I was walking out. I was in awe to say the least. He played very well, not doing anything crazy with his chips from what I saw, but I was able to steal his blind at least a couple of times.

Some other pros I saw walking around and playing at other tables: Gus Hansen, David Williams, Jennifer Harman & her hubby, Paul Darden, and I know I’m forgetting some others but o well. Also, they were showing the final table of that WPT event that was going on there live on the TVs in the poker room, which was pretty cool. Doyle Brunson was in it, getting knocked out third. Not sure who won it, but it ended a little before our tourney ended.

As for the tournament and my play. At the beginning, I was playing a bit looser than I normally would. I would raise with mid PP’s a lot, usually having to let them go after the flop. However, I maintained an above average stack until the final two tables, knocking out a few shorties in the process. I don’t remember losing a race until the final table either.

There were a couple of hands I got pretty lucky with. First, with about 4 tables left, I won a big pot with AKo on the button. Three people limped, I raised 4x BB (I hadn’t really been stealing on the button either), and the blinds folded to the first limper, who reraised all in, maybe six times more than my bet (I don’t remember the exact chip counts). He had reraised several times PF before, so I was confident my hand was good and he wasn’t pulling a limp-reraise with AA or KK. The other limpers folded, I called his all in, and he turned over KJo. I had him dominated, but he hit two pair on the flop and had me on the ropes. Turn was a blank, but I hit my ace on the river for top two pair, knocking him out in the process.

Another lucky hand for me came with two tables left, my stack was dwindling (can’t remember exactly why) and a shortie raised my BB about 6x. I had A5 suited and called after some thought in attempt to increase my stack. He turned over 1010, so at least I had one over. I hit the ace on the flop, and got trips on the turn, and he failed to make his set.

The one race I did remember losing was at the final table. 9 handed, and this woman was the short stack. She pushed to about 5x BB when I was BB, and I called with 88 with no one else in the hand. She had A10, and hit a 10 on the flop, and I failed to improve, crippling me kinda bad but not too bad. After she won this hand, she went on a rampage, stealing many pots but getting called a lot too, but her hands always held up (she was getting some monsters though). However, the table was at a stalemate for seemingly forever, every time someone pushed they either wouldn’t get called (the case for me several times) or the short-stacks hand would hold up if called.

But the luckiest hand by far came at the final table as well. I was the second or third shortest stack after making a bad call on a draw, doubling someone up. It was nine-handed, and I was UTG+1. I had been stealing blinds at least once an orbit by going all in, trying to maintain a reasonable stack so if I did double up it would be significant, with hands like ace-rag and king-rag sooted whenever I was first in. These bets had credibility too because most of the hands I showed down were premium ones towards the end. UTG was aggressive but his bets had merit. I reraised him all in on the button PF once with two tables left with 88 and got him to fold (said he had KJo).

Anyway, the blinds were 2k-4k with a 500k ante, 9 handed. UTG raised to 12k, he had about 40k left, and I picked up 1010. I pushed, making it 41k to go. Table folded to BB who insta-called with around 30k left. After a couple of minutes, he calculated the odds and liked them, but didn’t like how much he would have left if he lost, so he folded JJ. BB flips over JJ, and UTG goes nuts. I couldn’t believe I got UTG to fold JJ, I’ll get to that in a bit. So I knew that at least BB couldn’t make a set, but I would still need to improve. Flop was 3 A 3, no help, but the turn was a 10, giving me a boat! I was ecstatic, knowing I had the hand locked.

This caused UTG to tilt a bit, but he got on full tilt when he had KK against someone else’s AA. KK made his set on the flop, but AA made his set on the turn, and after that crippling hand he was the shortstack and got knocked out 8th when he tried to steal with 74o.

The next short stack, after some scrappy play, finally got knocked out 7th. We were 6 handed for a bit, my stack was going up and down, but I continued to steal blinds with great success. I owe this to my understanding of inflection points. Whenever my M was dangerously low and I was first in, I became aggressive with no fear, and it worked extremely well.

And finally after almost 11 hours of play, the blinds were about to hit 4k-8k with a 1k ante. We were all exhausted. No one expected the final table to last as long as it did. We had talked about chopping with 9 and 8 players left, but one guy didn’t wanna do it. The big stack, older guy from Florida, told the table he’d be willing to do an even chop 6 ways. The tourney started with 129 players, paid 18, and 1st place paid a little over 40k. A six-way chop came out to 17.5k, a few k more than 3rd would pay. After some begging on my part and one or two others, everyone finally agreed. My final chip count was 78k, the 4th largest stack of the 6. The largest my stack got to was ~110k, shortest was ~20k.

Some things that really helped me do this well. First, with finals and school, I hadn’t been playing as much as I used to by far, and gave me a chance to reflect on my game a bit. Also, I opened my game up a lot, I’m usually pretty tight, but I knew that wouldn’t work in a tourney like this at all. Another thing I wanted to keep in mind was my table image, an extremely underrated factor of live play IMO. Any time I was in a hand, particularly when I was all in, I tried my hardest to minimize my tells. I wore sunglasses, and any time I was in I’d put my hand in a fist over my mouth. If anyone did try to get a read on me, I wouldn’t budge or say anything.

I could probably go on and on as this was the greatest poker experience of my poker career thus far (I’m 22, been playing serious for a little over a year and a half). Adding to my excitement was the fact this was at the BELLAGIO, some people consider to be the poker capital. Again, I can’t thank 2+2 enough, a site I was turned on to after reading HoH, something else that helped improve my game tremendously. And best of all, I’m probably even money for the year now (lol)! Thanks again and hopefully I’ll have some more wins to post in the future.

GL,
toohigh