No, I didn't learn the lesson of not playing those penny and nickle slots as I got up to walk from Treasure Island to the Aladdin for their morning tournament. After grabbing a quick OJ at the gift shop I started the trek to the other end of the strip to playing the Aladdin's breakfast tourney. $25 buy-in, $5 dealer toke for added starting chips. Of course before arriving I'd passing through a couple other casinos and would "have to" play a couple slots on the way. I hit up a Monopoly slot which was looking bad for my $20 but after hitting the bonus game on my second to last spin, I made it all back.
I arrived at the Aladdin approximately an hour and a half prior to the start and only one cash game was going on $1/$2NL. Since I'd never played live no limit, I decided to just watch till the tourney started. Thanks to a loose-aggressive gentleman in the 4 seat this game was action, action, action! But, for the most part it looked like a bunch of regulars since half the table would get up every 15 minutes or so for a quick smoke in the adjacent high limit slot room. One Swedish dude nailed four fours and got a quick $200+ for a high hand. Any quads and up got a high hand bonus, anywhere from $50 to $599. Since there was a possible straight flush on the board I thought I'd see a bad beat as well. The room was very nicely laid out and clean. A big screen TV showing the sit-down-last-second shot to tie the Minnesota HS Basketball Championship game was pretty cool to watch. A couple of plush chairs in another corner for relaxation. The best part... FREE DONUTS. Not Krispy Kremes but damn tasty. There was also coffee on hand for those of you who like that sort of thing. I forget the beautiful waitress' name but she was very accomodating in getting a rum and coke for me at 8:30 am (as well as every 15 minutes or so during the tourney. Since I had time to kill, I played a little Pai Gow with a "dragon bonus". You can bet $1 - $100 on this side bonus for a straight or above to win. Sucker bet, but I saw a lady playing $20 on the side bet hit a full house for a nice chunk of change. After winning $10 there I wandered around the casino looking for another slot to call out to me, and got beckoned by Bluto and Otter. The Animal House slots were a cool combination of video slot with a reel slot for the bonus portion. I got the bonus once after about 15 minutes of play and decided to head back to the poker room since it was almost time to start.
We started with T1500 and 25/50 blinds and 127 players. I drew the seat right next to the dealer in the middle of the room with the big winner of the NL cash game directly to my left. He play a lot of hands and raised consistantly. In a cash game he'd scare the hell out of me, but I'm a little more aggressive in tourneys. I promptly started off with AQ, taking down a nice T300 pot with a second queen hitting the flop. I chipped up gradually to T2500 but then went card dead as people started throwing out all-in bets left and right that I couldn't do anything but post my blinds and move on. Our table busted 3 people before any other table even lost one, and the dude next to me was responsible for two of them after hitting rivered flushes. Wittled down to T1800 our table broke during level 3 and I got moved to a new table and the first break was announced.
After a quick hit and run on an Aliens nickle machine and getting lost while trying to find the bathroom I made it back barely in time for the next level. Chips were getting rather tight but the far end of my table was rolling in it with T5000+ stacks. I figured all-in or nothing would be my play. And it finally happened during the second orbit. The person next to me pushed his T1300 stack in and I looked down to see Nicky and Paris. Knowing I was up against Ace + Rag mostly likely I pushed my little T1600 stack in. Luckly the big stacks all folded and we're heads-up. A8o vs QQ and the doorcard of the flop was.... an ace. Sigh. Well at least I had fun in my first live tourney in three years but WAIT! I see paint. YES! ITS A QUEEN! A Q 6 on the board and he's drawing to runner-runner. A 6 on the turn gave him two outs but I prevailed and doubled up after taking the blinds as well.
Went card dead again for awhile but managed to steal some blinds with 78s and KJo to stay around T3000. Picked up 88 on the button during level 5 and pushed in again to steal the blinds but got called by AQ in the SB. I won the race and now I was sitting more then T5000 as we went to the second break. The busty waitress was on time with my rum and cokes (I just hope I wasn't tipping her with tournament chips) throughout the tourney. I know, don't drink while playing, but hey I was having fun and needed this relaxation for once. After the break we were down to 20 or so people and with blinds at 1000/2000 now the tourney really tighten up.
The lesson: Protect your cards at all times until the dealer is done dealing the board. With nearly T7500 in chips I was second at our 6 man table and looked down to see my favorite hand 99. It was unsuited but that didn't prevent me from pushing all-in from the cutoff to steal the blinds... but the chip leader happened to be on the button, oops. He starts playing with his chips for a couple of minutes as he'd been on a card rush the entire time and this was busting people left and right. He calls my all-in with TT. Yuck! The dealer asked for my cards but something bad happened on the way to Oz. One of the cards hits her arm as she reached across the table to collect the blinds, flips upside down and lands in the muck. Ruh-roh Shaggy. Everyone saw my cards, but the two tournament directors came over and declared my hand dead and I wouldn't even get a fair shake. Not. Fuckin. Happy. The dealer managed a sheepish "I'm sorry". Which was 100X more sympathy then I received from the tourney directors who asked a couple of questions, turned and left without saying anything to me. Looking back on it I don't know if I can "blame the dealer", but it hurt to lose out on a tourney after playing for 2-3 hours and lose on a technicality rather then how the cards fell. But I managed to walk out only uttering one expletive after leaving the room. I wasn't used to the proverbal punch to the stomach in live poker. I was seeing red for sure but I managed to walk out with my head up and a lesson learned.... always protect your cards.
With that behind me I made my way back to TI to see how the wife's spa treatment went, but managed to drop $100 playing craps and a couple of slots on the way. I can't believe it wasn't more considering the tilt I was in from the tourney. The wife glowed about the manicure and pedicure she received as well as the deep massage. The spa was a little pricey at $300 (after tip) but it was my treat to her for putting up with this degenerate gambler.
Next up: Vegas Part 3: The Quest to find Imperial Palace's Poker Room
WPBT PokerStars Tourney (March 30th):
I stole, I scraped for an hour and a half but it wasn't meant to be last night. The first showdown I got involved with was my last. I got AKo UTG with T1000 left and pushed. The chip leader in the BB called. I figured a race but he flips up ATo, sweet! Flop A 7 4. Sweet! Turn T. Not so sweet. And buh-bye Drizz in 45th or 46th place. It was nicer to chat it up with the bloggers and to see Felicia in good spirits despite a lack of sleep. I hit up a couple of SnGs which I shouldn't have on Stars as well getting busted by a two-outer, a runner-runner, and a stupid call by myself (TILT!). I did managed to double my stack in a $50PLO8 game on Party when someone called my river check-raise while I was holding the nut straight and no low possible. I joined Al, Iggy, Glyphic, and Doubleas for relaxing game of Razz over at Full Tilt (BONUS CODE: Drizz99). Razz is relaxing for unknown reason since it should be irritating when you flop a wheel draw and end up with a full house but it wasn't. Especially with Doubleas flexing his $4K at the .25/.50 table :P
I'll be writing a little from home tomorrow pending on what Little Drizz wants to do, I think we'll go for a long walk tomorrow if the crappy Minnesota weather clears up. This weekend BLACK BEAR CASINO! Yeah, I'll take yet another shot at catching some Nordic fish in Cloquet at the tables after the morning bowling tourney which I never win anything except the start of a good buzz from the cheap drinks at the bowling alley. Please keep me away from the Kenny Rogers slots this time.
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