Day 2 - Part 1

Having went to bed early on Thursday night allowed me to wake up feeling pretty well rested on Friday morning. Mrs_Blood and I were looking to score some breakfast, but there was a major catastrophe causing our delay. NO HAIRDRYER. She hadn't packed one (all hotels have them, right?) and our upgraded "suite" did not have one. A quick call to Mrs G-Rob fixed that potential nightmare and we were good to go. While G-Rob himself had only just arrived back from late night/early morning hijinx, Mrs. G-Rob was quite ready to have breakfast with us at the Plaza buffet.

Felicia had warned us against the food at the Plaza, she said it was a sure fire way to cleanse the system so to speak. But from my perspective, $6 for an all-you-can eat breakfast buffet is worth the residual pain of acid-like plasma jets exploding through your bowels at bullet-train speeds. Three pounds of bacon later and I was ready for action.

DrizztDJ caught us in the buffet line earlier and mentioned he'd be playing in the noon tourney. I thought "WTF" and signed up both me and Mrs_Blood. It didn't take much coercing, but both Maudie and Pauly joined us for some fun. While it wasn't much time to sleep, G-Rob made his way downstairs to play as well, bedhead and all.

If you've played any blogger tourneys with me, you'd realize that I suck at the early rounds. This tourney was no exception. I bought the add-on and tossed half of it away on a questionable play that to this day still puzzles me. Here it is for your amusement.

I'm in the big blind and get A4o. One late position limper calls and the button goes all-in for not too much more. While he goes all-in, he says "I have to leave anyway." Odd. But that's some data there. I have a hunch that my A4 is good so I call - all the while anticipating that the late position limper would fold. After I call, the LP limper calls too and says "I have a hand, I have to call." Odd. More data. I put him on Ace-large and we saw a 554 flop. I figured my hand was good and pushed. LP limper calls and shows....pocket Kings???? WTF??? I totally misread him because he was a moron playing as if random thermal noise was controlling his decisions. Needless to say, I lost the hand. I had him outchipped but almost lost those when the dealer nearly put my extra chips in the main pot instead of a second side pot. Thankfully, the players at the table knew what was going on and I got my chips back. Lest you think that my description of the player with KK is sour grapes, let me say this: I outlasted him in the tournament.

During my time at my initial table, Pauly was playing tight and aggressive. He had calls on his all-ins when he held AA and KK and grew his stack to chip leader status. Mrs_Blood on the other hand was accumulating chips at her table, even busting a guy on a gutsy call holding AK. The other guy stormed away, pissed at having the Mrs. call his bluff. Obviously, the Blood family is producing better poker players in rapid fashion as mini and Mrs are kicking my ass. Could be that I suck now, but I won't admit that until my losing streak hits 3 months....

Where was I?

Oh yeah, soon enough we're at the final table - 3 bloggers and a Wife o' blogger(tm). Unfortunately, the blinds escalated as they often do, producing an all-in fest from the shorter stacks. Mrs_Blood was the first to go, but she was extremely happy with her performance in making it to the final table. Maudie was next. I met my demise holding AJ. Pauly had the gall to call my all-in with his pocket K's. The AKQ flop didn't leave me much hope and my 4-outer never came. Busted was I. Pauly went on to money in 4th and right after that, the three remaining local jerkoffs chopped the rest in an even three-way split. I say jerkoffs because it was obvious they were playing together. Whenever a shortstack went all in, these morons would call with anything, then play the hand uncontested until the river - face up. Pauly's last all-in holding A2 was called by K2 and 85o. The 8-high hand won. I was actually a bit surprised that this obvious collusion was allowed. I knew complaining would do no good, so I moved on to bigger and better things.

Next up....off to the RIO for some WSOP sweating and some NL play where I suffer my Required Vegas Bad Beat(tm).