Mr. ThreeSix Offsuit at Flamingo 75K Invitational (Part 1)

I did not see Eskimo Clark this trip, see my last post to get the complete story of the curse or charm of Clark. Coming into this August trip/invite, there was an air of confidence that I've not felt in awhile. A three week stretch of nothing but poker - tournament & cash games with no distractions. Read on for the details of my deep runs in the Flamingo 75K Invitational & Rio Summerfest Poker FreeRolls.

Las Vegas feels much like home away from home away from home to me. I go there to have a little fun but mostly to get work/poker done! This trip entailed (4) poker freeroll invitationals in a 8 day stretch plus cash (ring) games which I will cover in the next post. Historically, up to last year; The Flamingo (Flaming-O) was a unlucky place for me as I never posted winning / break even sessions (poker & non-poker). 2011 has been a different story for me at The Flamingo as I've posted winning sessions due to poker & freeroll invites (Feb. Harrahs Invite @Flamingo) & have avoided the slots at The Flamingo.

Day 1 -starting stack of 1,500 shoot-out style, top 2 out of 10 from each table advance to Day 2. The normal fast structure, blinds up every 15 mins, antes in Level 2. My table quickly loses 3 players in the first 10 minutes. the 2 chip leaders have 4k & 3.5k. I manage to win a few small pots & am the low stack with 1,600. My image thus far has actually been loose calls pre-flop, aggressive post-flop. Another 3 players are eliminated by level 3, blinds 100/200/50 ante (now down to 4). The Level 1 chip leaders played too aggressive & were both eliminated. New tighter, chip leaders emerged & I was once again the short-stack with 1,200. I'm dealt A,3 off in the cut-off position & raise to 500, the big blind flat calls. The flop is 3, 7, 2. Big Blind bets me all-in & I call. To my dismay, he turns over pocket Queens. The turn is an Ace, two pair for me & the river blanks. A much needed double up for me; increasing my stack to 3,200. I end Level 4 with 4k. It is now down to 3 players. Level 5 is a grind as neither of the other 2 players (5,000 ; 6,800) want to double me up & risk being eliminated. Level 6 blinds 500/1,000/200antes. I pick up the aggression & win 3 consecutive hands with pre-flop All-in bets. My chip stack is at 7,600. I pick up pocket 6s in the button & raise all-in, Big Blind calls All-in with K,10 & misses. I advance to Day 2.

Day 2 chips don't carry over from day 1. The real tournament now begins. Starting stack of 5,000 with 20 min levels, blinds start at 100/200. Antes kick in Level 2. A field of 900 is now down to roughly 170 with 100 being paid. There is an aggro player in Seat 10, I'm in Seat 8. Seat 10 quickly grows his stack to 15k within the first 10 mins by being very loose. I pick up pocket Aces on the button & raise to 700 & Seat 10 (Mr. Three-Six off) calls. The flop comes 9, 2, 5. Mr 3-6 bets 1,000; I re-raise & announce All-In. Mr 3-6 quickly folds. I manage to end level 1 with 6,500. Level 2 blinds 200/400/100ante, I fold every hand, no face cards, connectors, etc. Mr 3-6 continues to eliminate new players brought to the table & we hit the money bubble at the end of Level 2. My chipstack is now at the starting stack of 5,000. Level 3 sees my stack dwindling to 1,300 as the blinds are 300/600/200antes. Every orbit costs 2,900 just by folding & not calling any additional bets. Mr 3-6 has a stack of over 55,000. We are way inside the money with 85 players left. I dial up the aggression level after folding pocket 10s in late position after a raise , all-in & a re-raise. I would've lost with pocket 10s had I called. The next hand, I wake up with pocket Js & double up through Mr 3-6 off to 3,700.

Level 5 begins (600/1,200/400antes), I increase my stack through a series of aggressive pre-flop raises & end the level with 15,000. I find out from floor staff that we are going to be the final table & will not have to move. This is a big plus as the chips will be moving into our direction.

Level 6 begins (1,000/2,000/500antes) & my chip battles with Mr 3-6 off begins. Mr 3-6 has been berating the dealers, really! He has also managed to be all-in & suck-out 10 of 10 times on the river. I was looking to do the table & field a favor by siphoning his chip stack. I call from the button position with 3,4 hearts (19k chipstack) & he raises to 4,500. This is a small raise for Mr 3-6 (95k chipstack) as he normally raises 4-5xs the blind regardless of position. Immediately, I put him on a mid-high hand such as J,10 or Q,J. The flop brings 3,3,8. He bets out 3k into a pot of over 14k. I flat call, looking to get max value for my hand. The turn is a 7. He bets me All-In for my last 13.2K & I insta-call. To my shock, he turns over 10,9 open ended straight draw. The river misses his draw & I double up to to 42k. Only 50 players left & I'm thinking to myself I am a lock for the final table. Most of the remaining field; over half have less than 2-3 big blinds left. I'm gunning for the 30k, 50k, etc for 1st place.

Level 7 begins (2,000/4,000/500 antes) With 77K remaining in chips I'm dealt pocket 9s after posting the big blind. Mr 3-6 off (78k in chips) raises to 8K . This starts a cascade of calls, I decide to re-raise to 18K. It's now heads up with Mr. 3-6off. The flop is 3, 8, 2. I bet 20K & he calls. The flop is a 10. I go All-In for my last 39K & after much deliberation he calls & shows me 3-6off. If I win this hand, I will be up to over 160K & a lock for the final table. After a 5 minute chip count he has me covered by 1K. The stinking river is a 6 giving him 2 pair & sending me to the rail in 37th place. I ask for a recount of the chips to make sure. He celebrates with a loud shriek & much pompous celebration. It's one thing to lose but to get sucked out on & have someone in your face celebrating, come on man!

I leave the table, go collect my min-cash begrudgingly. I nearly decide to not collect the cash & go back to the table to tell Mr.3-6 off "nice hand". Some people have all the luck. I tell him, "I'm saving a seat for you down stairs at the tables Mr 3-6". Two hrs later, he busts out in 8th place & comes down to the poker room to tell me has (2) $500 Giftcards & would like to sell them to me. I get up from my chair & speak my mind "Sir , I'm not paying a dime for it; you should give those to me for your terrible call/actions". Floor staff come over to see if everything is okay & cooler heads (mine) prevail.

The next 3 hours of live poker are very good as I my manage to nearly quadruple my buy-in at 2/4 Limit. It is not enough to make me forget about the painful sting of 3,6 off. My next post will be on the Summerfest 2011 (Pt 2) & my next encounter with Mr 3-6 & how I've become a Vegas local.

Thanks Mr 3-6 literally,
Chewey / 247poker

Eskimo Clark - Good Luck Charm or Curse 4 Chewey at WSOP?

As you read this post, the question of "Is Eskimo Clark- a good luck charm or curse for Chewey?" has yet to be fully answered. Only one thing is for certain; whenever I run into or see Eskimo Clark, my trip is either real profitable or real bad. Who is Eskimo Clark you may ask? Clark is a poker player that looks a lot a grizzly bear (pardon the description); nearly passed out in an event (stroke)that I played at during a World Series of Poker Event (back when they had overflow play in an unconditioned outdoor tent) in 06/07. Here is a brief rundown of my history when I play or see Clark at an event. My first WSOP cash, was in an event Clark played in 2007, my final table bubble at an Tunica event happened with Clark; my worst WSOP Circuit Event trip was when I saw Clark in 2008 at Council Bluffs My largest cash game profit happened when Clark was walking by in 2009 at The Rio. It had been a while, since I had a Clark sighting.

Before we get to the Clark Sighting, let's recap my life since March. Did terrible at the 75K Ballys Invite (March); Moved back to Colorado for the most part, Black Friday for Poker occurred- byebye FullTilt Money; Bodog (site I play mostly on) announced they are pulling out of the US end of 2011. So lots of stones are being thrown against my poker avenues- I will save this rant on the US government stance toward online poker & Black Friday for a future blog!

Fast forward to June & The WSOP. I did not play the bracelet events but focused on the lower buy-in DeepStack events at the WSOP. Great structure, lots of chips & MASSIVE FIELDS-I like. I had a group of friends/players there to support & cheer for as well. The first 3 events I played in, did not cash but I lasted longer & longer with each passing tourney. Wham, then I saw Eskimo Clark during the latter part of my 3 week stay. Fortune or Curse? Now it all made sense, I had been sensing a disturbance in the poker force, lol. I told one of my friends, Jay- that the trip was about to be psycho. During a 10pm DeepStack Event, several weird situations occurred: I was moved to at least 16 different tables; I was down to 700 chips when Blinds were150/300/25ante; I witnessed a overused dealer that had been dealing for days almost make a mistake before making a BIG mistake during the money bubble.

During my 8th table change, something like that; this dealer nearly pushed a pot, began to muck the board as 3 players were still in a hand & I stopped him. 3 hours later, we were down to 33 players & only 32 would be paid. I had 14,000 in chips with 800/1,600blinds/200ante; the following hand occurred at an adjacent table:
(Seat 2) Chipleader- Pocket Aces
(Seat 5) Mid Stack-Pocket 7s
(Seat 7) mid stack Pocket Aces
(Seat 8) Pocket Ks
(Seat 10) KQ suited
Seat 2, 5, 7 all-in preflop. Flop is ??? who knows, I wasn;t there yet. This should be routine but the dealer from 3 hours ago scrambles the flop & readies for the next hand. Wtf? This hand is not over & a huge commotion ensues, this is where I notice the Tourney Director running over as we are on hand for hand, the next person out gets no money! The entire table can't agree on what the cards were on the flop. So, the ruling is all of the folded/dead cards were shuffled & the flop was re-dealt. Wait for it, wait for it- the second flop was a mis-deal as well, the burn card was exposed. So, a 3rd flop was dealt & of course the 7 hits! Wow, the turn & river are blanks, short stack quadruples up big time & Seat 7 is crippled, Seat 8 out, Seat 10 out, bubble is burst but the hand took 20 minutes. You can't write better drama than this WSOP drama. Meanwhile, at my table we are all joking about whipping out cells & getting video footage of this. A floor person cautions me & says penalty of 1 Level of play- I decide not to! I go on to finish 13th in this event, decent cash.

2 days later, I played in another WSOP DS Event, field of 700+ & finish in 9th place. Had decent amount of chips but ran my pocket Aces into a rivered flush, ugh but felt good about cashing in my last 2 WSOP tournys. Had to leave town, did I miss my heater run? Don't think so, I'm back at it 2 months later in full force, alter ego "247poker", style+all & will be playing the 75K Poker Invitational at The Flamingo, 3 Events at The Summerfest 2011-Rio in the next two weeks.

Until the next Eskimo Clark Sighting, not!
Chewey