The Flaming-O Streak ($100,000 Invitational) Day 1

The Harrahs $100,000 Invitational Poker Tournament in Las Vegas was a tournament full of excitement, twists & turns. I always love getting invitations in the mail to Poker Invitationals that are comped. For the most part, these allow me the opportunity to leave town & actually play poker. Normally, I am able to walk away from these invitationals with a deep finish & some cash. The skill levels at these invitationals range from complete newbies to everyday grinders.

First twist is upon registering, I find out that the tournament venue is The Flamingo & not Harrahs. Uh-oh, I've never ever won anything at The Flamingo or (Flaming-O) on slots, table games, poker, nada, zilch, period in all my travels to Vegas. It has been along time since I set foot in The Flamingo. To complicate matters, I played some Mississippi Stud at The Flamingo on my 1st day of the trip & didn't fare so well. I almost always do terrible on the 1st day of a trip & after I bust out of a tournament, hmmm.

My buddy Jay, who won the last invite by Harrah's is here for his vacation & to watch me play. Day 1 of tournament begins & I feel like Brett Favre in a Vikings Uniform walking onto Lambeau Field. The Flamingo is a casino that I just have not done well. Day 1 Starting chip stack of 1,500. Top 20% of field advances. Below are highlights from Day 1 play, 2,100 players:

Level 1 (25/50)-In hand 3 of the day, I call from small blind with 5,9x & big blind checks. Flop is 9,2,5 with 2 diamonds. I bet 125 on the flop & bb calls. The turn is a 3 & I bet 200. Once again, bb calls. River is a J, I check & bb bets 600. I go into the tank & fold. The bb goes on a tear & becomes the table leader early. I end the level with 1,075.

Level 2 (50/100/25ante) - No face cards during this level for me. Got pocket 3s, 4s a few times but the action was raised before me. At one point I was down to 325 & feel the walls closing in on me. Jay watches on & I go chat a few minutes to clear my head.

Level 3 (100/200/50ante)- Mid level I pick up A3 suited in button position & limp with 4 callers. I start the hand with 850 in chips. Flop is A,9,6x. Everyone checks including me. WTF am I thinking? I'm looking to accumulate chips with a dangerous move. The turn is a 2. I go all-in for 650 & am called by the chipleader that I tangled with in Level 1. She turns over pocket 4s & my stack grows to 1875. I end the level with 1,200.

Level 4 (200/400/75ante) More than 60% of totals field is gone, I can see the finish line to Day 2 nearing. The blinds & antes numb me down to 550 but I pick up 5,6 hearts in bb position & flop a full house with 3 players in the pot. I check the flop, turn & finally on the river I put my last 300 in & am called by button position & win a pot of 1,475.

Level 5 (300/600/200ante) Over 75 % of field eliminated, top 20% advance. My survival game plan is working as experience is kicking in. Most players shove with any face, but I hold on & wait for position. My table image is tight & I will be changing gears from tight to aggro. Players that were chip leaders early on have been eliminated. The aggressive blind structure, varied level of player skill sets makes for an interesting tournament pace. We are down to 4 players at my table, I eliminate a player with 3,5 suite in sb position & make this a tighter race. I end the Level with 2,250 & chip stack is growing. A crowd of 40 gathers around our table as the once short-stack (me) is looming large. Floor personnel now guard our table as spectators are inches from us. I love the crowd & pressure as I've never been chip leader at our table but the other two players have.

Level 6 (500/1,000/200ante) The chip leader (seat 5), me (seat 3) & loose player( seat 6) are in a shove battle for the blinds. At the start of the level, seat 6- 14,500; seat 5- 5,100; me 2,250. Now , Seat 5-11,000; Seat 6- 7,000; & me 6,500. I shove every 1.5 orbits to grow my stack but never from the same position & each time my bet is not called. Most of my stack is comprised of green chips (25) lol. Each time I shove, my stack appears larger than the amount seems. jay stands in the background & shoots me a glance "almost there!".

Level 7 (800/1600/300ante) I'm dealt K,10 suited in button position. I just won a huge pot on the last hand & am taking the time to stack my chips & watch the other 2 players from the corner of my eye at the same time. I notice seat 6 (bb) reaching for chips & seat 5 (sb) reaching for his & eyeballing seat 6. I check my stack of 8,800 & realize it's not worth the gamble as I'm certain I will advance to day 2 after this hand. I do the unthinkable & fold. Sb calls, bb min-raises & sb instacalls. The flop is 7,8,4x. The sb checks, bb goes all-in for 3,100 into a pot of over 9k. Sb calls with pocket 9s, bb rolls over open ended straight & flush draws. The river bricks & I advance to hard earned Day 2. I was down to 325 in level 2 & still made it. Chip stacks would be re-set for all players on Day 2. All players advancing to Day 2 are in the money! So, my losing streak for The Flaming-O is over for now. My experience & composure were key in me advancing to Day 2.

Next time see how far I advance at The Harrahs $100,000 Invitational Poker Tournament that's held at The Flamingo or to follow my Vegas/life escapades on twitter . You can also view all of my blog posts since 2007 on Poker Across America (Chewey's Corner).

Caption: Me sizing up the competition at my table!

Stay Cool & Get Paid!
Chewey

Chewey Finishes 8th in 2010 WSOP Circuit Vegas Event 12

The 2010 Campaign is off to an exciting start for me. Thus far in 2010, I am 4 for 4 in making final tables at Limit Hold'em Events & 3 for 4 in finishing in the money. Event 12 of The 2010 WSOP Circuit- Las Vegas proved no different as I finished 8th (this was a Limit Event). It was not the 8th place finish that was memorable but the work & play required in order to get to 8th.

I would need every bit of the starting chip stack of 7,500 to eek out a 8th place finish. The 1st table of the tournament, I was seated with Pro Blair Rodman (B-Rod) & he was a monster the first two levels. He quickly accumulated over 25,000 in chip & was terrorizing the table; me included. I lost a few mid sized pots to him in Level 2 (Limits 100-200) that reduced my stack to 3,400. Mid way through Level 3 , Limits 150-300 from mid position I two-bet to 300 from mid position with pocket 2s & am called by B-Rod in the big blind for 300. Flop brings 9, 8d, 4d,. He bets 150 &I make it 2 bets to go & am called. The turn is 3d, he checks, I bet 300 & he 2bets to 600 & I 3 bet it to 900, he flat calls 900. The river is a 2, giving me bottom set. He bets 300, again I 2bet to 300 & he repops to 600 & I flat the 600. He wants to see my cards but I called his raise & am confident he's beat. He turns over pocket 10s, I turn over my set of 2s & the tyrade of censored bombs begin. I'm now up to 6,250. Rodman looks stunned with the rest of the table & says bets like this is no-limit. The next few hands my stack swells to 10k but this is short lived as my pocket Aces, Kings, Queens get cracked in the this level & my stack is down to 1,800.

In the last hand of the 3rd level right before 1st break, I'm in the big blind (1,800 chips) w/ pocket 5s 7 raised by mid-position player (4,800) who's been tight all day long. I call & see a flop of 10,6,2 & check. He checks as well. I'm thinking at this point he is on a range of a strong Ace such as A,K-A,J non suited based on his play thus far. The turn is a 3- this is where the hand gets interesting. I bet & he 2 bets it to 600, if I call-I'm committed to this hand for my tournament life as I only have 900 left. I call. On the river- the 2 appears, I check, he bets, I 2 bet & he repops & I call my last 300, he turns over- up I guessed it A,K, I turn over pocket 5s & off of tournament life support & have 6,250, whew that was probably the biggest hand for me in this tournament as my chips were on the line & I had to trust my read on the player attempting to steal a pot before the br8. Had I have folded this hand at any point, I would have been crippled beyond return.

The next 5 hours levels were pretty mundane for me as I won 1 hand every orbit & maintained just enough to stay in the field. Things were about to change after my self-imposed dinner break, even though I was short stacked when I took one, Level 6limits 400-800 & upon returning I was moved to a different table that had a player that never showed up to my right & players were taking advantage of that dead money(Mr. Phantom) in play all night long. The next few levels, I would manage to win a few pots & grow my stack to nearly 37,700 off of players attempts to steal the big blind when I was the small blind. The field thinned to 20 players & 9 spots payed.

Level 11 limits 2000-4000, down to 12 players & it was 1am, play was ending once the bubble reached but it was agreed to play on. This is where it got super interesting. Down to 10 players, officially on the bubble, lady in button position offers to table after looking at her cards to get paid $10 from each player for her to go away & for play to resume as play had stalled & it was nearly 4am the next morning. Nearly 20k was up for grabs 7 she was taking 90 dollars to go away after nearly 12 hours of play, really? So, I quickly initiated the process of getting everyone to give her $10 for her to disappear. It only took 10 minutes because of a couple of players thinking what if scenarios, I said 'get her away from the table & we can discuss other chops later" finally it was done but we were not out of the woods yet. Now there was a new problem, she was paid "hush" money to disappear but still had chips in play to the tune of 9,600; there were no antes & at this rate would take at least 2 orbits to blind her out. The chip leader to my immediate right gets into a raising war A,K with the short-stack pocket Qs & chipleader flops top pair. Oh snap! The tourney director suddenly declares Harrahs does not condone chops or deals & I knew this would happen. They said the next person out is the bubble & no money & that 9th place would go to the lady who took the "hush' money, hmmmmm., but the damn lady was gone - how was she to claim the money to give to this 9th place finisher , she was from out of town & no one knew her! I was about to look like the fool of all fools for initiating the hush money & the gravity of the situation was not lost on the entire final table. I calmly reassured the table there's still 1 card to come & thank goodness it's the Q, short stack saved & disaster averted for now.
Not sure if I would have done, had the short stack been eliminated but after the hand I deadpanned to the table, would you like some aspirin, insulin, any other medication that I may have to calm your nerves, let's play!

Finally 4:30am, the "hush" stack is blinded off, 9th place is awarded 4:40am & I am dealt pocket Jacks & run into the chipleader's rivered straight, busto for me in 8th. I'm mad because I realize I worked my tail off to get 8th place & probably one of my best Limit performances to date. It's 5am, time for me to go hit up a machine for 30 mins, then off to bed & get ready for the weekend 2009 Nationwide Poker Tour 100k National Championship (elite field of 170 ish). I'm looking for a deep run, like final table run; even though it's a No-Limit Tournament 1st place is 22k. Anything else for me is unacceptable, I'd give anything to make that final table. I'm lurking in the shadows, flying way under the radar, locked, perched & ready to go!

Until Next Time,
Chewey