After being unable to sleep at 6am, I decide to stay awake all night so that I can play the $340 Megastack at Caesars at midday. I make a couple of buyins playing 2/4 Razz online to kill the time and by morning, i’m ready to get my grind on. I head to Caesars and find myself seated with six old men and one young guy who clearly plays online with two empty seats. They’re every bit as bad as I expect and I soon find myself involved at 50/100 after splashing around at 25/50 with no real effect on my stack either way.

Dealt to SwoopAE: Ks Qs

Old man raises to 300 on hijack; I don’t really like KQs against his range but we’re deep and I can obviously outplay him in position so I decide to take a flop heads up.

Flop: Js Ts Td

Well, hello there Royal Flush draw.

Villain checks which I assume means he’s fairly strong and the flop connected in some way (at least AQ/AK minimum) but i’ve got a monster here so I bet 375 anyway. Villain calls.

Turn: 9c

A nut straight with straight flush redraw is helpful. Old man checks, I bet 1050 and he quickly almost-minraises to 2500. Fuck, that means he at least has a ten if not a full house. I decide to call and re-evaluate on the river. River is Ac. God damn it, now I don’t even beat AT anymore. Villain bets 5,000 and I fold my KsQs face up, much to the shock amazement of the rest of the table. Villain tables TT for quads and I feel kinda stupid for not folding the turn since he basically has a range of JJ, TT or AT when he check-minaises the turn but i’m happy that I didn’t take a serious hit to my stack in a spot where a weak player would go broke. A few orbits later, I get it back when I get 6d3d and take a seven way flop in a limped pot. The flop is AQJ with two diamonds and UTG bets out 200 and gets FOUR callers (i’m the second caller) and we take a five way turn. Turn is 9d completing the flush. Old man nit from the first hand leads 1000 and I seriously go into the tank; the only hand I beat is Ad with a pair or two pair and he has stuff like 7d8d so often. I decide to call down though, fortunately everyone else folds and he only fires a 1/3 pot bet on the river which I call, he shows Ad9x for two pair with the nut flush draw on the turn and I climb back to 15k.

At 75/150, I take a couple of small hits then get involved with a hyper-aggressive Asian guy who sat in one of the empty seats, I get JJ in against AA in a 3bet pot on the turn on a four undercard board and bink a jack on the river; my first true luckbox moment of the trip. Sitting at about 26k now. Things settle down for a while, at 200/400/50 I manage to get involved in a massive pot against a super loose aggressive donkey maniac who sat in the other seat; I 4bet 99 and decide to call his 5bet shove getting about 2-1, he has AK and I hold and suddenly i’m well over 40k with the average at about 18k. Over the next few levels, I chip up to 65k without showdowns by abusing the nits and then find myself raising limpers and getting pot committed with AJ against the UTG limper’s QQ. I bink the ace though and find my way to about 100k by 600/1200/100, then chip up to 120k without showdowns. The average is something like 38k and i’m one of the chipleaders; 27 are paying in the 265ish field and the average on the bubble will be 150k or so. During 800/1600/200, I find myself 4betting all in with AK and getting called by QQ in a button vs sb spot; I brick out in a massive pot worth well over 100k and fall back to the 60k region. I chip back up to 120k without any major showdowns then take a hit when I flop a set against a short-medium stack, commit the stacks by the turn on a Q626 board with 22 only for a third six to fall on the river to counterfeit me against a clear pocket pair and villain shoves, I fold and he tables 77. Sigh. I grind back a bit but at 2k/4k it all starts to fall apart when a weak-passive guy who is incapable of trapping limps, three players limp behind, i’ve been carddead for a while and I ship my 110k in to steal ~20k with QTs (i’ve stolen close to 100k in chips this tournament overall abusing limpers with no resistance) only for the original limper to decide to call off his 65k stack with AQ. Limpcall is optimal, sir. In this case, it actually is and he holds to cripple me to 40k as we near the bubble. I steal my way back to 60k (the average is now about 120k) and with 30 players left (27 paying) I ship my remaining 55k in MP with 77, get reshoved on by the guy from the AK/QQ hand who barely covers me (he has AQ) and I lose the flip to bust on the bubble. I’ve been awake over 30 hours and i’m demoralised more than I have been since busting after, well, pretty much any tournament since Aruba, mainly because i’m so tired and w’ere a couple hands from the money (which is the end of Day 1) and I grew a 120k stack twice stealing from nits only to lose three 100k+ pots (QT vs AQ, AK vs QQ, 77 vs AQ), the first two of which would have given me a close to 200k stack and free reign over the table and the third locking up a guaranteed first megastack cash of the series if I win the flip.

Oh, I also took photos, i’m going to upload them to a thread in the forum and link it here when I get a chance. No hookers, but I did get a couple of the PCD Dancers (random dancing girls in bikinis at Caesars who pole dance in a blackjack pit area)

Tonight’s blog is a mess, but you’ll have to excuse me since i’m miserable due to bubbling and being awake for over 30 hours.

I’m going to bed.

Tomorrow, i’m going to cash in a donkament. The power of positive thinking.