Here it is 4:00 am, and as much as I wanted to write last night, well, I just didn't have the strength. I was completely spent. Drained. I didn't even have the energy to watch TV. I did at ten-hour poker grind at Binion's yesterday that wore me down to a nub.
I had considered going down late on Saturday night, playing in either the 8 pm or 11 pm daily tournament, then getting a room down there, since I had to be back for the 10 am monthly 'championship' free roll.
But the lack of clean clothes kept me from doing so, and in hindsight, it was probably the right decision. I really appreciated the extra hour of sleep in my own bed, although my phone was ringing before my alarm went off. Nope, it wasn't work calling, it was my goofy sister Amy. For whatever reason, she needed my insight while pushing her cart around at the Whole Foods back in Nashville. We had a lot of laughs for about a half hour, but eventually I had to get out of bed and hit the shower.
I got downtown fairly early--about an hour and a half before the tourney started, but I wanted to go over to the Nugget and make a couple of small football bets, then get some breakfast. My football pics were about the same as they've been lately--just good enough to lose the juice.
Anyhow, once that little chore was taken care of, I wandered back across the street to Binion's and headed for the coffee shop. As I made my way back to the rear of the casino, I was stunned--out of nowhere, Binion's had a brand-new sports book! I had no idea. Dougie and I spent three days straight there last weekend, and all that was in the space was a big empty wall. Now they have a brand-spankin' new race and sports book that looks every bit as nice as the Nugget's, although the seating is still being worked out, I think. The desk and the displays are all done, but the seating looked very temporary, so I'm guessing that it's still a work in progress. But holy shiat--it was an amazing transformation from just a week earlier. And Binion's really needed a good sports book.
I managed to get a quick picture:
That's only about half of it, but I didn't want security to jump on me, so I just snapped a quickie and scurried off before anyone realized where the flashbulb came from. But take my word for it--compared to the crappy-assed sports books they've had in that place over the years, this was a total shocker to see that they're going upscale and really improving the place.
Also, right next to the new sports book is the new cigar lounge and sports bar, the new "Benny's Bullpen". I think he would be proud:
Again, I just took a quick picture without going inside, but you get the idea. If you remember that huge long bar at the very back of the casino, it's still there--they just walled it in and put in a bunch of tables, flat screen TVs, and alcoves full of comfy leather chairs. There is also a small blackjack pit inside the bar with three or four tables, and all of the dealers are chicks dressed as slutty cowgirls. Gotta love that! I think it's going to become a regular spot for me while downtown from now on. It's really nice and a great use of what used to be a bunch of dead space at the back of the casino.
Right next to the entrance of Benny's Bullpen are the stairs leading down to the coffee shop. There was a pretty good line going, but since I was dining alone, they found me a small single table in the corner after about a ten-minute wait.
I had a really good breakfast of ham, eggs, hash browns, toast, and coffee, and with my players' card, they took about three bucks off the total. That was a nice surprise. I had a leisurely time drinking my coffee and reading a magazine while waiting for my food, and it was a great way to kick off the day.
Once I finished up and paid my tab, I headed up to the tournament area. All I had to do was show my photo ID, and they confirmed that indeed I was a past 'champion' and I got my seat assignment.
The tournament area was massively crowded--besides the ten-table free-roll, there were people there registering for the Open event at 2 pm, and there was also a big 10 am daily tournament going on at the same time.
I wish I would've brought a notebook with me and taken some notes on memorable hands and game changing plays, but I didn't. Not too much stands out for me except for the fact that I was playing really well and made it about four hours deep into the tourney before looking down and finding another pair of Jacks looking up at me. By then, the blinds and antes were getting pretty massive, so the only option, especially with a hand like that was to push. So I went all-in, and the guy in the big blind thought about it for about a minute, then called with Ace-four offsuit. I liked my chances to double up, since he had me covered, but an Ace came on the flop and that's all she wrote.
Out of 95 players, I went out in 23rd place, about ten spots away from the money. That really sucked.
But the big Players Appreciation Tournament was starting a few minutes later, so I went over to register for that. It was a $110 buy-in event, but for every Open event that you participated in over the course of the month, you got an extra $2000 in tournament chips above and beyond the standard $4000 everyone had to begin with.
I was cool with that, because I'd played in two of the Open events--the Sunday $210 event last week with Dougie, and the Friday $160 event.
When I went to the reservation desk, they asked for my receipts from the previous tournaments. I only had Friday's receipt, as they didn't issue any last Sunday. So they told me I'd only get $4000 in chips--I had to have one receipt just to get in the tournament, and then any extras would get me more chips. Well, I raised hell because they didn't give me a receipt last week, and they said that they couldn't issue one after the fact. I was so pissed off, because they never issued receipts before, so not getting one last week wasn't even an issue at the time. But basically, it cost me $2000 in chips.
Also, everyone else expected that three receipts would get them $6000 in extra chips, so that they could get $10,000 to start with, but the desk played the whole "We aren't responsible for what it says on the internet" card, which pissed off a lot of people who were hoping to start with 10K but only got 8K, because that first receipt only get them entry into the tournament (along with $110).
Anyhow, it was such a clusterfuck that everyone was pissed off. It was a completely disorganized tournament, and for all the good that they normally do there at Binion's, they *really* dropped the ball on this one. I mean, shiat, I don't know why they couldn't just swipe people's players cards each time they played in a tournament and avoid the whole receipt nightmare altogether. But that would make too much sense...
So, since I got completely rat-f*cked out of my tournament chips--instead of getting 8000 chips, I was short-stacked starting with the first hand. I had $4000 to start with, while everyone else at my table started with eight or ten thousand. Because of the receipt/chip/buy-in cock-up, the tournament kicked off a half hour late. So we were off to a rocky start, to say the least.
However, there were 135 players signed up, so the prize pool looked like it would be pretty good. Also, I had a really good table draw. Well, "good" as in it was a fun group of people, some of which I'd played against before--all of whom were very good poker players, including the gal who knocked me out of the Halloween tourney with her pocket Queens two days earlier. So I had my work cut out for me--honestly, it was kinda like going to the WSOP and finding out that you're sitting with five pros.
But confidence is not a problem for me, and I can play short-stack poker fairly well, so I wasn't too worried. Besides, we were really having a great time at the table, laughing it up the entire time. I really wished there would've been a camera on us, because the one-liners were just flying around and every hand was entertaining. And it was like that for hours! It was easily one of the most fun experiences I've ever had at a poker table--a great game and fun people. You really couldn't ask for much more.
The problem was, that particular tournament was chock-full of very experienced players. Most tourneys have people busting out right and left pretty much immediately. But not this one--this was probably the toughest one I've ever played in. Seriously, it's the kind of tournament where you see some amazing plays and very rarely did a tough beat manifest itself. And even though I was short-stacked from the very beginning, I didn't lose a hand for over three hours. I either dragged every pot I was involved in without a showdown, or I won the hand outright. Yeah, I did some bluffin', but if you can't bluff in high-stakes poker, well, you aren't much of a poker player.
The pattern that Binion's uses to break tables is pretty much the same for all tournaments, and being a low-numbered table, we knew that we'd be the second-to-last table to get broken before the final table. So we were in it for the long-haul. Besides myself, there were three other very good players, and one so-so player at my table (I figured this out in the first hour or so). The rest of the people there were just kept busting out and new players kept recycling through their seats. After about three hours, we started calling ourselves the Table 22 Original Gangsters and new players coming in were amazed that we'd all been playing together the entire time, most other tables had about 250% turnover rate, but we just kept chugging along, taking out all the newcomers.
About five hours into the tournament, my gal Jessica pushed in as our dealer, which made me happy, but she couldn't deliver the cards for me. As lucky as I was feeling, I just couldn't get it going. But the next dealer was kind to me and I managed to triple up through two donkeys who decided to push all-in with not much.
By then, I was feeling like I really had a good chance to make it to the final table, and I would've sworn that the two people on my left would've been there with me. They were just that good. It was one of those situations where you could just tell who was going to be there at the end.
But to add insult to injury, the payouts were posted and it was complete shit. With 135 players, they were only paying nine spots, which really sucked, and they took $10000 out of the prize pool. The printed info said that the top ten finishers would get entry into the final Open event, but everyone assumed that they were 'guaranteed' seats that the house would put up.
Nope, they took ten grand out of the prize pool for ten entry fees into the final event, and even if you got a seat, you couldn't take the cash. So the prize pool for this tournament was artificially low. It was like a big damn super-satellite, and it wasn't disclosed that it would be like that. Seriously, it was a clusterfuck of epic proportions, and had I known that 1) I was gonna get screwed out of my starting chips by 50%, and 2), that they'd be taking ten grand out of the prize pool, I would've *never* played in that tournament. And neither would have about a hundred other people. That tournament, from a player's point of view, was just a hot mess. The only upside, as far as I was concerned, was that it was pretty much a free-roll for me after last weekend's success, and it was just a great experience at the table--I was having a blast with my opponents, but also, it was some of the best poker I've ever been involved in.
Otherwise, it was a complete train-wreck of a tournament.
Anyhow, my doom came about six hours deep into the tourney, and out of 135 players who started, we were down to 35 left. I made two pair after the flop and went all in against the big blind. He tanked for about two minutes, which seemed like forever, and when he counted his chips down, to call, he would only have about a thousand dollars left (not even enough to cover the next orbit). My hand was good, and I figured there was no way he'd call, as it was just mathematically ridiculous. But after his protracted thought process, he said "Oh well, I'm tired. I'll either be a hero or an idiot..." and he called. I was pretty frickin' excited to see that he hand nothing but a low pair and backdoor flush draw. But then he went runner-runner to make his flush, and I got knocked out.
I was shocked, and the entire table was stunned. It was an unbelievably crummy way to lose, and talk about a deflating blow, it felt like I had been hit by a truck. I stared at the table for about ten seconds, refusing to see what I just saw. Most eliminations in tournaments like that are noisy affairs with lots of yelling and screaming, begging and pleading, but this was surreal. Stunned silence from the entire table. It was such a bad call, and such a bad beat that even the guy who got me looked embarrassed. He even apologized.
Oh well. I walked away, dazed and confused, once again. It makes me wonder what the hell I have to do to get in the money again--it's been over a week, but it seems like months since I've cashed.
While I was sitting outside on the bench, waiting for the valet to bring me my truck, Jessica came outside to console me. She had been watching the hand from the rail, not having a table at the time. As nice as it was, it didn't help much. I guess what made it worse was that I had played so well all day long. That was only the second hand I lost in over six hours of play, and I really felt like I had my A-game with me. And it really sucks to go that deep and to come up empty, that's for sure.
Anyhow, when I got in my truck and on the road, I was just completely spent. I felt like I'd gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson, back before he went crazy. I came home and was too tired to do anything. I didn't eat or watch TV or even surf the internet. I took a shower and collapsed in bed, falling asleep for almost six hours.
I have a new-found respect for those folks who grind their way through the main event at the WSOP now. It's amazingly taxing on your system to play that well for so long. You're constantly thinking, analyzing, figuring odds, and in my case, offering up witty banter with my table mates. It's just very hard to do for hours on end, and I guess that's why it's so satisfying to get to the end--the sense of accomplishment at the end of a grind like that is almost as nice as the cash payoff. Almost.
And on the flipside, the crushing agony of defeat is just about as bad as it gets.
But the Open is over, and with it, my desire to play tournament poker for a awhile. I've got lots of free time this week, so I'm going to use it to clear my head, relax, work on some household projects, and do a bit of reading and writing.
It's time to recharge the batteries. Yesterday pretty much emptied 'em.
Mikey
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