Rostucko & Assani's Score!
Thursday afternoon, Assani told me that he was going to go and play the Venetian Deep Stack tourney that night. It was a $340 entry tourney and that's what he excels at, tournamnet poker. Even though he does well, he really doesn't like live tournaments as he has ADD or something to that affect, so he doesn't enjoy having to sit there w/ nothing else to do. I mean, for instance, right now, he's behind me in our office, at his computer, playing some 10/20 PLO, surfing the web, and watching some playoff basketball on TV. But that's how he plays his best. Nonetheless, he was heading out to play in the tourney. I told him I'd stop by to see how he's doing before I hit the Wynn to play a session.
Fastforward to @ 8pm that night and I stop by the "V" to check in on him. I find him during Level 3 of the tourney and he has a pretty big chip stack. I stay and sweat him for awhile, during which I see a bunch of people I knew from either Amarillo or Albuquerque from when I'd play in the underground games there or Sandia Resort. Anyway, I watch for a bit and see him doing well and tell him that if he goes deep, to call or text me as I was heading to the Wynn to put in a sess.
I decided to just walk thru the Palazzo over to the Wynn and I see what people mean by the Palazzo not being a comfortable place to gamble. It has a very wide open feeling to it and just "different" from most other casinos in which you might find yourself. But it's pretty in there, so I guess there's that.
Anyway, I get into a $5/$10NL game immediately and over the course of the next 3 hours, I find myself stuck @ $2600 and irritated at my play. I just was trying to force it too much and my results were showing it. So I took a short break by going for a walk, splashed a little water on my face and told myself to either pull my head out of my ass and play like I know how to or just quit for the night. Well, I really didn't want to have to go and tell Assani and Amanda I had yet another losing session, so I chose the other route. 3 more hours later, I had pulled myself out of the hole I had dug and was up a huge $52. Then I noticed that I was starting to play to not lose, not to win. The moment I realized it, I racked up left. Just prior to that, Assani had texted me that he was at the Final Table!
So I was feeling pretty good about coming all the way back and getting rostucko (granted it was only $52, but sure beats -$2600 :) ). So I was walking a bit quicker than normal to make sure I made it in time to see Assani @ the FT. When I got to the Venetian poker room and found the table, I came up behind Assani and saw that he had just raised a couple of limpers. The first limper was tanking and finally shoved. The other limper mucked and Assani, who had the limper covered, snap called as the price was right. Assani tables his JJ and the limper showed AA. Assani, being the stud he is, pulls a rabbit out of his ass, and rivers a J to bust the kid in 6th place! :) The kid had on a Cowboys jersey, so I was a bit sad for him, but Assani's my boy, and well, c'est la vie!
Like 2 mins later, they went on break and I found out that first place paid just a bit over $16k and that he was guaranteed $3,200 at this point. We chatted a bit and I also noticed that Sam, one of the regs with whom I had played a ton vs @ Sandia was also still in the remaining 5 players. Nice to see. Sam's a good guy who never says an ugly thing about anyone, win or lose. So it was good to see him doing well.
Shortly after the break, Sam, the short stack left, open shoved from the button and Assani called with JJ again. Sam had A5o. Sam bricked and Assani hit a 3rd Jack on the river just for good measure and then there were 4. Sam and I chatted a bit and I found out that he has been in town about 6 weeks now and he has found that Sandia plays too small for him. I can relate, good buddy. Trust me I feel ya. My last few trips there were like pulling teeth. Why go play live in a game that is either equal or smaller than what you play online?!?
Anyhow, with 4p layers left, one guy got locked into a pot w/ the lady at the final table. Flop came KQTr and they got it all in on the flop. The guy had K5o for TP and the lady had QTo for bottom two pair. The guy bricked and they were down to 3. Now at this point all three of the players left were pretty close in chips...all w/i T100,000 of each other. So they started talking deal. Since they were so close in chips, they finally agreed to an equal chop of @ $10,510 each. Nice score, Assani!
I should also mention that when I first stopped by the tourney, at Assani's table was a guy you all may have seen during last year's WSOP, William Rockwell. He and I talked a bit and seemed like a pretty cool cat. His mom sits behind him and helps him stack his chips when he takes down a pot. Other than that, he does it all himself. It's quite impressive watching him play. The determination it must take this guy to play like this really is kinda humbling. And I must give serious props to the tourney director for the Venetian too. He and I were talking during the FT and I mentioned meeting William and he said that yeah, he's a nice guy. And anyone who has a problem with either him or the blind gentleman that uses a reader (another peron to tell him his cards and the board cards), they will not be welcome to play in the Venetian tournaments. I mean, it really should be a non-issue, but I guess some people really have a problem with these guys. How, I don't know, but I guess they do. It's sad that people have a problem with guys like William and the like. But then again, some poker players really are life nits...and not in a good way.
Fastforward to @ 8pm that night and I stop by the "V" to check in on him. I find him during Level 3 of the tourney and he has a pretty big chip stack. I stay and sweat him for awhile, during which I see a bunch of people I knew from either Amarillo or Albuquerque from when I'd play in the underground games there or Sandia Resort. Anyway, I watch for a bit and see him doing well and tell him that if he goes deep, to call or text me as I was heading to the Wynn to put in a sess.
I decided to just walk thru the Palazzo over to the Wynn and I see what people mean by the Palazzo not being a comfortable place to gamble. It has a very wide open feeling to it and just "different" from most other casinos in which you might find yourself. But it's pretty in there, so I guess there's that.
Anyway, I get into a $5/$10NL game immediately and over the course of the next 3 hours, I find myself stuck @ $2600 and irritated at my play. I just was trying to force it too much and my results were showing it. So I took a short break by going for a walk, splashed a little water on my face and told myself to either pull my head out of my ass and play like I know how to or just quit for the night. Well, I really didn't want to have to go and tell Assani and Amanda I had yet another losing session, so I chose the other route. 3 more hours later, I had pulled myself out of the hole I had dug and was up a huge $52. Then I noticed that I was starting to play to not lose, not to win. The moment I realized it, I racked up left. Just prior to that, Assani had texted me that he was at the Final Table!
So I was feeling pretty good about coming all the way back and getting rostucko (granted it was only $52, but sure beats -$2600 :) ). So I was walking a bit quicker than normal to make sure I made it in time to see Assani @ the FT. When I got to the Venetian poker room and found the table, I came up behind Assani and saw that he had just raised a couple of limpers. The first limper was tanking and finally shoved. The other limper mucked and Assani, who had the limper covered, snap called as the price was right. Assani tables his JJ and the limper showed AA. Assani, being the stud he is, pulls a rabbit out of his ass, and rivers a J to bust the kid in 6th place! :) The kid had on a Cowboys jersey, so I was a bit sad for him, but Assani's my boy, and well, c'est la vie!
Like 2 mins later, they went on break and I found out that first place paid just a bit over $16k and that he was guaranteed $3,200 at this point. We chatted a bit and I also noticed that Sam, one of the regs with whom I had played a ton vs @ Sandia was also still in the remaining 5 players. Nice to see. Sam's a good guy who never says an ugly thing about anyone, win or lose. So it was good to see him doing well.
Shortly after the break, Sam, the short stack left, open shoved from the button and Assani called with JJ again. Sam had A5o. Sam bricked and Assani hit a 3rd Jack on the river just for good measure and then there were 4. Sam and I chatted a bit and I found out that he has been in town about 6 weeks now and he has found that Sandia plays too small for him. I can relate, good buddy. Trust me I feel ya. My last few trips there were like pulling teeth. Why go play live in a game that is either equal or smaller than what you play online?!?
Anyhow, with 4p layers left, one guy got locked into a pot w/ the lady at the final table. Flop came KQTr and they got it all in on the flop. The guy had K5o for TP and the lady had QTo for bottom two pair. The guy bricked and they were down to 3. Now at this point all three of the players left were pretty close in chips...all w/i T100,000 of each other. So they started talking deal. Since they were so close in chips, they finally agreed to an equal chop of @ $10,510 each. Nice score, Assani!
I should also mention that when I first stopped by the tourney, at Assani's table was a guy you all may have seen during last year's WSOP, William Rockwell. He and I talked a bit and seemed like a pretty cool cat. His mom sits behind him and helps him stack his chips when he takes down a pot. Other than that, he does it all himself. It's quite impressive watching him play. The determination it must take this guy to play like this really is kinda humbling. And I must give serious props to the tourney director for the Venetian too. He and I were talking during the FT and I mentioned meeting William and he said that yeah, he's a nice guy. And anyone who has a problem with either him or the blind gentleman that uses a reader (another peron to tell him his cards and the board cards), they will not be welcome to play in the Venetian tournaments. I mean, it really should be a non-issue, but I guess some people really have a problem with these guys. How, I don't know, but I guess they do. It's sad that people have a problem with guys like William and the like. But then again, some poker players really are life nits...and not in a good way.
posted by SirFelixCat at 10:08 AM
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