Well well!  My first Team Canuck blog entry, and I couldn't be happier to be here.  I suspect that I play less poker than Bob and Dave, but that won't stop me from blogging when I do play.  It just probably won't be as often.

I have a myspace page (www.myspace.com/downtowndevobrown) but it's pretty much just archived articles and trip reports.  I'm going to leave that page as it is if you're interested in reading past trip reports, but any further entries will be made here.

I just played in the Brantford Spring Classic main event this weekend... I took notes throughout the tournament, intending to post the details here.  Now, I promise that I was going to post the details REGARDLESS OF HOW THE TOURNAMENT WENT, but as it happened, I made it fairly deep into the money.

Before I get to that, I'm pleased to announce that I will be doing the commentary for this year's broadcast of TSN's "Degree Poker Championship".  Michael Landsberg will be taking care of the hosting duties as he has in the past, and I will be the colour commentary guy.  Alistair has been doing the colour for the past two years, but the tournament has moved to Rama this year, and Alistair's connection to Fallsview might be a conflict of interest.  Regardless of the circumstances, I'm very happy to be a part of such a great production.

Now, on to the hardcore poker stuff.  First of all:



This is the first novelty cheque I've ever received, and let me tell you, the world needs more novelty cheques.  I think they're hilarious.  I shared much of this tournament experience with my friend Hayley, and we agreed that I need to have my picture taken with this novelty cheque in as many locations across the world as possible.  This is the first picture, I hope there will be many more, and I hope that I can convince as many celebrities as possible to pose with my novelty cheque for future pictures.  

Why is this novelty cheque so funny?  Lots of reasons, the first of which is that it's for $14,000.  Now, I realize that 14K is a nice amount of money, particularly when you consider that it was made in two days, but let's face it... you know people who have won more than 14K.  Everybody does at this point.  Poker is so popular--and has been for enough years now--that chances are good that four random people sitting at your $10/$20 table on any given night have booked single wins in the 20K-plus range.  I find humour in the fact that I've never received a novelty cheque for any of my previous wins, and a couple of them have been significantly bigger than this one.  But at the same time, I think it's cute (I can't think of any better word) that the Brantford Charity Casino gave a novelty cheque to every player who made the final table of this event.

Why else is this novelty cheque so funny?  Because you can't put it in your pocket.  You are more or less forced to carry it around with you in the casino after you bust out of the tournament.  It is, to say the least, conspicuous.  But I'm convinced that there is is a master plan at work here, and it is this: if you have been losing money at the slots for years, you want to see somebody walk past you with a novelty cheque, because it gives you hope.  Taking it to the extreme, I'm sure that casinos would love the idea of giving anyone who wins any amount--regardless of how small--a great big novelty cheque to cart around with them.  You won $30 playing blackjack at $5 a hand?  Have a novelty cheque!  Great crowds of people milling about with novelty cheques, bumping into each other as they turn sideways to pass each other in the rows of slot machines, not unlike walking on a busy city street with an umbrella on a rainy day.  But, I digress.

And finally, the novelty cheque really earns its keep in the casino parking lot!  Let me tell you... my dad took a couple of novelty cheque pictures of me in the parking lot, and slowly but surely, they came.  The tourists, the senior citizens, God love 'em all, they were like moths to a flame on the way to visit the guy with the novelty cheque.  

"What did you win?" one very nice older gentleman asked me.  

"I got eighth in a poker tournament" was my reply.

"Wow, you must be very smart!" 

"No sir, just very lucky."

"Or maybe those other guys were just very stupid!"

I liked this guy, I have to admit.

Enough about the novelty cheque.  For now.  I can tell you that you haven't seen the last of it, that's for sure.

I went to Brantford on Thursday night with the intention of buying a tournament entry coin from a satellite winner, and returning to Toronto.  I could only play on the Friday qualifying day, which was sold out, and I didn't feel like having to run around close to tournament time trying to buy a coin from a scalper.  I found a guy Thursday night with no problem, and boght the coin at face value... actually, I think I saved $50.  Everything was coming up Devo.  I played some $20/$40, and the next thing I knew, it was late, so I got a hotel room.

The tournament began at 6:00pm on Friday, so I killed some more time on Friday afternoon playing $20/$40 again.  I ran into Lou (a friend of mine, and also a former commentator on Poker NIght Live) on Thursday night, busily accumulating chips in a cash game.  As of tournament time on Friday night, he was still there.  I love that guy.

For those who aren't familiar with how these Brantford tournaments work, I will explain.  Much like the WSOP Main Event, they have multiple Day One's.  The first one was on Wednesday.  If 80 people played on Wednesday, they would stop playing as soon as they got down to 8 remaining.  These 8 players would make the final day (Saturday) and would at that point be guaranteed to cash.  Similarly, if 80 people played on Thursday, the final eight remaining would return on Saturday, and be guaranteed to cash.  On Friday, it was sold out at 100 people, so the final ten players made the final day on Saturday, and I was lucky enough to be one of them.  But here's where things get a little weird...

At 3:00am on Friday night, we were probably down to about 14 players.  The pressure was on after having gone so far into the tournament... obviously, nobody wanted to bubble out.  Busting in 11th place would mean not returning to play the next day, which would mean no money.  Play was tightening up considerably, except for one guy, who was playing extremely recklessly.  He was at my table, and he was on my immediate right (thank God).  

Why was this player so fearless?  Risking his whole stack in early position with no fear of running into a big hand? 

Because he was ALREADY IN THE MONEY.  Yes, that's right, he had already qualified for the final day.  He played on Wednesday or Thursday and was guaranteed to cash.  He was playing with us on Friday to try and accumulate points (BCC gives considerable cash prizes to the players (five of them I think) who make the most tournament points... kind of like a "best all-around player" award.)

It goes without saying that the players at the other remaining table had a significant advantage.  We had to deal with a guy who had absolutely nothing to lose.  They didn't.  We weren't playing "real" bubble-time poker.  They were.  

I'm not trying to belittle the efforts of BCC staff at putting together a great tournament series.  They succeed in many respects.  The structure is, for the most part, really really good.  The floor personnel and the dealers were friendly and competent.  The food for the players was quality stuff, and the gifts (t-shirt, card capper, souvenir buy-in coin) were all very thoughtful.  However, I really do think that this particular glitch in their matrix needs to be examined.  Simply put, if a player makes the money, he can't re-enter the same tournament to collect points.  It drastically effects the tournament outcomes for many other players come bubble time.  

The solution, I suppose, would be to allow players to re-enter the tournament as many times as they like, provided that they haven't already made the final day.  As soon as they make the final day, they are no longer allowed to enter the tournament.  The only problem here would be that if player "x" makes the final day the first time he tries, and player "y" makes the final day on his third attempt, then player "y" would have collected three times (approx.) the number of points as player "x".  To prevent this discrepancy from happening in the points department, BCC should probably take only the highest finish in any given tournament towards points.  In other words, if player "x" finished the qualifying day in 8th spot (on his first try), he should get points for an 8th place qualifier.  If player "y" finishes his three attempts in places 64, 22, and 9 respectively, he should only get points for the 9th place qualifier.

But, I digress.  Again.  I'll move on, as soon as I point out that this strange rule (being able to effectively make the money twice in the same tournament) creates other problems that I won't get into here, but I'm sure you can figure out if you think about it for a while.

Here comes the poker geek stuff, and then I'm done with this epic first entry.  I was taking notes at the tables, and trying to be subtle about it, so I apologize in advance if some information is missing, ie: what was your stack / what was his stack / exactly how much did you bet on the turn / what type of player was he / etc.  Also, I didn't bother writing down a lot of the hands, so a lot of small pots (blind steals, limp/take it down with a bet on the flop) are missing.

Brantford Charity Casino Spring Classic Main Event $1500 + $150

(is it still called the Brantford Charity Casino?  Did they change their name?  My apologies.)

Day 1c, 100 players to start, final ten advance.

Level 1, 25/25, my stack 5,000

Hand one: 

Tricky player in EP raises to 75.  I call in LP with KQo.  This player was the most aggressive at the table... he played a couple of hands blind, and he talked about playing $200/$400 online on a regular basis.  Nice guy, tough to play against.

Flop: Kxx rainbow.  He bet 200, I called.
Turn: Q.  He bet 500, I made it 1200, he looked kind of sick, and called.
River: x  He checked, I bet 1700, he called.  I took down the pot, and he said he had pocket aces.  He might have shown them... I forget.

Level 2, 25/50, my stack 7,500

Hand two: 

I have As6s in EP and limp.  A couple of other limpers, blinds complete and check.  5 of us to the flop:

Ad 6c 2c.  Checked to me, I bet 200, SB calls, everyone else folds.  SB is the same player from the hand I just described.

Turn: 2s.  SB checked, I gave it some thought, and checked behind.  I felt that the deuce hit him, and I may have been wrong, but that's how I felt at the time.

River: 5c.  Terrible river card.  I figured if I wasn't beat on the turn, I probably was now.  SB bet 700, I folded.

Hand three: 

(note: I'm missing where it went to 50/100.  Some or all of the following hands may have happened at 50/100.  I will approximate the action as best I can.... suffice to say that the next while before the break was a roller coaster for my stack.)

UTG limps, UTG+1 limps, MP limps, I have AQ in SB, consider raising, but decide to call.  BB checks.

Flop: Q56 rainbow.  Checked to UTG+1 who bets the pot or so.  Folded to me, I check-raise.  Folded to UTG+1, who moves all-in.  UTG+1 was shortstacked, with about 2800 or so before the hand started.  The all-in re-raise wasn't all that much, and I had chips, so I called.  I was half expecting to see pocket fives or sixes, but hoping to see an overplayed KQ or QJ from a player who was (hopefully) on tilt as a result of being on a bit of a downward spiral from the beginning of the tournament.  Instead, he showed me pocket aces.  

Tricky tricky!  Limping with aces AFTER the UTG player had already limped... begs for a big multiway pot, which is not ideal with a big pocket pair, but it worked out for him this time as the turn and river bricked off.

I was down to 4100 after this hand, from my original 5K stack.  No biggie.

Hand four:

We'll assume it's 50/100 by now.  

Folded to CO who raises to 300.  I am SB and find pocket aces, I just call.  BB folds.

CO is a fairly new player, I think.  He didn't strike me as being very experienced... he was asking the dealer about the rules for raising before the tournament.  (ie: if player x bets 400 on the flop, what's the least I can raise it to, etc.)  I think he had a tendancy to overplay his hands, which is a fairly common mistake for inexperienced players.

Flop: Q93 with two diamonds.  I checked, he bet 600, I made it 1400, he made it 2800, and I moved in.  He folded.  After putting over 3000 chips into the pot, he folded to my final all-in bet when it was only about 1000 more to call.  The table was, to say the least, stunned.  He told me later that he had a queen but felt that he was beat.  I told him that, at that price, he should have called if he had bottom pair and felt that he was beat.  Bad me... no coaching... must stop.  But, he agreed that it was a bad fold.  Bizarre.  My stack goes up again to probably around 7500 again.

Hand five:

Folded to me in MP, I find TT and make it 300.  Folded to the button (tricky player from hands one and two) who calls.  Blinds fold, heads up.

Flop: 742 rainbow.  I bet 700, he moves all-in with a fairly short stack of 2000 or so.  I call, hoping to see 99, 88, 66, 55, or 33.  Nope, he has pocket aces.  What is it with all the pocket aces???  I fail to suck out and I'm probably down to 4500 or so again.

Level 4, 100/200 no ante, my stack approx. 4500.  Probably 90 players remaining.

Hand six: 

Folded to me in CO, I raise to 600 with ATo.  Folded to BB (my opponent from hand three) who calls.

Flop: Ah Jh 8s.  BB checks, I bet 1400, BB moves all-in and has me covered.  I count down my stack and determine that if I fold, I will be left with about 11 big blinds, which is playable, especially considering that the next level is going to be 100/200 again (and for 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes from here on) with only a 25 ante.  These facts make a strong case for folding.  However, I thought about the hand I played with him earlier, and how he had the goods (aces) that time.  Knowing that he would know that I would know that, I thought that increased the chances of him making a move on me here.  That, combined with the fact that the board was so draw-heavy, made me feel that I might have the best of it.

It was a very tough decision, maybe my toughest of the entire tournament.  I thought for a long while and eventually called for the rest of my stack.  He tabled 7h 9h... a flush draw with a gutshot straight possibility as well.

The turn was a very scary card... an offsuit six, making the gushot straight draw an open-ended one now.  

The river bricked off, and I doubled up to about 8000.  Players around me were very surprised that I made the call with only AT, and I was a little surprised as well.  Hell, earlier in the tournament I easily folded top two pair, and here I was standing behind my measly one pair like it was the nuts.  Oh well, poker's crazy.

Hand seven:

MP limper, I limp in LP with AcQc.  (Weak, I know.  I have a couple of things I need to work on in my game.  One is open-raising all-in in LP with air after it's been folded to me, when I have 6XBB or less.  I don't do it enough.  The other is the circumstance I'm describing in this hand: showing too great a willingness to limp along and be all friendly and see a flop with starting cards that should be raised in position.  I have no problem open-raising, or raising after a limper or two with hands like 99, etc., but high unpaired cards and me do not go together and I don't know why.)

ANYWAY.

MP limper, I limp in LP with AcQc.  Blinds complete and check.  Flop: QT2 with one club.  Checked to me, and I bet 800.  BB moved all-in for about 3000 total.  (Same player from hands three and six.... showed me the goods once, and a semibluff the other time.)

I decided to call, and he had T2.  His two pair held up, and I was back to roughly my original starting stack, heading into the first break.  What a ride.  I felt winded or something on the break... my stack went up a lot, down a lot, up a lot, down a lot, up a lot, and down a lot, all in the first two hours of the tournament, and I was more or less back where I had started.  These swings aren't usually a part of my tournament game, but I had been picking up some nice starting hands, and was thus one of the more active players at the table.

Level 5, 100/200 a25, my stack approx. 4500.

Hand eight:

UTG limps (same player who limped aces UTG+1 after UTG had already limped), MP raises to 1200, I have AKo on the button.  UTG had me covered, and MP had about 3400 chips in total.  I didn't know a lot about MP, he had been fairly active but hadn't been showing a lot of hands.  He was friends with everybody, so I guess he was a BCC regular.  I decided to re-raise to get UTG out of the hand.  I re-raised all-in, UTG folded, and MP called in a shot.  He showed me KQo, the board bricked off, and I close to doubled up... maybe 8000 chips or so total stack.

Hand nine: 

I have QsTs in MP and open limp.  One more limper, the blinds complete and check.  The board missed me completely, and every street was checked around.  Checked to me on the river, and I bet 600.  SB called (tricky player from hand one, etc.), and I just threw my cards face-down into the muck.  I shouldn't have done this, because then the SB didn't have to show his cards to drag the pot, which meant that I didn't get to see what he was calling me with.

Hand ten:

I'm BB.  LP (same player from last hand) open-raises to 600.  He had been raising my blinds quite a bit, and I was getting kind of sick of it.  I thought he was annoyed at my KQ beating his aces in hand one, and was trying to pick on me.  I looked down at Qc5c, and decided to call.

Flop: AT6 rainbow.  I checked, he bet 1000, and I decided to float him.  (I called to see if he could bet again on the turn, planning to take it on the river if the turn went check check.)

Turn: J.  I checked, he checked.  Perfect.

River: brick.  I bet 2400 or so, and he thought for quite some time, and then finally called, saying "I think you have TJ but I'm going to find out".  Instead of auto-mucking again, I tabled my Q5.  He showed me A3s, and dragged the pot.  He said: "floating sinks".  In this case, it did.  I was down to about 3700 or so.  OOOOOOOOOOPS.

Level 6, 200/400 a50, my stack about 3700.  Maybe 70 players remaining?

Hand eleven:

I get moved to a new table.  That sucked.  I was trying to look on the bright side of bluffing off so many chips in two hands, that being: well, at least they'll think I'm tricky, capable of making moves, etc.... in other words, maybe they'll pay me off.  Nope.  Table changed to a sea of unfamiliar faces.  Great.

The blinds went through me once, and I limped a hand or two and missed the flop.  I was down to 2600 and UTG when I found pocket deuces.  I smiled, thinking of my history with pocket deuces (not good), and pushed all-in.  MP called instantly.  Everybody else folded, and I asked him if he had a pair... he said that he didn't, and tabled AQs.

Flop: Axx.

Turn: 2.  Woo hoo!

River: x

Interesting... after this hand, I mentioned that I was glad to see that I was up against AQ.  A guy to my right looked disgusted and said: "REALLY???  WHY?!?!".  I said that obviously I'd rather be up against AQ than a pocket pair, and tried to look puzzled.  It wasn't hard.

Level 7, 300/600 a50, 50 players remaining.  My stack 4300.

Hand twelve:

Folded to CO who open-raised to 2000.  I'd been at this table long enough to determine that he plays a lot of hands, particularly in LP.  I moved all-in with ATo.  Blinds folded, he called with QTo.  The board bricked off and I doubled up to 7700 chips.

A general note: I had a few suckouts along the way in this tournament (as you're about to see) but I think that the real surprise was that people failed to suckout on me.  I was in with the best of it for the most part, and the board kept bricking off.  This is unusual, and worth noting.

Level 8, 400/800 a50, 38 players left.  My stack 4400.

Hand thirteen:

I'm at a new table now.

Folded to me in MP.  I have 5.5 BB's and I see Th7h.  On an impulse, I decide to push all-in.  I get called in two spots, by one stack that is about the same as mine, and by a larger stack.  One player has 99, the other has AJ.  I liked my hand!  Most of the table did too... when they saw the Th7h the concensus was that I was a shoe-in to win.

Flop: xx7
Turn: T
River: brick

Woo hoo!  A triple up!  The guy who still had quite a few chips left seemed annoyed.

Hand fourteen:

The very next hand, EP raises to 2600.  I look down and see KK, and re-raise to 7000.  Folded to EP who thinks for an eternity, and eventually folds.

Level 9, 600/1200 a75, my stack 18,000, 30 players remaining.

Hand fifteen:

EP raises to 4,000.  MP re-raises to 12,000 with about 10,000 behind.  (MP is the same player who had AJ vs. my T7).  I am in SB and look down to find KK.  I move all-in for about 18K total, EP folds, and MP calls in a shot and SLAMS his black pocket aces onto the table.  I was visibly angry that I had been cold-decked after finally accumulating a decent amount of chips.  So much drama, so little time, and all of that...

A guy to my right said: "What are you worried about?  You're going to win this hand.  Kings against aces, big deal... I just saw your ten seven beat TWO players!"  Believe it or not, this made me feel better.... as if he was making a valid mathematical point.

Flop was no help, although there were two diamonds, and someone pointed out that I had the king of diamonds.

Turn was a diamond.

River was a diamond, and I openly celebrated in a joyous expression of joy.  (That's redundant, yes, but it's accurate).

Level 10, 800/1600 a75, my stack about 35,000, approx. 24 players remaining.

Hand sixteen:

Aggressive player in CO open raises to 4975, I re-raise to 15,000 with QQ in SB, CO folds.  This puts me at about 40K.

Hand seventeen:

UTG raises to 5500.  SB calls.  I am BB and look down at pocket eights.  I decide that I can't really call here... re-raise or fold.  I decide that since two players have put in that many chips (one from UTG and the other knowing that the original raise CAME from UTG), I'd need to flop an eight to continue with the hand.  I folded.

The flop was nine high (no eight), SB checked, UTG bet, SB folded, and UTG showed QQ.

Level 11, 1K/2K a100, my stack about 34,000.  Approx. 17 players remaining.

Hand eighteen:

CO open raises to 7,000, I am SB and see 99.  I move all-in, and CO calls and shows AQo.  The board bricks off and I double up to about 51K.

Level 12, 1,500/3,000 a100, my stack about 45,000.  14 players remaining.

I have no hands recorded in this level.  This is exactly the time that the player who had already qualified on an earlier day started getting way out of line, as he should.  (I discussed this stuff much earlier in this ridiculously long blog entry.  When did I write that?  Yesterday?  Feels like it.)

Level 13, 2,000/4,000 a200, my stack 40,000, avg. stack 40,000, 12 players remaining.

In this level, I just tried to stay out of the maniac's way.  He had already made the money and was pushing all-in pretty much every hand, and why not?  He had a safety net, the rest of us didn't.  I wished I was at the other table, but I wasn't.  I did play a few hands to keep myself at par.  Folded to me in SB and I moved all-in with QJo to pick up the blinds.  Also, I raised UTG with ATo and picked up the blinds.

In one hand, it was folded to the maniac in SB who just called.  How weird.  I was BB, and looked down at AJo.  The weirdness made me check.

The flop came king high, check check.
The turn was a brick, he bet relatively small, I folded, and he showed me pocket kings.

Phil Hellmuth: "I can dodge bullets, baby!"

I kept an eye on the short stacks at the two tables (there were a few, some very desperate) and eventually was able to determine that I didn't really need to play any hands.  There was no way I was going to be able to take advantage of my opponent's tight bubble play, because the guy to my right was already doing that with impunity.  Again, I don't fault him for playing this way... quite the opposite... he was doing what he was supposed to be doing, taking advantage of the strange rules for the qualifying days of this tournament.

My 40K or so would be enough to get me on to the next day.  Furthermore, all players who made the next day would arrive with the stacks they had when they qualified, but the blinds would start much lower.  We would return to play starting at 200/400 a25.  So there really wasn't a pressing need to double up and accumulate chips... my 40K would give me 100 BB's to start the next day.  Plenty of chips.

We finally got down to ten players at around 4:30am.  My stack was at 38,150.  We verified and bagged the chips, and I left to find a hotel room.  The next day would start at noon, so I wouldn't have a lot of time to get the room, sleep, eat, shower, etc., but I wanted to get as much as I could.  I know for a fact that some players who qualified with me late Friday night didn't sleep at all before the noon start on Saturday.

The girl at the hotel was more than a little surprised that someone wanted to get a room at 5:00am, with checkout at 11...

DAY TWO - in the money. 

25 players remaining.  (10 from Friday, and 8 and 7 from the other two days.  One player made the money twice, so the original payout of 26 places was changed to 25.)

My parents only live an hour away from Brantford, and I gave them a call in the morning to let them know what was going on.  They drove down to cheer me on, which was awesome, and with Hayley there, I had three people rooting for me the whole way.

The payout structure as I remember it:

25th: $2000
24th: $2500
23rd: $2500
22nd: $2500
21st: $2500
20th: $2500
19th: $3600
18th: $4500
17th: $5200
16th: $6000
15th: $7,000
14th: $8,000
13th: $9,000
12th: $10,000
11th: $11,000
10th: $12,000
9th: $13,000
8th: $14,000
7th: $15,000
6th: $16,000
5th: ?
4th: ?
3rd: ?
2nd: $50,000
1st: $90,000

My stack of 38,150 puts me in 11th place to start.

Level 1, 200/400 a25, 25 players remaining.

Hand one:

EP raises to 975.  MP calls, LP calls, and I call in the BB with Kc9c.  

Flop: Jc 5d 6c.  Hmmm.... tough-ish spot here... I was really going to want to see the turn, but knew that if the flop was bet and raised back to me, I wouldn't be able to call.  I also knew that the original preflop raiser was going to make a continuation bet (he was aggressive).  Was there any way I could control what the other two players would do after him?  I decided that there wasn't, so I checked and hoped for the best.

The original raiser made a continuation bet of 2300, and to my delight the other two players folded.  I called.

The turn was a low club, I checked, and he checked.

The river was a brick... not a club, lower than a jack, no obvious straight possibilities.  I bet 5100 and my opponent called with AJ.  I dragged a nice pot.

Level 2, 400/800 a50, ? players remaing, my stack approx. 48K

In this level, I managed to bluff off 10,000 chips, bringing me back down to what I started the day with.  

Hand two:

I have 55 UTG and limp.  Folded to BB who checks.

Flop: Qd Jc 2c.  She checked, I bet 2,000, she thought for a while, said "I have a piece of that, I have to call" and called.
Turn: Jh.  She bet 5,000, and I folded, pretending to be disgusted, and saying I had KQ.

Hand three: 

2 hands later, folded to me in SB and I just call with 67o.  BB checks.  Both the player from the last hand and this player are unknown to me, neither had played many hands and neither of them played with me the night before.

Flop: A72 rainbow.

I checked, he bet 2,000, I check-raised to 6,000, he re-raised to 18,000, and I folded.  After the hand, he said: "I didn't want to get counterfeited."

Level 3, 600/1200 a75, my stack approx. 38,000, players remaining ?

Hand four:

I go card dead and am down to about 31K when I pick up AhTh UTG.  I raise to 4,000 and have to fold when UTG+1 moves all-in for 17K total.

Hand five:

Folded to CO who open-raises all-in for about 40K.  (He has me covered.)  He is by far the biggest LAG at the table.  Folded to me in SB and I have JJ, against this player it's an easy call.  BB folds, and CO shows 44.  The board bricks off, and I double up to about 57K.

Level 4, 800/1600 a75, my stack approx. 57K

No hands from this level, I just wrote: I am card dead.  I go to the break with a stack of 54,000 chips.

Level 5, 1,000/2,000 a100, my stack approx. 50K, 15 players left.

Hand six:

Folded to me in MP, I raise to 6,000 with 4s5s, and have to fold when BB moves all-in.

Hand seven:

The player to my immediate right (not the player from hand two anymore) has a lot of chips but is on tilt after losing a fairly big pot to another big stack the hand before.  Folded to him on the button and he raises to 6K.  I find ATo in SB and move all-in.  BB folds, button folds, and I pick up the pot.  This is one of the rare cases where I knew I was going to push all-in regardless of what I saw when I looked at my hole cards.... the opportunity was just too great.  It was nice to have a decent hand as insurance, though.

Level 6, 2,000/4,000 a200, my stack 50K.

I note that the structure has gotten pretty bad.  It's been pretty great up until this point... yesterday was very gradual throughout, and starting the day today at 200/400 is awesome.  However, for some reason they don't use the structure from the day before... I'm not sure why.  People were being eliminated fast, because the blinds simply doubled now.  1K/2K, 2K/4K, 4K/8K...  not great.  I understand that casinos obviously don't want the thing to go on forever, but play was moving along very fast with these blinds, and I think that adding a 1500/3000 and/or a 3000/6000 level wouldn't slow things down too much.

In no time (it seemed) we were down to the final table.  After going card dead and not seeing any great opportunities to steal (not that there weren't any... there probably were... a part of my game that I need to work on, as I mentioned much earlier) I was the prohibitive shortstack.  I started the final table with 30,900 chips, playing 4,000/8,000 a400 blinds.

There was a substantial break before the final table as we filled out some forms.  They were setting up a basic closed-circuit camera configuration to broadcast the final tabel in-house.  It was a nice touch... a small crowd had gathered to watch the final table, and between the camera and the screens and the tournament director on the microphone calling the action, it was much more interesting to watch (I would expect) than it had been previously.

Level 7, 4,000/8,000 a400, my stack 30,900.

I was definitely thought of as the guy who was going to bust out in tenth.  

Hand eight:

On the very first hand at the final table, it was folded to the CO who raised to 25,000.  I found AJo in the SB and pushed all-in.  BB folded and the CO called and showed 9h3h... a total steal attempt.  (Ill-advised, I might add, when there is a very desperate shortstack in one of the blinds.  Anyway...)

My AJ held up, and I doubled up to 64K.

In no time, two people had somehow busted out, and we were at

Level 8, 6,000/12,000 a600, my stack approx. 50K, 8 players remaining.

Hand nine:

The blinds went through me once, I was card dead, and every pot was raised.  I was down to 31,000.  The loosest player at the table raised to 45K from EP.  I called all-in for less in MP with TJo, thinking they were probably live, and thinking that there was no way I could let the blinds go through me again.  I liked my hand given the circumstances.  Unfortunately, he had KJ, no help for me, and I busted in 8th place for a 14K prize.  Sweeeeeeet!

Then they gave me the novelty cheque, but I've already written about that.  

I miss it though, don't you?  Here it is again:



Until next time... sorry for the long report!