Pics from blogger tourney and some hands (edited)

OK, I suck at taking pictures!! LOL, so they didn't all turn out.. either out of focus or I moved too much when taking them.. so, of the 17 pics I took, here are only 8 that are really worthy of airing:

Before the tournament, we all met in a conference room to chat, have some bagels and coffee and listen to a couple of the pro's. I tried to take pics of them speaking, but I have a cheapo camera and no zoom.. prolly find some good pics on lasvegasvegas.com at some point in the future.

Here, however, is a good one with Mas (Poker Genius) and Felicia:



Once we went down to the poker room, I found myself next to Badblood and Bill:



Then "Mystery Man" and Linda:



Down table from me was Otis and Al:



You can also tell that I was in the 1 seat from this pic and, therefore, didn't have a clear pic of the other two in the 9 and 10 (and I'm sorry, I forget who was there :p )

On that first table, I really only got one good hand, JJ, that I ended up having to fold after the flop. I raised in late position to T400 (T50/T100 blinds), and Boy Genius min reraised to T800. I figured I was up against a higher pocket pair, so I just called and hoped to flop a set. Flop of Kxx had us both checking the flop and turn. He finally bet the river and I mucked, just happy for the free cards to try to out run him. {Unless he was just blowing smoke, he told me - after we were both out - that he had QQ during that hand.}

After that hand, it got folded to me again and I found suited Varkonyi and kinda tilt-raised; successfully stealing the blinds.

Al took me off of a chopper. Linda, finding really no good hands, shoved all-in with 66 UTG. Al debated and debated and finally went all-in over the top with AQo. Not really wanting to battle two all-in's, I mucked AKs. Badblood then goes over the top of both with KK. WOW, what a hand. Then Al about triples through when he spikes one of the two remaining Aces. I would have chopped, as the final board was TTATx; we both would have had T's full of A's.

I got a free play from the BB later with K5o. Flop of 234, I potted it after the SB checked, and they folded to me. My last hand I played at that table, I believe I stole the BB from Badblood with A7o.

At the new table, I found myself in about the cutoff seat, which was fine with me as I would have been button next on my last table. I folded, folded, folded. UTG I found AQs. Hmmm, I really hate this hand. I felt I debated too long and that people would know I'm not that strong and finally folded. Then I berated myself that I was "too tight, too tight, too tight!" Max was talking around and I told him to hit me or something, I just folded AQs cause I was UTG. He said, "You folded AQs?? I don't want to talk to you no more", and walked away. LOL!

I was raised off my BB and then on my SB, it was raised again and I went all-in with 77. The pair held up vs. A4s and I doubled through. Towards late position, it was raised UTG, folded to me to find TT. The guy was pretty tight and I hadn't seen him raise much so I kind of studied him. Once before I saw him raise and he was just about hyperventilating; yet this time he wasn't. I felt he wasn't as strong, so I went over the top all-in. He called, turned over AQo. My TT stood up and I now had some chips :) Which was good, as I didn't have anything else for quite a while.

At the final table, I took a chunk outta Hank (I kinda forgot about pics at this point ;) when I went to steal his blind with A7o; he defended with A6o, and with too many low cards on the board, the 7 kicker played. After that, I got no hands (ok, I stole the blinds one time with AJo ;) until it got down to 5-handed (in the money) and I got folded to in late position with A9s. As the blinds were T1K/T2K and I had T10K, any raise would commit me, so I just shoved all-in. Max Pescatori found AKo in the BB and quickly called me. His AK stood and IGHN {I-go-home-now}, cashing for $80 :p

After I got knocked out, the other short stack, Steve Hall finally got finished off and it was up to Felicia, Max and Julie:



Julie had a lot of chips at one point, but I think she was over her head a little against both Felicia and Max; she had tough competition with two really experienced players to go up against. Finally it was just Felicia and Max. They battled back and forth...

Max was the first to try to put Felicia all-in:



Then Max tried to limp in the SB, Felicia returned the favor going all-in herself:



Knowing that it would just be a crap shoot from there, Max and Felicia agreed to a chop of $450 each (1st was $600, 2nd $310); and they played for bragging rights and the final $10, shoving all-in on the last hand: Felicia with K7s and Max calling, finding AJo in the BB. Felicia ended up turning a 7 and told Max not to look, it was all over:



A great time was had by all.. a big thanks to Pauly for getting it all together!!

Posted by Glenn