Texas Trip and Day 1 of the Venetian Main

We left on Friday to go to Austin, Texas for Cody's bachalor party. Jon, Cody and I got the airport and start the morning off right with a shot and a beer. Once on the plane a lovely older woman was offered free booze the entire flight if she changed seats for a family. She preceded to get hammered and despite our best efforts to sleep she decided she wanted to talk to us. With Cody's hands in his lap, she scooped up his far arm (grazing his upper leg) to see what time it was. The commotion woke Cody and I both up. The rest of the flight included drunk babbling, close talking and two reinactments of the arm scoop.
Once in Austin we drank ourselves silly dowtown. For lunch the next day we went 30 minutes outside of Austin to "The Salt Lick" for quite possibly the best BBQ I have tasted. Later that night Texas played Kansas in a primetime game. We snuck in 10 pints (not airplane bottles) into the game and proceeded to get wrecked. After the Longhorn cover we hit the bars again and passed out.
The following morning at 5 am we all piled into a shuttle and started a long trip to Dallas. The Dallas/Redskins game was an early game so we had to get on the road. The stadium was amazing, all the pictures and video dont do this monsterous structure justice. Unfortunately the game was equally as bad and not even a last minute drive by the Cowboys could salvage the game in my eyes. After the game we went to a bar and watched the late games. But with the lack of sleep we all kept real quiet for the rest of the night.
The Venetian main event started as we got back, so of course we played. I chipped up from our starting stack of 20K to just under 95K without any real big pots. My last table was pretty tight and I was able to go from 30K to 95K by only showing 2 hands down (both winners and both premium). Day 2 starts at 2pm and I will hopefully have all the chips or be knocked out as I have a flight to go see my family in New Bern, NC early Wednesday morning.

Justin "robert07" Young

1K Venetian

The 1K at Venetian got almost 170 people which is fantastic for a Monday. My starting table consisted of a couple solid players, 2 good players and the rest were just terrible. I busted a short stack as he bluffed his chips into my bottom set. The pot put me up to 25K. I slowly chipped up taking myself out of iffy situations. I even laid down AQ, AQ and AJ preflop to one bet, based on player and bet sizing. These hometown heroes are so used to getting called no matter what they bet. They are used to changing their bet sizing accordingly. So everytime this one guy made 4X or more I would just muck. And he showed AA, AA, and KK. When our table broke I had about 37K. The new table was much more aggressive so I sat back for 3 orbits and played very tight. Then I looked down at Q8dd and raised from middle. A very loose aggresive guy called in position and the flop was 9d8s7c. I c-betted 1500 (60% pot) and he called. The turn was a Ah putting a complete rainbow on board. I put him on a pair and a draw: 109, J9, J8, 66 etc. So instead of possibly bluffing the next two streets I decided to c'raise the turn. I checked and he bet 3500. I raised to 10800 and he snap called, which made me feel good. If a straight card hit then I could just check fold. If it didnt its an easy bluff. The Ks hit and I fired 18500. He gave a speech about how lucky I am and mucked 109. Shortly after that I played a streeet really bad against the same player. I raised with Ad6d and he min 3 bet me to 2400. I called and the flop was 1064 with one diamond. He bet 2K into 6K and since there was a good chance I was ahead with my sixes, so I called. The turn was a Kd. There was about 8k in the pot and he had about 20k in front of him. Of all the options I had I picked the worst. I should have either over bet the pot and try to make him lay down 88, 99, JJ, QQ or I should check and fold to a big bet and call/rip to a small one. I checked and he bet 7K and then I ripped for his last 13K. Even if he had JJ he is making the call. Either way he had AA and I missed my draw. The very next hand there was a raise and 3 callers. I looked down at AKo and 30bbs and put it all in the middle. The 2nd caller made the call with JJ and I was out the door. Considering how splashy I have been playing lately I think I played well outside of the A6dd hand.

Justin "robert07" Young

FTOPS

I played a decent amount of poker this week between sitting on my couch playing FTOPS and sitting in the Venetian playing their deep stack series. Not only did I not final table either one I didnt even cash. I did find some shallow cashes in other events online including a final table in FTP's 100k grtd. I finished 7th as my KK lost to Q7. In a Venetian $300 I built up a huge stack (80K with the blinds 500/1000) when a young kid was moved to our table with about 70K. I opened 3 times in a row, with the 3rd time having AKo. The kid 3 bet to 9K and I needed to decide how much to 4 bet. I made it 24.5K thinking it looked super strong, but the kid ripped and I called off. He had QQ and the board ran out 1099KQ. The river Q crippled me and caused me to lose a chipleading pot.
This week I will play one or two Venetians and one or two sessions online, hopefully giving me some time to get ready to go to Texas this weekend. Cody's bachelor party will be in Austin/Dallas as we will catch a Texas/KU game as well as a Cowboy/Redskin game. I hope my liver can handle the beating of a barely conscience weekend. I am hoping to get some errands done as well as hang out with Morgan in the mean time.

Justin "robert07" Young

FTOPS and My Weekend

The FTOPS started late last week, and per usual I have showed no results. Since I have played FTOPS I have yet to final table let alone win one. I dont have the exact figures, but my ROI has to worse than -100%. I dont understand why with such a large sample size. They have good structures and I would like to think that I play atleast my "B" game as it is a tournament I care about. I guess I can still prove myself with the remaining schedule. I am doubtful to play today as my Denver Broncos look to go 7-1 at home against the Steelers. The Steelers are road favorites which means I am probably going to wager on the Broncos. I am curious to see how we look after getting out manned against Baltimore last week. Time for McDaniels to step up and be a head coach. Everyone was praising him (and rightfully so) when we were 6-0, but its easy when your winning. So lets see how he handles some adversity.
This weekend Mary, Morgan, and I went to a BBQ place and then to see "Zombieland". The BBQ was good and the movie was much better than I thought. The acting was above average with Woody Harleson stealing the show. I was impressed with the writing for a "spoof" zombie movie. Between the jokes and the zombies the movie flew by. Also Bill Murray made an awesome cameo as himself. Sunday I played online all day with only one good result. I won a satty to PCA. It was my 4-5th time trying so I saved some money. I was on the fence about going, but I think this seals it for me.

Justin "robert07" Young