Venetian Deep Stack

Hello there,

I just posted the blog entry below this, which I tried to post a few days ago but the blog website has been down. It is working now, so I figured I would post that entry as well as a new one. I also included the pictures of my room at Harrah's that I would have put in the last one on here.

Since I wrote the last blog, cash games were still sucking for me. I decided to try something different and play a tournament at the Venetian. During the summer, the Venetian runs a series of tournaments called the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza. Yesterday was one of their $340 dollar tournaments, which has a great structure and draws a huge field. I decided to take a shot at making my way through the 910 person field. I truly enjoy playing tournaments way more than cash games, and I am definitely a better tournament player. Thus, it was nice to get back into my element and take a break from cash games. I would love to spend the month out here playing tournaments, but the variance is even higher in tournaments and the buyins can add up quickly. Still, I definitely wanted to play at least one at the Venetian.

The event would pay out 10% of the field, meaning 90 people would make the money. Because of the size of the field and the good structure, the day was a very long one. The tournament did not reach the money until about 12:30 am, more than 12 hours after the tournament started. It is pretty devastating to play that long and finish just out of the money. I never really had a very big stack in the tournament, but I was able to stay afloat by shoving over loose player's raises and picking up small pots. Luckily, I survived the money bubble and with 90 players left I had about 61,000 chips from the 12k that we started with. After winning a few small pots and a big coinflip with pocket 9s vs Ace King, I found myself in a very comfortable position to make the second day with about 170,000 in chips.

At around 2:00 am, the tournament director announced that we would play 7 more hands before calling it a night. On the second to last hand of the day, I looked down to find Ace King of clubs. I raised to 15,000 with the blinds at 3k/6k, and the button moved all in for around 75,000 which I quickly called. He turned over pocket 8s and we were off to the races. Unfortunately, the Ace on the river was not enough as he made a set of 8s on the turn and I lost the huge coinflip. After losing my big blind on the last hand of the night, I was left with 88,000 to return with on Day 2.

Today, I returned to the Venetian at 2pm with dreams of making the final table and taking home the $55,000 first prize. That kind of money would do way more than just put an end to my downswing. However, it was not to be. We returned with 47 players left, so close that I could taste it. I needed to make something happen quickly though, as I only had about 11 big blinds. On the very first hand of the day, I looked down to find Queen Jack of diamonds. With only 4 people left to act behind me, including the blinds, this was a no brainer. All-in. The cutoff and button both folded, but the small blind woke up with pocket queens, just about the worst hand I could see in that situation. The flop came KK7 with one diamond. The turn gave me alot more life, as the Ace of diamonds peeled off the top of the deck. Now, I could catch a 10 or any diamond to win, or an Ace to split the pot. In fact, the 10 of diamonds would have given me my first royal flush! If there was ever a time to hit it, this was it. It was not to be though, as the five of hearts hit the river and put an end to my tournament run. I had alot of fun, but it is always disappointing to lose a tournament and the chance to make life changing money. I got paid $1,029 for my efforts though, for around a $630 dollar profit for my one day and one minute of work.

My mom and grandma are here now, which is really nice. We will probably try to find something good for dinner on the strip tonight and maybe see a show while they're here. I'll try to update after the weekend to fill you in on anything new. Sorry for the lack of updates recently. As long as the blog website cooperates and I have something to say, I will resume more regular updates soon.

-Danny