Sorry about the length of time between posts.  A lot of work lately and the next two entries are going to be hard to keep my supper down as I walk you through them (if I haven’t given them away already)

7:15 p.m. tournament
Taj Mahal, Atlantic City
Buy-in $50 + $15
59 players

First off, let me tell you about the latest joker.  This kid who sit’s at my first table is going on and on about how he has won 4 tournaments in the last week…  he’s the best thing Atlantic City has ever seen…..  His uncle pimps out his aunt on the 2nd Sunday of every month (ok..ok  that’s not true…  he said he won 3 tournaments  lol).  Now after all this he gets to heads up with some girl and she has A-4, he has 8-6 of spades and says he was the favorite before the flop.  That takes us to our first notable hand….

Blinds at 50-100 I raise from the button with A-Q to 550.  Three callers.  Flop is K-J-5 rainbow.  Everyone checks.  Turn is a 7.  A check and a bet of 1250.  I flat call intending to bluff the river into the idiot we just talked about previously.  Now heads up, river is the ace of hearts.  He bets 1250 again and I flat call.  He shows Q-J and goes insane when I turn up A-Q.  I told him that I thought I had 8-6 and couldn’t fold an open-ender on the turn.  If you look up “monkey tilt” in Webster’s Dictionary…  you’ll see this kid’s face. Then he has the balls to offer me a “last longer bet”.  Although somewhat self-explanatory, I will explain.  He wanted to bet that he would last longer in the tournament than I did.  He has about 5500 left, I had about 16,000.  So I politely had the dealer stop the action at the table and made the following announcement…  “Since it has come to my attention that you have won 58 tournaments in the last 5 hours, you must be up a substantial amount of money, so peel off a dime and let’s do this or shut your fuckin mouth” and I peel off 10 benji’s and hand them to the dealer.  Needless to say, he shut his friggin trap and was dismissed soon after.

The reason I dragged that on is because I went rediculously card dead for the next 60 minutes and nothing special happened until after the first break.

Blinds now 500-1000  100 ante.  Fold to me on button with 9-5 diamonds and I try to steal with a raise to 3500.  BB defends and we see a flop.  Flop comes 10-4-2. Turn is a 5.  River Pairs the 10.  It’s checked all the way and his A-K falls to the 9-5 I sheepishly now have to show him.  A mistake not to bet the turn here.  I could have gotten the same result without having to show down.  I pick up 5000 and now have about 14,000.

Raise from early position and I ship it with A-K spades for a little under 16,000.  He calls and shows jacks.  Ace on the flop, nut flush by the river. Now up to 35,000.

Down to 19 players with 6 making the money I raise from EP with A-J.  Shove by the BB.  I call and he shows A-10.  Flop has a ten and I am down to 13,000 heading into the second break.

Back from second break with blinds 1500-3000  500 ante.  Raise from mid position with A-4 called by BB.  Board reads Q-J-8-8-3.  Checked all the way down and ace high holds.  Now up to 34,500.  Should I have tried to steal this pot?  Hindsight being 20/20…  Of course.  But since my stack wasn’t sufficient enough to make a meaningful bet and not commit myself, I was stuck hoping I would get a free pass.  A bigger mistake on my opponents part.

Right before third break I double up an A-Qs calling it with A-Js.  Down to 16,000 heading into third break.

Nothing but steals after third break and get bounced 13th when my A-J shove is called by pocket 4’s and don’t improve.

Overall, I think I played well.  No major mistakes were made as far as I can recollect, bluffs were timed right, no unnecessary chances, just couldn’t win the coin flip.  A couple of 3-to-1’s didn’t go my way but I highly doubt that even if they did, the outcome would have been any different.