Here we go….(as best as I can recollect) arrive at crown to be greeted by Garth and Sarah and finally get to put faces to the names of the online players I hadn’t previously had the pleasure of meeting and as you’d expect they are all a great bunch and some of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. Until this point the majority were only known to me by their online alias and through conversation in the chat box.
Time to shuffle up and deal seems to roll round rather quickly and we take our seats. With late entries taken until the end of the 2nd level, the prize pool is not yet announced but eventually we discover 3 Vegas packages are there for the taking!! ($2000 for 4th)
We start
11 handed, with a 5k start stack, blinds $25/$50…..Play is as you would expect and seeing a free flop/free cards is not going to happen often…..from hand #2 through to around hand #9 one guy got AK, AA, A10, AJ, then AK again which set the tone and for the next 2 or more hours I could have substituted myself for a witch’s hat and you’d not noticed any difference…
During this first period of play I see maybe 3 or 4 PP’s under 9’s and every occasion was with action already out in front…I call UTG’s short stack AIPF at this early level for $1100 with my Ah Kh (on the button) and his 33 holds up… FFS….didn't want to go backwards early.....not a lot of action until I manage to double up my short stack on the last hand before the first break when my AIPF (holding A J in C/O) was called by BB’s QK

turns out this is the young fella’s first time playing live at an actual table (this is my AK v’s 33 villain from earlier)…
After the break I do however find a few spots to pick up the blinds but I’m going nowhere and it's only getting more expensive to play. At 500/1000 level I make it 4k with 10 10 on the button and SB insta shoves.....BB + limper quickly out of the way......tough spot and worse still he has me covered....I make the call and he tables AK and the classic race follows....with 10 10 being the goods.
I make another double up shortly after when I shove from the C/O after UTG and UTG+1 both limped and then it was folded around to me…...blinds quickly out of the way but utg makes the call (damn) and again a player has me covered, utg+1 goes to the tank.....the pain when he finally folded looked like he'd just thrown both of his kidneys into the muck....now not sure what is worse here...the fact that I’m now forced to table A2 or the sick result….UTG shows JQ and I’m in front......flop Q2J....I slide my chair backwards a little.....turn 4....(UTG+1 blows up like a cannon, lol, obvious now what he folded, bahahahaha)......river A ….badabing.... I now have a little over 20k.
Another period of folding and I check the big screen and avg stacks initially inspires a little confidence…..but reality is…100 player field (with 5k start stack) is now down to 25 players putting the avg stack at exactly 20k (this is roughly where I’m at)….we are now at 700/1400 meaning I hold only 14BB….(wtf, avg stack is 14BB, this is still troubling me)…I’ve been far too tight to this point and its time to gamble it up and hopefully get lucky in the flips and with no final table type bubble to wait for and blinds on the way up, I believe my stack is running out of moves.
Another orbit or so later (now on around 17k-18k) its folded to me on the button and I hold Ad 9d and make it 5k…..SB folds and BB (with a decent stack) announces all-in…we are at 3 tables and villain is Mr first time live player/multiple time earlier villain with a enormous range and the re-raise all-in had become a popular fold-inducing move for him in last 25-30 minutes to great effect…. I make the call and he rolls AQ…

....the board gives me str8 options on the turn but the river bricks and I’m off to the rail (BAR)…

.....not a set, str8 or flush the entire day and best PP’s were KK,QQ, JJ once each and 10 10 twice. (not a lot of fun)
Abbreviated version of above is: I feel I made some good folds, wasn’t aggressive enough, and I still have a lot to learn (and I can’t type)
In summary…great event…met awesome people, 888pl are winners, my D/T ring is bling

and congrats to Sanchez and James.
