Just passed Mesquite driving home and I'm bored and Jason won't let me sleep so I'm blogging. Yesterday, the entire group played the morning Sahara tournament. Its funny because at a point a table had Jason, Rich, Scott, Eric L, and Gary. Might as well have been Bob's basement. I was able to control my table early as I had two sweet ladies sitting to my left that didn't mind sharing their blinds. I chipped up early with little confrontation. After the first break I was table chip leader/captain and was fortunate enough to run AA into KK against 2nd chips. I avoided danger for the most part. As final table bubble was nearing, I was ave stack. At this point there is a lot of push poker going on. With 11 left, I had to make a hero call on a 2 8 J board holding 8 9 when I was check raised on the flop. It was for my tourney life. I put him on complete air called to knock him
out and made final table. Jason was the only other person to make final table out of the group. He finished 9th basically winning his money back. I went on and chopped it 4 ways.

I didn't play any poker after that. We went to the Steve Wyrick magic show at Planet Hollywood and ate at cheeseburger paradise. We spent the rest of the time gambling and drinking. I don't think we got to bed until 5am after we dropped off Rich at the airport. Side noted: Rich is a CAP paigow poker player. I think the only still in Vegas is John A who was entering another WSOP event. Hope you are doing well buddy!

Overall it was a great time. If anyone wants to join me ill be doing this again in 3 weeks. Only disappoint was I didn't make it to the Rhino. I had to settle for the PCD lounge at Caesars. Katie, next time you have no choice . If somehow Jason's uncle reads this, I wanted to say thanks again for your generosity and hospitality. You and Janet are awesome! Until the next adventures of TK, may all your stacks be mine and see you on the felt!

TK

Jason wound up finishing 13th in his caesars run. It was a good run but always disappointed when you don't finish first. He wanted to make it rain at the spearmint rhino! Rich was able to make it past dinner break but not much further than that. The three of us didn't play much poker after that. I hung out in the pit solo for a while until jason and rich met up with me later that night. The 3 of us proceeded to go downtown. As we walked through binions, there wasn't a single cash table going. Kinda odd. We played the pit over at las vegas club and was shortly joined by bob who was knocked out of harrahs nightly. The 4 of us had a great time gambling and drinking. It baffles me that crazy "all in" bob is the most conservative blackjack player EVER.

Anyhow, were going to hit the Saharas morning tourney at 11am. None of us have any plans of hitting an all day tourney. Jasons uncle got tickets to a magic show tonight so we'll be doing that.

Thanks for reading!

So I played in the last chance tourney at caesars last night and found myself all in on the bubble with AK and the big stack announces 'I shouldn't call" and calls me with AJ and that was the end of that tourney as soon as he flopped a jack. I woke up today with a cold so I have stayed in the room most of the day. From what I hear bob and gary hit the ho tourney at binnions with not much luck and now everyone has migrated to harrahs. I haven't heard how jason finish at caesers but I'm sure it was good. I will update when I hear more

Stayed patient and finally pick up kings only to run into aces! Suck me sideways...

QQ lost to set of sixes. Down to 12k but continue to battle. Rich has about 13k.

Decided to play caesars deep stack. 157 entries 18k starting sitting with 33k first break. Had to be a hero and pick off a bluff. Rich is also playing has 13k but no danger this early.

Stimulus Event
From the meetup group, I want to say only Nate D is left. I didn't hear any news on his wife but everybody else is out. I was bounced in level 8. When I look back on it, I don't even know how I lasted that long since my stack was never above 7K. Coming back from dinner break, blinds started at 150/300 25 ante and I had 1800. I kept floating around 2K - 5K for the next 1 1/2 hrs but just couldn't get it jumpstarted. Dissappointed? Sure, always sucks to get knocked out. But I had fun and I played well. Never had to "get lucky." I did have to dodge some bullets here and there. If you can believe this, I had Bruce's reputation at the table .

Caesar's Deep Stack
With the stimulus sold out, Jason O decided to play at Caesars. However, as it turned out, the event wasn't actually sold out as they were looking for more players 10 minutes into day 1B but thats a whole different story. As it turns out, it was a good move for Jason anyway. Theres currently 16 people left out of 300+ and he sitting with an average stack. He's already in the money and returns today at 2pm to make a run at it! Go get em!

When we left the group last night after Jason's tourney, Eric L was making a money bubble run in their 2nd chance tournament. I'm sure he'll update once they wake up.

Today's plan
I've been considering entering Venetians or Caesars $500 event today. I'm just not sure I have the energy commitment for it. Its either that or I'll play cash all day. Rich wants to do Binions PLO/PL holdem. I haven't touched base with the other fellas to see what they are up to. Side note: Crazy Bob Kellie poker player is the most conservative blackjack player EVER! I also LOVE the pussycat lounge pit at Caesars. Time to go shit, shower, and shave!

See you at the felt!

TK

Was a little preoccupied with the toc game going on so I haven't paid much attention to the other action. At the dinner break we had a bunch of action. Scott went bust with a set when the rivet made the flush. Gary went bust with set over set. Tk was knocked hard with his last hand and took gim down to 1800. After the break tk has made a small climb and is at 6k or so.

Took a big hit on the last hand. JJ vs 44 vs AA. Still in but only have 6 bb. Been completely card dead since last break.

6100. Grindin away. Hands are finally holdin up. Just need to stay patient. Good feel for the table.

Gary doubled up, had aroun 6k. Bob is staying around 3k. Tk has doubled to around 7k and scott looks the same at 6k

I guess I should have paid closer attention to the books when it said stay away from the calling station aq vs 72 off (ya shua we all know its the nuts). Anyway that's my series live down the toilet. On a positive note, scott knocked out michael mizrachi (the grinder) with a set of aces. Everyone else is doing well

2500. Finally hit a set but lost to a flush. Took an early hit.

Getting ready to eat some grub before the big event. I will be at amazon blue table 25 seat 4. Congrats to John for his run/cash at the venetian and to nate for making day 2.

I had an uneventful Sat. Rolled some craps at Casino Royale with Rich and Jason and lost. We then strolled to Harrahs and sat 1/2 NL. I bought in for 300 and this is how bad I play. I call a raise on the button with Ad6d. Four to the flop of A A 5 rainbow. Everybody checks. Turn Q. Original raiser bets 10, mp raises to 30, and I elect to just call. Raiser goes AI for 90 more and mp reluctantly folds. I say "so its going to cost me $90 for you to show me a boat." "I call" and he tables QQ. Weird. Somehow I won the miracle hand when the river came a 6. Don't worry the poker gods proceeded to punish me the rest of the night as I missed every draw, including an open ended straight flush draw (35 outs or so according to Rich). Ended that game down about 100 before heading to dinner. We were gonna go rail John again but then I got the text he was knocked out. Still an AWESOME
run!

After dinner we cruised to the Rio. I entered a sng and finished 4th. Jason wound up chopping one. That pretty much sums up my night. Good luck everyone today!

TK

After 1 and a half days on the felt John finished in 7th place. His final hand was aj diamond preflop vs aq spades. Flop was 9 8 2 turn 10 and the river is a jack to pair up John but gave his opponent the straight. He left the table with the respect from everyone on the table and from all of us rooting him on. Hope to see much more finishes like this one on this trip.

John just made fin table a few minutes after we showed up. Average stack 750,000 john has 370k but we know he can play short

Almost all of us ate starting on day 2 so there isn't a lot to brag about right now but I just dropped into the Rio, finalized my registration and checked in on the action. The film crews are packed around the feature table and so are the crowds. I got as close as I could and the only face I could see was Greg Raymer. I didn't stick around long enough to check stacks and such as we are on our way to cheer on John A. who has a 1 in 14 chance at first in the venitian deepstack. Way to go john!

I will blog much much more tomorrow.

I'm sitting in the car as we speak, on our way! The worst part is always the drive there. I haven't heard much from the others except John A is making a deep run at the Venetian. 700 entrants 34 left and they resume at 4 today. We should make it in time to give him some support. Go get em buddy!

I'm not sure what our plan is tonight. Probably catch some dinner with everybody and play cash somewhere. I don't want to be up too late so I can be sharp tomorrow. I know Nate D is running today so good luck to ya!

TK

First, I wanted to wish everyone playing in the event the best of luck and good fortunes on anything else while you're down in Vegas! I hope you win tons of money!

I am sitting here in my office at work, bored, and I just want to hit the road and go to Las Vegas. Anxious? Yes! Nervous? No. I'll admit, I was nervous last year, playing in my first ever WSOP event. I can't even say I shook those nerves since I lasted less than an hour, played maybe 4 hands TOTAL before getting eliminated when KK ran into AK. For whatever reason, that compounded my week long trip into probably the worst run I EVER had. By the end of the trip, my confidence was shaken and pretty much expected to lose. (Yup, I sound like Bruce.) I'm not one to whine about bad beats but it got pretty ridiculous. However, the positive I took from it was that I made pretty deep runs in some of the tourneys I played and made the right decisions when it came down to it. Maybe it wasn't my time yet...

Fast forward to today and the main "theme" is redemption. Honestly, it can't be any worse than last year. I do my best when there is doubt so I've embedded into my brain that its impossible. What's impossible you may ask? I have no clue. I don't have any goals or expectations. It sounds cliche but take it one step at a time, can't win the tournament in the first hour or the first day. Bottom line, its just poker. Just like any other day at Bob's. I'm ready. Is the world ready for me?

Again, good luck to everybody in all your endeavors. See you at the Rhino Saturday night!

TK

I have to be honest when I closed the car door I had a big grin on my face. I've been anticipating this trip for a while now. So in response to the thread on the message board I thought I would give a little pregame warm up. I have been running hands through my head for the last 2 weeks. From AA preflop to the double gut shot 5 to 1 call but who knows what will happen until game day.

we are on our way to vegas now and from the conversation in the car we are all optimistic. Gary has promised dinner at some 5 star joint if he makes the final and scott is talking about sky diving (go figure the hyper-agressive guy wants to jump out of a plane).

The word around the campfire is Caesars tourney tonight and possibly the venetian deep stack tomorrow. Let the prop bets begin!

I have had some interest from friends that want me to send updates from the series. I set this page up so that everyone in the group can follow the excitement and everyone going will have a place to post game updates, picture, celebrity encounters, bad beat stories and so on. If you are going and want to be an author on this page send me an email and I will set you up. Also, I will respect everyone's privacy and only post on my play unless otherwise asked.

Good luck to everyone going!