One of the better Poker Rooms in Vegas is most certainly the one at the Venetian.  We try and play at least one tournament on most trips out.  This go around was no different, so we get up on Sunday and head over to the Venetian for the tournament @ noon that essentially costs $150 ($135+$15 and then a $5 staff bonus).

This is a well run tournament that had 136 people playing, which made for a nice payout structure of the top 18 paying out.   Throw in the fact that it was Championship Sunday and the sports book is right next to the Poker Room, there was a lot of activity for a Sunday afternoon.

Lori and I both are playing so it potentially could be a long day, but you never know. The first couple of hours go by without any incident.  Lori cannot get anything going and gets bumped out after the break on a terrible suck out.  Basically she was dominating this guy and he can only be saved by a 3 on the river.  Of course he gets it for his straight, and yes it was an inside draw, and it turns out the case 3 as well.  What a kick in the head.

I am having a little better luck as I have been slowly building my bank roll knocking off players at my table one by one.  I actually was doing really well at the 5 hour mark as I take out this guy with a 10-7 of diamonds.  I am two + the gun and I limp in, mainly because I just had won a big pot and people generally play loose after a big win, and I was hoping that people would assume that of me, because I have been showing monsters all tournament.  Everyone folds to the cutoff, he limps in, and the blinds both call.  The flop is 10-7-5.  It’s checked to me and I check it through and the cut off bets.  Fold, Fold, and I just call.  The next card is 7 of hearts and I just check and he checks right behind me.  The river comes and it’s a 6 clubs.  I make a mild bet at this pot that has some action in it, but not a whole lot and he raises me.  I am thinking for a second that he could have 10-10 in the hole.  I mean am I that unlucky?  Have I made a bad read or something?  I just don’t buy it and I put him all in.  He calls with a quickness and flips over 66 for a smaller boat than mine.  Just a punch in the gut.  I haven’t done someone that dirty in a long while.

The tourney grinds on and in the sixth hour I go card dead.  This is unfortunate because the blinds are outrageous 1500/3000 with a 500 ante.  I get dwindled down to 10k in the Big Blind and I have to go all in to the raise on my left.  I have Q6 off and he flips over QQ.  Awesome.  You just want to have one over in this situation and he has me just dominated in every way.  So the flop comes out with 3 hearts and I look down to see the Q of hearts in my hand.  Man, wouldn’t be something to get that fourth heart and survive this?  Make this 6+ hours of play worth something and hang around for just one more rush.  Well no heart came and I got busted out at 20.  Did I mention that the payouts started at 18?