So I'm finally here in crazy town, and am settling into my condo for the next 6 weeks. I got here 5 days ago and it's been pretty mental already. The first night was spent fighting with my bank on the phone who had blocked my card and wouldn't (and still won't!) let it work at the casino cage to withdraw any money! However, the crisis was averted and I managed to buy-in for the sell out $1500 NLH on the Sunday.

The night before I met up with some of the UB guys including Debo and Shawn Rice to go see Sully Erna play his solo show at the Hard Rock. It truly rocked and much fun was had by all, although it all went a bit wrong when we ended up at Imperial Palace in a sleazy karaoke bar and Debo made me sing Skid Row's 18 and life (impossibly hard to sing, especially if you suck at singing like me). Anyway, everyone seemed suitably amused by it and I bundled home to bed at a relatively respectable hour to ensure 8 hours sleep before the tournament the next day.

As I got to the tourney I was pretty nervous as this was my first ever bracelet event. Things got off to a slow start with me going down to about 1200 in chips at one point, but after three hours it all went right and before I knew it I had one of the big stacks with 26k. It was a fun table too as I had Clonie Gowen (who I've known for a while) and the aforementioned Godsmack frontman Sully Erna to my left, so it was banter-ific.

Then it all went to s***. I was dealt 99s in early position, and made it 3x BB to 1800. Everyone folds except the SB and BB who both call. The flop comes q-j-9 with 2 diamonds, and the SB pushes all in for 7k. The BB, who has been a complete maniac, flat calls. I therefore went over the top for my whole 26k to put him all in (and he still had a lot behind) as I put him on a flush draw. My read was totally correct, for the maniac CALLS with, wait for it... 7-4 diamonds. Of course, his "play" was rewarded by a diamond on the turn to leave me utterly crippled and out shortly after. What gutted me even more was that if he hadn't sucked out was that I would've been one of the top 5 chipleaders at that point with 60k! Arghhhh.

Still, onward and upwards eh?

posted by Liv Boeree Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 4:07 PM