This is a guest entry from River Rat Josh

I am honoured and happy to add a guest entry to this poker journal. It is a rare occasion that I actually play in my own RiverRoom events, but I did tonight, this July 12, 2007. I actually enjoyed being seated with our poker arena’s most successful players. Names like Ottavio, Azim, Pizza Dan, Amin, our own Dean, and Brian B. A tight table of serious players to say the least.

The idea in this situation is to play very very smart. Behind the trash talk and banter, these guys play pretty straight up. No one will be bullied or bluffed, at least not early anyway. I was relatively card dead for the first blind round and did not see a flop. Table image is important, and not having played a hand makes your first raise a bit of a head turner. Now I have history with all of these guys, and everyone seems to want my chips in a hand cause they are extra “Juicy” for some reason. My continuing Nemesis in all big Tourneys in our community seems to be Ottavio. He can be described as a self proclaimed pro. He will talk up a storm at the table, but is one of the rare cases where his record backs it all up. He knows how to build huge chipstacks early with all sorts of loose play, all the while misleading players proclaiming ”only with the nuts boys!!”. None of us serious players fall for that crap and know he is a donkey chaser early on in any tournament. It is not a bad approach per say, as one can pick up many hands real cheap and build large stacks playing a little un-orthadox early on. The difference with Ottavio is that he yaps a lot and it makes you want to smash back with moves of your own.

SO….My tournament ends on my very first hand played, and very first raise….Table image meant nothing, as Ottavio already let the table know he was going to knock me out and send me spinning. I look down and catch AA in the cut off position. “BEAUTIFUL” there are several limpers and when I gets to me I put in a weak raise (considering my hand) and push it to 300 in a 50-100 situation. I get a call from Ottavio, and my friend Carmine. The flop comes K, Rag, Rag, with 2 Hearts. I make a reasonable, no!!! actually great “Continuation bet” and send 800 into the pot. Carmine folds, and Ottavio calls. The turn comes another card of no consequence other than that it is another heart. At this point I KNOW that Ottavio has caught his flush…..I am just BURNING inside because I know he called for his flush draw, and possibly had a straight draw…and I was now loosing. On the off chance I could be wrong, I took one last stab at the pot and bet half my stack left and pushed out 2500. Ottavio went all in over the top for my last 3K. I sat for a few minutes talking it out. I told him he was a donkey for chasing his flush against a pre-flop raiser and flop bet. But with my last 3K I did decide to call because after all I did have the board beat, and more importantly the NUT draw with the ACE OF HEARTS.

The river a useless card, and I am left BURNING. Nothing is worse than fulfilling someone else’s stupid prophecy.

A very short blog about last nights tournament. Limped in a few hands and missed and by the time we reached the second blind level (50/100) I was only left with 3375 out of the 5000 starting stack. I am in the small blind and I look down at QQ. UTG raises to 300, Pizza Dan calls as do I. I want to make money on the hand and I wanted to see the texture of the flop before I decided what I wanted to do. The UTG raiser was a new player and had only played one hand so far (KK). The flop came 369. I check with the intention of check raising and taking the hand down right there. UTG bets 1000, Pizza Dan calls and I push for my remaining 3075. UTG thinks for a minute and nearly folds, eventually he decides to call, my heart dropped because I knew Dan was on a flush draw and now he had odds to call. He calls too. Straight away on the turn the falls and UTG put Dan all in for his remaining 325. Sure enough Dan had KJ and I am drawing dead. I had the UTG raiser beat too, he had 10 10.

Arrived home today. All in all I really enjoyed Vegas, the sights, the sounds, the atmosphere. Way too many donkeys at this time of year though. You need to have luck on your side to advance in any tournament. People go crazy with WSOP fever and they play like maniacs to try and get chips to win seats for the main event in the sats. It hasn't put me off though. I will definitely go back next year to try again, but this time I will go for longer so I am not under any pressure to win a seat quickly.

Played another $500+$50 Super Sat at the Rio.

I was pretty card dead on the first table for about the first hour. My table broke and I was moved. I still had my original chip stack. First hand on the new table I get 77 the blinds are still 50/100 and I limp, along with six others, in late position. The flop comes 774. I flop quads! UTG bets 200, lady next to me calls and I call. 10 comes on the turn and puts another flush draw on the turn. UTG checks and the lady bets 800, I call and he folds. The river comes the 3 and the lady goes all in, I call and show quads and she turns over 5 6 offsuit for a straight.

A couple of hours later I won the blinds 3 hands in a row with 88, JJ and AA. 20 minutes later, I had 7500 in chips, the blinds were 300/600/100 and I have 88 in the cut off. I raise to 2000 and only the big blind calls. The flop came 3 4 5 rainbow and he checks. I go all in and he immediately calls. He shows K Q offsuit and I am confused. I am in great shape to double up. 7 on the turn gives me additional out for the straight although I don't really need them. 6 cards stand between me doubling up or busting........... King on the river and I leave the table dizzy!

Decided no to play any poker today. Hungover from going to Pure at Ceasers and getting completely wasted!