Steve Mqueen's last words. Or Marc Bolan's. Somebody's. I don't know , I'm making it up.
After the fun and games of actually getting here (cliff notes just to save you all 3 hours of reading, not a fun outbound trip, scheduling cock-ups, narrowly got flights, no rental cars at the office that is normally full of rental cars, etc), looks like we made it.
Barry Manilows last words.
I'd rather not smash headlong into an $1100 event as soon as I arrive,what with there being a ton of good events in town in the $150-$600 bracket, however the value (assuming you don't burn) in the Venetian's MSPT $2 million guaranteed isn't one to pass up. This is the third of the day ones, and chatting to a staff pal yesterday they were breaking tables every 10 minutes, indicating that some people thought it was an $11 event instead and played accordingly. I bought in the previous night and am playing in around an hour. Just off to grab myself a crash helmet.
An uneventful level one, bar watching one aggressive guy blow his brains out with the nut flush draw (A2) versus kings on a two spade 10 high flop. Every reason to get it all in first level right? (Cough). Maybe a crash helmet and extra padding then. Little seems to have changed in a year. People are still spazzing out if they see the winning post ten minutes after sitting down.
Level 2 at 75/150, and I'm on 15k starting stack just watching the mayhem. Most people seem obliged to see every single flop whether it's been raised or not. I guess poker really has evolved...
Looking at the clock currently 750 runners in today's 3rd flight and we lost 30 in the first hour. I'd estimate because of slow updating it is probably double that.
First break and I've run the 15k start stack up to 20k pretty comfortably. Just before the break I've folded the river to an all in shove with A8 when the flop is 88J, the guy calls 3k on the flop, the board then runs out with another Jack and he gives it a 3 minute dwell on the end then ships in 25k. I guess I'm still learning, let him have it.
I've seen a few ugly exits so far on the table, and a few people go from 15k up to 45k and back to nothing again. I'm pretty sure they're not wrapping this event up in the next few hours, so tempting as it is to just flick it in and have a spin I think I'll hang back a bit as folks seem to be happy to just blow themselves to bits.
From a not so comfortable 9k up to a 3k over average 26k. I punted a couple of hands on the button and cutoff and fired again on the flop, then found a nice spot with two overs and a flush draw against a shortish all-in who decided it was his time. Luckily for me, it wasn't his time by a country mile, as I hit the flush immediately and am once again in good shape as the screen says 720 left from 1133 with people still filing in.
400 alternates still coming in...