Sunday, June 10, 2007

WSOP Day 9: Vinnie Vinh Alive and Mrs. Spaceman Takes Down Blogger Title

By Pauly

Here's what happened on Day 9 of the WSOP.... um, I have no clue because I was given a rare day off and didn't step foot on the floor of the Amazon Ballroom. After logging 100+ hours in the first eight days, I requested a few hours off to play in a private tournament at the Orleans and got the full day off. How did I spend it? Getting shitfaced drunk and losing a ton of money.

I discovered that Vinnie Vinh is alive (and not well). Alas, he's alive and I hope he finds some inner peace away from the tables. And speaking of poker, in the longest event so far at the series, Greg Raymer and Barry Greenstein both made the same final table in the Event #14 $1,500 Stud. Neither of them won a bracelet, but the appearance of two Team PokerStars members at the final table meant that Otis had a late night covering them on PokerStars Blog.

There's a poker bloggers gathering in town. I've been working and did not have any time to partake in the festivities aside from the private tournament at The Orleans. In the past, these events have peaked around 100+ players. There were around 45 or so at this event. I dunno what accounted for the drop off in attendance. I know a few bloggers like Mean Gene, Otis, Michalski, and Change100 were working at the Rio but aside from them, the usual cast of characters decided to sit this one out. I think that made me one of the only people (aside from Linda and possibly Grubby) to have played in all six blogger events.

Thanks to Falstaff for setting up the weekend and thanks to Sloshr for setting up the tournament. Sadly, we were treated like crap by the Orleans and specifically their tournament director. That's not a reflection of the hard work by Sloshr and Falstaff, it's a reflection of the jackoff running the tournament. I won't mention his name but I probably should, so everyone can know about his lack of customer service. We spent a lot of money in their casino and we should have been treated with more respect. For a powerful group of people in the poker industry (with disposable income to burn) you figured that they would have given us a better tournament structure or been less surly to us. Especially since a slew of people playing in the event were staying at The Orleans. I got the general feeling that they didn't want us there and wanted us out as quickly as possible. I will add their poker room to a long list of places in Las Vegas that I boycott. They fucked the monkey on that instance.

Sam's Town gave us plenty of special attention during the first event and Caesar's Palace gave us an amazing structure (although them dicking us around last December telling us it was on, then canceled, then back on all within 48 hours of the event is something I'm never forget and totally typical of a Harrah's property).

But it was the Imperial Palace, yes the I-fuckin-P, that treated us like gods. Gods. We were given a ballroom with an open bar and they were totally happy to have us there donking around in the poker room, in the pits, and drinking at all of their bars. I suggest whoever draws the short straw as the December's organizer work out a deal with the IP since out of all six events, that was probably the best run tournament and we were treated with tons of respect and did I forget to mention... open bar?

I caught lunch with Spaceman and Mrs. Spaceman then I got shitfaced before the tournament started. Since it was my day off, I drank steadily from about 1:30pm over the next ten hours. I met bloggers that I never met before like MeanHappyGuy, Astin, Lanaj, and Iron Girl. I taunted Waffles to no end and caught up with old friends such as StB, Bad Blood, Blinders, Penner, Falstaff, Grubby and his lovely sister Grubette. I picked Table 22, seat 7.
My starting table:
Seat 1: Falstaff's friend
Seat 2: Lanaj
Seat 4: Columbo
Seat 5: Falstaff
Seat 6: Cracknaces
Seat 7: Your Hero
Seat 9: Zeem
Seat 10: BrianMc
I thought the tournament was a rebuy and I lost a lot of money on the first two hands I played. I flopped an ace with A-J and Lanaj rivered two pair on me with Qh-9h. She flopped second pair and a flush draw. After I donked off almost half my stack, Falstaff informed me that it was not a rebuy like the previous two blogger tournaments. I feared that I would bust out first and win Gigli! Thankfully Kram420 had his Aces cracked as he busted out first.


Mr. Gigli... Kram420

I tightened up until the blinds started shooting up which came around quickly. I doubled my stack by re-stealing against Columbo with 7-6o. When Iakaris, Hoy, and Smokee were moved to my table, Iak quickly tried to push everyone around. He raised in MP and I found A-Ko on the button. I moved all in and he folded. I wanted the call but was happy to take down two pots in a row which brought me back to even. I doubled up against Lanaj when my A-10 held up against A-5. I knocked her out shortly after when I flopped top pair with A-9.

That was the extent of my rush. It ended when I open-shoved with As-4s and BrianMc called with J-J. I turned a Wheel draw but could not improve my hand. I busted out like 20th or so.

Mrs. Spaceman and Grubbette made the final table and those two ended up playing heads-up after they busted Waffles in a three-way pot. Mrs. Spaceman played fearless. One player raised her big blind from the button. She pushed all in with 9h-6h. He called with Q-J and she flopped trips. That decisive hand allowed her to add to her stack to catch up to Grubette's monster stack.


F Train said that Grubette would never make the final table. I called him a cock and left a message on his voicemail.

After almost thirty minutes of heads-up play, Mrs. Spaceman won with 10c-8c and during her final table photo, I told her to put on her sunglasses and pull up the hoodie to go "Unabomber" on us.

I forgot who said this, but it's true... "The winner could not have been a nicer person."

Congrats to Mrs. Spaceman who took down $1K and became the sixth person to win a Las Vegas blogger title.


WPBT Summer Classic Champion: Mrs. Spaceman

We went to the Tilted Kilt to celebrate the victory so some of the bloggers who were working the WSOP (such as Otis, Michalski, Change100, and Mean Gene) or Big Pirate who played in a WSOP event could stop by and have a victory drink. We had a blast and ran up a massive tab at the Kilt as I got even drunker. We then stumbled over to Gold Coast, the forgotten casino where Otis ate Keno crayons.

We all sat at the same 2-4 Limit table and I donked off close to 4 buy-ins. I wanted to shove Grubette through a wall or stuff her in a trash can after all of her suckouts and bad beats that she unleashed on me. the worst was when she bluffed at a pot with 7-3o. I had nothing either, but my nothing, Q-7, was better than hers. I mucked on the river because there was a straight, flush, and overcards on the board. That's when I slid from mega-tilt to super-uber-nutty tilt. By then I was Albert Finney drunk and after Spaceman cracked my Queens, I threw my cards into the and splashed the pot with my remaining $8. No mas donkey poker for me.

Mrs. Spaceman almost got her purse stolen by a team who utilized the whole distract trick. Luckily she was wise enough not to fall for it.

By the way, no harming of Grubbette actually happened during the writing of this blog.

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Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

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