and BUSTO was his name oh...

B - U - S.T.O.

B - U - S.T.O.

B -U - S.T.O. and BUSTO was his name oh.

make sure you sing it to the tune of the song for dramatic effect...

So kat runs into the dreaded set over set when her set of eights is bested by a set of nines, and just like an old man kicking the bucket just months after his wife.... I too see an end to my main event just minutes after KAt's departure. I was on the wrong end of QQ vs AA in a spot where the $$ has to go in, given the table dynamic and the size of my stack....

So after a little disappointment we reminded ourselves that this is not the end of the world and both of us satellited in for less than $400 a pop. ( Well, i guess i played a few more... but who's counting? )

Regardless we had a great time and got to experience something that we didn't think we ever would. The bags are packed and we plan on leaving early in the morning.

Thanks to all of the text message support and those of you who read this blog deal, we both truly appreciate it..

NEXT TIME,

CA_GROWN and KATJ99

We play in 1 hour and are feeling good about things while keeping in mind that poker is a cruel game and anything can happen....

But with the things we can control, like good nights sleep and good diet, we are all over it. We went shopping yesterday and picked up fresh fruit, sandwich stuff, and bottled water. So after getting to bed early we woke up and had some fresh fruit and let our brains wake up...

So here is too taking ATLEAST 100k to day 3.........

CHEERS.... GL US

CA_GROWN and KATJ99

So with both of us on to day 2 we decided to transfer from the flamingo over to the RIO for which could be (hopefully!) another 6 days...

SINCE day 2 isn't until WEdnesday we had 3 days to do as we pleased and decided that a few non-poker activities would be a nice break from the 14 hours of action on Saturday.

So we grabbed the truck from VALEt and set out to get a nice dinner yesterday which we would follow with a little miniture golf at a place called KINGputt which I found on the internet. After a lovely dinner at outback steakhouse we set off to find this little indoor putt-putt joint. A little small and dark but we had fun nonetheless. WE truely enjoy hanging out with each other very much so we took some funny photos with all the golf obstacles and statues and focused more on fun than our putting skillZ. That said I was dead on with my putting anyhow and probably 2 putt 12 of the 18 holes.

Afterwards we went over to the RIO to sweat a friend in the main event and ended up booking a show through the concierge. We took his recommendation and booked a 9:30 showing of LE REVE at the WYNN. A cirque de soleil type show except this one is done over a pool of water with stages that rise and sink depending on the scene. A Bunch of acrobatics and such (dropping 180 feet off a prop into the water!). Like most of these shows, very hard to describe except to say AMAZING! The 50+ men and women in this show had a combined body fat of somewhere near what I am at today. And these guys were standing on each others heads, holding a 250lb man on one arm, etc., overall just incredible and definetly worth the $300 price of 2 tickets.

kat and I remind each other that these pricey shows are a good spend when we make one of our few trips to the pit and see how little intertainment we get for our dollar over there. We stopped for 5 minutes...... MAYBE 6 minutes at a blackjack table and plopped down $100 apeice. At the $15 minimum we planned on playing for atleast half and hour or so. The blackjack gods and the Third baseman at the table had other plans. When 3rd hit his 16 vs the dealers 4 and took the bust card the very hand after screwing us with his 13 vs 3 hit we were scooped for the last of our blackjack budget. "Thanks for the $200, you should have $1.44 in free comps on that REwards card!"

NOt a huge deal, just another reminder that pit games are not for us.... Rather have a guy pay you off for $80 on the river with ACE high like Kat had playing a little 2/5 at the RIO today. As this guy waited for the PL omaha game he was really there to play, he raised every pot and tried very hard to give away $$ to anyone willing to play a pot with him.

This was going on as I played the $500 casino employee event. (Kat decided not to play because she would prefer to rest than play a tourney with such a fast structure).
A short recap of that lovely event here......

(25-50 blinds) Guy open to 225 and i think that bet means GOOT hand , so when I look down at AA I make it 825. Without much hesitation he calls and checks an
8 7 4 flop. With 1725 in the pot and under 2000 in my stack I figured a shove was in order. He pondered for a bit before folding QQ....blah! 90% of this WEAK field will STACK with this hand.. But oh well, I think i got good value preflop. (Why in the world does he call 600 more preflop with only 2000 behind if he plans on check folding to me?)

(25-50 blinds) limp, limp, I limp with 33, limp, limp, young gun pops to 250, 4 of us see a 3 8 Q flop , ALL spades. I lead for 400 hoping for an overpair to pop it. the player to my left (very staightforward player) raises to 1000 (obviously flopped flush). Original raiser calls, another player coldcalls 1000 and I put in 600 more into over 5k pot.
TURN, 2 of SPADES. check, check, check, check
(PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZE pair the board dealer...................)

RIVER, 2 of hearts !! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

check, i bet 1500 of my 2000. flopped flush folds, original better puts his last 1400 in pot in record time ( i know before he turns it over) , THEN the dry Ace of spades shoves for 1875.

When the dust clears i have 950 from the side pot but lose the MONSTER 9.5k main pot to Queens full. ( Interesting side note is that I had 33 6 times in the main event and never flopped a set.... I guess I got my wish and finally flopped one! )

So i run the 950 up to 2100 with my MAD poker SKILLZ and expert short stack play before getting it all in at 100-200 with AJhearts vs ATspades. FLOP J 5 3 one spade, turn spade, you know the rest....... GOOD game sir,,,,,,

Kat and i went to the pool to relax and get some 114degree sun before returning to the room for a nap. Another lovely dinner and some video poker and another day in vegas has come to an end.

Tommorrow we plan to go find a laundrymat and get some healthy snacks (fruit, sandwich stuff) at a local grocery store. (WE have a fridge now at RIo!)....

So, goodnight and god bless,

CA_GROWN and KATRINAJ99

FIRST and FOREMOST....

I once heard the TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE...

AS hard as it is to do as a poker player, sometimes you have to look yourself in the mirror and say, "MATT, your an idiot, and you played like one today!"

1 small example..... blinds 100-200 I open for 550 with KK, alabama "call every hand" called, then in less than 1.24 seconds, 22year old internet pro makes it 2075. I have seen enough of these young guns to know that this can be a little pstars squeezer.... but he has played fairly nitty and did it SOOOOO fast that I had to immediately assume a range of QQ-AA. Given I had kings I assumed AA or QQ as most likely holdings. A structure such as the MainEvent allows for plenty of play and given the fact that I deem myself +EV vs the field {laymans terms= better than most}... I flat call in order to win more from QQ... (a ReRaise would usually garner a fold) BUT LOSE LESS to AA...

FAST FORWARD TO THE FLOP.....(its heads up, alabama folded, so pot is roughly 4900)
Q 7 4..... worst case for me.... Im still behind AA and QQ just pulled way ahead.....
SOOOOOOOOO i check fold to 3200 chip bet ( i had 16k after pf call).
I WISH I woulda took more time on the flop.
I THINK i should have considered 4betting PreFlop with the intention of folding to a shove. ( I could have made it 5500 and still had almost 13k behind if i decided to fold)
I HOPED to fold and have him show me AA for an excellent laydown.

He kindly showed me JJ. I was too embarrased to show....

So to make a long story short, after an A+ performance in the Satellite that got me into the MAin Event in the first place I came in to the big show tired and sloppy and didn't make the most of the situations in which i was involved. I would much rather have my ACES beaten by JT SOOTED than have to admit that I made some bad decisions. DESPITE all this I made a mini-comeback and won a few small pots to end the day with 27,200.

3 days of rest and relaxation and we will be back at the RIO for day2 on wednesday.

ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE.... the REAL poker player in the family had a good day 1 as she slowly and steadily chipped up to 45k in chips to end the night.
AS much as a hate to give up her many moves because I feel that she can run much more effective bluffs because of her gender, I HAVe to tell you about a LEVEL 1 hand.
SOME young aggro kiddo keeps RAISIN and a RAIsin until my little hurricane decides its time to slow this young punk down..... Here is the action....

PREFLOP... kid raises from late position to 350 (blinds 50-100)
MAMA aka katj99 aka "the hurricane" RE-RAISES to 1350....

FLOP (Q 7 3 w/ 2 clubs) .. mama bets 1900..

TURN ACE of clubs.... mama bets 3375....

kid hims and haws and makes the laydown.....
the whole table is certain that its a flush....
no... "its a set" chimes in a few....

I TOLD HER NEVER TO SHOW......

SHE tells them... "ONE TIME"....


and slowly tables Jack of spades, 2 of hearts......

AS the table collectively takes a deep breathe and silently thanked her for putting this kid in his place, she silently stacks her chips knowing that she will undoubtedly have the nuts the next time that situation arises.

Off to enjoy a day off with a little shopping and some good food. Maybe a show in the evening or even a late night ECO adventure.

THANKS TO ALL the friends and FAM that are rooting us on, this has been quite an experience and it's great to be able to share it with those who care.
SHOut out to all the limelighters who have pumped their fists for us, both the JUNKOVIC family and the GOUGE family, all friends , but mostly to our favorite animal friend, BOOGER.

A NOTE TO STIVI : get well soon BROTher , we know that your a strong fellow so I am assuring your sister that everything is going to be just fine. Hopefully we can make some Dough out here so that we can give you a 2 week paid vacation.

PEACE,

CA_GROWN and KATRINAJ99

OK.... I've made it to the world wide web!

This post will be short and sweet, firstly because we must be at the RIO in 30 minutes and secondly because i dont trust the flamingo SNAIL speed internet. It took me 45 minutes to get to the <post to your blog> section. No lie. 10:45am to 11:30am.

Back to the point. My lovely wife and poker wingman, katrina "the hurricane" gouge registered for DAY 1c (thats today) of the main event yesterday. Ever since she won the seat I have been extremely jealous and doing everything in my power (and my limited poker monies) to join her on pokers biggest stage.

SOOOOOOOOOOo yesterday i played a $550 superSAT at 4pm. flop 1 pair (i know its good)... bet 2/3 pot, call. turn 2 pair...bet 2/3 pot {represents 55% of the donksters total chips---- BUT he has a 7 high flush DRAW... river SPADE. CHECK, check.... i say NICE flush BEFORE he turns it over. Nice hand... short stacked and all in on Q high flop with AQ vs AK. [flop QJ6], turn 4, river 10....thanks for playing.

So I go see my wife in the $$ game and ask her what she wants to do for the 4th. She looks at me with the "4th of july is just another poker session type day" and I know it is destiny.

i register for the 6pm SUPerSAT ($330 buy-in/ SUPER fast structure) and because of the holiday we are only playing for 4 seats. (154 entrants/ 4 seats, 5th = $4000).
TO make a long story short, the field was extremely short and 90% of the players played very wrong in many situations. After winning a pot of 80k in chips with 18 players left and 300k in play it was a smooth sailing......

SO DADDY is playing with his girl after all......

Oh ****, its 11:43 and we need to get to the RIO....

TAKE CARE,

CA_GROWN and KATRINAJ99

THIS IS OFFICIALLY my first blog in what I plan on being a series of blogs to come. I have been telling myself to do the damn thing but like most things i plan on doing it just doesn't happen.

I really want to post a trip report for the WSOP ME ,which will be played by my lovely wife. If nothing else it will be a nice little journal for us to remember her first Main Event.
YES, she won a seat in the cardroom we both work at and I have bricked about $500-$600 worth of online superSAT's ! So its a couple ceasars tournies and the $500 employee event for me. maybe next year

So we are both pretty excited about the trip. We are going to make it a roady. It's about 550 miles each way from SacTown to vegas.

She won the seat last sunday in a $550 event that our little local 7 table casino holds each year. We run $65 SNG's which gain you entry into the $550 SAT which she won on the 22nd. We only got 45 players for the final so it was the ME seat and $2500 to the winner and 2nd-5th got $5k, $2.5k, $1.5k, and $1K respectivley. She played pretty flawlessly and was definetly my pick to win at the final table, not just because i married the woman but I think her experience was probably somewhere around double that of the other 9 combined. (In terms of hands played, tournament strategy and so on from the online and live tournies we both have played, she had a clear edge.)
She made a couple brilliant laydowns and also PWNEd a couple of the weak little fishies and slyly showed myself and the rail her 62o after the SUPerdonk check folded the flop with half his stack invested. LOL.
So when it was down to 4 players the other fellow with all the chips approached her on break and asked her if they got heads up would she give him the seat and she could take all the $$ from the top 2 spots = $7500. Although we need the $$ after the wedding, honeymoon, and many house projects, she politely declined knowing that she could PWN them all and would love the opportunity to play her first ME.
It was obvious that the 2 short stacks wanted to move up in money, (niether played very well and WAY too passively short handed) so like the little hurricane she is she pounded them both and chipped up so that when they got heads up they were fairly close in chips. 100k to her 80k...
To make a long story short she knew that she could outplay this fellow post flop so she called 80% of his raises (which were always close to min-raises) and took pots where he missed and valueTOwned him when she connected. A bit frustrated from being outplayed by a girl, she PWned him into getting it all in on a flop where he was a needin a Lunner Lunner to survive. The turn bricked , which meant he was a drawin dead....and it WAS VIVA......LAS VEGAS for the NEWLEYWEDS. {married 05/24/08}
I watched the whole final table and drank beers with her uncle. Most were rooting for the hometown hero so it was VERY exciting when she won it. Last October i watched her win a tournament in Reno at the POT of GOLD and I must say it is PRObably more rewarding than winning one yourself. I put some thought into what its like to watch someone you care about succeed and I realized that I was like a proud papa who just watched his son hit a homerun at his little league game. It's fun to hit a dinger in a softball beer league but to sit in the stands and watch someone who you have been with through all the strikeouts hit one in the stands.... THats magic baby...

SO we are off to vegas on THURSday and I hope to be able to provide a LONG trip report that will extend into NOVEMBER.
For all the times I had to hear the regulars at the cardclub telling me that my girl plays better than me, its ok guys, Im proud of little mama, and she might just retire me at age 27...

IF you got this far, thanks for listening.....

CA_GROWN