DAY 4

I wake up at 2 PM and feel pretty well. I make the 5 minute walk to the poker pit and there's an open seat at 2/5 so I can get right into the action. I recognize the guy in seat 1, a good young asian kid who makes a living at 200NL online and another asian kid in seat 7 who looked okay but I felt like something was wrong with his game. I just didn't have time to figure out what exactly.

The first hand I play i open 22 to 20 in MP and get called by the SB, who had been playing every hand since I sat there. The flop came down 966 and he donks 15 into me. I know I should fold but put him on 2 random cards and make the call. The turn brings the T and he donks another 15. I apply the asian handreading concept (put them on a hand you can beat and call) and decide he has A5 and call. The river brings a J and he checks. I check back and he flips over 93o. I played that hand like a pro.

Around 5 PM I leave the table for dinner and take a seat in the Rainforest Cafe. It was a bar/restaurant that was built as a rainforest, with plastic wild animals and lots of trees/waterfalls/etc. It was pretty neat and original but they let the elephants and jaguars roar for about a minute every 15 minutes, which got annoying pretty quickly. I had a rainforest burger with fries, and the burger was really good. The fries were kinda meh, but I wasn't hungry after the burger anymore so it didn't really matter.

When I got back, a loud and aggressive black guy had replaced seat 2 with about 400 in chips. Despite the fact he was aggressive and stealing a lot of small pots with overbets, it was obvious to me that he knew what he was doing. He only continued with good hands and gave up when people were playing back at him. His image paid him off as people were calling down lightly against him and he worked up his stack to about 800.

I finally find AK in MP and raise the limping black guy to 25. I had been getting really crappy hands so my image was tight, and the guy on my left mentioned: this guy plays barely any hands but when he does he always makes it so big. The black guy says something like: yea he must have a good hand. The flop comes down QK5r and he checks, to which I bet 35. Black guy makes a huge raise to 175 and I'm really confused what to do. I take my time to think about it, when the weirdest thing ever happens: black guys reveals the K and says: if you got AK you're good. We are about 700 dollar deep at this point.

I go into the tank and try to find out what he's doing. I knew he was somewhat decent so I just though it was unlikely he'd raise a hand like KJ/KT here. Even if he did, he'd do it to get value from a hand like AQ, so showing a K would be pretty retarded in that case. I let it go and feel pretty good about my decision. Asian kid in seat 1 asks if I had aces and I just tell him I folded AK since my hand was really face up at this point. I ask him what he would've done and he says he would shove it, but I don't believe him and think he's just trying to talk me into wrong plays. Black guy doesn't show his hand and is pretty quiet while raking in the pot, which for me is a confirmation he just had it there.

Later on I get 99 and with the straddle out there I bump it up to 35. I get 2 callers and we see a flop of JT9. I cbet 85 and the guy on my left raises it up to 200. I'm not thrilled about it but I can't really fold for 100BB so I stick it in and he flips over 78o. I brick and I'm down 700 at this point.

I rebuy for 800 and get dealt KK on the button. By now the black guy has moved in the seat 2 on my left since he wanted to sit in front of the dealer. It gets folded around to me (which is really rare in live poker) and I make it 20 to go. Only the black guy in the BB calls and we see a 763 flop. I bet 35 and he raises me to 100. I think about it for a bit and make it 300. He shoves his stack in and I call, and he flips over AJ. The turn brings a 2 and I'm 1 card away from being back in the black but the river brings the nasty Q and I'm left with no chips.

Down about 1500 I rebuy another 500 and request a seat change to the left of the black guy. However he decides to leave and we're 6 handed. I raise AK and AQ but am up against JJ and 99 both times and lose another 100 in total. Down 1609 for the day I rack up and leave, a little disappointed but you can't win them all.

I grab a taxi to the RIO to register for the 1k event on Thursday. Upon arrival I realise I forgot to take extra money, but I had about 1100 with me so I could pay for the event. I didn't have enough money to play cashgames though, so I was pondering wether I would ATM some money or just get back to the MGM. I decided it was a good time to try out my new NETeller card and pinned 400 to play some 1/3.

After about 10 minutes of watching people fail at slots I got a seat. The table was really weak and I was ready to make up for some of my losses that day. I overlimp 67 OTB and see an A65 flop 6way. The woman in the BB donks 10 and after 1 more caller I decide to call as well. The turn brings a 6 and she donks 10 again. The other guy folds and I raise it up to 60. She immediately releases.

A couple hands later I raise QJ to 10 in LP and get 3 callers. Flop came down AK5 and after it gets checked to me I fire 30. Only 1 guy calls and we see a K turn. It goes check/check and we see a T on the river. He bets out 40 and after thinking for a while I put him allin (he had like 85 more). He shows an A and folds.

I raise a couple more hands and I'm pretty active. With a stack of 400 I open to 15 with AA in LP after 3 limpers. I get 2 callers and we see a 763 flop. I cbet 40 and the guy on my right, an older asian, raises me to 140. I stick it in for about 200 more and he asks for a count. While the dealer is counting out my chips he is counting his own, and I'm relieved that he doesn't have a set or a flopped straight. Eventually he makes the call and flips over 77 for top set. I look at him and ask why he didn't call immediately when I hear the table go "ooooh" and see the A on the turn. All I can think of is: justice. He says he's sorry and didn't really realise he was slowrolling.

It's funny how things go, because he was actually a really nice and genuine guy and after that hand we just started chatting and joking around for the rest of the night. It was the first time I actually had a nice and long conversation with someone, and it was funny that it was with the guy that (unintentionally) slowrolled me.

I didn't play many hands after that when I overlimp 78o OTB out of sheer boredom. We see a 4way flop of QJ8 and after it gets checked to me I throw in 10. Only the SB, who was really short, makes the call. I'm ready to give up the hand but the turn brings a 7 and after he checks I bet 35. He shoves allin for 60 more and I make the call. I saw him get allin earlier on a KQ56 board and muck his hand against K8 so I knew he was doing it light. However this time he had 9T for the flopped straight and I lose the pot.

The last significant hand was one of the craziest hands of my poker carreer. I open 88 in LP to 10, and get called by the BTN, the BB and the UTG limper. The flop comes down 997 and I cbet 20. The woman OTB, who was pretty terrible from what I've seen, minraises me to 40. It gets folded to me and I make the call. The turn brings a J and I check/call her very small bet of 30. I'm not really thrilled but she was just playing weird and she didn't seem really convinced. The river brings another J to counterfeit my 2p and I check, to which she again fires 30. I decide to get fancy and take a stab at this pot by raising it up to 80. She calls after pondering for a while and I know I'm toast. However she flips over 78 for 3pair and I'm like wtf are you doing. I ask her if she knows the rules but she just stares at the table. Everyone is frowning as the dealer is splitting the pot. The thing that really bothered me is that she didn't say anything. She didn't go like: "oh damn, I misread my hand". She just sits there like she's the best player in the whole universe and I hope she donks her stack to me soon.

A couple hands later she shows how clueless she really is by minraising a cbet with 88 on a KQ9 and calling off the shove for about 200.

Around 1:30 I rack up a 390 dollar winner and get a cab back to the MGM.

Day 4: -1219