Chicagoland
So I’m late with the update… who gives a shit? I decided before this update I was going to try and write it with a different style just to change things up. But when my draft was about 80% done my laptop decided to freak out on me and it left me out shopping for a new one and scrapping my original update. Whats left… the cliff notes version of my week in Chicago.
Driving to Chicago
We started Late thanks to Shiva and his laundry failures, which meant no Lodden thinks because our remote player who was going to pick numbers for us was in bed. We ate at Arby’s! Took the wrong exit somewhere into Chicago thanks to his Garmin sucking ass. We did get to follow a drunk cop on the highway for a few miles which was entertaining. Arrive at 5am, get some rest.
Monday
Breakfast at the Binion’s Deli at the Horseshoe after registering for event 5 ($345 NLHE). Shiva busted shortly after the first break, while I made it 1/2 way through the day then busted when I check raise shoved AK on a Kxx board and got called by KQ, Q peeled and I head down to the main room to play cash games. Played 2/5 while waiting on 5/10. KK in the straddle, button raises to $30, I 3 bet to $90, he raises to $200, I ship in my stack and he called with his $400. He has QQ, Q is the door card. Then I get called to 5/10, reload for another 1k. Lost a buy in at 5/10 and called it a day down $1,845.
Tuesday
Head back to the card room. Shiva goes and plays the $555 6-max event while I go play cash games. Played 5/10 again. Bought in for 1k, had chipped up to $1700 when I flopped bottom set on a J95 board and got it all in with the one guy at the table who had me covered. He showed J9, and he turned a J for a $3400 dollar pot. I rebought for another 1k, and got it all in good again with AQ on a Axxx board on the turn to a guy with AJ, J binked the river and I was done for the day. Down another 2k.
Wednesday
The main reason I wanted to come out was to play this $555 HORSE event, and it started at 3:00. I showed up early and got in a 20/40 limit game that I played for 2 hours and beat for 1k before the tournament. In the tournament I had a pretty good table. There were two players I was keeping an eye on, the rest of the players didn’t impress me at all including the guy sporting a circuit event ring from Tunica the year before. At first break I was table chip leader with roughly 16k in chips. The first round of Stud after the break I took a pretty horrid beat for 2/3rds of my stack.
I was dealt rolled up Jacks, my opponent had a ten as a door card and one other player had already mucked a ten. I completed, he raised, I called. 4th street I caught a 7, he caught a ten. He bet, I raised, and we ended up capping 4th street. I filled up on 5th when another 7 hit, he caught a 3. We capped again. on 6th I caught a blank and he caught another small card. He bet, I raised, he called. My last down card was another baby card, and we get 5 bets in on the river putting him all in for his original 10k. I showed jacks full, he flipped over all three of his down cards and they were all queens for queens full of tens. Knocked me down to about a 5k stack, and from there I had trouble making hands and busted just before the dinner break. Pretty brutal hand.
Henry showed up during the HORSE event, so after I busted we left and went to the House of Pizza for dinner and drinks. After that we went back to the Horseshoe where I showed Henry how to make back to back quads on video poker and then he showed me how to blind call my hands in 3 card poker. First hand he was watching me play 3 card and the dealer flips over a flush, Henry says “It’s okay, you got a straight”. Sure enough the dealer flips my hand and there was 89T right in a row, and I was off and running. Played for about an hour and doubled my money and called it a night. Poker (+445) 3 card (+110), holy shit Batman… positive numbers!!!!
Thursday
Day off, Shiva and I took a day off from the grind and did hit downtown Chicago to hang out.
Friday
We had breakfast at IHOP, then went back to play. I sat in 5/10 waiting for a 20/40 seat. Went on a rush at 5/10 and made a quick $2700, then moved to 20/40 where I was playing with Dennis Phillips from last years November 9. He was a nice guy, but you could tell he wasn’t much of a limit player. After getting moved to the main game I gave a little of my profit back but still made enough I was just about even for the week.
Saturday
Shiva and I decided to take a shot at Event 12, the $555 NLHE full ring event. About 1/2 way through the day Shiva gets moved to my table, and we ended up playing most of the day at the same table. Even when our table broke we got moved together, which was kind of annoying since we had a piece of each others action. At one point I built my stack up to 55k, and was cruising right along. Then I played a pair of 9’s really poorly and never got my momentum back after that. I ended up busting after 12 hours when I 3-bet shoved with 44 and got called by AJ. KQ flop, T river, GG me. Shiva lasted into day two, just making the money before losing 3 hands in a row as a favorite and going out.
Sunday
We hang out and watch football waiting to head back for him to play day 2. I win a bet with him on the Steelers/Vikings game since neither of us had rooting interest we bet dinner on it so make the game interesting. I go play some more 5/10 while he goes into the tournament. He lasted about 15 minutes on day two. Got his money in good 3 times and lost each time, just completely coolered. We hang out and play a bit more before leaving town. On the way out we hit up Lou Malnati’s for dinner which completely lived up to the expectations. We drove back after that, getting back home around 3am.
Overall made just enough from cash games to cover trip expenses and loses from the tournaments. So a fun week, but a lot less profitible than I was hoping for. Some other people we know traveled out for the week two with varying degrees of sucess. I was going to add pics, but because of my laptop dying and other shit coming up I’ve been lazy about it.