From: greatbrit Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Subject: WSOP 2003, Days 16 & 17: do you have any flashlights on the menu? Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 03:58:50 -0700 Yesterday was the final table of the 5K No Limit, as you'll have heard by now it went on past midnight with Johnny Chan victorious. Even at the end the crowd was huge, thanks mainly to the great game going on, but also because John Bonetti had taken over the microphone and was in rare form entertaining the crowd with stories and some pretty good one liners (introducing famous players in the crowd..."Here's Kathy Liebert, she goes on a cruise and wins a million dollars, I go on a cruise and get seasick"). The downside was if you were one of the players then it must have been quite a distraction. I had dinner with a friend at the 4 Queens in the steak house in the cellar, I have no idea what I ate as they have one candle to light up the whole place, I just pointed randomly at the menu and ate whatever they put in front of me, it tasted pretty good though. One nice thing here is the salad cart they bring around, you get to choose from about 10 ingredients that they then toss together at the table, very nice. Today was supposed to be bracelet day, it wasn't, but it was one of the weirdest tournaments I've ever played. In a period of 30 minutes at the second level I got the most incredible rush of cards: 44 (I limped in a multiway pot), mucked on flop 77 (I raised), got called by the big blind, bet out the Axx flop and he folded AK (I raised), got called by a tight player in the small blind, he bet out the Qxx flop, I raised, we both checked the turn, Ace on the river, I bet and he checkraised, I called, he had AQ. I think I messed up here, I should have checked the river AQ (in the big blind, called a raise from the button), check raised Qxx flop, won a decent pot against AK TT (I raised, they all folded) 55 (I limped in a multiway pot, yeah, I know), folded on the flop KK (I raised one limper), got 3 more callers, flopped Kxx two hearts, limper bet, I raised, we were heads up. Turn was the third heart, she checkraised, I called (still had outs), and called the river (maybe a bad call but I though she might have two pair), she had J6 of hearts, that one cost me a lot QQ (I raised), one caller, I bet the low flop, he mucked JJ (I called a raise in the big blind hoping to trap an aggressive button stealer, except it came Axx and he had A5o, I checkraised the flop, he reraised and I mucked), more chips gone JJ (I raised), one caller, I bet the low flop, he mucked T9s (I called a raise from the same aggressive button, maybe this is a mistake but he had raised every single time and T9s didn't seem like a bad hand to take to the flop), this is the one that did me in, flop was T9x, I check raised the flop, he reraised, I called. 8 on the turn, I bet, he raised, I called. Q on the river, I checked, he bet, I called, his JJ had just got there and I was almost out of chips ATo, my final hand, short stacked with the blinds coming up I raised, big blind reraised me so I was all in, flop was Kxx, he had KJ, and ighn. So that just leaves me with the 2K Pot Limit in a couple of days, I don't think I'll play any others unless I win some satellites. I'll also try a few of the $50 satellites that get you into the $225 super sats as I really want to try to get into the 10K again this year. Today at 6 p.m. I'll be playing my semi-final for the PartyPoker cruise, but I've only got 700 extra starting chips (out of a possible 2000) so I'll need to get lucky. A disappointing day, tomorrow I'm going to go shopping for lucky charms and maybe check out the pawn shop to see if that bracelet has been sold yet. Paul