the pros are finally out in la

Yesterday was the $1500 no limit event. The day was very wierd, starting right at my hotel. I ran into John Racener in my elevator at the Wyndham. He's staying here also and was headed over to the event. I found out that they have a shuttle service to the casino, so no more walking! As we are waiting for the shuttle, 'Miami' John Cernuto walks by, looks back at us, and says "Oh, you guys headed to the tournament? Need a lift?" We of course accepted and hitched a ride over the the Commerce.

In the High Limit area there are alot of pros playing, some just waiting for the tournament to start. The biggest game I saw going was $600-$1200 limit holdem, with JJ Liu and Tim Phan playing. Eventually we made our way to the tournament, and I happened to find Miami John directly to my right. Seemed like a funny coinodence.

The first interesting hand came up in level 3 (75/150 blinds). I'd worked my 3k stack up to around 6k mostly stealing pots. There was an Asian kid on my right that had been getting very aggressive raising alot of pots. Was perfect person to steal some more chips from, so I decided I was going to re-raise him the next time he opened a pot in late position. He raised to $500 from the CO, and in the Small Blind I looked down at 53o. Not a good hand, but I didn't intend to get this pot to showdown anyway. I raised it up to $1600, and he looked pretty shocked, thought for a second, and called. Whoops, clearly he picked up a big hand, so I'd have to just give up without a nice flop. The flop came down 367, which was great for me, so I went all in for my remaining $3700. He didn't call right away, and that was a great sign for me. Eventually, he looked at me and said "Ok, let's gamble" and showed AKcc for a flushdraw and 2 overcards. I'd much rather he folded, but I got to proudly show my 53o. The turn was a 3, removing about half of his outs, and he missed on the river to double me up to about $11,000.

My image was destroyed, but our table broke right after the hand and I was sent to a new table. Looking around the room I noticed a large number of pros in the room. Allen Cunningham, Victor Ramdin, Nam and Tuan Le, John and David Phan, and others that I can't remember. On the break I walked by a chick that I swore was familiar. She was tall and extremely skinny, but I didn't get a great look at her face. I saw her again later and realized it was Clonie Gowin, and I was shocked. I pictured her as some short girl, but she had a models body.

For the rest of the event I just jockied around 10-15k in chips, not able to get much going. I wasn't getting any cards, and a player was moved to my table that clearly love Kill Phil. He was going all in over everyones raises over and over again. I'm not talking shortstacked either, he was moving all in for 10k over players $1200 bets. It was amazing how for 2 hours he never once ran into a hand. For me, I sucked as he was on my left and I kept having to lay medium hands down. With 15k in chips I can't call his pushes with AJ,AT, KQ type hands. I couldn't pick up anything big enough to call his pushes with, so I blinded down to around 8k by the 300/600-75 level. I picked up AJs in the Big Blind and tried my first push-over-someones-raise play, and of course ran into QQ and was sent packing.

I just shook my head and walked out, frustrated again by how the cards fell.

Today was a limit holdem event, which I skipped in favor of some online play.