WOW - Vienna Tournament Recap  [03.11.2005]
Wow. That�s the only way to describe how the tournament went. Wow. I�ll start from the beginning. Two of my friends, Eugeneel and Rob Mizrachi (Who�s Bad) were at the same table as me. They both suffered from some bad luck.

Rob was playing a ton of hands, hoping to get payed off when he hit a big flop. During 25/50 blinds, a player in early position raised to 200, and a loose Danish professional called the raise. Rob found pocket kings in middle position and reraised to 750. Eugene had pocket jacks on the button and called. I personally think this is a poor call to make because I know Rob would only make this reraise with a monster hand. I suppose Rob was playing very loose, so Eugene could have simply thought he wasn�t a great player. The original raiser folded, and the Danish player called. Three players saw the flop: JT9 rainbow. The Danish player checked, Rob checked his overpair, and Eugene bet his set. The Danish player called, and Rob folded his Kings. I think this was a great laydown on his part. The turn was an 8, a very scary card for Eugene. The Danish player now led out on the turn for 1500. Eugene called. The river was a blank, and the Danish player bet 2500. Eugene thought for a while and folded his set of jacks. This was also a tough laydown to make, especially with the pot so big, but I�m pretty sure the Danish player had AQ.

In another hand Rob flopped a straight with 54o, but he had to lay it down on the river when the board paired. I was very impressed with the folds he was able to make. He lost a lot of chips on this hand, but rebuilt by taking down tons of small pots with a little aggression. A little while later he raised J4s in early position, and three players saw the flop. It was J74 with two diamonds. Rob fired out a bet, a guy from late position made a big raise, and the big blind reraised all-in. Rob instantly called, and so did the guy in late position. The big blind had a huge draw with 65 of diamonds, and the other guy only had QJ. Unfortunately, the 8 of diamonds came on the turn, and Rob was out of the tournament.

Eugene lost soon after when his kings ran into aces. He smooth called a preflop raise, and the players got all their chips in when the flop came 833. Tough break.

I don�t remember exactly how it all happened, but the one seat kept spewing chips at me. I got caught bluffing in a small pot once, and he must have really remembered that hand. He would never fold when he was in a pot with me. I won a bunch of chips off him in small pots, but there was one absurd hand between us. I think the blinds were 75/150, and I raised KQs to 450 in middle position. He called from the big blind with Q6s. The flop came Q94 rainbow. He checked, I bet, and he check raised me. I called. The turn blanked, he bet, I raised, he moved all-in, and I called. I don�t remember the exact amounts, but the final pot was around 25,000 chips. Against anyone else, I would never put so much money in the pot with such a weak hand, but this guy was gunning for me, and just a horrible player in general. The river was another 9, and my hand held up.

They announced we were going to play nine 75 minute levels before the day ended, and I was already feeling tired during level four. Sure enough, as I had predicted the night before, I started to get a migraine. I didn�t let that stop me, and it wasn�t long before I had 55,000 chips in front of me. There were about two hours left in the day when things started to fall apart. In the last two levels, I believe I won a grand total of two pots, and both were very small. None of my steals were working, and I kept running into strong hands. I also lost quite a bit of money drawing to a couple of flush draws that never got there. At the end of the day I had only 12,500 chips to show for 12 hours of play.

Less than 30 minutes into day 2 I was already at 25,000 chips. I hadn�t shown down a single hand. The blinds were so big that it only took a couple of steals and a resteal to get me back in the game. During 800/1600 blinds, it was folded to the nine seat in the cutoff who raised to 4500. Pascal �The Bandit� Perrault reraised all-in for 35,000 on the button. I looked down in the small blind and found aces, so of course I called. The original raiser folded, and Pascal looked detested. I could understand why when he flipped over his 86o. The board gave him no help, and I had over 50,000 chips.

During the next orbit, Pascal went crazy. Over the course of 10 hands, he must have gone all-in six times. Three of those times, the nine seat from the previous hand raised, and Pascal went all-in over the top of him. The third time, one of the blinds woke up with QQ, and the nine seat also called with KQs. Pascal had A4o, and it looked like his tournament was over. Instead, Pascal used his poker skills to hit an ace, and all the sudden his stack was monstrous.

Pascal used his big stack very aggressively, and got involved in a ton of pots. If his plan was to win these pots uncontested, he failed miserably. He must have decided that it would be a better idea to suck out against the small stacks over and over again. That plan seemed to be working well for him.

During 1,000/2,000 blinds, Pascal raised in middle position to 7,000. I was next to act with pocket kings, so I reraised to 17,000. It folded back to Pascal, and he moved all-in for 100,000 chips. I had about 65,000 chips at this point, and instantly called. I flipped over my kings, and Pascal flipped over one of the best possible hands for me: KQo. I was an 11-1 favorite. The flop came queen high, and suddenly I had a flashback to a week ago.

It was during the big Sunday 5 tournament on stars. We were down to the final three tables, and the prize for first place was over $ 100,000. I decided to get tricky and limp a pair of aces. I got what I wanted when one of the blinds moved all-in with AQo. Obviously I called, and I was looking to be one of the chip leaders after I won this guaranteed victory. After all, I was a 13-1 favorite. With so much money on the line, I couldn�t possibly get bad beated, could I? There was a queen on the flop, but I wasn�t really worried. The turn was a blank, but my mouth dropped wide open when the second queen came on the river. That was one of the most painful beats I had ever taken.

I knew the math showed me as a huge favorite with my Kings, but the situation was all to familiar. This was a gigantic pot, and if my hand held up, I really had a great chance to make back to back final tables. The dealer dealt a blank on the turn. He pause for a second before he flipped over the river card: a queen. It would be an understatement to say I felt miserable. I was shaking and felt dizzy, as if I was about to pass out. I wished the table good luck, as I headed off to think about how things could have been.

I had a couple of drinks to ease the pain, and it wasn�t long before Elky joined me in the losers lounge. Elky got pocket jacks all-in against Pascal�s KTo, and Pascal pulled another miracle out of his ass. An hour later, Noah came and joined us. Pascal had knocked him out too. Noah got his pocket tens all-in preflop against Pascal�s nines. Of course the statistics aren�t relevant when you�re up against the biggest lucksack on the planet. The EPT camera crew came over to our table in the lounge and got our story. The same guy had badbeated all three of us out of the tournament. He was a 2.5-1 dog, a 4-1 dog, and even an 11-1 dog, but none of that mattered. It felt like a personal attack. Taking me out wasn�t enough, so he had to go after two of my friends as well. To make things worse, Pascal was sitting on a ginormous stack. I couldn�t help but hope for him to bust on the bubble, but no such luck came.

Overall, I�m very happy with my play, but I won�t be getting over that loss anytime soon. Making back to back final tables would have been amazing, and I was really feeling it when I got those kings all in. I guess it was too good to be true. Maybe Monte Carlo will be my tournament. Only time will tell.

The WPT is in Town, and I Made a Day Two Already!
August 9th, 2007

WSOP Wrapup and Bellagio Cup start
July 11th, 2007

WSOP #8 - 1k Rebuy and Ante Up for Africa
July 5th, 2007

WSOP #7 - Nobody Calls Earl a Chicken
July 2nd, 2007

WSOP #6 - 1.5k NL and the Robert Williamson Angle Shot
June 30th, 2007

WSOP #5 - 50k HORSE, and LOL Hellmuthaments #2
June 29th, 2007

WSOP #4 - Day 3 of the 50k Horse!
June 25th, 2007

WSOP #3 - Minor Cold Streak, 1.5k NL Commentary and 50k Horse
June 22nd, 2007

WSOP Update #2 - 2k NL Final Table
June 13th, 2007

WSOP Update #1 - Smokey Wins!
June 12th, 2007

It Has Begun!
May 31st, 2007

Once
May 26th, 2007

HORSE!
April 30th, 2007

Bellagio 25k Main Event
April 29th, 2007

Bellagio Update
April 11th, 2007

Brand New x3
April 4th, 2007

PoY, Reality TV Show, and Jennifer Tilly
March 30th, 2007

San Jose and some Interesting Hands
March 11th, 2007

Wynn 10k
March 8th, 2007

Alan Sass wins a tourney, and the cover of Bluff Magazine!
March 4th, 2007

Overdue Update
February 23rd, 2007

Two more huge finishes (Including a win finally)!!!
January 11th, 2007

I Am Justin Bonomo. Hear Me Roar!
December 22nd, 2006

The Dreaded TV Bubble
December 21st, 2006

Such Zees
December 17th, 2006

8th in Chips After Day 1a in the Main Event
December 15th, 2006

Doing Well Again!
December 10th, 2006

Back to Back Final Tables!
December 8th, 2006

Day 2!
December 6th, 2006

lol.
December 2nd, 2006

Slackage, SENS, and Elections
November 11th, 2006

Festa Al Lago at the Bellagio
October 12th, 2006

Aruba: non-poker stuff
October 11th, 2006

Aruba Tournament Report
October 10th, 2006

Summary of the Legislation against Unlawful Internet Gambling
October 4th, 2006

Aruba and the Methuselah Foundation
September 24th, 2006

Poker, Ebooks, and Obadiahs
September 15th, 2006

My Weekend
September 10th, 2006

My Favorite 2+2 Post of All Time
September 4th, 2006

Look! It's a blog!!!!!!!!!11!!1!1!!one!!1!
September 3rd, 2006

Overdue Update
July 13th, 2006

Random Public Service Announcement
June 16th, 2006

Brutal Downswing, Beautiful Recovery
February 23rd, 2006

The Quest Begins
February 20th, 2006

Day 1 Complete
February 20th, 2006

New Article
February 19th, 2006

Another Quick Update
February 16th, 2006

Stuff
February 7th, 2006

Random Update
January 27th, 2006

Exposing the Scammer and a Rant About Emails
January 18th, 2006

Dissecting a Hand #1
January 17th, 2006

WPT Update #2
January 12th, 2006

WPT Update #1
January 6th, 2006

Holiday Stuff
December 29th, 2005

The TLB Record and a Million Dollar Beating
December 22nd, 2005

N82 Guest Writes a Blog
December 19th, 2005

Vegas Baby!
December 15th, 2005

The Race is On!
December 14th, 2005

$137,000 and Rakeback Info!
December 11th, 2005

MySpace!
December 9th, 2005

October + November Results
December 5th, 2005

Live Long Enough to Live Forever
November 30th, 2005

Thanksgiving
November 23rd, 2005

Back to the Old Routine
November 15th, 2005

An Update! (Finally)
November 5th, 2005

The Boys Are Back in Town
October 27th, 2005

A HUGE Score!
October 22nd, 2005

Sundays...
October 16th, 2005

Another Tournament Win
October 10th, 2005

The Day the World Ended
October 8th, 2005

Aruba Trip Report
October 7th, 2005

Ding! (from Aruba)
September 26th, 2005

A Quick $20k!
September 21st, 2005

WCOOP Main Event - Jordan Berkowitz Wins
September 18th, 2005

Photo Gallery Update and 5k SNG Stats
September 15th, 2005

WCOOP, Bellagio, UB, and Some Screen Names
September 11th, 2005

WCOOP Update
September 9th, 2005

A MEGA Update
September 7th, 2005

Vegas Baby!
September 6th, 2005

Back to Work
September 4th, 2005

Victory!
August 29th, 2005

Paaaaiiiiiinn
August 26th, 2005

Veronica O, The Aristocrats, and Ian
August 25th, 2005

The Grind
August 23rd, 2005

A Terrible Day
August 19th, 2005

I'm Home
August 11th, 2005

Update from Amsterdam
July 30th, 2005

Quick Update
July 17th, 2005

An Absolutely Amazing Day
July 12th, 2005

The Quest is Complete!
July 11th, 2005

Back from Mexico
July 6th, 2005

Going to Mexico
June 27th, 2005

Quest Results After the Halfway Mark
June 26th, 2005

Party Poker Million Dollar Guarenteed
June 25th, 2005

Back from Vegas
June 23rd, 2005

Las Vegas
June 21st, 2005

I Bought a Car
June 18th, 2005

A Quest Update
June 15th, 2005

A New Quest
June 13th, 2005

Magic Players Are Taking the Poker World by Storm
June 10th, 2005

10/20 NL and SNGs
June 6th, 2005

Sneak Peak
June 2nd, 2005

Life in LA
May 31st, 2005

Stuff
May 19th, 2005

Another Final Table Report
May 16th, 2005

LA
May 15th, 2005

30 hours til LA
May 8th, 2005

Super Tuesday Tournament Report
May 4th, 2005

Taking it to the Next Level
May 2nd, 2005

A Not So Super Monday
April 26th, 2005

LA here I come!
April 26th, 2005

Turning Stone Conclusion
April 25th, 2005

Turning Stone Update 2
April 22nd, 2005

Turning Stone Update 1
April 21st, 2005

EPT Deauville on TV
April 19th, 2005

Drunken Home Game
April 16th, 2005

Catching Up
April 15th, 2005

Monte Carlo EPT Part I.
March 15th, 2005

WOW - Vienna Tournament Recap
March 11th, 2005

Sleepless in Vienna
March 10th, 2005

Going to Vienna
March 9th, 2005