Bellagio $1K

Landed in Vegas at 730-- no cab line. The cab right behind the one I got in was driven by Mr. Diggery-Doo himself and I had to do a double take. Get to Bellagio and they won't upgrade me to a suite, but put me in the spa tower which is cool, except I realize later (much later) that it is a smoking room and this sucks.

Get to the tourney at about 830, and sit down just as the 50-100 level starts. In the first orbit it is folded to me in the SB and I have 88 and raise to 300 and the BB calls. I flop a set and somehow he gets all his money in with top pair no kicker and I'm up to 8500 chips pretty quickly.

I then basically play ABC poker for a long time. I make some standard raises and fold when I get played back at. I chip up for the most part, but eventually the blinds catch up. There are two guys at the table who are playing really laggy and I get down to about 15 BB's at one point and decide that the next time they raise in LP I'm gonna repop them all in. In fact, I'm going to do so without even looking. Well, I'm in the big blind and its time and I'm just waiting for someone to raise since there hasn't been a single walk at the table. They all fold. I look down at my hand as they push me the pot and of course I have AA. Amazing.

No too long after that I get AA again and this time there is a raise in front of me. I push, and the poor bastard to my left pushes also with KK. I hold and now have some chips.

They are paying 9 spots, but there really isn't any big money till 3rd or 4th as usual. 1st pays $34K or so. We get down to 2 tables and I'm about average. There is this Asian guy, John Lee I think who has a reputation for never folding. It seems to hold-- he defends his blinds all the time, floats bets on the flop, and sometimes just pushes his huge stack. With blinds at 600/1200-100 there are 4 limpers to me and I have AKcc. I make it 6500, folded to Lee who calls. Flop K-K-2 with two hearts. He bets about 7000 which is more than half my stack so I just push. He calls with a flush draw and misses. Now its close, and I might have enough chips to fold into the money. I dunno. But I do know that it is past 2 am and coming in 9th for $1800 or so would suck if I had a chance to get $10K. So I stay aggro. I raise with 77 and fold to a push. A few hands later I limp with 77, 3 others limp and Lee pushes and I fold. He's so active.

With blinds now at 800/1600-200 Lee makes it 4500 to go. I have AJdd and tank. I could just push, I could call and see a flop, I could raise. I dunno. He splashes so much his range could be anything. My stack is decent but he has me covered. I think my hand is probably either dominating him or its a flip. I raise to 12000 and he pushes. Meh. He still looks weak. I call. He has red kings. Damnit. The flop brings me 11 outs as two diamonds show up. This gives me a little hope and some validation also, because I know all the money would have gone in here anyway. I miss though and I'm done, 14th place.

Tomorrow is the 6 handed $5K at the Rio. I need some sleep now....