When in doubt, blog it out

I've been spending the past days taking advantage of some of the things Vegas has to offer other than just poker. I ended up seeing two shows (Mystere and Love) which are both part of the Cirque du Soleil family. Mystere at the Treasure Island was an incredible show, it's really fascinating what the human body is capable of doing if trained properly. I have mad respect for all the performers and their discipline, mindboggling imo.

Love is the Beatles show at the Mirage was entertaining as well, especially if you're a Beatles fan. I like most of their songs though I wouldn't consider myself any type of diehard fan. Still, the dance interpretations were pretty spectacular and in general the audience was kept in a very happy cheery mood. I wouldn't necessarily want to see the show again but it was certainly worth it to have gone once.

On the pokerfront, yesterday was day 1 of the $5k nl shootout. Less than 300 players registered so the field ended up being supertough with all the top live pros mixed with the online legends. My table had Antonio Esfandiari, Bill Edler and Noah Boeken among other online pros. I avoided big pots all day and gathered my chips by grinding. There was only one all-in situation that I ended up being involved in where I had KTs vs the 99 of Bill Edler. I spiked a T on the turn for the crucial double-up and ended up heads up vs him after 6 hours of play.

The final hand was a nasty set-up that was misreported at Pokernews (of course). They reported it as me calling his all-in on the turn with a gutshot and then hitting the miracle on the river. Though that would have been nice, in fact I had the nut straight on the turn (board 6534) with 78 vs Edler's 79. I had him barely outchipped so that pot sealed the win for me.

Today was day 2 and the tables were broken down to just 6handed. After grinding for most of the day I found myself 3 handed with Andrew "luckychewy" Lichtenberger and David "The Dragon" Pham. I had pinned them as the two best players at the table from the get-go so it was no surprise they had survived the table. I had just under average chips with 230k when I 4bet AKs blind on blind vs David Pham and he made the call with TT. It was a race for half the chips in play but the board bricked off :(

I guess my official bustout was in 11th place for $16,740 which is semi disappointing to come so close but that's just the way tourneys are. Still, two cashes out of three tourneys certainly isn't bad, even if they are relatively small payouts. I still have two more tournaments to play; the $5k shootout on June 30th and then the $10k Main Event on July 3rd. Tomorrow we're off to the Rio at 2pm to sweat Nasdog el Nasdog at the final table of the 5k shootout! He's shooting for the first German NL bracelet ever and with just 5 players left chances are looking good! Our goal is to be the loudest cheering section the Rio has ever seen, I think we can achieve it!