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Look out Krantz, you’re not the only one getting on TV (although you’ll be on longer than me for sure)!

Four of us went up to Greektown Casino in Detroit on Wednesday to play a qualifier to the $1,650 Main Event of the Heartland Poker Tour.  None of us qualified though, so we figured we weren’t going.  The next night, Pete and I decided that we wanted to wake up really early on Friday and play the last qualifier they had — We overslept.

Waking up at 11:30 (the qualifier started at 11, with a 1.5 hour drive) ruined all chances of us getting into the event.  I grinded online for a bit, dropped a grand and texted Pete saying I think we should go.  He said if I stake him half, he’d go.  I agreed and we were on the road.

Day 1 started with me at the same table as Pete, along with a couple guys I played with in the qualifier, and a guy that seemed like a high-stakes internet pro.  First hand he raises, I flat with JJ, and 3 others call.  Flop T52, he bets 1100, I call, another caller.  Turn J, he bets 2200, I raise to 6100, he calls.  River K, I bet 10.5k, he calls with what I later find out is JT.  Wish I would’ve busted him as he turned out to be a huge pain in my side.  He doubled up a few times and had folded to one 3bet already and was showing down good hands.  He raised, I 3b AQo to 2100 at 100/200.  Flop was AK2r, I bet 3k and he raised to like 9500.. I felt ill and folded?  After that hand he seemed to never fold a hand.. he turned into a complete LAG, it sucked.  Eventually I find out that he won the 1k rebuy event at WSOP this year (why can’t I have knocked him out, amirite?).

So we move tables, and I just kinda survive.  We play until 4k/8k blinds, and I ended the day with 127k.  We drove back home for a day and drove back to Detroit on Saturday night.  Sunday morning came around and I got to the casino.  Turned out I was like 33/64 with my 13bb.. the structure was really bad.  We got to sit down and it turns out that the second flights of day 1 played to the 5k/10k level.. so we had to break off all the flight 1 qualifiers and play the 5k/10k level before we even started.  I got through that only losing 1500 chips.  Got to 7k/14k blinds, and I basically just grinded.  I never really got above 10bb and made it to the money bubble with like 180k at 10k/20k.  I got 99 on the bubble and thought I was gonna run into a monster, but shoved and took down the blinds.

Eventually we got past the bubble, and a guy shoved UTG with 98s, I woke up with AA in the blinds.  I chipped up to like 400k there.  Our table broke soon after and we were down to 30 people.  I stole a few blinds, and I had to call off a shove for 2bb when I was in the bb with K3s.. lost to aces.  So I was down to 300k or so and the same guy shoved again, another guy reraised, and I looked down at aces and shoved and held against TT and QQ.  That got me up to around 750k, and I stole a lot of blinds since I had a stack (13bb lol) now.

We went on break and when we came back, blinds were 50k/100k?!  Average stack was 721k, how the hell could we do this?  Meh.  I fold a couple hands, and UTG I get aces with 5bb and shove with no callers.  I shove AQs, and ATo and get no callers again.  I get UTG and get KK and shove my 850k stack.. the BB (who was the other big stack at the table) called with QQ and I held.  We soon broke to the FT and I was chipleader with this guy Dean who finished 10th in this year’s WSOP ME not far behind me.  He played better than me and ran better than me at the FT and we finished the FT (stopped at 6 handed for the TV final table) with me having 1.25million, being in 4th place (they bumped blinds down to 30k/60k).

We got interviews set up and got ready for the TV FT, and it was really a cool experience.  I was wearing my DeucesCracked hoodie throughout the day, but they wouldn’t let me wear it for the FT because CardRunners is their main sponsor.  Meh.  The FT started, and everyone was playing pretty tight, me included.  I played a couple hands and took down the blinds, and a guy asked how long before blinds went up when he was UTG.  He shoved, I called with AK, and he had aces.  NH sir.  That put me down to around 600k or so, and blinds were going up to 75k/150k soon, so I shoved 75o with 5bb or something.. got called by QQ and didn’t get there.

So I finished 6th for $27k before taxes.. $18.5 or something after taxes… $9275 after paying Mike because he’s a luckbox at staking.  So that puts my month up to around +$15k or something, which ALSO sets another milestone: I’m up 6 figures for the year!  That was my goal when I was still grinding 1/2 at a mediocre winrate.. and I got there yesterday.  Ship itttt!

That’s all for now, have a good one

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 1:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.