Just back from Vegas where there were and still are some big tournaments going on at the moment. The Heads Up Championship, The Wynn Classic & The Venetian. To everyone\’s surprise, I was not invited to The Heads Up tournament at Caesars, so I was left to decide between the other two.
The Venetian has 40 minute levels (not sure of the blinds) and a deep stack to start. The Wynn also provides heavy chips, however, the blinds move up so quickly there were at least three pros complaining that it was a crap shoot.
Nonetheless, I had a great time playing at The Wynn Classic. I played with Brandon Cantu, Rene Angelil, Burt Boutin and took advice on the side from David Levi, Steve Wong & Marcel Luske (who was there for a short business trip).
I was eliminated by (the amazing) James Van Alstyne one hand after his nut straight crippled my stack; however, shortly thereafter he was hit by some bad beats as well. I was happy to see David Levi and Brandon Cantu make the final table. David has been playing fewer tournaments and focusing more on his cash games, so this was a nice tournament return with a first place finish. Brandon added another line to his resume taking down ninth place. One more notable was David Plastik who made seventh place in Event 5, no surprise there as he is a solid tournament player.
Before heading back to The Great State of Texas, I made it over to the cash tables. I was growing a nice chip stack when I flopped a set against pocket aces…an “Ace on the River†gave my opponent a bigger set. With just two hours left before my flight I managed to win back most of my money and a little bit of pride.