A quick 72 hours going to Sierra Vista, Arizona (near the Mexico-Arizona-New Mexico Triangle) and back again left me punchy, but in time for the AVP get together at the Planet Hollywood 7pm tourney. It was great to meet AVPMichael, Huddler and all the rest.

My tourney was a blow out. I started by building my stack early. I lucked out and within the first few hands I got Pocket Rockets in LP and won about 2000 chips from an older lady on my right. Since it was so early, I flashed my AA, with the hope that with some tight play I could get some respect for my raises. Mostly it worked and I built my stack up to about 8000 by the break. One young player in seat 3 wasn’t impressed though. He was playing hands like AT unsuited very aggressively. We tangled in a couple of smaller pots where I bet and he reraised me to move me off the hand. I’m sure he had me pegged as a person he could make a play on anytime he could. So I was set and straight hunting, waiting for my chance.

The big hand came with villain in the BB with about 4000 behind. Two limpers and I have 7d9d and I call. It comes to villain and he pops a raise. I don’t respect this because he’s done this several times already so this is just a programmed bet. He could have anything at this point. Flop is great but scary, 7c8d9c giving me 2pr but with lots of straight and slush dangers. Villain bets, it comes to me and I mini raise to see his reaction. He goes all in and I’m positive he hasn’t a made flush. I figure about 10% he’s on a stone cold bluff, 50% he has only a pair, 40% he has a draw and he’s trying to win the hand now.

My read is perfect as I call and he shows – Q8 offsuit! I’m a 72%-25% favorite. He has 5 outs unless he gets some miracle river-river magic. Of course the Q hits the turn, giving him a bigger 2pair. Oh well, that’s why it’s poker. Getting a your money in when you are 3-1 is what you want to do.

After that, it was a battle in that I couldn’t get anything going while the blinds continued to advance. I ended up going all in with 3M with KJ vs AJ and A4 and no help. The PH poker room is nice, although extremely noisy. The EXTRA Bar next door had a piano guy doing a wild sing-a-long with a bunch of drunk partiers so it was definitely loud.

After I said goodby to some of the AVPers I headed to the MGM and got seated at a 1-2 NL game. Fishy fishy. I played until midnight and came out with a $349 profit over 3.5 hours. I’ll be back there Saturday, also. The nice news is I've pretty much erased my disaster at the Venetian. It is a major holiday in Vegas and I plan to do some fishing.

The Numbers So Far:

Day Three

Cash Games: +$47
Tourney: -$225
Other Games: -$39
Total: -$217