So, anyone who’s read any of this blog will know I’ve had something of an ongoing duel with Caesars this week, being card-dead, cold-decked and bad-beat in tournaments i’ve played pretty much every day. i was determined to win out, and so had my final shot at a Caesars event last nite in the $120 freezeout starting at 11pm.
I was determined not to just dwindle, and the starting chips are only 2500, so I kept up with a lot of stealing and bluffing on flops I’d missed, until a succession of playable hands and steals too me to a very playable stack with about 40 of the 250 players remaining, at around 3am. In a previous post, I blogged a sick beat I took that cost me a shot at the final table of a Caesars event, and in a weird turnaround, a tired piece of play on my part ended up with me inflicting an almost identical beat on a player here, me going all-in over the top of the big-stack’s raise with K-J and finding myself up against A-K, and rivering the jack to take it down – strange justice, but there you go – pretty sick ;o) A few hands later and I’m the tournament chip leader and coasting to the final table, with a first prize of over $6,000. I’m finally there, after a week-long battle.
Clearly my plan was to sit tight, stay out of trouble and let a few go out, and two do go out within 45 mins or so, but then we play 7-handed for over 90 minutes. All the short-stacks are not just surviving, they are trebling up as they get multiple callers trying to bust them, and it becomes exasperating for everyone that no progress is being made and the blinds are getting massive. I’ve lost about half my stack thru blinds alone and now do need to play. Blinds reached 5,000-10,000 when the following shenanigans occurred:
With about a minute to go until blinds doubled, becoming a total crap-shot, a deal was suggested. There was over $16k in the prize pool, so all 7 remaining players could take $2,000 and then play off for the remaining $2,500 for the winner. With the clock ticking down there was a roundtable check of everyone and it was agreed. Several players with bad hands then left for a break, leaving 3 of us at the table. One guy limped, the guy to my left made a big raise and I found pocket queens and moved in for my 90,000 stack. He called and showed aces, and took the pot, knocking me out in 7th. I said “nice hand, but the $2k is ok by me” at which point he totally reneged on the deal, saying that the deal was done during a live hand and wasnt valid – obviously the truth being that he’d found aces, was now a big chip leader, and wanted to break the deal and thus screw me out of about $1,200. Naturally, we had a massive argument, and he was a total dickhead, to put it mildly. As other players came back from their break they found out that I’d gone out and that the guy was going back on the deal and everyone exploded, saying how sick he was and what a dick etc etc, but he was determined. The floor manager didnt want to get involved at all, as all deals are verbal and nothing to do with the casino itself, but eventually he was put on the spot, mainly thanks to Paul, the dealer, (cheers mate), and they both said that in their opinion, (not speaking for Caesars Palace), the deal was done, and the guy had had nowhere to go but to back down. The atmosphere was quite heated, and everyone thought the guy was totally out of order and a complete idiot. I’m being careful with my language here – u can pretty much envisage what was really going down…
Anyway, I had to go and get my passport to sign off for the winnings and when I got back 20 minutes later the guy had managed to lose it all and left, in 4th place, meaning that he actually got more with the deal than he would have without it, (we all got more than 3rd place paid in the original structure). At around 7.30am the tournament was over and I got my $2,000 
) A really good player called Will Souther came 2nd having at one point been down to the felt with only 2,000 chips with blinds at 3,000-6,000 – a massive effort. He was a top man, and bought drinks for the table, (red snappers – very strong), and talked incessantly. He’s a pro and has made big final tables on the various tours.
So there you go, justice of a sick sort on the bad-beat, a final victory for me in my war with Caesars to make it thru their tournaments and get paid off, my biggest poker payout yet in another massive field and eventual victory over a dickhead who tried to screw me out of it, so all in all, a good night’s work… )
