Finally, after months of nothing but poker and few impressive finishes including a WSOP final table, our man Bond18 brings home the jewels. Event #2, the $3k NL event at the Bellagio Cup goes to Tony Dunst (aka bond18). Tony is a bit busy playing the ME today, but we wanted to let every know about his impressive win.

Check out the final standings at:

Cardplayer standings

Here's a link to good thread on Twoplustwo about the win.

The win was worth a nice $193,720! Congrats, Tony and good luck today in the ME!!!

Day 51

Yet another $1,500 No-Limit tournament… how thrilling. Even though I made an effort to get to bed early, I couldn’t fall asleep until 4AM. Most nights, a little under seven hours of sleep has carried me through beautifully, but today my head is aching and I’m feeling the stomach sickness I normally get when I don’t have enough sleep. Noon is too early for a poker tournament.

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Day 52

The difference between a $1,500 NLH event and a $2,000 PLH event at the WSOP is massive. The $1,500 event got 2,720 entries yesterday. Today’s tournament, with only a $500 higher buy-in and a slightly different variant of poker, only got 605 players.

My starting table is not exactly my first pick in line ups. It has David Pham, Rizen and Zeejustin, as well as a familiar looking Asian guy in the 10 seat. The best way to describe him is that he’s an Asian guy who’s trying to look like an Italian guy; open collared shirt, gold necklace, slicked back pompadour style hair and a look in his eye that says he might blurt “Eh! Whasa matta you?” at the drop of a hat.

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Day 53

It's really incredible just how popular the $1,500 NLH events at the WSOP are. The one going off today, which happens to fall on a Saturday, has in fact sold out with 2,720 players. Whenever people talk about poker’s popularity leveling off, or fear of games drying up, or any pessimistic shit like that, all you have to do is point at a WSOP $1,500 event as a counter argument. Certainly the games have gotten tougher and some of the highest stake action has dried up, but tournaments are about as popular as they've ever been and those of us who take the time to learn them won't have to go back to work any time soon.

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Day 54

Adanthar and I take a cab over to the Rio at 1:30PM and arrive with more than enough time to hang around chatting before our 2PM restart.

Yet again, my table is full of unknown players and my 20 BB stack turns out to be one of the largest on the table. When the action gets started, the short stacks are flying in almost every hand, and we're eliminating players at a very fast rate. I shove A-J over a late-position raise to pick up some chips, and my stack climbs into the mid 30s.

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Day 46

By far, the least enjoyable tournaments during the WSOP are the $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'em ones, of which there are an infinite amount. If the word donkament was created to describe a single type of tournament, these are the ones. The fields are enormous and the Rio is crammed with people that, during the break, make the hallways so packed you can barely move. The tournaments only start you with 60 BBs and if you don't increase that by the third level, you're sitting with just 15. Although it's encouraging to see so many new and bad players in the field, sitting there while they Hollywood with the nuts or legitimately think about folding with 90% of their stack in pre-flop does reach a point where incompetence becomes bothersome. Navigating another one of these tournaments is my task for the day, except this time I don't show up 90 minutes late. I'm early in fact.

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Day 47

Waking up today is pure pain. I am over half way done in my poker trip, but this portion where I have something to play every day with no breaks in between is the toughest physically and mentally. I've fallen significantly behind in my writing as a result of having so many long and exhausting days at the Rio, and I think the quality has fallen off as well. In Europe I had time to sit and think things over and try to be clever, but with the WSOP it feels more mechanical, closer to reporting than creative writing. Still, at least I am cashing in things and not just wasting a ton of time then bubbling, and I feel like I'm still playing mostly well with occasional hilariously bad mistakes. Live and learn though.

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Day 48

2PM restarts are heaven. My best guess for an average night’s sleep over the course of the WSOP is about seven hours, and being given an extra two the day before you try to make a deep run in a tournament is crucial. SuperflousMan, Gobboboy and Jcarver have also made day two, and they swing by a little before the event to give me a ride. I get to my seat 45 seconds before restart and scan the table; not many familiar faces.

On one of the first hands, it folds to a player in MP1 with 8 BBs. With the BB out of his chair, MP1 shoves and it folds to me in the SB. I call with As-9s and win a flip over his 4-4, moving my stack up to around 80,000.

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Day 49

You’d think with the stress and anticipation of making a final table, I might have trouble sleeping. Instead, the exhaustion of playing so long for so many days straight puts me out like a light and I sleep like a baby. In the morning, Tom gives me a ride to the Rio and the traffic on the I-15 is quite bad, making me nervous about being late for the 2PM start. When we pull up to the back entrance of the Rio, I sprint out of the car toward the poker room even though Tom assured me they’ll start a final table late.

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Day 50

I maintain my position that off days are for pussies, cowards and people who care about mental health but, unfortunately, the combination of there being no hold ‘em event at the WSOP and my own incompetence in mixed games has forced me to actually take one. I guess it’s probably a good idea anyway since I never get to see Celina and I am several days behind in my writing. I spend 13 hours at the Rio, get home around 1:30AM and need to be asleep by 2:45AM in order to get eight hours sleep, so I don’t really have time to fit in the writing.

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I was hoping to play the Venetian $2,500 today, but when I came home from the Rio yesterday I feel asleep nearly instantly around 10PM. I woke up at 1AM and, as a result, couldn't fall back asleep until around 7AM. I decided to pass on the Venetian and set my alarm to wake up in time for the Bellagio $2,000 at 2PM.

A glance around the Bellagio confirms this was definitely a good idea. There's almost no young players here and the only guy I recognize is friend and 2+2 poster 'mikej' who has flown in from California for a few days of tournaments before he goes back to school and being legitimate. We agree to swap 5% and with the field strength today, I like both our chances. Unfortunately the Bellagio elects to start us out 11 handed and still has no dinner breaks or a stoppage of play until a second day - you have to just play right on through. My first table is full of unknowns and we get under way with a 20,000 stack at 25/50 blinds and 40 minute levels.

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I arrive at the Rio well in advance for my 2pm start time. I’ve drawn a table with Raj and my friend StevoL, though ours will be one of the first in the breaking order.

At the beginning very little happens. A fair bit of the table is short stacked and players are moving in preflop and occasionally getting called. The only slightly interesting pot I play is with Raj, when I flat call his preflop raise with TT and take the pot on an 8 high turn. Our table breaks and we begin drawing very close to the money.

Approaching the money I find KK in the BB and online player ‘Mr. TimCaum’ raises on the CO. The button calls and after the SB folds I squeeze to 25,800 with about 70,000 behind. TimCaum goes into the tank and asks how much I have then after I tell him elects to fold. The button folds as well and I regret not making it about 3,000 less, since it would afford him more room to squeeze.

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