So I guess I inadvertently lied to you all in my last WSOP blog.

I said I would be back in action on Saturday unless I played the limit shootout on Friday, but out of the boredom derived from the mixed game players having their way with the WSOP schedule last week I decided to head over to the Venetian.

They're running another one of their highly popular Deep Stack Extravaganzas, and on Friday they spread a $2k NL event. I expected a decent turnout, but since it was such a big buy in (relative to most Venetian prelims) and it wasn't a WSOP event I thought there would be around 200-250 players.

I even bet the under on a line of 298 players with my friend Joe "Joey Capp/Cappuccio816" Cappuccio.

Now, I may play poker for a living, but I'm not a "gambler" in the true sense of the word. I don't play -EV table games, and you'll only catch me bet sports occasionally with friends.

I don't take prop bets that I'm not pretty sure I'm not going to win, because I HATE TO LOSE.

However, when the field ended up at more than 420 players (seriously, I think it was 429...not just being funny), I was forced to pay that one.

I distinctly remember giving updates to friends during the early stages of the tournament that said, "This is the most boring tournament of my entire life." We started with 20k chips at 50/100, with a pretty good structure that included almost all of the levels.

I spent a solid six hours with my starting stack not going over 22k or under 18k.

Since I registered late, I ended up with what you usually get when you do so ... a very tough table draw. "Charder30", "JBT449", and Cappuccio were all there (which at least made paying up the bet easy).

Ten-handed at a tough table with deep stacks and no antes, you usually just need to play solid and wait for opportunities. The only playable hands I was picking up were small pairs and suited connectors, and literally every one of them would whiff the flop. But alas, patience is a virtue...

I finally started to chip up halfway through the day, and after slowly building my stack up to 60k I ended up flipping with J♣ J♥ all in against A♣ K♠. I won that hand, and ended up eliminating the same player when I turned Broadway with J♣ 10♦ against his top two pair in a huge battle of the blinds.

Suddenly I had about a quarter of a million chips in a super-soft event with over $260k going to first place...mmmmmmm....juicy...

I entered day two with 325k at 1200/2400 (300). I was third in chips with 65 players left, 36 of whom would make the money. Unfortunately, I hit the spew button pretty hard early in the day...followed by running A♣ K♣ into A♠ A♦ on the stone bubble for a 420k+ pot. Heh, I said 420 and pot in the same sentence without even trying...

Anyway, I had a grand total of seven big blinds left after that hand. I managed to get into the money before busting out in 36th place with 2♦ 2♠ against A♣ Q♥, thereby shattering my belief in the age-old philosophy that "deuces never loses."

Screw them, they wouldn't have given me a bracelet if I won anyway! Back to the Rio...

Matt Stout

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