Hello there! As many of you know: Festa al Lago is/was in town baby ... and so far I've played in three tournaments.

The first was a No-Limit Hold'em event with a buy-in of $2,000 on Oct. 2. In that particular event I was playing pretty good.

Just two minutes before the third break there were 27 players left and I got reseated and was in the big blind. The big stack made it 2.5BB to go; I peeked at my hole cards and saw K-J, so I called.

The flop came 8-9-T; the turn brought a beautiful queen, so I made the nut straight and I decided to check just one more time, to lure him in.

As I expected, he made a bet and I obviously reraised. He reraised all-in and of course I insta-called. I had the nut straight - he showed a straight flush draw.

The river gave my opponent an awful straight flush.

Sickened by straight flush.

So as you can imagine: I felt pretty sick, but neither I or my opponent did anything wrong.  I cannot control the cards, so I guess this was just one of those beats you have to suffer every once in a while - not much you can do about it. But that was the end of my $2,000 event.

For one reason or another the fields of the Festa al Lago events are rather small. The prize pools get stuck at around $250,000. I think the global credit crisis is starting to hit Vegas as well (also, a lot of players are in London or Aruba), so every morning I head out for the Bellagio to check the field in that day's event and decide whether I should play it or not.

A few days after the $2,000 event, on Oct. 4, I decided to play the $3,000 event. This event was packed with pros, even though just 85 players bothered to show up. I played not too bad and was able to make it to the final table. The lineup was just cruel:

• Jonathan Little $51,500 (WPT Player of the Year)
• Thien Nguyen $43,000
• John Gale $299,000 (WPT winner and recently won the Bellagio Cup)
• Alex Golshanara $11,000
• Al Adler $26,000
• Alec Torelli $149,000 (runner-up in WSOP heads-up tourney; player from Calif.)
• Yours truly $73,000
• Amnon Filippi $99,500 (another very good tournament player)
• John Phan $13,000 (double bracelet winner at WSOP 2008, and WPT Bicycle 2008 winner)

Soon after John Phan got eliminated in ninth place, I had about $55,000 left in chips and was in the big blind. Nguyen raised three times the size of the big blind and I pushed all-in with A♦ K♦. Nguyen goes in the tank and eventually makes the call with TT.

The flop gives me a beautiful-looking ace, but unfortunately Nguyen catches a T on the turn.

Since that event I haven't played a lot, because the fields failed to improve in size, partly due to the tournaments held elsewhere (London and Canada). So I waited till Oct. 16 to play the $5,000 event (in which I am/was still the defending champ).

When the registration closed there were 105 players. This event was filled with pros again. I looked around and saw at each table at least seven familiar faces.

My table wasn't too bad; I sat next to James Woods and we had a very pleasant chat. I asked him about my favorite movie, Casino (what else? ;) ) - how long it took to get it all on camera.

It took months and months, while modern productions take just a few weeks. I really enjoyed talking to him. He is such a nice guy and he actually knows how to play poker (so he is not your average celebrity player).

The King of Bellagio with the King of the Kwik-E-Mart.

When we reached the last 34 players I had about $90,000 in chips, which was at that point about twice as much as the average chip stack. (We started with $15,000 in chips.) So I was in fairly good shape, but I got a run of cold cards I haven't seen in a long time.

When I reached the last 18, my stack had dwindled to about $40,000, which was way below average. So I had to make a move fast. When there were just 13 players left, I found Q♥ K♥ in the cut-off, so I pushed all-in, because the blinds were $1,500/$3,000 and I could well use those chips.

But I got called by a player who held pocket eights. I didn't mind playing a coin-flip situation at this point, because if I would make it to the final table I would definitely need some ammo. But I got no help from the board whatsoever, so I was eliminated.

The remaining players were practically all very well-known, good players ... David "The Dragon" Pham, Alex Jacob and Jeff Madsen, just to mention a few.

I am happy with the way I am playing. All I need now is a lucky break, but since I cannot control luck, I just remain focused on the parts of poker that I can control, such as concentration, good health and a quick mind, and will just wait till my luck changes.

I'll let you know how I finished in the $15k main event next time.

--Steve Wong

More blogs from Steve Wong:

• Don't Be the Table Professor
• Automated Tables: Huge Upside for Players
• The End of My World Series: Nothing but Early Exits
• Egg-Shaped Losers Driving Women from Poker