After I was done in Atlantic City (which I'll blog about soon - I'm a bit out of order), I reluctantly decided to head to the Fallsview Casino for the North American Poker Championship.

It's on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls in Ontario and it's the only Canadian stop on the World Poker Tour.

Last year I decided to skip this event because of the experience I had on my first trip to Fallsview. Two years ago was the first time Fallsview (or anywhere in Canada, for that matter) hosted a WPT event.

Although I was willing to give some leeway while they figured out how to run a tournament smoothly, it ended up being such a disaster that I didn't even stay for the main event. I waited nearly seven hours to get into a $1,200 sit-and-go satellite, and got a condescending attitude from casino employees when I complained about the absurd wait time.

Once in the satellite we had to follow a ridiculous set of rules, most of which were the result of the gaming commission in Canada.

Among other things, no iPods may be worn during play, dealers must stop to count the deck every five hands, and all chips must be in separate stacks by color (you can't have a normal starting stack, about 25-30 chips high, in order and sorted by color).

I was surprised the gaming commission didn't outlaw check-raising!

Although many of the little idiosyncratic rules are still in place, I was told that the tournament was run much better overall in 2007 than its debut in 2006 had been. This, and the weakness of the field as a whole, convinced me to make the trip.

We started with $30k chips and the blinds at $50/$100, which I believe was an increase from $20k starting stacks last year. Levels were 90 minutes long.

However, the structure was still not quite as slow as the average WPT structure. Several *optional* levels were excluded, including $25/$50, $75/$150, $1,200/$2,400, and $2,500/$5k. It also had a huge ante in some levels, such as $500/$1,000 with a $200 ante.

fouruhaters: still the best Mclovin look-alike on tour.

The starting field was spread into three flights, since another one of Ontario's odd rules is that no more than 300 players may play poker in the same place at the same time, and they didn't want to risk cutting it close if the field was on the larger side.

I arrived at my starting table on Day 1b to find two familiar faces, Ryan Fisler and Noah "fouruhaters" Schwartz. I've barely played with Noah online and this was the first time we played live together. Mr. Fisler, however, was a very different story.

Ryan is known by a plethora of names online including eatschips, jusgivithere, gotskillz, and my personal favorite: DRAWCHAMP. He's a very talented and aggressive player who I'd rather not have a few seats to my left.

However, we've butted heads enough times through the years online to know that there are better targets to go after at a table than one another. We've also become pretty good buddies from all of the smoke breaks together during live donkaments.

There's obviously no soft-playing, but I certainly wasn't going to go out of my way to play pots with Ryan.

Another extremely tough opponent made a late entrance, Alec Torelli. Known as "traheho" online, Alec is more of a big cash-game player, but has been making a name for himself on the tournament trail recently.

He was runner-up to Kenny Tran in the 2008 WSOP $10k heads-up event, and won consecutive preliminary events at Bellagio's Festa al Lago event just a week before the Niagara event took place.

traheho: making a name for himself.

By some miracle, I managed to lose less than $2,300 chips when I ran the nut flush into quad jacks during the first level of play. Although I had already been semi-coolered in the first level of play, I really looked at the hand as a victory for not losing more chips!

Then, something we online donks like to call a "live misclick" led to me playing a huge pot with Alec. After a few limpers at $100/$200, he raised to $1,100 from the cut-off with a stack of about $16k.

I woke up with A♠ A♦ in the small blind and reraised to $3,100 total. Everyone else folded back to him.

The dealer pulled in the $1,100s and told him it was $2k to go. Even though he tanked for about a minute before acting, he threw in a single $1k chip to call ... thinking it was $900 more and $2k total.

(Note on a commonly misinterpreted rule: a minimum reraise must double the size of the original raise, not the original bet. In this case, his raise was $900 on top of $200, so the minimum reraise is $200 + $900 + $900 = $2k, not $1,100 + $1,100 = $2,200).

When the dealer paused before grabbing the chip, Alec realized his mistake and tried to complete the bet and pretend he knew how much it was to call. The flop came J♣ T♠ 3♦, and I led out for $4k. He quickly pushed most of his chips into the middle.

After we got it all-in, I announced "Aces" and he sheepishly muttered "It's good," turned over K♣ J♠, and proceeded to explain what I already knew ... that he thought it was an absolute minimum raise and realized it after putting the $1k chip in.

The fun didn't stop there, though. As Alec was explaining his mistake, the dealer burned and turned the K♥. As my body prepared its systems to vomit profusely, the dealer managed to find the Q♣ to save me on the river!

The odd part about the hand is that I'm 98% sure that he wouldn't call pre-flop if he knew how much it was. On top of that, I don't believe he would shove on that flop if I had in fact min-raised since he would likely have me on a very big pair.

The whole hand played out strangely, but ultimately helped me get one of my toughest opponents off the table.

Keikoan: Relieved to have him out of the way, but be careful what you wish for.

That hand brought me over $40k, and from there I kind of cruised through the rest of the day. We had played through five levels and would start Day 2 with blinds of $400/$800 ($100), and about 300 of the original 454 entrants remaining. I had $83,200, while the average stack was under $50k.

Unfortunately, the second day proved to be much tougher than the first was. I would once again be facing Ryan Fisler, and this time Matt Keikoan would occupy the seat on my left. Matt won a bracelet in a WSOP $2k event this year, and is a solid opponent whom I tangled with a bit deep in the 2007 WSOP Main Event.

I did manage to chip up to about $150k in the first level of the day when I flopped top two pair with Q♣ J♣ against K♦ T♠. The big blind check-called two streets on a straight draw after defending, and tried to bluff a ragged river.

Shortly thereafter, Matt was eliminated. I was relieved to have him out of my way, but be careful what you wish for. There is a saying that goes something to the effect of "Whenever you chop off the dragon's head, two more appear."

The player who took the open seat was a businessman from Toronto who spent more time talking about playing golf at his country club than he did paying attention to the table. He had a ton of chips and had already showed that he was ready to get spewy with them.

The best example of this came when Jason Gray, a fairly tight player, came over the top of his opening raise for about a third of his stack. Apparently unfazed by this sign of strength, he quickly four-bet all in with very little fold equity, holding Q♠ 5♠.

While I welcome this type of inexperienced, big-stack poker at my table, it can be especially difficult to deal with erratic play when you're out of position. Case in point:

I opened from the cut-off with J♥ J♦ to $3,200 with the blinds at $600/$1,200 ($200). Our golf buddy called from the button, and both blinds folded. The flop came 8♦ 5♦ 3♥, and he called my $5k continuation bet. The turn was the Q♥, and I checked.

Against this type of player in this situation, I want to slow down for two reasons. First, his style makes it extremely difficult to put him on a hand at this point. Second, I want to give him a chance to bluff at me since I have plenty of chips to call him down.

However, if I bet the turn and he raises, the pot will become much larger than I'm comfortable with against his somewhat undefined range.

I check-called $8,500 on the turn, and $12k on the river after the board paired with the 3♠. He showed A♣ Q♥, the classic no-pair, no-draw float on the flop then get there on the turn and get paid. But just like before, the fun didn't end there.

While I was mucking my hand as they shipped him the $61k pot, HE ASKED TO SEE MY F%&#ING HAND!!!

I'm sure that many players, especially online players, don't know that this is absolutely atrocious etiquette in live poker.

So I said, "Are you serious?" ::dealer pauses and holds my hand face-down:: "Do you realize how bad it is to ask to see a mucked hand at showdown? That rule is only intended to prevent chip dumping and collusion!"

Fisler: Turned set of sevens pays off.

He motioned for the dealer to turn it over anyway, and one of the friendliest $10k tables I've ever played at turned into a war zone. I let him know what I thought of him, and we went to war.

Unfortunately he had position, all the ammo, and I never hit a flop against him so he just ended up pwning me in most of the pots we played for the rest of the day. That reallllllly sucked.

I proceeded to tilt off $30k chips to Ryan when he turned a set of pocket sevens versus my pocket sixes after a nine-high flop. Then again, if he hadn't turned a set he may have folded to my turn bet, so it may not have been such a terrible play after all.

Anyway, I basically went into lockdown nitty mode to counter my tilt and played very few hands for a level or two.

After being moved to a new table during the last level of the day, a player made an ill-fated (and pretty bad) reshove attempt against my button raise. I opened for $7k with A♠ 8♣ and he moved in for less than $21k total.

Getting over 2.5-1, I obviously called and he showed J♦ 9♥! I was shocked that the deck didn't reward him for that one ...

That helped me build my meager stack back up to about $80k to end Day 2. With 99 players left and the blinds going to $1,500/$3,000 ($400), I was well behind the average stack of nearly $140k but still had a fighting chance.

Forty-five places were paid, and Day 3 would play 99 down to 27 players.

By some ridiculous coincidence, Ryan Fisler managed to show up at my starting table for a third straight day! This time we were joined by Barry Greenstein and an East Coast grinder, Will "The Thrill" Failla. Everyone came out swinging, too. The table was ready to gamble.

Except one player ... ironically, the same player who had defended 6-2o versus a middle-position raise, flopped two pair, and stacked off against KK only to get counterfeited on the turn.

Anyway, long story short ... I open K-Qo from the cut-off; he defends the small blind and checks an A♠ J♠ J♦ flop. After I made a standard continuation bet, he tanks for a moment before announcing, "I'm going to fold my weak ace" and showing the A♥ as he mucked!!!!

So odd ... but thanks!

After that I sat back and watched for most of the first level and was down to about $70k during the $2k/$4k ($500) level. Ryan opened in late position to $11,500, as he had been doing a ridiculous amount of time at this table.

The game is the game.

So I shoved with 3♣ 3♦ from the big blind and he tank-called with A♥ Q♦. I held, and doubled up to about $150k.

About an orbit later, Will Failla moved in under the gun for $31,500 total with 9♠ 9♥. His timing couldn't have been worse, as I had A♠ A♦ and Ryan had K♠ K♥. We obviously got all the money in pre-flop, for a main pot of over $100k and a side pot of nearly $250k.

I wish I could tell you that my aces fought the good fight, and the kings let them be. But poker is no fairytale world and the flop came K♦ Q♥ T♥.

I bricked six outs twice, lost a $350k pot, and headed for the border ... but not before shaking Ryan's hand and wishing him and Barry luck.

Barry seemed shocked at how well I took the beat, but what could I do? I did everything I could, got the money in in a dream situation, and got railed. But at least it went to a good guy, and a buddy of mine. It could be worse.

"The game is the game. I am at peace with my play." - stolen from Shaniac's blog.

--Matt Stout

"All In At 420"

More blogs from Matt Stout:

• WPT Legends of Poker Part 1
• Running Bad Part 1
• WSOP Event 32: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em
• WSOP Event 29: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Part 1