Binions Tourney Recap

It was off to downtown Vegas for the tourney at Binions on Friday afternoon. Don and I had talked the night before and he offered to pick up me and any of my buddies that decided to go, at our hotel. We decided to leave around noon from the strip and get downtown a little early to register and then check it out a little bit. I had only been there one other time and it was very brief. It was on St. Patrick’s Day 2 years ago and it was filled with a bunch of puking kids. I think we stayed for about a half hour before retreating back to the glitz of the strip that year.

Anyway, Don picked me up, right on time, in the sweet ride and off we went. We got there and got registered and then looked around a little bit. It was pretty cool checking out the wall with all the past WSOP champs and all that. We even had an old local come up and start telling us stories about Stu Unger, etc.

We took a quick walk around and I settled in for a quick session in the pit. I had hit the craps table pretty hard that morning and was up about $500 for the day so I was itching to start shooting again. Don looked on as I went back and forth, but mostly back, and lost about $50 shooting craps. I must have rolled 6 and 1 at least 20 times while he was watching. I was also hitting 6 and 5 enough where Don said I should make sure I play 65o if I got it.

Once I realized the craps wasn’t happening for me here, we decided to grab lunch at the counter there and get ready for the tourney. After a great greasy burger, I was ready.

The structure at Binions was not as forgiving as Caesars. Basically, for $70, you get 1500 in chips and an optional rebuy for another $40, which bought you another 1000. The blinds were also to increase every 15 minutes. I knew I would have to pick up the pace of play much more than I had the day before at Caesars.

With that in mind, I played like a freaking donkey. I picked up a small pot early but then decided that I should play KJo in late position to a raise. When the flop came out giving me a straight draw needing the 10, I called another bet and had to fold on the river when I missed it. Stack down to about T1200. The next brainless move I made was when I was in the BB with K4o and a few limpers came in to see a K high flop. I bet out the pot of about 300 and got a caller. I then decided to bet again on the turn, even though I figured I was beat. Again I was called and then had to throw it away on the river when I checked and he bet out again. I was now down to about T500 and pushed it with something like A2o and was beat by something better.

This was still before the first break and it was rebuy time for me. I got my T1000 in chips and luckily picked up cowboys after sitting back for a while. I doubled through when I raised to 300 preflop and the buy to my left, who had been a bad player to start with, reraised to 600. With my small stack I had to push and he called with AJo. Luckily it held and I was up to T2000 and could breath for a little bit. A few hands before the break I was on the button and there were 4 limpers ahead of me when I got pocket 9s and bumped it to 400 preflop. Everyone called! I had to throw it away when the flop came K Q 4 and someone bet out. That put me at the break with about 1600.

A little bit about the players in this one. They were bad. I mean, at least half of my table was terrible. Not clue but catching cards. I mean calling big bets and folding to a min bet at the end, inability to fold preflop, making tiny bets into big pots. Just general donkeyness. Unfortunately, I could never heat up.

There wasn’t too much memorable after the break. We were down to 4 tables or so and I was down to about 1100 with the blinds ready to go up to 200/400 in minutes when I got AJo. The player to my right, a solid playing local woman, bumped the blinds to 800 so I pushed and prayed. In hindsight, it was a dumb move because she was one of the only solid players at the table and I still had time to pick a better spot. In the end though, I let the structure dictate my move as I was worried about the next level coming up and getting blinded out. On the flip side, I knew I was going to get called because it was such a small reraise. Her pocket Qs held up and I was out of there.

I checked in with Don and he had gone on a little roll and had a nice stack. I went off to take another shot at craps and I figured I would check back in a bit.

As I continued to lose in the pit, Don came over and told me that they were at the next break and he was chip leader with 2 tables left. Check out his recap for details of how he got there. I told him I would be over in a bit to rail and once I lost the rest of my $100, I did just that.

When I got over there, they were down to about 16 people. The top 7 were supposed to get paid and Don had a nice healthy stack, one of the top. People continued to have to make moves and when it was down to 12 left, Don got into the big junk kicking hand. You should read it there, but let me tell you, I felt like I was the one that got booted in the junk. It was crazy to watch. Don had just said at lunch about how those types of things happen and how much it would suck if it every happened after grinding it out at the WSOP or something like that. At the most crucial point in this one (not the WSOP by any stretch, but still!) it happened to him.

Anyway, he did a great job of hanging in there and when it got to the last 6, he engineered the chop. It was a nice cash. With the structure and the players being donkilicious, I thought it was quite a feat to finish where he did. Nicely played.

Ok, that was it at Binions. My next post will talk about the rest of the gambooling I did and how I got lucky, lucky, lucky…

Yeah, at the tables you perverts.