Hella Hold'em

Day 3:

Tourney day!!!

First up: My very first chai tea latte ever. I had mentioned to my new favorite foodie, Maura, that I had been trying different teas lately. It's friggin cold in Chicago, and I don't like coffee. Hot chocolate has too damn many calories, so I've been trying to acquire a taste for tea. Maura suggested I try the chai tea latte at Starbucks, so I did, with soy milk. It was wonderful!! I cannot allow myself to get anything more than the Tall. At 145 calories, an occasional tall won't kill me, but I don't like to drink my calories (at least not while I'm trying to lose weight). But oh... so good! I've since bought some organic free trade chai green tea to make my own lattes, minus the sweetener. So good! It's my new favorite thing.

I was excited to check out Aria. Beautiful place. They really treated us right and had super comfy adjustable chairs in the poker room. I drew table 2 seat 3, up in the back room. Poker Grump was at my table, as well as Otis, Josie, and AlCan'tHang's personal assistant. Maigrey ended up at table 2, as well as BadBlood and briefly, Iggy. (I'm missing some people, but again... no notes. Sorry).

I won my first bounty from Poker Grump. Thank goodness, because I hadn't packed any extra clothes and so at least I had a clean t-shirt to wear when my flights got rebooked and I had to stay in Vegas an extra day!

I'm sad to report that I didn't bring a bounty prize. I had meant to - I was going to make a box of Scooby Snacks - but I just didn't have time. Next year, I promise!

The next bounty I picked up was after a table change. I can't remember who I won it from (somebody help me!!) - but it's the infamous Wild Turkey shooter that has passed through several hands, including those of Dr. Pauly and OhCaptain. I had to throw away a bottle of shampoo in order to fit the Wild Turkey into my liquid carry-on baggie, but it was so worth it! Now I have a must-attend order in place for the 2011 Winter Classic. :)

My favorite bounty, though, was a very cool photograph from OhCaptain. I didn't manage to get it signed - that means he has to come out to Vegas in 2011, too!

As we got later into the game, I was staaaarving! On a break, I ran around the corner and paid $20 for a falafel sandwich. I had no idea what falafel was, but it was the only vegetarian option available. It turned out to be delicious! I like falafel. The Aria folks pulled up a side table for me and I nom'd in between hands. I finally got to meet the real Dawn Summers at that table, too.

I was in good chip position as we broke to two tables, but a couple unlucky hits put me into bad shape as the bubble approached. I did what I could.... 9 places paid, but the bubble got a prize, so in my definition of the bubble, it was 11th place (i.e. the first place that gets no prize). Whaddya know... I finished 11th. That makes me the first blogger to bubble in two different WPBT tournaments!! Woohooo!!

I was hugely disappointed, mostly because my last-longer teammates were counting on me. We actually had a shot to make the top 3 teams, had I lasted through a few more bust-outs. Sorry, guys :( I tried!

CJ later told me that 10th place agreed to chop the bubble prize with me, since we busted at the same time (though s/he had more chips than I did - I'm not even sure who it was!) So, I got $50 for my 9 hours of play. Oy. Better than nothing, but still... I'm bummed that I let my team down. I wouldn't have done anything differently. Honestly, knowing my own weaknesses, I think I played my best game ever on Saturday. It just wasn't meant to be.

I watched a bit of the action and just couldn't get my head outta the funk, so I decided to walk back to MGM. I came across an art gallery on my way out of Aria and got my mojo back with some amazing nature photography. It was a nice walk back, and I decided to see what was happening in the MGM poker room.

Again, they couldn't get a limit table going, so I played 1/2 NL. Big mistake. I was very quickly exhausted, and I should have just left. I started getting all back into my head funk again, pulling that negative self-talk of, "Might as well lose it all... losing today anyway..." Thankfully I walked away after 1 buy-in and just went to bed.