WPT Bellagio Cash

It's been awhile since I have updated the blog, but a lot has gone on since then. Bob ended up placing somewhere in the 300's in the main event, so he cashed for around 40k and made himself and my dad some money. I, on the other hand, played the WPT Bellagio under the stake deal with my dad. There were 535 people that started the tournament and we reached the money in the evening of day 2. I started the day with 46k and moved tables a couple of times until I finally settled at a table with Shane "Shaniac" Schleger, J. C. Alvarado, and eventually Alan Sass. These WPT events are always stacked but I managed to avoid some of the better players and tried to play pots against the weaker ones. The first level was very uneventful and extremely tough card wise, but I managed to hang around 40k. During the third level, the I managed to somehow pick up Aces four times and flopped a set of 9's against an EP raiser and built my stack up to about 75k. Over the next level or two, I picked up JJ twice and played pots against Shaniac both times. He happened to have KK both times and I somehow managed to lose only the minimum each time. I floated between 55k and 75k for awhile during the money bubble (which took kind of long) and then that finally burst when the 101st player was eliminated. A few hands into the money, Alan Sass opened in late position and a Russian guy to my right in the small blind, so I called as well with 10J in the big blind. The flop came Q94 with 2 hearts and it checked around. The turn was a blank 6, and it checked to me and I led out for 2/3 pot, Alan folded, and the Russian guy called. I basically was able to narrow his hand to a flush draw as any other hand would have to at the very least bet the turn (should bet flop) for protection. I was trying to represent a missed check raise with KQ on the turn and I bet 2/3 in order to fold out draws like the flush draw, which need 4:1 and would only be getting 2.5:1 with my bet. The heart naturally hit on the river and he led out and I folded quickly and moaned to make it seem like he sucked out on my king. He showed me the AJhh, which I knew anyways, but it was good to validate my read. This dropped me to just below 40k and I folded for another orbit until my bust hand. I was in the small blind with 89o and there were four limpers and I completed and we saw a flop. The flop came K89 and I checkraised a late position better all in and he called with 99 for middle set and I only hit one the running 8's that I needed. I busted in 92nd place, which was the first level of money and cashed for $15,500. So I returned my dad's 10k and split the $5500 for a nice profit of $2750 for two days work. I think I'm going to buy that Tag Huer Watch now so I will post a picture later...