I'm laying on my couch after a long weekend, and this place is a mess. Ralph is passed out on the other side of the couch with his mouth open and his right hand down his pants (standard). I swear he plays with it in his sleep. The last 3 days/nights have been a blur. Everyone came home for Thanksgiving and all my friends were able to reunite this weekend. In typical fashion, and without divulging too much, it was a shit show. When u put all of us animals together, AND we all haven’t seen each other in a long time, it makes for some laughable nights and some big boy stories. Anyways, it was short lived. I was in Atlantic City for a few weeks and am now heading back to AC tomorrow for more poker tournaments. My last trip there was a good one.
I had taken a full 2 weeks off from poker when I rolled into AC on Nov. 8th. I was fresh and was ready to play. The 1st event was a $450 reentry tourney where u can rebuy as many times as u want during the earlier stages if you bust out. This makes for a huge prizepool bc many players are in for more than 1 buyin. There were around 1000 players in this tourney and I was making a deep run. At one point during this tournament I pulled off the most ridiculous bluff for most of my chips, with 4 of my friends standing behind me AND having seen my cards. Throughout the hand I was telling my opponent that I was bluffing him, that I was only playing this hand bc my friends were watching, and that I am going to try and impress them by bluffing him in this hand. I was also acting a fool, use every false tell I had in my arsenal to throw this guy off and make him fold. Long story very short, I get this guy to fold the 2nd nuts FACE UP while saying, if your acting like you are bluffing that much u must have it, you’ve got to have it… here I fold, throwing away a King High Club Flush. My friends erupt and beg me to show….. so I turn over something like 35 offsuit, stare at this man who just made the worse fold ever, and laugh at him in the most annoying way ever… yep yep yep yep yep yep! He turns bright red and looks like his head was going to explode. I mean, how does this guy not call me… ME. I never have it. Idiot. Oh well, I end up cashing the tourney and getting something like 55th place for roughly 3x my buyin.{jcomments on}
I bricked my next 4 tourneys then played the $450 6 max re-entry. I played a pretty flawless tournament. I was only in for 1 bullet and was on the steady climb the entire first day. A few very accomplished young pros came and left my table that day. I didn’t bust them all; however I did play a perfect game against each and every one of them. After day 1 there were 23 players left. We came back the next day to play it out. With 3 tables left I am one of the chipleaders. I get in a huge hand where I have KK and my opponent has QQ. We are allin preflop for a 580k pot. I have him covered by 420k so if I win this pot I would have 1 million chips when the avg stack was just over 200k. Flop clean, turn clean, river QUEEN. I get sucked out as usual and don’t win the biggest pot of the tourney. I am still in good shape, we keep playing and combine to a final table at 7 players. Eric Ladney aka “Avril Sharapova” online, busted out in 7th on a cooler so the official final table was set at 6 players… the rest of this story sucks. Everyone at the table is a good, competent player. Everyone except for this one kid that was terrible. He was some East coast $1-2 cash game player, playing for the most money he ever had before. He was relishing in the moment, which I saw as a huge weakness. I did my best to capitalize on him bc he was so exploitable but couldn’t. I lose a monster pot to him w KQ on a K94Q2 board. He has J 10 for a straight and I have no choice but to call his enormous bets on the turn and river. I still fight after that and find my spot against him. He opens for a preflop raise, I 3 bet him from the small blind, he makes a small 4 bet, I go all in and he calls. I have AK he has A10 and my tournament life is finally on the line. The flop comes out and this clown hits his 10. I don’t improve and I am eliminated in 6th place on yet another suckout by a player I outplayed. Worst part was that after this idiot called me he says, “I only called you bc you said that!” The thing is I didn’t say anything, I didnt even say “all in” I just pushed my chips in so we had no clue what he was talking about. These fucking children…. I took it alright though, as I am learning to do. I played a brilliant tourney and was ready for the next one.
In my next 3 tourneys I played extremely well but ran terrible so I didn’t cash anything. The last tourney before the main was an $1100 that I really wanted to win. I busted late on Day1 after taking several horrendous beats. I was so miserable (as posted on my fb status that day) that I started having some drinks. Kevin and a couple other people met me at the sportsbook. We bet $2 on a race and get a free drink ticket, it’s a very cheap alternate to paying for drinks. We end up getting pretty drunk; its around 1am so its getting a little late… Kevin and I decide to make one last lap around Borgota before heading home. So… after fast forwarding a few hours and some very funny details… we leave Harrah’s around 9am. The Main Event starts at 11am and we still need to go home, change, shower, and get back to Borgota. I make a joke about our situation bc the last time I drank all night (w funny story to go with it) the night before a tourney, I ended up getting 8th in the 1k at the World Series of Poker this Summer for over $44,000. We get to the tournament and it is a great one, a $2700 buyin with a first prize of $388,000. I have no trouble getting off to a great start. I have a very tough table on day 1 but I ran and played well enough to end with an above avg stack. On day 2 I catapulted to the chiplead and remained in the top 5 most of the day. Late in the day I lost several key pots. I was hanging around with a below avg stack at the end of the night when we made the money. We were done for the day and down to 63 players. Day 3 was on Black Wednesday, and we were playing down to a winner. I have nothing to lose as we are already in the money and I have a shortstack. I play absolutely flawlessly and am able to grind it out for several hours. We are down to 16 players when I make my only mistake of the day… and it cost me the tournament. It folds around to the guy in the cutoff (who is the only player who has less than I do) and he goes all in for his last 11 big blinds. I am on the button and look down at A10, I think awhile then reshove for my last 19 bigs. Everyone folds and this guy flips over AQ. He has me crushed and holds up for his double up. Im left w 8 bbs and go out in 16th place soon after. It’s not like it was a bad play, I just happened to be wrong this time. I was ahead of his range, but I could’ve picked a better spot. To win a tournament you have to either play or run perfect, most of the time you have to do both. Oh well, it is what it is. I put together another great run, and picked up a decent cash. Adding that with my 6th place finish in the 6 max and my cash in the first tourney, it makes for a nice series.
So that’s that. Being home was nice but my destiny on the road awaits me. Ive made a good name for myself on the East Coast and am looking to build on it in a big way. I will be playing the WSOP Circuit Events at Harrah’s as well as a $1500 re-entry tourney at Borgota. Ill put everything Ive got into winning a ring and turning a profit. Ill do whatever it takes to be a champion.
-Padilla
#Die to Win, Live to Dream #Strive for Perfection, Settle for Excellence