Michael Montez Online

Hey everybody. I hope your Thanksgiving was well. I had a great time at my aunt’s house. Well I owe you a LAS VEGAS PART 3. So here it is in short.

After my win on Saturday (tie for first) it was 1230 in the afternoo and I hadn’t selpt in a while so I went to bed. After I woke up it was time for dinner. We wanted steak and lobster but wanted a great value; isn’t that waht Vegas is all about anyway? So we had coupons for the Stardust. It was alright.

After dinner we walked to the Wynn and then Jung, Ben, Brian, and I headed to a gentleman’s club. We had a nice time.Enough about that.

Well, now it’s 5 am on Sunday morning and I wanted to play in the tournment at 9 am. So I needed to stay awake till then. I sat in the sports betting lounge and took a nap while watching Sports Center. After my nap, I walked around the casino and played a few slots, won $20, played Roulette, won $70 doing that, went to McDonalds for a bit of breakfast. It was finally time to play.

Long story short, I played in the Sunday tournment and placed 2nd. It was a great feeling to make money playing poker. I was great hanging with the guys. Thanks for a great trip.

Well after a tough river card, I was done with no-limit poker. I just wanted to survive the rest of the weekend and have a good time. Toby, Brian, and I were getting hungry so we headed to the Sahara for some breakfast. After breakfast it was about 6am and Brian was tired. Toby and I were planning to play in the 9am tournament at our hotel. So we all headed back to the room for a quick nap.

I rested until 8am, and then headed down to the poker room. I paid my $25 and waited for the tournament to start. As I sat at my table, I took a look at the competition. I started to feel confident. These players looked green. Like it was their first time playing. You could see it in their face. It was weird. I’ve never felt so comfortable at a poker table before. I added my $20 re-buy. More ammo.

So the game started. I waited for some decent cards (pocket pair 8’s or better) and watched the table play. I was correct; there were a lot of rookies playing at my table. It was like a kiddy table (but those are the worst). Started to feel real confident when the person to the left of the big blind called the $50 big blind, I called, then two other players and the small blind called (five players). But the big blind raised it to $100, the guy to the left of the big blind folded and I re-raised to $350. Everybody folded and I took down a pot that I was originally going to slow play. At that point, I felt I could do anything and get away with it; and I did. I bluffed, I semi-bluffed, I raised with the nuts, every hand I played I won and never showed cards. I finally showed a hand when I put a guy all-in and I won that hand. Going into the brake I was table leader. Then they broke our table.

At the new table, I had pocket 5’s in the big blind. One player raised all-in (short stacked) and a second player re-raised his stack all-in (also short stacked). Being in the big blind, I was the last to act. Everybody folded and it was only $800 more to call. So I did. I was a huge favorite as one player had A Q off-suit and the other player had A J off-suit. I won the hand and we moved down to two tables. Then we were at the final table. Only five players were between me and my first “cash”.

Slowly the players were eliminated. Nine players left, then eight, seven…etc. When we got down to five players, I was in the money. First time in a live tournament for me; I was feeling great. With five remaining, I had the second best stack, I could win this thing. Fifth player eliminated, I knocked out the fourth place finisher, we were down to three. The other two guys wanted to make a deal and split the pot among the three of us. I was the lone dissenter. If I was going to split, I wanted to split top two. We played a few hands and I knocked out the third place finisher. I was in the top two and guaranteed $400. We played a few more hands and decided to split the pot. Each player got $575. I tipped the house 10% and cashed in my chips. My first tournament win (tie for first) felt great. Now I just need to hold onto the cash for 48 hours

Vegas – part Three tomorrow

This past weekend was Las Vegas. Jung wanted to go so Toby hooked us up at the Stratosphere. Here’s the line up: Jung, Toby, Brian, Ben (Toby’s friend from San Jose), and myself. We were leaving Friday night and staying until Monday. Ben was flying in from San Jose so it was Jung, Toby, Brian and I in Jung’s car. We headed out about 8pm on Friday.

First stop, Tommy’s Burger in Barstow, we wanted Wendy’s, but there was none. So chili and fries for all. The potential for chemical warfare was high. We rolled into Vegas around 1am. Meet up with Ben and headed to the bar. I started playing video Keno and hit two 3 number winners for $25 each. Not a bad start. So I headed over to the poker table to play with Toby and Ben.

It looked like it was going to be a typical weekend when the following hand came down. We were sitting at the $100 no limit table. I had about $60 in front of me. I was sitting on the button, and was dealt pocket 9’s. I put in a raise to $20. Small blind folded, big blind called and the rest of the table folded. Two players.

The flop came A 2 3, no flush draw. Big blind checked, I checked. 5 of diamonds on Fourth Street. Here is what I was thinking, he does not have an ace or he would have bet on the flop, no straight draw, or again he would have bet to see if a draw was good, no over pair or he would have bet. So I figured he had a 2, 3, or 5 with a king, queen, or jack kicker, or a small pair 4’s, 6’s, 7’s, 8’s. He put in a bet of $20. I raised all-in with my last $20, making it $20 for him to call, which is what I really wanted. He called.

In true Michael Montez is playing poker so let’s screw him on the river. The table watched as I turned over pocket 9’s and he turned over pocket 8’s. I was in the lead. The river dropped an 8 and gave him the pot. The table went crazy.

Things are starting to look grim early into the weekend. Part two tomorrow.