Ok, so after my last rant I had a lot of time to clear my head up, hanging out a ton with friends and not playing too much poker. I've also cleared my head of a lot of other issues troubling me, and its safe to say that its definitely worked out. During my long stretch of runbad, I definitely was not playing my A-game, but I was certainly also running really bad to encounter some of the stuff I did encounter. Well, I've come to terms with it, and its a pretty high variance game with stretches of seemingly non-sense, and I can now deal with that.

For the last few weeks I've played 2 main tournaments, the Bellagio 25k and EPT Monte Carlo series. I thought I played quite mediocre on day 1 of the 25k, but its good thing we were able to start with 100k chips (1000bbs) and on day 2 i refocused and was able to make it to day 4, busting in 19th. I got it allin pretty good K10o vs J10o for about 15bbs preflop. The flop came out 10 high and the J came on the turn, and normally these days when that J comes I would be crying or pissed or at least very emotional. However, I'm so refocused that it didn't phase me at all. I'm very happy with the way I played the tournament and was glad to bust the way I did, getting it in so good :).

During the Monte Carlo Main event, I started day 2 with a 40k stack. I started the day with a pretty soft table and chipped up 10k, but was soon moved to a very very aggressive table. There was a young player with a huge 200k+ stack raising nearly every hand and playing very well. He clearly had the table under his control and managed to tilt the crap out of the European player to my right, outplaying him in every single pot. I couldn't really do much, and my stack slowly dwindled to 22k as I wiffed a few flops. Luckily shortly after, I reshipped w/ AA vs A9, held, and was suddenly up to a healthy 70k. With such a stack I could definitely do some damage, and was looking forward to getting into the heated tangle of such an aggressive table. Unfortunately I busted out AKo to QQ shortly after that to the same aggressive player :(. This bustout didn't phase me either, but it was pretty funny that I never thought I would lose the hand for some reason. Up to this point, my cashing rate in EPT mains has been 100% (4 for 4). Needless to say, when the flop came out J high all hearts to match my beautiful AhK vs his QQ no heart, I was licking my lips ready for the doubleup and deep run. Somehow the board bricked out (WTF!) and I was knocked out.

The next day, I played the 2k event, and in the process of registereing, multiple people approached me and asked if I was in the 25k highroller. Well, the thought had not even crossed my mind, as the high roller event at PCA was an awfully tough field, and I didn't feel like playing in a tourney with so many tough players. However, this high roller event attracted quite a few rich locals looking for a good time, and I was quite upset that I wasn't able to play.
The 2k event, however, was also quite soft. I managed to chip up early, but lost most of it back before the dinner break. During dinner we decided to go to a restaraunt called Avenue 31, and as I had 1 hour and 15 minutes to eat, I didn't think it would be a problem. Well...it was.

When we first walked in, we were asked if we had a reservation. No? well...we'll seat you in the corner next to the kitchen where you won't disturb our rich clientelle. As we were seated, we weren't offered water, or bread...not even menus! It took about 30 minutes to get menus, and 20 more minutes for our order to go through. By the time my dinner break was over, I was served ONE (1) water and ONE (1) beer. Not bad for 1 hour and 15 minutes of waiting. Normally this wouldn't upset me too much, but about 15 minutes before I had to leave, some guy who was clearly wealthy walks in with his hot girlfriend/wife, got his hand shook, was served sparkling champagne, got bread, got menus, and got his order taken all within 5 minutes. COOL.

So...after such a disappointing dinner, I rushed back to the tournament, only to run A8o into 1010 and 44 allin pf vs some laggy kid on tilt and some guy trapping me with his 1010. Flop came AKx all spades giving the kid a flush draw, but the river brought a 10s which means I don't even win the sidepot. After busting in less than an hour, I rush back to the restaraunt, and by the time I got back my friends hadn't even been served their main course yet. Needless to say, I'm never going back to that place again.

The next day, I played in the 5k 6max event, and was able to make it deep, finishing 12th. I had a 10% swap with my friend Clay (MezmerizePLZ), who ended up chopping the win for 215k euros. When they first started playing, the old Russian man he was playing asked for a chop, but Clay refused. As the heads up progressed though, it was evident we had underestimated this guy, and not only was he giving Clay a hard time, but everyone was tired and I was falling asleep. Added to the fact that it was the last day and all the dealers and tourney directors were out having fun while these guys had to stay back and work, Clay decided to chop the HU and end it there. 215k euros definitely ain't too shabby, and I'm really proud of him, he really deserves this win!

All in all Monte Carlo was a great trip. The dealers and floorpeople in EPTs are really great and with a better structure next season for all the EPTs, I think I'm going to be attending a lot more. All in all, I'm really happy I'm out of my hellish infinite bad run, and look forward to the World Series coming up.