From Aruba to Spain

Well, my road trip continued after having such an amazing trip to Aruba.
I've been to Aruba the past 5 years in a row and nothing compared to the fun times that this trip held. I wasn't too excited to go back after last year's trip but this year's Aruba trip gave me a whole new outlook on everything.

I left Aruba on the Monday morning, the day after most people left. I spent a quiet day on the beach on the final Sunday there and just relaxed. I had a long travel day in front of me on Monday so I wanted to relax. I left Monday after noon for the first of 3 flights that would take me from Aruba, to Newark, over the big ditch to Madrid Spain then barely caught my final flight to Barcelona. I arrived the following morning after traveling for nearly 17 hours from start to finish. My long cab ride to my hotel, which, I think I got scammed a bit on was actually worth it as I got to see a lot of Barcelona as the driver took me on the milk run to get to my hotel. All things considered, it wasn't so bad.

I decided to stay up all day despite being exhausted to try and get on the Spanish time rather than Eastern standard. I went for some walks around the area, checked out the casino and got registered for the following day's super satellite. That evening, I decided to walk down the beach to some smaller restaurants that my hotel recommended. I found this quaint little seafood place down by the main marina and decided to give it a shot. I sat inside as it was looking like it was going to rain. There were only about 7 tables inside with about 40 outside. The tables closest to me had a few people sitting and enjoying their dinners. As I was looking at the menu, the only thing I really could understand and relate to was prawns so I ordered the prawn dinner with a beer and a fish soup to start. The beer and the fish soup were amazing. Then came the prawns. I was asked if I'd like some wine with dinner and after looking at the prawns I figured I needed some more to drink. Well, let me tell you, when you order shrimp or prawns in North America, they come cleaned, deshelled and their heads are already off. Well, not in Barcelona. They cook the suckers whole and serve them whole. When I cracked open the first one and splattered a mess 2 tables over hitting a lady in the back and head I figured I was in for an interesting dinner.
After being thoroughly embarrassed by spraying the restaurant I figured another liter of wine was in order. About that time, when the waiter stopped laughing the owner came out. Well, the man was a poker fan and actually recognized me from some shows. I ended up getting some sample plates of different things rather than the prawns from him and discussing poker in his broken english and my non existing Spanish. At the end of a fun dinner now the owner had the waiter bring out some pastries and this lemon flavored gasoline called Grappa. Well, let me tell you, after an hour of sipping on this stuff that could clear out anyone's sinuses I was utterly hammered. The owner was a funny guy to sit and talk with and could pound this stuff. Now, I have nightmares of Grappa the same way I do of Tequila from my early 20s.
My mile walk home along the beach was unbelievable and all I wanted to do was lay down and go to sleep. I made it back to my hotel room and popped online for a few minutes to play and check emails. I had this bright idea that I was going to go to the casino now and play some live rings games.
Well, I guess I closed my eyes for a minute while lying there and I ended up waking up about 7 hours later fully dressed. I managed to squeak out a few more hours sleep and was actually feeling pretty good when the afternoon super satellite started.

The satellite was a good sized one and had a number of seats up for grabs. I made it very deep in it without really getting many great starting hands. I survived on some suited connectors and made some good calls along the way to at least stay above average. Late in the day with only about 8 more people to bust before the seats started, the wheels started to fall off the bus. I had a raise and a call in front of me and I looked down on AA. I had both players easily covered and decided to try and win the pot on the spot and not risk seeing a flop. I over bet and pushed all in. The first player folded pretty quickly and the second beat me into the pot with 99. When the door card was a 9 and he jumped out of his seat I figured that I was in a world of hurt now. I didn't improve and was cut in half and was in jeopardy.
About 3 hands later a very small stack pushed all in on my small blind and I had 2 red Queens. The gentleman was pretty sad looking when he turned over AQ but when the flop came down A3A again I had to watch another player jump out of his seat celebrating. Now, thoroughly pissed off I was in a world of hurt and was in the bottom 5 in chips now. About 1 orbit later while in middle position I was dealt JJ and pushed all in. The cut off went all in behind me and I figured I was racing or dominated. I was happy to see him turn over 88 and figured that maybe I could get back in the game now. The flop was ugly, 9 7 5, turn J * YAY!!!* river 6 and I now felt like kicking a chair. It was about 2 am now and I had just seen my cheaper main event seat go flying out the window. I walked back to the hotel and debated some more Grappa but quickly gave up that idea.

The main event was starting the following day and I planned on playing Day 1 B the following day. I went over to the casino about an hour before Day 1 a started and couldn't believe how soft the field looked and realized that all the pros that had flown in were pretty much all scheduled to play day 1 b. I couldn't resist despite being tired to jump into Day 1 a. I managed to pull seat 8 on one of the juiciest softest table's I've ever seen. I was beside myself in happiness watching the god awful play at the table and realized this could be a pot of gold. I was there for just over an hour being unfortunately card dead when the floor man came over and tapped me on the shoulder and told me that they were moving me to balance the tables. I damn near died! To add insult to injury I got moved to the only table that had more than 2 pros sitting there. In fact, out of the 9 players, with me added there were 8 full time pros. I was now regretting my decision to play that day. 9 hours later, with no real good hands or draws I had managed to chip up a bit through some aggressive pre and post flop play when I was dealt 66 in my big blind. There were multiple limpers then the aggressive big stack made it 1000 to go, about 5 times the Big Blind. I called with the 66 as did
4 other players. The flop came down 6 9 J with 2 spades. I was thinking of just pushing all in there but decided to check then probably raise all in to any bet. The guy behind me checked then the short stack pushed all in for about 4700. I already knew that when the action hit me I'd either call him, or push all in if anyone called behind him. The guy to his left flat called him and the original raiser who had smacked the table in disgust when the short stack pushed all in suddenly went all in over top. Well, that reverse tell from the big stack gave away his hand in my opinion. After some considerable thought and chatting up the original raiser I flashed my cards to Court from P5s live, showing him my set of 6s and mucked my hand. I was right, the original raiser had top set of Jacks. and ended up winning the hand. I survived until the end of the day but didn't have a healthy stack.

Day 2 started off slowly but after the dinner break I started to get some hands and hit some draws. I managed to get up a bit above average when my final hand played out. It was folded to the button who raised about 2 1/2 times the big blind. I had a 68 of spades and called him from the big blind.
The flop came down 66Q with 2 diamonds. I checked, the guy bet out 3100 and I pushed all in with him beating me into the pot calling. I thought I was completely dead, he called so fast I figured he must have QQ KK or AA. Nope, he had 55 and I was sitting pretty about to double. The turn was a brick but the river brought the damn 5 up ending my day.

I spent the next day on a 5 hour tour of Barcelona then walked around for about 3 hours seeing the sites and enjoying the city. Was a very pretty city but after 26 days on the road decided to move up my flight and go home. I flew the 17 hours travel time home the following morning and was happy to finally be able to sleep in my own bed.

More to come
cheers
KK