Scott Diamond

I know I said i was not going back to Commerce Casino. I still had 2 satellite chips to use and it was Friday here in Los Angeles and the traffic on the freeway is horrendous. Coupled with my family going to the opening day of the LA County Fair,I stopped off at Commerce which is 5 minutes from my station and decided to enter the $225.00 NL event.

I sat down at table 5 seat 6 and a 2 time bracelet winner, Frankie Odell and another established pro,Mickey "Mouse" Mills were at my table.

Again I am down to 875 chips after another player chased a straight to the river,risking his tournament, after I flopped a set of sixes. Mickey raises the next hand to 300 when the blinds were at 50-25 and I have 99. I put the rest of my chips in and Micky calls with AK. The flop has a King and I get up out of my chair and extend my hand to Micky who is one of the "Gentleman" of Poker as the dealer puts a 9 on the turn.

So from here I go on a rush of cards flopping a Full House in two hands that double me up both times and I flop Quad sevens in Level 4 and one player chased a flush and now I am up to 8500 chips.

I as usual go card dead and in level 9 with only 5700 in chips I have AK. Under the gun raises to 3000 and I go all in. Two other players go all in and the original raiser calls.

Original raiser.AJ second all in, QJ third all in QQ and me AK.The pot is 27,000 and the flop is A-K-J turn is a 7 and the river is a 4.This was a great pot for me and I had AA as my only playable hand for two more levels.

The blinds are now 3000-1500 and a 500 ante and I only have 16,000 chips left.My Big Blind and I have JJ and the button raises to 9,000 and I go all in. He calls me with 8-4 because he only has 6,000 in chips left. The flop was 9-8-4, he flopped two pair and won the pot. I had one chip left over for an ante and I was out in 23rd place.

There were 395 players last night and we started with only 2000 chips and the Commerce Demons must have been out of town because it was a good tournament for me until the last hand.

I made no mistakes caught some cards early and just could not get over the hump late in the tournament.

I would like to thank all my friends who called me and told me to continue the grind and forget about the last tournament. Its a new day and a new tournament and go have fun.

I am getting closer and closer to taken one of these events down, again thank you for the support.

Take Care...Be Safe...