On dinner break now. Chips are a little low at 7,350. Have had AA four times, won the blinds or a small pot three times and lost when someone called my under the gun raise with KTo and flopped two pair.
Eating a sandwich in my room and relaxing for a few until it is back to the grind. Table is semi-tough, with three really good players.
Three tables over from me is former heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis.
I've spent the last few days relaxing and resting, only played for about 4 hours total. I did book a nice win playing 1-2NL at the Venetian. Biggest pot came when I flopped a straight flush and brought along another player with an ace high flush for the ride. It briefly crossed my mind that he might have a higher straight flush, but that wouldn't have been a problem as the Venetian has a $25,000 casino funded bad beat jackpot.
Had an lovely meal with a friend at Barolotta at the Wynn (Thank you to Bernie and Drew for the recommendation). I highly recommend a visit if you are in Vegas.
Tomorrow is my day at the Main Event. I move back to the Rio in the morning so I will be able to post during the dinner break.
I am selling a limited number of shares in my World Series Main Event action. Shares cost $100 each and will pay you .65% of my winnings. If you are interested please email me.
If you purchase shares this year and I fail to cash I will give you an option to purchase shares in my action next year at a higher return rate.
I doubled up very early on day two when the button raised my big blind. I had KJs and pushed all in. He debated and then called with QJo (I ran into this player a day later and he expressed regret over calling my all in, saying he was fairly certain he was dominated). No help on the flop, and I had more than twice as many chips. I stole a few blinds and antes to build my stack up but I could never really stay ahead of the curve of the increasing cost per round.
I got very short, having 5600 chips with the blinds rising to 1500/3000 and a 400 ante. I had two hands until my big blind and resolved to push on the first one if it was above average and to push on the second one regardless of what it was. Under the gun rasied, I pushed and a middle position player came over the top all in, a very large stack. UTG folded and late position turned over KK, matched up against my A8o. An ace on the flop and another on the turn gave me a nice double up. UTG told me he had folded AQ, and would have knocked me out. The very next hand I picked up AKo and raised, another player reraised and I pushed all in. He had 77 and I was saved once again by another A on the flop.
Later, after a few hands that took some chunks out of me, I raised with 99 and the big blind called. Flop was 883 with two diamonds. The big blind pushed all in and I had to put him on a hand. A higher pair than mine seemed unlikely, I thought he would have reraised me all in preflop if that was the case. A8? Wouldn't he play that slower and try to be sure and take all my chips? What about two diamonds? He didn't reraise preflop, so probably not AKd or AQd. I put him on QJd. There was too much money in the pot to fold, and I was sure I would be a favorite, so I called. He showed QTd. I was pleased my read was correct, but disaster struck on the turn, with the ugly, nasty King of Diamonds falling. I was still drawing live, but an 8 or 9 failed to uncover on the river and my tournament was over.
Stay tuned for further updates, and learn why my trip will be extended.
I feel like I played well all day. I made a mistake misreading a board early, but it didn't hurt me too much. I took 1,100 chips off a guy on the fourth hand of the tournament with KK vs KQ. In the first two levels I saw one of the most miraculous things to ever happen playing poker: I had AK five times... and it won each of those times.
I had a major suckout after getting priced into a pot with 77 vs QQ, making runner runner for a straight. After getting moved to a new table I was severely short stacked. I waiting for my chance and pushed with JJ, getting called by TT. Those of you who have played with me know how much I hate Jacks (There are three ways to play them and they're all wrong), but they managed to hold up this time, more than doubling me up.
Not long after that I called an all in with AQs. The player had pushed three out of the last six hands and I felt like he was likely to have a less than premium hand. He, of course, showed AK. I was ready to make my exit when the flop came AQA for a flopped boat. This gave me some breathing room and it wasn't long after that when we entered round for round play and reached the money. I made a great fold after trusting my read, throwing away AQs after a raise. The player showed AA when no one called.
Blinds and antes were getting high at this point and I spent a great deal of time looking for hands to push in with, but finding very few of them. After my table broke and I sat down at my new one my first hand was TT. I push and am called by 88 and double to 15,400.
As the first day of the Main Event approached I decided to try to win my way in by playing single table satellites. The buy ins for these range from $225 to $1030, with the winner getting tournament chips that are good toward events. What often happens as the end of these approach is the players deciding to split the prize pool so as not to come away empty handed. I took my shot and came up with enough that I felt comfortable buying in to the Championship event. At some point during the day I realized that I really can play with this crowd.
Yes, I will be playing in the largest poker tournament in history on Monday. The total prize pool is expected to approach $90,000,000.
Ran into Doctor Pauly shortly after he busted from the Celebrity/Media event.
Celebrities spotted today: Penn Jillette, Billy Burke, Dick and Vince Van Patton, Cindy Margolis, the lovely and incredibly nice Shannon Elizabeth (who caused me to lose money after placing a last longer bet, with my opponent taking Cindy -- Shannon apologized to me after busting out) and porn icon Ron Jeremy.
Poker pros I spoke to: I thanked Phil Gordon for his pre-tourney advice and he asked how it turned out. He seemed genuinely excited for me when I told him how deep I had gone. When I ran into Joe Hachem before the start of day two and thanked him for his advice he asked how I did and when I told him I was still in he also seemed very thrilled, calling for a high five. Johnny Chan, Kenna James also.
Day one of the tournament is finished, and I am still in. We are in the money, with 157 players left. I have 15,400 chips. I am too tired to write more but I will try to fill in tomorrow as time allows. Play resumes with Level 11 at 2:00PM and will continue until 9 players are left.
Pros I spoke to today: Phil Gordon, Annie Duke, Greg Raymer and Phil Laak. Edit: Completely forgot to mention 2005 Main Event champ Joe Hachem who was gracious enough to offer me some good advice before the start of the tournament. Phil Gordon also had some valuable insight for me.
Edit: Just saw that I am listed on CardPlayer.com's chip count list.
Made it to the dinner break in my tourney. Don't have a lot of time, but we started with 2803 players and there are now roughly 500 left. I am short stacked, with 2550 chips. Blinds will be 200/400 with a 50 ante when play resumes.
I arrived in Sin City after an uneventful flight. After picking up my car and making my way to the Rio I started the long trek to find the World Series registration booth. After seemingly walking back to Indiana, I found registration to be painless, taking maybe 10 minutes. After wandering through the tournament room for a few moments, I headed back down the hall to attempt to meet Wil Wheaton, who has been covering the Series for PokerStars.
Wil was in the PokerStars lounge and I introduced myself. He offered some very good advice on my first WSOP tournament and helped me get over my jitters of having just dropped $1500 to enter a freaking World Series of Poker event. Thanks Wil.
Also in the lounge were pros Greg Raymer and Isabelle Mercier. Both were speaking to others so I didn't bother them. Isabelle is a stunningly beautiful woman. Her pictures, as good as they look, do her no justice at all.
Other pros I have passed in the halls: T.J. Cloutier, Chris Ferguson, Mike Caro, Kathy Liebert and Howard Lederer.
I found my friend Jeff who had just busted from the 7 Stud High/Low event and we headed to dinner.
My event starts tomorrow at noon. If I can't sleep I may go play a few satellites tonight. I'll post about those if something interesting happens. I will try to post as time allows tomorrow.
Thanks to my DVR I very rarely see advertisements on TV. This one has been making the rounds online, and it's worth seeing. After watching it take a look at the documentary about how it was filmed.
But it is pretty damn cool. I want one.
See Autoblog for the details.
So I've decided to go to Las Vegas and play in the World Series of Poker. I'll be entering Event #37 which starts on Tuesday July 25. I will also be playing some satellites to the Main Event, which will hopefully go well enough for me to play in the big dance.
I will be attempting to blog as much of the trip as I can. Not everything that happens in Vegas has to stay there.
This new version of the web site is very preliminary, and it is unlikely I will have time to get everything working before my trip (see post to follow). As always, I design for web browsers that follow established standards. This does not include Internet Explorer. If you need a modern web browser, please visit Mozilla and download Firefox.
