
Most of those hours, unfortunately, were not in the $2500, as I busted out of that at the 150/300/25 level. My actual bustout hand was fairly uneventful (AK < 77 for 20 BB or so), but there are a few interesting hands, most of them against the same, not very good but thinking LAG opponent. The highlight is flopping a straight flush draw with K

2

on a Q

J

Tx 3x Jx board, leading all three streets and getting minraised on the river/shown a jack after I folded (I'd lay odds on the other card being a K or 9.) The river was the big decision in that hand - bluffing it cost me about a quarter of my remaining stack - and while the pot was big and I actually thought some of his hands would find a fold there, in retrospect I should probably just give up.
I also had time for four $525 satellites. I ran as bad as ever in three (the highlight was a flop all in against Rainkhan with QT on a QT6, 2 diamond board vs. Qdxd on the very first hand of a sat, which I of course lost), but managed to chop the fourth for a $1500 sat profit on the day. These continue to be ridiculously soft*, and I hope to be crushing them as soon as the runbad stops, since Rainkhan told me just how badly he's dominating these and I'm a better player ;)
*Fun flukey hand: I raise A

Q

in EP and get called by the BB, a 50ish man who basically looks and acts like more or less of a drunken hobo (but a nice guy!) The flop comes 8

7

2

, he looks at his cards - clearly checking the suit - and checks, I mentally say "awesome, lower flush draw no good" and bet; of course, he calls. The turn is the Q

, he checks again, I bet about half the pot to keep him in, he takes about 15 seconds and calls again. The river is a club, giving me the nuts and him a lower flush...except that now, he tanks for 30 seconds and checks. Well, okay, he doesn't have a flush, so I'll just bet 2/3 pot or so (half our stacks). Sure enough, he tanks and eventually calls one more time...then, while I'm flipping my cards and dragging the pot, turns over K

K

and softly asks "What else can I do here?" Wow.
After the sats ended, I went to watch Nath play the stud/8 event for a couple of hours. It's not my best game, but I have a good grasp of the fundamentals, and as Nath was at the table with John Juanda and next to a couple of other pros, it was very interesting seeing them all play. Juanda actually open completed a bring-in (and eventually showed down 262 2 tone), something I've never seen anybody good do before - worth thinking about.
Tomorrow is the NL shootout, where I get to play anywhere from 1 to 3 tables full of people like the KK guy. Please let me run good :)