I won my first pot at showdown of the entire tournament at the 200/400/50 level. Then the next level I screwed up PF when gbecks opened 1800 in the CO and Fred Goldberg called the button. I had 66 in the BB and should have made it 7800 like my first instinct told me to; instead I flat called. Led 4k on a 432cc flop and gbecks called; when he shoved 2x pot on the 9d turn I thought it through and decided some sort of combo draw was his most likely hand and called. No, he had A5. The 6 turn just added insult to injury.

Just another painful reminder that one mistake is all it takes.

I'll probably play some cash for the next few days and then take off. Lingering around after a bustout is no fun.

edit: I had about 25k on my bustout hand.

I have 16,300 chips. I would very much like to have more but Michael Mizrachi runs like god against me postflop. To wit:

(all of these hands happened after the dinner break)

100/200/25. Nam Le limps in EP, another guy limps, I limp 74hh two off the button, SB completes, Grinder checks the BB. Flop is Q62 with two hearts. Grinder bets 625, I call, SB calls. Turn is 5h. Checks to me and I bet 1700. Only Grinder calls, and when the 9h hits the river he donks out 2k or so. sigh. I just fold, although maybe I should have bluff-raised. My hand isn't good anymore, anyway.

150/300/50. Grinder limps UTG, two off the button limps, I have KK on the button (side note, the first time I've picked up kings this entire trip) and make it 1700. Grinder calls and other limper folds. Flop comes Ah9h9x. Grinder donks 2500. Sigh. In frustration I call to see if he'll fire the turn. He shoves in his last 7500 or so on a 3h turn and even if I have "nut" outs I can't really fade that.

Later on, he limps, couple more limpers, I check KTo in the BB. Flop comes K72 with two clubs. I check because Grinder's always betting here; he bets 700, all fold, I call. Turn 4c and I lead 1600 (partly for value and partly to shut down action now that the board's getting scary). He thinks for a little while and calls. River is the 5c. Awesome. I wonder about bluffing here, but I have no idea how light he's willing to call me down. So I check, he thinks and checks and tables 42hh. Sweet.

I didn't pick up too many big hands, and every time I did I either won the blinds or got cracked. Here are the only other two interesting "big hands" I had.

25/50 still-- I pick up red QQ UTG and make it 200. UTG+1 calls; BB (by now the clear fish at the table) makes it 600. Yeah, looks like we're playing for a set here. I call and so does UTG+1. Flop is T97 with two diamonds and the BB leads for 2000. I drop it like it's hot; obviously he shows aces after the hand.

Now later at 150/300/50, two to my right limps and I try to make it 1300 with AQhh but grab a 500 chip instead of a 1k so it's only 800. Grinder makes it 2600 from the SB and my plan there is to just call and shove a lot of flops. Then the limper makes it something like 7500 cold. (This is the third time he's limp-reraised.) Now it's clear fold; Grinder also folds and the limper shows 33. He tells Grinder "I thought you were making a move because his raise was weak." Sigh. Who the hell knows what happens there if I make a normal raise.

I'm really tired right now. Every other tournament has started at 3:30 PM and played until 3:30 AM, which meant, despite the fact that I was getting up regularly between 10 and 11 Central time before I came here, I'm now suddenly on a 6 AM - 2 PM sleep schedule. And then they spring a 12:30 start on us. At least I registered the night before so I didn't have to get up early to do so, but I still got maybe 5 hours of sleep.

At least we only played five levels. And I didn't make any horrible mistakes. Gonna just rest tonight and come back refreshed tomorrow, hopefully with a better table draw. And running better.

Also, today was the first time I actually ate food on my dinner break, and I managed to drop 35% of my stack afterward (in just under two levels). I'm never eating dinner again. (I didn't even eat anything heavy or get sluggish. Food just makes me run bad.)

as much as i want to win i really can't complain about cashing for 80k. michael binger won and he played well so i can't fault that. it unfortunately for me came down to two big hands where i lost AK < JJ and AT < KQ and thus went from a 2:1 CL to out.

i'm not sure if i have any specific exciting stories; the name of my game was more or less "stay patient and focused and whenever you find aces someone else will pick up a hand too". i did make some clutch resteals in the late game (12-9 players) where i seem to have inadvertently folded a better hand a couple of times.

maybe tomorrow i'll have more. i'm too tired to put together a coherent narrative (or use the shift key). i'm going to take friday off and get myself physically and mentally sharp for the main event.

I have 54,000 in chips going back at 1k/2k. 18 of us left; tough field.

I'm too tired to post specific hands, but what's most notable is that I had to exhibit some extreme patience-- getting almost no hands the first few hours, followed by QQ in the BB vs. KK on the button that knocked me down to 200 at 75/150. By the end of 100/200/25 I had 23.5k.

How to go from 200 to 23,500 in 14 easy steps:

1)Call all-in in the SB with Q8o after button opens 32s and hold.
2)Shove 550 with K9o, get called by AQs, flop a 9.
3)Shove AQo from BB over CO open, get called by A3o, and chop. (Boo)
4)Shove 77 over UTG open, get called by A2s, double up.
5)Go to dinner break with 3k.
6)Come back from dinner (at 100/200 now), pick up AA in SB, shove over EP open, pick up pot.
7)Open QQ in LP, call all-in from the BB, hold vs. AKs.
8)Open JJ, get 3 callers, bet the KKK flop, take it down.
9)Open AA UTG, get called by BB, raise his donkbet on the Q42 flop. Now we're at 14k.
10)Wait a while.
11)Tell the dealer "give me a good flop, dealer," after checking 83ss in the BB when EP limps his 12x stack. Flop a flush, check-raise, get all-in vs. AA with the As and hold.
12)Raise AJo to 1200 after two limpers at 100/200/25. Check the AK9 flop 3 ways. Call 2k from the second limper (who has 2200 behind) on the turn. Call his last 2200 on the river, hoping he didn't backdoor a flush; feel relief when he shows KQ.
13)Donk off a little in small pots.
14)Go on break.

I ran equally as cold after the next break, folding my way from 23.5k at the end of 100/200/25 to 14k at 600/1200/200. I got a walk and then with 17k opened AA and doubled up through Theo Tran's QQ. Only played a couple more big pots after that.

Field's tough and my table is tough. It's gonna test me, but I feel that if I keep a clear and calm head and don't spaz out, things might go my way.

I busted out shortly after the first break. Important facts and hands:

2500 starting chips, blinds 25-25, 40 minute levels.

The table was a reminder of why i need to play live more: Mostly loose, mostly passive, occasionally bluffy, very straightforward.

Possibly interesting hands:

Second or third hand at the table I pick up AQs and open to 100 in MP. Older gentleman two seats down calls. Flop is K83 two hearts (I have spades). I c-bet 150; he calls pretty quickly. Turn is an offsuit 10; I think a few seconds and check; he bets 300 pretty quickly. I start to wonder if he's a floaty type and that's a timing tell; I don't have anything to go on so I just fold.

A very friendly and not-bad-but-not-good-either middle-aged lady raises in EP to 100 and I call with 55 on the button. Flop T64; check/check. Turn Q; check/100 because I know I have the best hand; she calls quickly. River J; she thinks a few seconds and checks. I check; AJ good. Sigh.

Weird hand at the end of the first level. Younger guy-- solid, straightforward, talks like he has some idea of what he's talking about but probably isn't legitimately talented, throws in a 100 chip UTG and says "100" before it hits, but the dealer doesn't hear him and says "call". Me-- three seats down-- and the guy after me had thrown in our calls already; a short stack down at the end of the table started asking if that was a raise or call and then there was some confusion; the floor ruled it a raise, and so I called again with black JJ. next to act called; short stack made it 475 with about 300 behind. UTG snap-shoves and I quickly fold; I had a few minutes to think about it in the midst of the confusion, and I decided it wasn't especially close. The short stack threw the rest in reluctantly with 99; UTG had KK and I was reassured that my reasoning and decision-making were still sound.

Not that I played every hand well. Later in the level I opened A8o to 3x two off the button and the button called. Flop was an ugly AJT; I check-called 300 but didn't feel good about it (I rationalized that he might be making a move based on the earlier hand, but I hadn't had any reason to think that. Turn was a 9 and I check-called 500, knowing even more surely I was behind but rationalizing it with my straight draw (and possible outs to an 8). The river bricked (6 or below-- I don't quite remember) and I checked and he checked back AKs. So, yeah, I was better off assuming he had it, which was my first instinct, but my desire for information and a nice pot led me to make bad decisions. (I later folded AQo from the SB to his 4x UTG and the fish on the button's call. The fish made it tempting but I felt it was still entirely too dangerous. And I hate calling him a fish because he was a nice guy, but he'll almost certainly never read this.)

So a little later I opened JJ in 4th position to 250 at 50/100 (with about 1500 total obviously getting it in) and the BB-- a middle-aged Asian who played too many hands, limped lots of weak suited hands, bitched, berated the dealer once, threw cards once, and generally seemed to be having a miserable time-- called. Flop was 866 two clubs and I bet 300 planning to get it in. He thought for a bit and called. Turn was the Ks and I shoved my last 950. He tanked, bitching about the king, thinking for a while, then finally calling with 77. Doubled back up to 3k.

Then I played my favorite hand of the day.

Not much in the way of hands or pots for a while. The last hand before break I call an UTG 4x shove with A5o on the button; she has A6o and spikes a 6. I think the "double or nothing before break" mindset makes this a good call; plus, if she's pushing A6o, she's not folding KQ, KJ, and probably her range is well wider than that.

I go into the break with 3025. Not long after the break the button opens to 400 and I shove 2525 on top with AhQd. He calls with KsKc. I flop a backdoor heart draw and turn a queen but ultimately do not make the best hand, and say good night and head upstairs.

I tried some online tournament grinding but bricked out of everything I played. It's only midnight or so, but I'm surprisingly tired. Not sleepy, just hazy.

Oh-- I didn't post last night because I was exhausted, but I did play in the, uh, "sick and go" (are we calling it that?) and that was a lot of fun, if not the most +EV table. I might have a post up soon, depending on how much I'm allowed to spoil.

All in all? I feel like coming here was definitely the right choice.