I'm out

Blinded down to about 2500.  Utg limps, sb completes, I push with 33 in the BB.  UTG calls with QQ and I'm out.

Third break

4525.  Card dead.  AK twice once losing 2000 to a short stack allin with TT and once had to fold on 789 flop.  Bled off the rest with some bluffs and steals gone wrong. Blinds 100/200+25 ante when I return.  Need to gamble for a double up soon.

Second break

9375. I am a folding machine for the first hour back. Finally a get a monster after two limpers and I raise in late with ATo. One caller. Flop comes JTx. He checks I bet he calls. Turn another rag. Check I bet almost half my stack he folds  phew.  Thanks ultra tight image.

I get 88 utg and make my standard 3xBB raise. Ultra tight Utg+1 starts to think. I know I am toast if he calls. He looks over at me so I look away and try to feel disinterested. He immediately folds.  That's about all the interesting hands I've been involved in.

We lose the other stars qualifer when he check raises allin with the board 679T and of course gets called by 88.  He's replaced with a short stack who plays 2 hands, overbetting with pushed each time. The good agg maniac is up to over 15k and dangerous now.

Lost about 25 tables so far. One guy still hasn't shown up yet and is pretty close to me in chips

First break

7775.  Playing mostly small pairs and KK which lost about a 1000 pot to A5o who limped and called my raise preflop. Aand 2 clubs on the flop and I fire two bets before giving up and checking down the river hoping he had a busted flush draw.

Another loose maniac playing about 75% of hands folded to him had been raising my BB 4 orbits on a row. I finally got sick of it and defended his 3xBB raise with 62o. Flop comes K53 and I bet out. He calls. Turn another K. I think a bit and bet again. He calls after thinking. I am 90% sure he doesn't have a king. River 8. I fire my third shot and after about 1 min he calls with QQ. Geez maybe he does get good cards on my BB.

Table is fairly aggressive with few unraised flops. We lost one player after 40 mins.  Raised and reraised preflop. Flop rags.  Bet call. Turn K. Big 2000 bet. Other person thinks awhile and pushes. Orginally raiser calls with AKs (two spades on board) and pushes has KK for a set.  River comes 7 of spades making the flush but also a full house and we lose a doyles room qualifier. 

One person to my right hasn't shown up yet.

Gotten 33 44 66 KK and the rest of my hands I've played have been steals.

No pros. One other PS qualifier. One full tilt one doyles room.

Table 170, seat 4

10 mins to go until it starts and so far its heads up between me and another pokerstars guy. Easy money.

Shuffle up and deal!

I managed to get over to the Rio for the opening hand of the world series main event. It was a madhouse there, you literally could not move through the aisles that divided up the 200 poker tables.  There was a constant background hum of chips being riffled and you could feel the tension in the airspace over each poker table as everyone had their gameface on.

I hung around for a few minutes after they started, half expecting to hear a dealer yell out “seat open!” Indicating that someone had busted out in the first hand, but it didn't happen.

I headed back to our room at the Venetian, if you could call it that. More like an apartment!  I had heard some people (dave caputo I think) mention to tip the front desk clerk when checking in. So I did that, nervously flashing a $20 bill while asking what the best room available was. Turned out that for my $99 priceline.com reservation, she was willing to upgrade me to a 1500 sq ft suite overloooking the strip. 2 washrooms, 3 TVs, living and dining room, jacuzzi tub and a great view.  I'll have to try that one again soon.

Once I get internet access I will post some pictures.  The other down side of being too cheap to pay 10/day is that I have no idea how the first day went.  You readers probably know more about what happened than I do!

The dreams...

... have begun. Most of them involve Allen Cunningham and two queens. You can interpret that one however you like. Coincidently, Allen is currently the biggest money winner at the WSOP this year - so I was knocked out by the best at the Bahamas. The other weird one started out with me sitting down to play on the first day, but it had turned into CFA writing tournament. That wasn't fun.

My first day of play will be on the third "first" day - Saturday July 9. I'm flying out tonight, so at least I'll have a chance to relax and get over the jet lag. If I make it deep into the tourney it's going to be a long grueling few days. Dan Harrington, whose books I have been studying, noted that last year at the WSOP main event, he was the only person at the final table that played on the second out of two starting days. Players on the first day would have had a day off before the marathon began. So if I don't do well, I'll know exactly what to blame. That and the weird dreams.