HugePoker

I had a really hard, grueling Day 2 of the WSOP Main Event, with my chip stack dropping from 61K to 30,500. Yuck. I had some bad luck - early on I called a short-stack’s shove with AQ, mildly happy to see him turn over KT, moderately happy to see nothing on the flop, very happy to see a Queen on the turn, and crushed to see the King on the river to lose me a 30K pot.

There was a brief bright spot when I knocked out a shorter stack with my AA vs his JJ, which got me back to 64K, but I very soon got into a really ugly spot with my own JJ, having to fold the river on a AAT3K board after putting significant chips into the pot (my opponent had an Ace, so it was a good fold, but still painful).

For the last few hours of the night I had Ted Forrest on my right, but I never tangled with him. I raised & got reraised with AA but was shocked when the guy who reraised to 8600 folded for the remaining 18K in his stack. I guess I should have tried to trap him, but I just didn’t think he could put a third of his chips in and then fold.

I will be short stacked coming into Day three at noon tomorrow. Strangely enough there is a player at my table tomorrow with exactly as many chips as me, but everyone else will have more - some of them a lot more.

Given my stack and where the blinds are, it could realistically be a very short day for me, or I could double up early or chip up gradually and start a climb back into a healthy stack. I will have a long climb to get anywhere near making the money, but I’ve made that climb before. Noon tomorrow Vegas/Seattle time, start crossing your fingers, toes, intestines, whatever. I’m gonna need some luck and/or some good decisions, but hey, I’ve survived to day 3 of the main event, as I have done now for 4 out of 5 of the main events I’ve played, and I have my starting stack (which while way below average, is actually worth considerably more at the start of Day 3 than it was at the start of Day 1, so I have actually increased the value of my seat in the tournament just by surviving).

It should be exciting … watch for updates on my twitter page and on pokernews.

I had two days off after Day 2, and on the first I just couldn’t resist playing in the 20th and final day of the Wynn Summer Classic, which has (as always) been my redemption in an otherwise grim 2011 WSOP. It started off grim as well, with me spewing chips and rebuying left and right, getting my stack in with top-and-bottom-pair vs top-two (A5 vs A8 on an A85 flop), as well as other atrocities. At the end of the rebuy period I was in for $1225 and was really feeling stupid for playing a tournament on my day off from the main event, but things turned around, as they did in my first good cash at the Wynn. I ran well, I played well, I found good spots, I made the final table, I made the final six, I made the final three, and then I busted … third place for $11,787 - enough profit to pay for my main event buyin, and enough to make me mildly profitable for the trip, even if I don’t cash in the main event. In the Wynn tournament I cashed 5 times out of 12 entries, with a 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 12th place finish (out of fields ranging from 78 to 175 players), for total cash exceeding $30,000 on buyins totaling less than $10,000. Not too shabby.

If I can run (and play) as well in the main event as I did yesterday at the Wynn, I’ll be sitting on a mountain of chips by the end of the night.

Josh and Vanessa are both still in as well, both with a few more chips than me (41K for each), but both in need of some serious help tomorrow. If we all make it to Day 4 there will be some serious cause for celebration.

Time for some solid sleep and then some serious focus tomorrow…

[see my comment below for some WSOP numbers]