Wow, what a roller coaster yesterday. The WSOP was pretty amazing, the Rio was packed with people. Pros were everywhere, I saw a different big name every few feet. Chris Moneymaker was outside having a smoke, Freddy Deeb was standing around with some friends, Amir Vahedi was sitting on the floor smoking a cigar, Phil Gordon was standing for pictures, etc. I was loving it.
Dutch was with me, getting me psyched and prepped. I also ran into Tim from San Pablo, who's at the event for Card Player Magazine, and gave a little interview. The floor itself was huge, 100's of tables and thousands of people. The event had over 2,500 entrants and over 600 alternates. Everyone's strategy seemed to be to survive the first day, don't play unless you have AA or KK, and just hang onto your chips. But I've played large fields before... you really have to accumulate a large stack as soon as possible. That was going to be my plan, but I wanted to be careful about it.
The cards went in the air at 12pm and I bluffed down an early pot. Ok, so I wasn't being that careful. I just wanted to win sooo bad and I knew I'd never win through nearly 3,000 people unless I started taking chips. About 45 minutes in, I got dealt Js8c on the button. There were some limpers, so I raised in an attempt to steal. The big blind called me and the limpers folded. I was ready to give up the hand unless I really sensed weakness. The flop came Jc8s3s. The big blind checked, so I figured I had the best hand with my two pair and bet the size of the pot. He called, so I put him on a big pair or a flush draw. The turn was the Kd. The big blind bet into me, about half my stack. I thought about it for a while, decided he had AK or something, and raised all-in. He quickly called and turned over KK. I was drawing dead. I was ready to play for three days and went out in the first hour!
Oh man, that was pretty humiliating having to call my wife to pick me up, not even an hour since she dropped me off. I gave that interview to Tim and then went out right away. So many people rooting for me and I let them down almost instantly. I was numb and my ego was seriously crushed. My wife picked me up and I just wanted to go lay down in bed. She'd have none of that, however. She immediately drove me over to Binion's and practically forced me to enter their 2pm tournament. She refused to let me whimper all day and insisted I get back on the horse.
So I entered their tournament, a little depressed about my loss, but determined to win. And I did! Despite my big loss an hour earlier, I still had my A game with me. 1st place was $1500, which completely covered my entry fee at the WSOP. I had my biggest loss ever that morning, and then had my biggest win ever that afternoon. So it was pretty much a push for the day. (Heh, it was pretty funny, they started calling me the Terminator, which is what they sometimes call me at San Pablo. Once I get a big stack, I start looking to bust the short stacks with coin flips.) I also got a great t-shirt, saying that I won a tournament at Binion's. It's no bracelet, but it'll do for now.
Then I had to decide whether to use the winnings to enter the pot-limit WSOP event today. But I'm starting to think that I just got really lucky to lose my event, yet still have my bankroll intact. Half my bankroll on such a huge longshot probably isn't the best idea. I decided to just enter a bunch of little tournaments and wait for next year. Hopefully, by then I'll have $10k in my bankroll, which would make a $1500 entry fee much less onerous.