EPT Copenhagen: So Close

"Fold or hang tough. Call or raise the bet. These are decisions you make at the table. Sometimes the odds are stacked so clear there's only one way to play it. Other times, like holding a small pair against two over cards, it's six to five, or even money, either way. Then it's all about feel, what's in your guts."

Mike McDermott from the movie Rounders

One of the best quotes from one of the best movies. It can't describe my tournament with anymore precision. Day 1 was jet lag day, but it worked. Get it in good and win. Control the pots. Day 2 was a struggle, card dead, but one last hour rush of aggression and nicely played hands kept me in contention. Day 3 was seize the moment, play with no fear, and enjoy every minute as we entered the money and set ourselves up for more. Day 4 was the craziest day of my poker life. It was the day of the biggest bluff I've ever pulled off. A bluff about feel, guts, your opponents, and knowing something would work. It did. It took me from 11th of 12 remaining players to in contention. A couple well timed hands later I was playing with one table remaining. The goal was so close. A major title against a talented field.

The final table was a struggle. It's always tough to win tournaments without flopping pairs and always having inferior holdings to opponents, but with the stroke of luck on the shortstack, my 44 beat 66 all in. I still had a shot. Then, I kissed my shot away with an incorrect read. See quote above. One critical mistake in my eyes over the course of 5 days. Not all that bad, but given my holdings today, I needed to be slightly better than that.

I can't help but smile when thinking about the last five days and how much fun I've had. I came up just short of a huge goal of mine, but recognize how much I've matured as a competitor.. I can smile because I never lost faith in knowing I'd win or in my own abilities. No matter what happened, I kept the game in front of me while always telling myself to pay attention to the 3-8 other opponents. I know I fought with my heart, my guts, and with every inch of poker talent I have. A taste of a major no limit live final table is intoxicating, but tournament players must always remember, the next time around, you all start with the same amount of chips. You start from scratch with your poker tools and your guts and of course, hopefully a little lady luck.

First WSOP Final Table Thoughts

When I ran track in high school, there was a feeling before every race that can only be described if you have it. I'm assuming anyone who has competed in some sort of sport or game knows the feeling. That's basically what how I've felt for the last two full days. Going for the ultimate goal in poker, a WSOP bracelet, was every bit of what I hoped for. Falling two players short actually makes me understand how precious that title is to so many people.

After finally getting a chance to settle down emotionally and read through some of the hands on the live updates, I'm very pleased with my performance. I would say the key hand of the tournament came with two tables to go. I was in the middle of the pack with around 220,000 in chips and had Ad Ks Ts 2s. The SB raised to 18k at 3k/6k blinds and I called. The flop came Ah Kd 7d. He checked and I bet 25k which he quickly called. The turn was a 5h. He immediately bets the pot for 86k. Now at this point, I had a little over 100k in addition to that bet. It didn't really look to me like he could fold many hands when he makes this size of a bet. Then I ran through the options. He can't have the nut flush draw for obvious reasons because I have the Ad. I am most worried about some sort of set, but nothing like that made sense. AA or KK or 77 pretty much needs to try to protect that board with either a check raise on the flop or a pot bet on the flop. AK would probably bet as well. I just basically decided to go all in after thinking for about 2 minutes, and then he thought for about 3 minutes and folded. That gave my stack a nice boost and I was able to play lots of hands and put pressure on the table before the final table.


The final table was exciting. As everyone who knows me knows, I love competition and this is the closest I've been to both the coveted prize and 230k. I'm happy with my final table play and would actually say I was a little card dead and less aggressive than I'd hope to be early on, but I wanted to feel out the table. I had only played against two of the players at the final table for a good period of time, so I wanted to feel it out a little. I basically maintained a decent stack with a couple of rivered full houses and good value bets as well as the occasional bluff. After I knocked out a player in 7th, the eventual champion Jason went on a huge rush. He busted out several players and had a big stack get all his money in against him with 2 outs, which is rare to do in PL Omaha. Then we got to 3 handed and I found myself in 3rd place with around 700-750k I believe with the other two stacks somewhere close to 1.7 mill and 1.2 mill. The momentum wasn't on my side at the time and I think a short stack has a huge disadvantage in PL Omaha, so I made a move on a decent flop with KKJ3 thinking that I get a fold a good amount of the time and even against top set, I'm still 30%. Of course, he had top set and won. The cash is my biggest live tournament cash and gives me lots of room to play events I want in this WSOP.


I was excited and exhausted about it all, but am ready to get back to another final table. The next event will be a $2500 NL Hold 'em event on Friday. I'll keep doing the Twitter updates from my icekevin name. I can't say enough about all the people that supported me throughout this. The text inbox was full and getting home and reading the people following really meant a lot. I'm sure there will be more to follow at some point.

Wynn Poker Classic Event 1

So I played event 1 of the Wynn Poker Classic which was a 545 buy in and attracted 450 players. Overall, I love playing the first event of tournaments because they attract a wide range of skill levels and generally generate the most excitement aside from the main event of any particular series. After a horrendous run in LA, I was confident and ready to go. Day 1 actually was painful. I've never seen more atrocious play in my entire poker playing career barring the first week on Party Poker. I was slightly amazed because although almost every single live tournament is pretty horrendous in play, they are usually never this bad. Actually in LA, I had a couple of decent first few tables from what I could witness. One guy had accumulated about 130k in level 4 from starting stack of 10k. The hands of consequence were extremely rare. I was playing extremely passive the entire day because when I was actually in a hand with someone and would just call with a solid hand, they would proceed to fire every single betting round. There were probably 4 pots where it went bet call, bet call, bet call and I scooped good size pots. They were the type of players that tended to think that as long as no one raised, their hand was good. Anyway, after a painful AK lay down right before the dinner break on Day 1, I battled back and ended the day with around 85k which was good for 20th out of 50. I actually survived an AK vs JT all in right before the bubble. Coming into Day 2, I was thrilled because I knew I had around a 20bb stack with blinds being at 2k/4k and that was plenty of chips against this field.

Day 2 was hell. I got there and notice that they had colored us up to the next level of chips and raised the level. The floor said that we only had a minute left at the lower level and they wanted to save time and color us up the night before. Color up is a term used to describe the removal of certain lower denomination chips as blinds go up. I could have sworn we had 20 minutes left in the level. The kicker was that there were two day ones playing down to 25 each day. The first Day 1 ended on 3k/6k while we ended on 2k/4k. Moral of the story is that they shouldn't have done this in the first place, but they definitely shouldn't have jumped to the higher level of the two. So while I'm expecting to go in with 20bb, I actually have around 14. Anyway, my table wasn't all that tough from the people I recognized from the day before. There was a solid girl about my age that was across the table that was at my table from Day 1, but with both our stack sizes, I knew if we collided, it would likely be in a situation neither of us could avoid. We lost 20 players rather quickly and I was dealt nothing the first level. We move up to 4000/8000 with a 1k ante and I still have around 80k because of a few timely shoves. Then some guy from Paris, who had easily won 20 pots on Day 1 and 2 by sucking out on someone shoves 280k from the cutoff. LOL!!! This guy tended to bet the amount that correlated to the strength of his hand. He was just precious. I look down at black kings and shove my stack in the middle from the small blind. He rolls over black queens and proceeds to beat me with a better flush.


WAIT WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????????????????? That is correct. The board rolls out T 9 8 all spades giving him more outs (jack or queen). The turn is the J of spades and his straight flush knocks me out of the tourney in 29th. It was actually my first big pair of the entire tournament. I did not see JJ-AA until that point. With 65,000 to first and a stack that would have handily put me in contention, I had nothing to feel but the urgent need to dropkick a slot machine. I did my standard quiet, "good game" and walked to the parking lot trying not to swear under my breath as I am trying extremely hard to quit swearing. Anyway, this is the type of thing that makes me never want to play poker, something that is currently my career.

Poker is just super funny. The last time I felt this confident about my abilities in something was when I used to ace finance tests in college. With some inevitable pressure involved (grades), I would sit down with full confidence and just get in the zone. If I made a mistake, it was likely just something that was lazy. Even when the problems weren't completely clear, I could eliminate a few options and proceed as follows. After playing now full time for a little over a year, I feel like poker is extremely similar. The pressure has changed because of the money and competition, but the overall confidence and methodical rationality it takes to succeed is exactly the same. Unfortunately, unlike in college where the Scantron would reward me for the correct answers, the poker deck does not always follow the precision of a multiple choice test. Either way, I'm prepared for downswings, but today was just an ugly, ugly beat.

Out of Main Event

I was reraised non stop, card dead all day, and out of the main event around 950th place. Again, I'm about 300 short of the money and in some pain. I played as well as I can, but just wasn't allowed to win big pots or get chips easily. You have to get lucky to win this tournament. With the great structure, skill can only take you so far. If you miss every single flop, you can't win.

The bust out hand came when I was down to 30k with 15 big blinds. An aggressive player opened two from the button for 5200. I was on the button with A9 of hearts and reshoved. The big blind called 30k of his 70k stack with AQ off. The other guy folded. The board bricked out and I was eliminated. Would have been nice for a little bit of justice from the 2k event with a river 9 or something, but it wasn't meant to be. It is just one tournament and when you have to battle as the short stack for pretty much 18 out of 24 hours, the tourney can get boring. Today, I hung around and tried to find a good spot. I thought my play was completely standard and normal even though I was behind. The guy was opening plenty of pots and I wouldn't play it any other way. For AQ to overcall takes a real strong read. I wasn't given any respect from this player all day though and he will likely muppet off all his chips to the other good players at the table.

Thanks for all the support along the way. Who knows if I'll be back next year. No need to think about poker for a while. I'll probably be updating less in the next month or so as I'm going to be in San Diego, Chicago, Cleveland and playing very little poker. I might make a trip somewhere in there to another casino possibly Atlantic City or something.

Through Day 2

I thought I would give a quick update for everyone interested. I ended the day with 61,600 after starting with 37,525. I was quickly down to 22k after losing blinds, antes, and one small pot against an all in player. Then I rallied back to 50k. Then I crumbled down to 16k at one point. There were tons of hands none of which I really want to detail right now. The day was long and I fought hard the whole way. Entering the 500/1000 level with 17000 chips and fighting to eventually win a big pot to double up felt great. The last two hours were also part of the ESPN feature table even though I spent most of the time folding. Maybe I'll get some TV time or something.

One hand before I go to bed. The biggest pot of the tournament for me.

Early position limps for 1000. I complete the bet from the small blind and the big blind checks. I have K9 of diamonds. Flop comes Qh 8d 3s. Everyone checks. The turn is a Jd giving me a flush and gut shot straight draw. I decide to take a stab at it and bet 2500. The BB folds and the original limper raises to 5500. This raise size felt real strong to me, so I called hoping to hit one of my outs and get paid off. The river was a beautiful 2d. At this point, I had 27k left and I had seen this guy make one big call earlier in the day, so I thought that if he really was strong like I suspected when he made the raise that he would pay me off. He did with 9 10 of spades for a turned straight. I was on the lucky draw for a big pot. Nothing exciting happened after that except for a nice round of shots at the ESPN featured table. I doubt there will be much brought in for TV from our 2 hour session there.

I am Nostradamus, almost...

From an earlier blog

"The WSOP is basically over. One more event remains. Of course, it's the main event, 10,000 buy in NL Texas Hold 'em. My guess for the number of players is 6865."

The total number of players this year is 6844. That's a pretty good guess. Let's hope my playing ability tomorrow is as good as my guessing ability. Day 2A tomorrow. I hope I'm updating the blog at around 2:30am.

My great Day 1 fold

I totally forgot to put probably the most crucial hand of the day into my summary.

At the 200/400 level with 50 ante, I had around 46k. I raised under the gun with AK off to 1100. I received 5 calls. With the pot now at around 5600, the flop was Ac 6c 2s. I led out with 3600. I received a call from the player behind me. The next player to act made to 10,500. The other two players folded. At this point, I had a decision. This player had around the same stack as me with about 40k. I figured in my head that the odds he raised with a flush draw here are between 5-1%. He seemed to be one of the more intelligent players at the table. I basically just had to put him on a hand and then make a big decision. Just calling here was not an option because any flush draw can't get a free card here, especially considering the guy behind me was the most likely guy on a flush draw. Furthermore, the guy behind could also be slowplaying a set even though I ruled this out after some thought. Not many players are willing to let 3 players behind them in the pot with a set when an obvious flush draw is on board. I relayed this logic right over to the player who I believed was a good player and thought about how I would play the hand. Would I be raising here with a worse ace? Pretty much never. Would I be raising here with AK, probably not often. Would AK be a possibility for this guy? Judging by the amount of 3 betting he had done, I don't see a flat call with AK as being a big possibility. He has to have a set. He knows I've played pretty good so far. He knows I raised under the gun meaning I have a strong hand. For him to make that raise in this situation, I just have to be beat. I folded my hand. The other player called. The turn was a K of spades. The first player checked, the on the flop raiser moved all in for like 30k. The other guy called. The raiser showed 66 for a set and the other player had K 10 of clubs for the nut flush draw. I got up from the table and pumped my fist as I know that this type of hand could have easily knocked me out of the tournament.

Day 1 Complete

I just got back from Day 1 of the WSOP. I'm at 37,725 chips from the starting stack of 20,000. I was as low as 9,700 and as high as about 49,000. It was really a strange day as I felt aggression and pressure against me almost all day. I can't count on two hands even how many times I was three bet preflop. The caliber of play is different to say the least. While I sit with some players that are incredibly tough to play against at times, there are others that shouldn't be in a ten dollar rebuy tournament. All in all, I think I played pretty well today, and I had a strategy going in that I was going to play careful and solid. I doubled up when I was at 17,500 when I called a late position raiser from my UTG limp with 44. Flop came 4 10 K. I checked dark and he bet 2600. I just sensed a lot of strength so I went ahead and raised hoping to get it in. He put me in and showed AK and the turn card 3 sealed the deal. I was up to 35,000. Then, I just played a bunch of small pots until the last level. I raised to 1100 with 200/400 blinds 25 ante with AA in late position to be called by an old man out of the big blind. Flop was a scary Q 9s 10s. He checked and I checked behind. Turn was a 6. He bet 2,000 and I called. River was a 9. He bet 6,000 and I called. He showed A7 and I won. That was the only other real big pot I played in. I had a couple of smaller all ins when I had 20k. One I lost to AQ with 55 and the other I won with AK vs J7. I can't complain though as surviving day 1 is the first step towards winning the tournament. I'm happy with how I played and can't wait to start again on Monday Day 2A.

It's Main Event time baby

The WSOP is basically over. One more event remains. Of course, it's the main event, 10,000 buy in NL Texas Hold 'em. My guess for the number of players is 6865. I've had millions of questions from people about whether I'm buying in or not. I've alloted a certain percentage of my bankroll for the WSOP and early on, it wasn't looking so good. After that 11k cash though, I'm basically parlaying that into the main event. Aside from that, I really believe that I can play with anyone in the field. I really believe that I am fully capable of winning the event should luck fall my way. I also believe that to be as talented as I am and not be in the biggest poker tournament in the entire world is just not acting as if. I've just closed out an online month that is probably my 2nd best month ever (my best month is of course when I won the 100k tournament on Full Tilt). I'm playing with tons of confidence. I've had big wins on every site, and it's only proper if I go play a deep stacked no limit tournament for all the marbles. I probably wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't play in this event. It would be a complete waste. While 10,000 for one tournament is absolutely a ton of money, I can just as easily say I won 22k on Full Tilt and a WSOP seat in that main event. I can say I won a main event seat and 1700 in the 2k. I can say I won a main event seat in the Stars tourney. The only thing I haven't done is been on a list that says I won a seat. I'm planning on playing the Day 1A because I want to just relax for 3 days if I am going on, and I want to get over it quickly if I'm not moving on. All in all, I tried to always keep telling myself that the WSOP this year would define my career. When it was going bad, I was basically considering myself a failure. At the same time though, I was just winning big tournaments online where I started as a poker player. I've basically just learned to define my success by what shows up on the spreadsheet at the end of the day/month/year. I expected to have good shot at a bracelet and maybe that will have to wait, or maybe it's just a couple weeks away.......

No WSOP Success, Little Break

I've continued to have no WSOP success, and it's becoming more frustrating by the hour. Every time I check an update on one of the WSOP reporting sites and don't see my name I'm angry. I've had a few poor days online to top that all off. I've had a lot of bubbles and have made some mistakes that may be telling me it's time to refocus and get back on track. The next few days are probably a good time to take a break, play less or maybe something other than tournaments. I have had problems controlling my emotions late in these tournaments online lately. This is really something that comes and goes for me in the game of poker. When you are playing online, there really isn't anyone to hold anyone accountable for their actions or emotions. When playing a live event, I easily keep to myself because I don't want to be perceived as a loose cannon asshole that is inconsiderate of everyone around him. At home, only the dog really can see how I act aside from my roommate. My emotions can get to me at times. Emotions cloud judgment and lead to poor decisions.

One thing I think happens to me is after being successful online for consistent periods of time, I begin to lose focus. I forget everything that went into my success in previous weeks and months. To be successful in this game, you have to be a hard worker. It' s just like any other job. You have to study the game, study the players, study your mistakes, study your successes, study your crucial hands, study, study, study, and learn. You can't just rest on your laurels at any point because the game is always changing. There is always a new strategy to learn. Because the game is based on other human counterparts, there are infinite different strategies that must be employed at different times. Those that adapt and succeed will win. Adaptation must come both before and after success.

R.I.P. Tim Russert

Main Event at Caesar's tomorrow

I decided to play a $340 satellite to the main event of the World Series Circuit at Caesar's. To make a long story short, I ended up winning a seat when the top 6 chip stacks gave the 7th place stack $300 each. I brought up the idea of a deal and it worked, so I'm in for $640 + $340 in another satellite. Great value for a tournament of this caliber. The structure is deep and great, so I hope to draw a weaker table and do what I do. If I don't draw a weaker table, it doesn't matter because I'm going to just act as if. (see previous blog if you don't know what this means)

I actually ran awesome in the satellite, but also played great and took advantage of some bubble situations with aggression. I was quickly down to 1300 by the 4th level and shoved with 5 9 of hearts against the BB who called with A10. 5A5 flop 10 on the turn, 8 on river and I doubled up. After that I rushed up to about 10,000 and back down to 4,000 and back up and back down. Finally with 3 tables of 8 left, I pushed for 5200 UTG with 300/600 blinds 75 ante. The button made a tough satellite call with AJ for 60-70% of his stack. I had A10 and spiked a 10 on the turn. After that, it was really no turning back. I made one bad play that I can think of and it was at the final table. With 9 players left, a guy limped for 3000. Now he had limped probably 5 times before this and just folded to any raise. The next guy goes all in for about 21k. I have around 46k and look at 10 10 in the hijack. I think I should have folded, but I decided to call. The other guy who limped now calls. Flop comes J 7 7. Limp caller pushes the rest of his 12-14k in the middle and I call as he shows AK. The other guy shows KK. I win the side pot and a few chips on the hand, but it could have been a disaster. Either way, it probably should have never happened if AK would just raise and KK would reraise. Then it would be an easy fold, but I felt like the guy to my right was starting to pick up on this guy's limp/folds and thus the second shortest guy at the table, he knew he could pick up some chips here. In reality he had KK and I was crushed. It all worked out though and I'll be playing tomorrow.

1K at Caesars WSOPC and Cleveland (or is it Zevelanddddd)

Your Cleveland.....Cavaliers!!!!! Is everyone as excited as I am for the playoffs in Cleveland? Cleveland has risen from the late season dead to show that they are still a team to beat in the East. I guarantee you ladies and gentlemen that Boston does not want to face us in the second round. In fact, they are probably legitimately scared. Why? The Cavaliers are running on all cylinders. They are in the playoff intensity mode and they have the best player in the league playing for them. The chemistry problems that we keep worrying about came together last night in game 2 when the Cavs made a statement game by mauling the Wizards at home. For those of you that have ratted on Mike Brown, you have to give him credit for making moves to put this team in position to win. Finally, we saw why Ben Wallace and Wally were brought into the mix. Ben Wallace fought right back with huge defensive plays early in game 2 to set the tone. When the Wizards started fouling hard, Ben was right there to lay someone out in his paint. Wally finally started nailing shots. When we have shooters out there, Gibson, Wally, and strong inside defense of Wallace and Varajao, we are very tough to beat. We are simply deeper than the Wizards and should beat this team in a max of 5 games.


For the Lebron fans out there, I read a great article about him yesterday that you should all check out. Lebron is hands down my favorite athlete in any sport, so my opinion might be biased.

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/ussports/story/0,,2275032,00.html


Poker

Played the 1K WSOP circuit event at Caesar's yesterday. It had an excellent structure with 4k in starting chips, 25/25 starting blinds and hour levels. I was quickly up to 11k after the first two levels giving myself an excellent position early on. I won a big pot with JJ early and made a couple of moves to get my stack. The JJ hand was interesting. An UTG raiser to 150, another loose caller, another caller and I have the button with JJ. I could raise here, but I was convinced I could find a great spot by staying patient and keeping pots small preflop. I flat called. The flop came 10 9 6 two diamonds. All 4 players checked to me and I bet about 600 into the 750 pot. I received two callers. Turn was 3 of clubs. It checked to me again and I fired 1500 into the pot. The other loose caller who I just saw blow up with Q9 off suit preflop calls. River is 3 of spades. He quickly checks and I really thought I could get it all about 2500 of it. So I put it in and he quickly called and tapped the table. That was the extent of the big hands that occurred for the next 2-3 levels. I basically tried to stay active, but was never dealt a big pair or anything. I eventually called a shortstack's 2k all in when I had about 9500 in chips 200/400 blinds with 50 ante. It was an easy call even though I had the blinds, button and cutoff to get through. I won the 88 vs AJ with a flopped set. After that, there weren't many big confrontations, but with blinds rising quickly right before the 300/600 level change with about 10 minutes to go in the level I picked up 88 again UTG and raised to 1200. It folds to the BB who goes all in. At this point, there is 500 (antes)+200(bb)+1200(my raise)+ 5500 of his total. I have to call 4300 more into this 7400 pot. Another tough situation here even though I know lots of people at my table would quickly call here. I have about 11000 before the hand, so this represents about half my stack. I decided to call and looking at pokerstove giving him a range of 66+, AJ+ KQ, I have 45% equity, so having roughly 1.75 to 1 in pot odds, I don't think it's a bad call. What factors in here though is do I lose fold equity in the later rounds. Online you probably do, but in live tournaments fold equity is actually achieved with a lower M or BB count. I ended up losing the race when he showed AK KK7 flop 6 9.

I was kind of crushed because being so patient for so long you just have to hope to win the big race. I was down to a shoving stack and eventually settled on J8 off suit when it folded to me in the cutoff at 300/600 blinds and I had 4500 chips. I pushed was called by 10 10 Bink Jack and I'm still alive. Then I raised with 9 10 of clubs and was called by a looser older guy. Flop came Ac 8c 3h. In playing against this guy, he floated with hands and wasn't afraid to put people to the test. So I just decided to take the play away from him and pushed about 7500 into a 4800 ish pot. He folded and I was healthy again. Same guy called again when I raised in the cutoff with A5 off. Flop came AQ10 rainbow. I fired 3k into the pot and he shoved 13k in the middle. I had about 7k left and was put to the test here. If I have a dominated ace, I'm crushed and out. I still have 7k if I fold which is a little over 10 BB's. I decided to call after really thinking for about 3 minutes. My reasoning here was that QJ, 10J, KQ, Ax are in his range enough here. I know this guy would raise with AK or AQ b/c I saw it several times and any of those pairs over 10's. When really breaking this down, I looked at A10 being the killer hand and only one he had. AJ also and KJ was weird because I would have expected him to slowplay. I called and he showed A6, so we were basically even to chop. I protected some chips here, but made a decent call in my opinion. Then I was moved to another table shortly after losing a small pot to a shortstack with KJ of spades vs 77. At the new table UTG raises to 1800, the button reraises to 7k. I pinch an A, and I pinch another A. AA!!!! FINALLY THEY HAD ARRIVED!!! I'm all in for about 8500 I think. Other guy folds and the other guy has KK. SUPERCOOLER!!!! K54 flop. Good game Kevin. Out in about 46th of 237 players with 27 getting paid in a terrible way to go out. I played well today, but I need a little break to get refocused for the next round. I'm on a bad downswing online since my big tournament win and think I'm just not focused enough. In live tournaments though, I feel like I've been playing very well. Playing well doesn't always mean winning though in this game.

6th place

I finished to me a disappointing 6th place. I came into the day with 90k and 5th in chips with a pretty good feeling. I really can't say much about this tournament in terms of hands because I didn't have very many. I made some savvy steals and a couple squeezes in day 1 when I was short to keep me alive until my big hands. I only had 3 big hands all day after hour 1. Today, it was more of the same and a tough decision on hand 1. Hand 1 the chip leader Roy Winston raises UTG to 12k with 2/4k blinds 500 ante. I have 90k and look at AQ on the button. It was to me a decision that is really the toughest in poker when a solid player like Roy raises UTG on the very first hand of a major final table and I have 22 big blinds. What to do? My options are 3. Flat calling and playing post flop is an option, but I figure the chip leader is going to fire at every pot. Move all in. I won't get called by any hands I'm beating. At best I can be racing against the pairs he's raising with. I figure Roy to be a solid player and have seen him play solid almost every moment. He doesn't do too much out of line especially under the gun. I just decided to fold and he showed 88 and I have been thinking through the hand for a while now. If I shove, I'm not sure if he folds. He has 250k prior to the hand and raising to 12k would put 12+4.5+6 into the pot at 32k When I shove to 90k total he's going to have 122k with 78k to call. It's a tough decision for him even with 88, but I consider that hand to really be at the bottom half of his range here. I decided to fold. After that I couldn't pick up a hand the rest of the tournament. I watched a few players go out and made one steal. Then with 6 players I picked up Q10 off on the cut off and raised it to 16k with 3k/6k blinds 1000 ante. I have 77k in my stack at this point. I'm pretty sure no one will play back at me unless I'm destroyed and I can have 60k an easy 10 BB shoving stack if someone does that. The only kicker is that a real tight player has 32k behind, but I'm not that worried about that as he is on the button. He flat calls the 16k! Flop comes K J 2. I put the 16k to set him in. He calls with KJ and I miss my straight. Now I'm down to 45k. I should really be looking to push anything, but I wasn't able to open a pot at all and a few rounds around I shoved a 3 7 suited and everyone folded. I was looking for anything really but the same thing Q5, 2 5, 6 8, 2 7, Q3, and then I finally shoved with 5 8 off suit on the button with 32k total and was called by KQ. I lost that even though I'm owed one of those from 3 years back where on Paradise I lost a big hand in the same manner with the KQ. Either way, I'm pretty disappointed as I really wasn't given a shot to even play or use any of the abilities I have. I was short stacked the entire tournament and so card dead except for 3 pairs that I got paid on 99, QQ, AA. I don't think I had AK once outside the first level. I know that cards don't determine a champion, but short stacked and up against good players, you just need something to have a shot. Either way 18k isn't too bad at all and brings me into the black for the year in live tournaments. Not sure what I'm doing next in poker.