O-Poker

....just a few ramblings (low content).

I have been pretty impressed with Negreanu this week - between the WSOP Main Event TV coverage and the PPT TV coverage. He seems to almost always make great reads (except against Toto's JJ). It isn't necessarily that his reads are so much better than some of the other pros, as much as that it is cool to watch him make the reads. He talks through his thought process out loud. He makes some crazy calls but there always seem to be a method to his madness and he tells you what his method is. Maybe I should try to be his next Protege - LOL.

Mansion Steelers Bet
OK. I think I decided to hedge my Mansion Steelers bet in order to guarantee myself $450.

It works like this. I bet $1,100 on the Steelers to win $1,000. If the Steelers cover, I get $1,000 from Mansion. If the Steelers don't cover I get my $1,100 back - no lose situation.

The Hedge - bet $550 on Miami at Bodog. So the scenarios would be as follows:

Miami covers - I win $500 on Bodog and get my money back on Mansion. +$500
Pitt covers - I win $1000 on Mansion and lose my Bodog bet. +450

I figure this way I guarantee myself $450. If you don't hedge the bet, you are essentially betting $400+ on the Steelers to cover against Miami.

$150 MTT on FTP
I haven't played a tourney since last week. (We were at the beach over the weekend) Last night I was getting a little worn out from the cash games and decided to play the $150 MTT on Full Tilt Poker. I was playing pretty good until I got a little crazy late. I went from fourth in chips with 25 players left to busting in 13th place out of 220. I made a move against a guy that I thought would fold 2nd pair - he didn't. My final blow was when I had KJs on the button all-in preflop against the BB's pocket 3s. Another 3 on the flop and it was all over. I netted $168 ($300-$162). MTTs seem like a waste of time unless you make the top 3 (or top 5 at least). That could be the frustration talking. Four hours of play and fizzling out at the end - Uggh.

Mansion Poker/Sportsbook has a new promotion aimed at getting more player's money into their site. It is a no lost promotion with $1,000 to gain. The details:

Bet exactly $1,100 to win $1,000 on the Steelers against the Dolphins on September 7, 2006.
If the Steelers cover the spread you win $1,000 (and obv get your $1,100 back)
If the Steelers don't cover the spread, Mansion will refund your $1,100 within 3 days.
You can't hedge the bet at Mansion, but can hedge it at other sites like Bodog.

It sounds like Mansion requires a copy of you ID in order to cash out, so it make take a couple of days to cash out once the promotion is over.

The old addage of "If it sounds to good to be true, it probably isn't" doesn't apply here. It is a no lose situation.

The only problem I have is that I have to bet against my team (the Dolphins) ;)

I am on a downswing at 5/10NL. I think most of it has to do with me playing poorly along with some big pot bad beats (which have fed the poor play). After withdrawing for the Las Vegas trip and not re-depositing back into my poker accounts when I got back and moving a big chunk of money into our home tear down/rebuild fund in June and July, my poker accounts are now below 20 buy-ins for 5/10NL.

I haven’t had any direction or focus since coming back from LV. This coupled with working a ton of hours and playing late into the night have been a big part of my poor play. I have decided to set a goal/game plan so that I have some clear direction and something I am striving for. So here is my goal for September:

August 28-October 1st

Limits: 2/4 NL
#/Tables Simultaneous: 2-3
# Hrs/Wk: 20-25 hrs
$ Goal = $8,000

I will not play any 5/10NL until I reach the goal of $8,000 profit at 2/4NL.
I won’t play MTTs and cash games at the same time.
I may take a break from this routine in the middle of September to play some WCOOP events.
I’ll post weekly updates on Mondays or Tuesdays.

I think this “back to basics” approach should help get my game back into the zone that I was in before I left for Las Vegas.

How long should someone wait before calling the clock?

I was playing 2/5 NL in LV a few weeks ago and had about $1,000 sitting in front of me. There was a guy with about $2,200 two to my right. He had been playing a ton of pots and raising a lot. He also mentioned that his plane was leaving LV in less than 2.5 hours. (playing very impatient)

I get dealt KK in early position and make a big raise. Late position calls and he calls (I think without looking at his cards). Flop comes 227 rainbow. I bet 3/4 pot, late position folds, and Airplane calls. I wasn't too worried about the call because he had been flat calling just about every bet from anyone preflop and on the flop.

Turn was a 5 and it put 2 hearts on the board. I bet around 1/2 the pot and Airplane went all in. I had only invested about $150 in the pot and had $850 behind. I couldn't understand why he would overbet so much, so I tried to talk it out of him. He was playing kindergarten level games trying to get me to call with stuff like "You know your not gonna call, go ahead and start shipping me the chips dealer." The more he talked to more I knew he had a 2 or full house. He had always stared down and said nothing when he was bluffing.

I was about to muck the Kings when someone not in the hand called the clock on me. WTF? When the floor came over, I informed the guy that called the clock that I was about to fold but would be waiting until MY TIME was up.

After the end of the hand, I politely asked the guy Why the Hell he was calling the clock on me when he wasn't even in the hand. He and another guy chimed in that I had already spent 2 minutes thinking about my decision and that there is no way a decision could take that long. I couldn't do anything but laugh it off at that point - 2 minutes!!

So, how long is too long in a cash game when making a 2x buyin decision? Certainly 2 minutes is not a lifetime.

I did horrible in the MTTs this weekend. I played the PS Sunday Million, the FTOPS Main Event, the FTP 8 PM $150, and the FTOPS Second Chance and didn't cash in any of them.

Sometimes, I wonder why I even play tourneys. Even though I didn't cash in a tourney all weekend, I still had a profitable weekend because of the cash games. I feel like the time that I spent playing tourneys cost me more than the tourney buy-ins because I wasn't playing cash games. I'll spare you the MTT bad beat stories.

I think I am going to take a little break from tourneys and stick with the cash games this week.

Full Tilt Poker had a party with the FTP pros (not sure if most people would call it a party) for the online qualifiers each night before the players were to play their Day 1. When my wife and I got to the "party" there were only a small number of the pros there - Matusow, Seidel, and a couple other pros most people wouldn't know. It was good getting to meet some people that I had played with online.

The typical conversation for most of the night went something like this:
"Do you play a lot on FTP? How did you qualify? What games do you play?"
"What is your FTP screen name?"

My wife and I were talking to a group of about 4-5 guys. (I think the light for the case that contained all of the FTP WSOP bracelets was shining on where I was standing.) I was asking everyone what limits they played, how they qualified, etc. I told one of the guys that I had also qualified for the added hotel through the 100 seat guarantee. He and another guy from the group started asking me a ton of questions about how that worked. As the conversation started to die down, my wife and I headed towards the bar to get another beer.

Right as I left the group that I was talking to, a Swedish guy with a poker shaped mouse pad came up to me and asked for my autograph. I was dumb-founded. He obviously thought I was someone else. "Who do you think I am?" is the first thing that came out of my mouth. It really caught me off guard and I didn't know what to say. I followed it up with, "I'm nobody right now, but I will give you my autograph on August 10th." (That didn't really work out.)

It turned out the autograph seeker was there from Sweden with a friend that had qualified through FTP. He thought that I was "somebody" because of the group of people talking to me.

Next time someone asks for an autograph, I'll just smile and sign it with whatever name happens to pop into my head.

Day 1 (1st Table)

I spent the two days off between my Day 1 and Day 2 at the WSOP trying to figure out the best strategy for playing the table that I would be seated at on Day 2. I knew that the table would be tough because David Chui was going to be seated to my immediate left and he had me out chipped nearly 3-1 (78k vs 28k). There were also several other stacks (around 60k) that were above the average at the table.

I talked over some strategy for playing against Chui and his massive stack with a few people that had played with him before. The general consensus was that he was going to re-raise a lot and that he check-raised a lot. My strategy was to play tight and push hard with a hand - thinking that maybe if I showed that I was willing to put a lot of chips in the middle he might not press as hard against me.

So, when Day 2 started I decided to start out playing tight and get a feel for the table while establishing a tight image. I was in Seat 7 with 28k. Chui was in Seat 8 with 78k. The guy in Seat 9 had lost the last hand of the night on Day 1 and had 1,700. Seat 10 had 58k.

Seat 9 busted on the 2nd hand of Day 2 and an EXTREMELY aggressive player was moved into his spot. He had about 50k in chips and had put some of the medium stacks all-in 3 times in the first 12 hands.

Key Hand 1
Blinds 250/500 with ante
I had bled down to around 24k after I missed a few flops with some small pairs and big aces and met serious resistance. I decided to start playing more aggressive and start taking some chances. I was dealt AQs in early position and raised to 1,500. Chui folds. Hyper-aggressive guy calls. Everyone else folds.
Flop was rainbow all low cards. I checked - wanting to see what hyper-aggressive would do. I was either going to fold to a flop bet by him or check-raise him if I thought he was just taking a stab at the pot. He checked behind.
Turn was a Queen!! Bingo - I was 95% sure that I had the best hand and almost as sure that he would bet if I checked to him. I checked and he bet 2,000. I raised to 6,000 and he flat called. (The flat call there kind of worried me.) The turn was harmless but gave straight possibilities. I checked with the intention of calling just about any bet by Hyper Agg on the river. He checked behind. I turned over AQ and he mucked.

Key Hand 2
My table broke after about 45 minutes to 1 hour!! I was pretty happy not to have Chui with a big stack and the hyper aggressive player both on my left anymore. I wasn't sure what the dynamics of my new table would be like, but I was pretty sure things could only get better.

Day 2 (Table 2)
The 2nd table that I was moved to on Day 2 couldn't have been more perfect. The largest stack at the table was around 40k and I had around 32k. Four of the players at the table had also played the entire Day 1 together at the same table. I didn't recognize anyone at the table. One player was very short stacked. Most of the pots were being taken down preflop by a raise.

Key Hand 3
Blinds 250/500 with ante
I was dealt a big ace (either AQ or AJ) in the BB after four other players had limped into the pot. I figured that it didn't really matter what two cards that I had. I could probably take down the 3,000 pot preflop with a big bet because most of the players had been pretty weak-tight and folded to raises preflop after limped. I raised to 2,500. All but one player fold. The guy that called had been pretty active and had taken down a lot of pots from the weak-tight players by floating or making continuation bets.
Flop all low cards. I check knowing that this guy is probably betting. He bet 2,500. I immediately raise to 7,500 hoping to represent that I have AA or KK and would be happy to take down the pot right there. He thinks for about five minutes and folds after saying, "OK. I believe you." I am thinking he probably had 99, 1010, A10-AQ.

This put me up to about 38k. I was actually chip leader at this table when we hit the first break. Things were going well. I had increased my stack from 28k to 38k during the 1st level of play. I felt like I was playing great and making great reads.

After 1st Break
I had been card dead for a while and had to fold to some raises when I knew people had big hands. I had bled down to around 29k. Several of the players had started getting a lot more aggressive and there where some big pots. One guy busted out with AK vs KK. We were now playing 9 handed.

Phil Ivey
I remember thinking (after the five seat busted out), "I hope the empty seat doesn't get filled by a tough player or an extemely aggressive player with a ton of chips." The table was great and I wanted it to stay that way.

About 10 minutes later I look up and see Phil "Fucking" Ivey pulling out the chair to Seat 5. (I was sitting in Seat 2.) I don't think we could have gotten a tougher player brought to the table. One of the guys asked if he could take his picture when he got to the table. The entire table changed completely when he sat down.

It was pretty awesome to be sitting at the Main Event of the WSOP with the best poker player in the world sitting three to your left. I had decided that I had Ivey covered and I wouldn't be scared to play a pot against him for all my chips.

Ivey was relatively short stacked and seemed like he was willing to gamble quite a bit. He also seemed a little frustrated. He called down a guy's smallish bets the whole way on a 79925 board with 3 spades on board and then mucked when the guy showed quad 9s. As he was mucking he picked up the two nines on the board, shook his head in disbelief and threw the back towards the dealer.

A few hands later came the following hand (which I previously posted):

I had about 32k in chips and tried to steal the blinds with AJ with a 2k raise. There were 4 callers including Phil Ivey for a pot just under 10k. I pretty much decided that I was done with the hand unless a Jack came on the flop.
The flop came J52. I bet 4k and Ivey raised to 8k. I really didn't think he would raise with a set. I thought there was about 33% chance he had a hand with a Jack, 33% chance he had an overpair, and a 33% chance he was trying to see how strong my hand was and take down the pot right there. I had him covered by (I thought about 16k) 12k and decided to push all in. He immediately called with top set (JJ). The turn brought an Ace, so if I had called his raise, all of the money would have probably gone in on the turn.

I have to admit the thought, "Wow, imagine the story I will have if I bust Phil Ivey out of the WSOP." went through my head between the time I decided I was going all-in and actually said "All-in." Instead I was left with the story of how I was donked off so many of my chips to Ivey.

I was out a few hands later when I had 9k in chips and pushed against an early position raiser with 1010. The guy thought for a while and then called 2/3rds of his stack with AQ. Flop was 777. Turn was a Q and I was out. In hindsight, I was probably steaming a little after the Ivey hand and probably should have just flat called preflop and pushed on any flop without and ace.

I am very happy with how I played for most of the event and think my experience will help me greatly at the next major tourney that I play. I didn't see many premium hands over the course of the tourney but managed to gradually increase my stack without ever having my chips at risk until the end.

I'll get 'em next year. ;)

Day 1 (2nd Table)

I think my first table broke right after the dinner break on Day 1. I was moved to a new table that had not been broken. Most of the players at the table had been at that table all day.

Seat 1 - Florida-retiree type - lives in Tampa. He seemed like he probably plays a decent amount of poker; very confident in his game; liked to talk up the other players. He and Seat 10 had obviously played some big pots against each other from the conversations.

Seat 2 - Old, very tight guy. He had his pants up to his chest - no joke!! Seat 10 commented on the pants height and Seat 1 said something like, "Let's see how you look when you are 70."

Seat 3 - Me

Seat 4 - Short stack that was pushing a lot of hands hard, even when he had chips.

Seat 5 - Typical solid tight (bordering on weak-tight)

Seat 6 - Youngest mayor in Minnesota. He is older now and serving his third term. (He said someone else recently took over the youngest mayor title) Tight, tight, tight.

Seat 7 - Don't remember much about

Seat 8 - Absent player that never showed up. Wonder what happened there. My guess is that someone told him that he was registered for a later starting day.

Seat 9 - Tight

Seat 10 - Loose aggressive with a decent amount of chips. Liked to talk and bet at a lot of pots.

I don't remember the exact order of these hands now, but the following hands all occurred at this table:

Key Hand 1
I hadn't been very active at the new table. I was trying to get a feel for all of the players and was also pretty card dead.
Blinds 100/200 w/ante (i think)
I was dealt AK in late position.
Seat 10 raised to 3xBB (600).
I flat call with the intention of raising his continuation flop bet on just about any board. (He had been raising a ton of pots preflop).
Flop was J53 rainbow.
He bets 800.
I make it 2,000. He looks at me and says, "I can't believe you flopped a set of 5s.", thinks for like 5 minutes and folds.

Key Hand 2
Blinds 100/200 with ante (maybe no ante yet)
I am dealt AK in SB.
One limper
Seat 2 (Old man - tight chest pants) makes it 800 to go.
I raise to 2,200 (pretty much screaming that I have AK or a big pair)
BB folds, limper folds.
Tight Chest Pants thinks for a few minutes and folds.
I am pretty sure this set Chest Pants up for paying me off on a later hand. I had made a couple of big bets here and there and taken down pots without ever showing my whole cards.

Key Hand 3
Blinds 100/200 w/ante
Chest Pants raises to 600 preflop.
I call with on the button with KdQd.
Flop is Ks7d4d.
Chest Pants bets 1,000. I am now almost 100% certain that he has AK. The pot is 100 (SB)+ 200 (BB) + 250 (antes) + 1,200 = 1,750. He is definitely giving odds (not to mention the implied odds) to draw to my 12 outer (3 Queens plus 9 diamonds). I would probably raise a lot of other players here, but I knew I was behind, had position on him and could get paid off if I caught up.
Turn was something like 3 of hearts.
Chest Pants bets 1,500. I have to call now because of the odds he is giving me.
River is 10d.
He checks.
I think for a couple of minutes trying to look a little weak (really just trying to figure out how much of a bet he will pay off.)
He is pretty freaking tight, so I bet 3,500.
He insta-calls with AK and my flush wins. I think he only called here because he hadn't seen any of my hands that I bet strong go to showdown.

Key Hand 3
I have around 24k. Seat 1 (Retiree) only has around 3.5k.
I am dealt (surprise, surprise) AK on the button.
Seat 1 bets 700.
I raise to 2,100 after asking him how many chips he has left.
SB and BB fold.
He goes all in for the remainder. I call
Seat 1 - 77; Me - AK
Board comes JJ992
I win the hand. This puts me over 30k.

Remainder of time at 2nd table
I am the big stack at the table. I raise about every third hand preflop and take down the pots uncontested since no one wants to mess with me and everyone seems to be tightening up with that "get through day 1 mentality."

I wind up with about 33k when the table breaks.

Day 1 (3rd table)
Up and down - a couple of very solid TAG players at the table and a few stacks around the same as mine. I didn't get much going and had to lay down a few hands that I knew were beat.

During the last level, I was a little punchy after 14 hours of poker and was playing pretty loose. Everytime that I was going to make a move the guy 2 to my right would raise preflop. I never got a hand better than AJ and finished Day 1 with 28,000.

End of Day 1
After the end of the last level on Day 1, we bagged our chips and headed over to our Day 2 tables so that they could bag the chips for the whole table. I had discouraging news when I arrived at Day 2 table - not only was David Chui going to be sitting to my left, but he was top 10 in chips for the day with 78k. Two to his left was a guy with 58k and there were a couple of other players with around 60k. I would have to start Day 2 with a "relative" short stack and hope for the best.

I'll post the final part, Part 3, early next week.

Good Luck Rizen (Eric Lynch)!! With 27 players remaining, Rizen is sitting on a below average stack of 1.8 Million. He is guaranteed at least $500k, but I know he is eyeing winning the whole things and he has the skills to do it.

I had the chance to meet him in Las Vegas and he seemed like he had a great attitude. He started on Day 1B (the same day as me) and we talked briefly at the end of the night. He had been up to 40k in chips before the dinner break and wound up finishing with 24k chips. I finished with 28k and told him that I was disappointed since I had been up to 33k chips at the first break after the dinner break. He definitely had the right attitude because he said, "I would like to have more chips, but if I had 12k in chips and doubled up to 24k at the end of the night I would be pretty happy - so I can't complain." He seemed like a easy going family guy and I am rooting for him.

Good Luck Rizen!! Take it down!!

I am feeling a little better after having a little time to reflect on the WSOP. I was playing great poker, making great reads and getting some (much needed) big field deep stack live play experience.

Day 1 (1st table)

Seat 1 - Online Qualifier that had obviously never played live before. He always anounced his actions with "Raise," "Re-raise," etc. The funniest thing that he did was announce "RAISE!" whenever he was the first one into a pot after the flop. I looked around the table after he did this the first time and noticed the "licking the chops" look on a couple of the other player's faces. I don't think he ever put in a three bet other than an all-in, but I can imagine that he would have probably said, "I re-re-raise"

Seat 2 - Online freeroll winner from Sweden that played a ton of pots. I remember him raising from early position with QJo and making bets at the pot on a Jack high flop after getting called on every street. He would not back down once he started and had some huge swings.

Seat 3 - Me

Seat 4 - Former Assistant Tourney Director to Matt Savage at WSOP 2004; runs a card room in Northern Cal. He played a lot of pots and I got the feeling that he tried to prey on the players that he thought were weak-tight. (perfect for me since I wanted the table to think I was weak-tight.)

Seat 5 - Tiffany Williamson

Seat 6 - Don't remember much about this guy. He didn't play many pots.

Seat 7 - Hyper-Aggressive Pokerstars Qualifier. He was involved as the aggressor in a ton of pots early.

Seat 8/9 - Don't remember much about them - other than played tight.

Seat 10 - Made some huge unneeded bluffs into small pots. He took a stab at EVERY pot that he was involved in. He tilted a bit after Seat 7 called his bluff on the river with a flush on a paired board.

Interesting Hand 1
I hadn't played many pots other than limping a couple of times with small pocket pairs and suited connectors, missing and folding to bets on the flop. I didn't mind making the folds since the blinds were 25/50 and we started with 10k in chips. I was also acutely aware that these folds would make me look very weak-tight and I could use that to my advantage until the table broke.

First level - I was dealt 9c7c in late position and limped after 3 others had limped. 3 more limped behind me for 7 players. The flop came 9 high with 2 clubs. Checked to me. I bet 1/2 pot. Seat 4 calls. (He had been calling a lot of flops and taking down a lot of pots on the turn when it was checked to him.) The turn brought an ace - giving the board 2 spades and 2 clubs. I checked and he bet 300. I called. The turn brought the 10s. I checked and Seat 4 bet 600. I thought and decided that he didn't have anything and was just trying to take away the pot from a perceived scared weak-tight player and called. He said I was good before I turned over my cards.

Interesting Hand 2 (Tiffany Williamson)
It was interesting to have Tiffany Williamson at my table after all the hoopla surrounding her last year. Everyone wondered how she ever made it so deep last year. She was very quiet. The cameras came over for about 10 minutes and she didn't enter a pot or say a word. One thing I noticed was that every bet that she made was an overbet. (Example - Blinds 25/50. TW in the BB. Someone raised preflop to 150. Folds to her, she raises to 950.)

She had actually gotten a few chips this way and was probably around 11k near the end of the 1st level. The first break came and I made a mad dask for the port-a-pottys. After the break I noticed TW was no longer at the table and Seat 7 had a huge stack. The hand was described to me as follows by one of the players at the table:

BLINDS 25/50!!!!
Folds to TW. She raises to something like 450-500. Seat 7 raises to 1.5k. TW calls. 9 high flop. TW bets. Seat 7 (Super Aggro) bets all-in. TW thinks for like 10 minutes and calls off all of her chips during the 1st level with 1010. I do not understand how anyone loses all of their chips during the 1st level with 1010 unless it is set over set. How did she make it so deep last year?!?

Interesting Hand 3
(Hand that Loopy posted - but some details weren't right from how I explained it over the phone to him.)
Limped in late position with 77. Flop came 2d2h8d. Seat 7 (Super Aggro) bets 300. Folds to me. I decided that there was no way Seat 7 hit that flop. He had limped from early position. Before this hand he always raised from early position if he had a hand. I call - everyone else folds. Turn is 10. Seat 7 bets 1,500. I call. River is a 6. Seat 7 bets 2,000. Based on the way the guy was playing, I figured that he had missed his flush draw and wanted the pot. I also felt like he thought he could take the pot away from me because my perceived weak-tight image. I call and ask him hand. He says Ace high. I turn over 77 and he mucks. It was a big pot for so early. I no longer had a weak-tight image in the eyes of the solid players that were at the table and was able to use that to my advantage.

Interesting Hand 4
I was dealt QQ in the big blind. Seat 7 raised. Seat 9 (tight) called. I decided to just call with QQ and decide to find out where my hand is after the flop. The flop comes AK5. I check. Seat 7 makes a big bet, Seat 9 calls. I fold and probably save a ton of chips my not making a raise preflop.

My first table broke shortly before the dinner break.

Part 2 to follow later. (I'm not sure if anyone cares about this kind of detail in a trip report. My main reasons for posting this is so that I can look back on it later and to show my thinking during the WSOP.)

I'm back at work and am overloaded. The Real World Sucks!!

I had a blast in Las Vegas and have a lot of stories that I will post once I get a chance. I am partially through a very long post on all the details of my WSOP and will try to get it up sometime this week (not sure if anyone cares).

It was great meeting some of you in LV.

Got to get back to work now.

I just woke up after a long night. It definitely hurts to bust out, especially the way it happened.

I had about 32k in chips and tried to steal the blinds with AJ with a 2k raise. There were 4 callers including Phil Ivey (pictured to the left with a lot of my chips) for a pot just under 10k. I pretty much decided that I was done with the hand unless a Jack came on the flop. The flop came J52. I bet 4k and Ivey raised to 8k. I really didn't think he would raise with a set. I thought there was about 33% chance he had a hand with a Jack, 33% chance he had an overpair, and a 33% chance he was trying to see how strong my hand was and take down the pot right there. I had him covered by (I thought about 16k) 12k and decided to push all in. He immediately called with top set (JJ). The turn brought an Ace, so if I had called his raise, all of the money would have probably gone in on the turn.

About 20 minutes later, I was dealt 1010 and decided to push all in for 9.5k against a early position raiser. He thought and thought and finally called a large portion of his stack with AQ. My WSOP was done when the Q came on the turn.

I appreciate everyone's support, but I am feeling pretty bummed right now. I blew away 32k in chips in about a 45 minute period. I really shouldn't have even played the AJ hand preflop and would have probably folded to Ivey's raise if I had less chips than him. There are a few interesting stories over the past few days - I'll try to post some of those later in the week.

It's official... Mitch is now on the rail.

Phil Ivey was moved to his table shortly after the first break in action yesterday and flopped a set against Mitches TPTK. That knocked him back down to around the starting stack of 10k. With the blinds increasing steadily Mitch picked his spot soon after with TT and pushed all in for somewhere around 9k. The BB called off 2/3 his stack with AQo and the flop came 777. The turn......... Q. GG Mitch.

Mitch played great! Ya gotta win races to go deep in a field this size and unfortunately he was unable to when it counted.

BTW, it's been announced that 1st place $ this year is an even 12Miiiiiiiillllionnnn Dollars! Not a bad payday.

Mitch just called during the first break of day 2a. He's up to almost 37k so his stack is heading in the right direction slowly but surely!

No really huge hands or action other than these few he mentioned:

Raised from middle position with AQo and got called by a loose aggressive player. They both checked a flop of three low cards. Q came on the turn and he check raised the guys bet of 1500 up to 4000. The guy called and he was slightly worried when another low card came on the river. They both checked and Mitch won the pot with a pair of Q's.

Another hand he had AKo and got 2 callers when he raised. The flop came 789 with 2 clubs and one of them bet the pot. Mitch raised to 7k and they immediately folded.

He said they're playing a minimum of 6 full levels so it will be at least 2am before the end of the day! Live updates are posted pretty regularly at Pocket Fives Live