I played on Day 1C, so there were two days of play before I was up. When I arrived at the Rio to play, word was that Lee Watkinson and Sammy Farha made a boat load of chips on the previous days’ play. My table assignment looked okay. No pros. To my left was a 30 or 40-something gentleman from Maryland who seemed pretty easy to read and was playing passively (his name was Steve Dannenmann. He went on to place second for $4.25 million). To my right was an approximately 40-year-old Canadian man (who finished in the 70's and cashed for $107,000) with a Paradise or Pacific Poker shirt on. I was a Pokerstars frequent player point qualifier, so I had all the gear on. There was one other Pokerstars qualifier at my table, a European guy with a shaved head. Chip Jett was at the table next to me and busted out fairly early on Day 1.

The first hand I remember playing took place during Level 2, with the blinds at 50/100. I have about 9,500 and am in MP with KK. It’s folded to Canadian guy, who minimum raises to 200. I flat call. Folded to the BB who calls. Flop is 3-4-7 rainbow. The BB checks. The Canadian guy bets 300. I raise to 900. BB folds, Canadian guy calls. Turn is a 6, for a board of 3-4-7-6. Canadian guy bets 2,000. I make it 4,000 and he calls. River is a Q. I hate that Q. He checks, though. I contemplate a value bet, but I would be in a real quandary if he came over the top then. I think QQ is a real possibility here. I just flip up my KK and he mucks. I guess he had JJ, TT, 99, or 88.

During the same level I make it 300 to go w 9To from MP. SB (another Pokerstars qualifier) and BB call. Flop is K-J-7 rainbow. Checked around. Turn is an 8. Checked to me again and I bet 600. SB calls and BB folds. River is a 9, for a board of K-J-7-8-9 with three diamonds. He checks. I bet 700 and he calls. I show my straight and he mucks AK face up. He says “nice river” even though I had him on the turn. Another guy sarcastically says “nice raising hand.” Interesting. I’m at the World Series of Poker and my opponents are shocked to see someone play a hand in a way that’s not straightforward.

I take the blinds down in two consecutive pots a little while later with AQ and KK. The guy who said “nice raising hand” is in the BB for the KK hand and says “Stop stealing. Stop Stealing” to me, like I’m a cat who’s been clawing the furniture. I wish he took a stand and raised me.

I think that guy was primarily an Omaha player, because he did some odd things. He opened for 300 w AK in EP late in the level and I made it 800 to go behind him w 99. He folded the AK face up immediately. Early in the 100/200 level, I made it 600 to go in MP w 77 and he raised to 2,800, which was half his stack. I folded and he showed 93o.

Pretty soon another Pokerstars qualifier came to the table with a stack of about 40K and it became apparent to me he didn’t know what he was doing. It looked like this was his first live tournament and I made it a point to play any pot I could with him, since he was calling down with some very marginal hands. Every reasonable hand had good implied odds when against him.

During the 100/200 level (maybe there was a 25 ante), the new Pokerstars qualifier makes it 600 from EMP and I call in MP w QJs. There are no other callers. The flop is J-J-7. He checks. I bet 800 and he check-raises to 1,600. I call. The turn is an A, for a board of J-J-7-A. He bets out 1,200 and I make it 2,900. He calls. The river is a blank, though it completed a runner-runner flush draw. He checks and I bet 5,000. He thinks for a long, long time and finally calls me. I show my trip jacks and he shows A3o. Good pot for me. Given the way he thought forever before calling on the river, I think I bet exactly the right amount.

A little while later I knock out the original Pokerstars qualifier at my table in a small all-in pot with my KK against his AK. I kept accumulating chips by stealing and re-stealing when prudent. I finished the day with 38,825. Steve Dannenmann jokingly says to me “So you’re Mr. Re-steal huh?” referring to the amount of times I came over the top of a LP raiser. Sometimes I was, but many of the times he was talking about I had AK or TT or something like that.

I didn’t get AA until there was a half-hour left in the day, but I got it twice. I only won the blinds each time.

Play ended at 2:45 a.m. and I wasn’t back in my room until 4 a.m., since there were hundreds of players waiting in line for a cab. I returned on Day 2 at noon, still pretty tired. I was seated to the left of G6Dragon, a relatively famous internet player, on Day 2, who had a pretty good stack. I was only at that table for 30 minutes, but we did play one hand. Blinds 300/600 w a 75 ante. It’s folded to him in the cutoff and he raises to 2100. I call in the SB with 33. The flop is 6-6-4. He checks and I bet 3,000. He check-raises to 8,000. I think for a while and fold, though I considered re-raising. He told me when the table broke up that he had quad 6s. I believe him. Seems an odd hand to make up. (NOTE: About eight months later I was playing in a tournament with him and said hello. He said “I remember you, you’re the guy I had quad sixes against.”)

I get my new assignment and it says “table 51.” When I get to my seat, it looks like someone is already in it. I look at the assignment closer and it says “table 81”, but the 8 has been worn down and looks like a 5. This is annoying because the room is jam packed with tables, players, waitresses, and spectators, so I have to tip toe past dozens of obstacles to finally get to my seat.

As I approach the table I notice a Green Red Sox had in the 7 seat. Could it be? Yes it’s my favorite player, Dan Harrington. I owe him immensely for “Harrington on Hold’em” and for “Harrington on Picking Up Chicks Volume 1: Pickup Lines” , but I don’t want to do the whole gushing fan thing. I just want to take his chips. He is on a short stack of about 12K. During my first orbit I steal the blinds from the cutoff. The next hand I get 99 on the button and raise to 2K. A Pokerstars qualifier in the SB goes all in for 27K. Wow. A very big bet. I have 38K. I think he thinks I’m stealing. After some deliberation, I decide there’s more of a chance I’m a 4.5-1 favorite than there is that I’m a 4.5-1 dog and I call. He raps the table and says “good call.” But was it? He flips over AK. Hmmm. I was really hoping he turned over 77 or something. Flop is Q-x-x and the turn and river blank off. I’m up to 65K. Heh heh heh heh heh heh. Sweet.

The Pokerstars photographer captured this moment, though she didn’t get my best side.

In retrospect, this was a bad call. The chances of him having AA or KK are remote, but the chances of him having TT or JJ are very high. Someone else gets knocked out a few hands later and we’re 7-handed briefly. Harrington makes it 2,000 to go in the cutoff. Folded to me in the BB. I look down at ATo and make it 8,000 to go, putting him to a decision for all of his chips. He lets out a small sigh and folds pretty quickly. A couple hands later we get broken up. My new table is almost exclusively made up of young guys. I’m in the 4 seat and Chris Hinchcliffe (finished third in one of the Party Poker Millions) is in the 1 seat, making some sort of funny comment every time he puts chips in the pot. I do very well at this table, going from 65K to about 140K winning small pots and re-raising aggressive players. Hinchcliffe busts with KT vs. JJ on a flop of T-7-7 and is replaced by John Finkle, an ex Magic: The Gathering champion. With the blinds at 400/800 w a 75 ante, I make it 3,500 to go with KTs from EP.

He reraises on the button to 10K. He looked a little weak, so I made it 30K. He gave me a surprised look and assessed the situation for about a min. before mucking. I believe he folded JJ, QQ or AK here.

After flashing my fast gear a few times, I played the 500/1,000 level using the KIRSS model of play, Keep It Relatively Simple Stupid. I anted myself down to about 135K when the final hand before the dinner break came up. It is folded to me on the button w Th3h and I raise it to 3,600. The BB calls. The flop is 4-6-8 with one heart. The BB checks and I bet 4,500. He calls. The turn is the Jh, giving me a flush draw. He checks and I check. For some reason I checked, despite a strong feeling he was weak. My brain was getting a little mushy at this point. The river is a 6, for a board of 4-6-8-J-6 rainbow. He bets out 8K and my brain is screaming “fold fold fold fold, just fold stupid!” but for some reason my hands start reaching for my stack of blue 5K chips. “No, what are you doing hands? I’m not telling you to do this. Stop doing that. Put those chips back right now!” My hands push my stack of 5K chips into the pot, putting my opponent all in. He waits for about 5 seconds and then says “call” in a soft voice. He sounds like he’s seen a ghost. I show my T3 and he flips up 67o for trip 6s. He had 33K in his stack, so I go to the dinner break with about 85K. Before I leave, the guy I doubled up and his friends say they really respect my game and think I am playing the best at the table. I think to myself “Yeah, until now.”

During the dinner break I take a walk to the pizza place across the casino and wait in a very long line. Perfect. This gives me an opportunity to dwell on the big mistake I just made. I can’t stop thinking about it, but I realize I’m fortunate it happened right before a break, to give me time to cool off. I order what I think is a personal-size pizza and get a full one. I can barely eat half of it.

After dinner I make a conscious effort to forget about my last hand. I start to work my way back up using a strategy similar to the one I was using before dinner. I had dipped down to about 50K, but went back up to around 90K after I called a MP raiser with AQs, hit a Q-high flop and extracted some bets from him.

I was at about 110K during the last level of the night. I pick up QcTc on the button and decide to minimum raise to 3,200. The blinds were 800/1600 with a 200 ante at this point, I believe. I minimum raised because this guy was defending every single time I raised (as made evident from the hand before dinner, when he called the 3.5x raise with 67o) and I wanted the SB out. The SB folds and the BB calls. The flop is Jc-9c-3c. I flopped a flush and a straight-flush draw against an opponent who always thinks I’m bluffing. Good times. He checks. I bet 4,200 and he calls. The turn is another 3, for a board of J-9-3-3. He checks. I bet 6K and he raises to 15K. I re-raise to 30K and he quickly says “all in.”

It’s 54K more to me. A full house is very possible here, but I believe he has trip threes. Plus, he hasn’t been respecting my bets and I am getting over 2 to 1 on my call. I call and he flips over 33, for quads. Doh! I miss my straight-flush draw and am down to about 20K. With an hour or so left, I fold pretty much every hand the rest of the night, except for KK which I took the blinds and antes with.

We are 15 or so away from the money at this point and that makes me play a little scared. I get anted down to about 15K and fold an AQ after a short-stacked conservative player pushes all-in from EP. He shows AJ after everyone folds. Another hand was folded to me in the cutoff with 88 and I folded. Not an optimal move I guess, but I could certainly use the $12.5K the 560th finisher receives. I end the night with 15,300 in chips. There are still 569 players left. We’re nine away from the money.

I could barely sleep that night. I was disappointed with the QcTc hand and with the way I went into a shell after that. I decided that I could probably fold into the money though, so that’s what I resolve to do. After about 5 hours of sleep I head to the Rio and sit in the one seat at my table. No pros. I hear them draw for the button and it is going to go to the one seat. Nice. We have to wait for a long time while ESPN gets their equipment ready. Finally we begin play, only the button is in the 7 seat. It turns out the button draw I heard was for the $1500 tourney that’s going on simultaneously on the other side of the room.

We are playing hand for hand until we get into the money. I peak at my first card as the dealer is dealing. It’s an Ace. He gets around to me again. I squeeze the second card. It’s and Ace! I move my 15,000 stack all-in and it’s folded to the BB who has a big stack. He calls w Ac6c. An EP player says he folded 66 and I let out a sigh of relief. ESPN comes over to film the first all-in on the bubble and I slowly say to the camera “no clubs.”

The flop is all rags, with one club. The turn gives him a gutshot, but the river blanks off and I double up. Before the dealer can push the chips to me, some guy in a suit comes over and says “wait, pull his cards out of the muck.” He’s pointing frantically at the table and I begin to think my opponent might have hit some kind of straight that everyone missed or something. It turns out he is just an ESPN guy and the camera didn’t get a good enough shot of our cards and the pot being shipped to me. (Sigh of relief).

As soon as we are in the money, my table gets moved. I’m down to 20K or so and I get there just in time for my BB. Folded to the SB on the first hand who goes all in for 15K. I have A5o and decide he’d make this move with a broad range of hands. I call and he shows A2o. The flop is 4-6-7. The turn 3 gives me a straight, but it also gives him a four-flush. The river is a red 2. I win the pot and eliminate the SB.

I really don’t remember how, but somehow I steadily climb from 45K to 90K. Day 3’s play is a blur to me. I remember talking to Mike O’Malley (Cardplayer columnist) for a long time while he was on my left. Fossilman was at the table next to me and was taking stack after stack from his opponents. They were moving in on him and he was calling with QQ, AQ, AA, etc. It seemed like he always had a hand. The camera crews couldn’t get enough of him.

During the dinner break I run into John Juanda in the bathroom. What a nice guy. I didn’t want to bother him, but he actually asked me if I was still in, without me even looking at him. I told him my stack size and he said “Oh, that’s good,” even though it was about one-third the average stack. He had a lot more than that. I told him he responded to my email once and he remembered the exact advice he gave me on the hand I sent him. Pretty amazing.

The blinds were getting high and I was staying afloat by taking down small pots. The only very big hand I play is when I have about 80K and limp into the pot for 4K with 55. The button, SB and BB all called. The flop comes 5x-8s-Ts. It’s checked to me. I bet 11K. Button and the BB called. Turn is the 2h. BB checks. I bet 60K all-in. The button folds and the BB flips up Tc6c and folds. The button says he folded KK, because he knew I flopped a set. I don’t care. My play was pretty easy to read, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. That was one draw-heavy board. Let them make the mistake by calling me rather than have me make the mistake by giving them a good price to stick around.

After the final break the blinds are 2.5K/5K with a 500 ante. I have about 110K. I raise to 17K in EP with TT. A LP player (he might have been the SB) raised to 50K and I folded. I told him I was folding TT. He showed QQ. One-and-a-half orbits later that same player raised to 15K UTG. I looked down at TT and made it 40K, leaving myself with about 50-60K left. He pushed all-in when it got back around to him and I had a decision to make. I thought he had AK, but if he did have a pair, I felt he had me beat. The problem was I was getting a little over 2-to-1 on the call at this point. I thought for over a minute and then called. He flipped over QQ. It was the same matchup of pocket cards as we had before, only I couldn’t bring myself to make the laydown this time. The flop was K-J-x. The turn and river were no help and I was out of the tourney, $33,197 richer than when I’d started it. My official finish was 209th.

I was a little upset to be out of the tournament when I went to the cashier to get paid, but my friends came to pat me on the back, which made me feel a little better. We took the trolley from the Rio to Harrah’s and walked over to our room at Treasure island. I wanted to go out for a drink with them, but it was about 1 a.m. now and I had just played 37 hours of poker in a 72-hour period. I went straight to bed and left the partying for the remaining five days I had left in Vegas. Look for my trip report next year, when I write about winning the WSOP.

Sidenotes:
* There were a ton of reporters covering the WSOP for various websites, constantly asking players their chip counts, quietly sweating hands, etc. As long as they don’t interrupt players in the middle of a hand, I think this is a great thing. As poker becomes more popular, the major tournaments should be covered like a sporting event is covered. Harrah’s had to ban the reporters from the tournament floor after they were down to 35 tables or so, because there were so many they’d crowd the floor. I think they should have designated three or four reporters to pool information and give it to the other reporters, sort of like an Associated Press system. It would have made following the tourney from home more exciting.

* There was a man who was catching miracle draw after miracle draw and celebrating boisterously after every pot he won. He took off his shirt a few times too. ESPN was all over him. The other players were very annoyed at him. Look for him on T.V.

*. Poker players are an impatient bunch. Players refused to wait on line to get their seat assignments on Days 2 and 3. There was more line-cutting, side-cutting and back-cutting than in an elementary school classroom. Each one thought they were too special to wait. Very annoying.

* We received a $10 meal voucher with our entry. Dinner at the cheapest buffet we could use it at was $27. Thanks Harrah’s!

* Every dealer I had did a great job. Some of the rulings the floormen made, however, contradicted previous rulings. Once we played almost an entire hand out because our dealer dealt cards while he wasn’t supposed to and it didn’t count. We even saw a flop on the hand. It was like when you’re playing baseball as a kid and every close play is a redo.

* Most of the guys I played with were very nice. No one really complained about their bad beats too much, either.