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#449 – WSOP Notebook #22 – Get Back on the HORSE … I Guess
It’s 3 AM and I honestly don’t know how to make this entry short or fast. But I have to.
1. I have a whole pile of entries “done” but not “finished.” I’ve got entries about my experience in the $5,000 Mixed Hold ‘Em back on June 2, about the Limit Hold ‘Em tournament I played with Chris Ferguson on someone the opposite of Chris Ferguson, and mostly about my experiences of the last few days. All these are written in longhand, or have been dictated but not typed, or have been typed but not edited.
2. One series of entries, which I’ll probably still post, starts “My 2008 World Series of Poker is unredeemable. At least that’s how it feels now.”
3. This WSOP may yet work out. In the $1,500 HORSE that started at 5 PM on Sunday – as I write this, there are 3 players left in “the” HORSE, the $50,000 and Erick Lindgren refuses to be counted out – I completed my best Day 1 of the Series. There were 803 entries and, as of a few minutes before the end of play, 192 players left. That meant the chip average was a little over 12,000. I finished the day with exactly 25,000 chips.
4. This is a long way from the finish line. Blinds and antes are huge and another 90-100 players have to bust before we make the money, and the bottom money isn’t nearly enough for my purposes.
5. On the other hand, I have made Day 2 of only two tournaments at this Series: $5,000 Mixed Hold ‘Em and $3,000 HORSE. I cashed in the Mixed Hold ‘Em but I was never near the chip average and scraped along the bottom almost the whole tournament. In the $3,000 HORSE, I entered Day 2 with 3,000 in chips when the average was 15,000. I actually got to 20,000 chips but gave them all back.
6. It looked like it was going to be an early night, which would have allowed me to get caught up on the blog. (I also planned to stay away from the tournament on Monday to keep writing.) At the first break, after 2 levels/hours, I had 3,175 chips, about what I started with. After dropping to 1,500, I recovered to 3,700, but lost the last hand before the dinner break, 6-4-3-2-A in Razz to 5-4-3-2-A. I had just 575 chips left and didn’t even eat during the dinner break because I figured I could get dinner in a little while after I busted. (The dinner break in the 5 PM events is just 30 minutes.) I doubled up (or more) three times, to get my stack up to 5,100, only to fall to 3,000 at the third break. The average was about 8,000 at this point. The last two hours were a glorious march to 25,000, about double the average.
7. We start at 3 PM in the Brasilia Room. I’m at Table 38, Seat 5 and I’ve got a pile of chips. I’ll try to catch up on entries, both from today, from the nightmare I was living in a pair of NLHE tournaments on Friday and Saturday, and from all the interesting stories I have to share from earlier in the Series.
Talk to you later.
