The WSOP (Sigh)

I am back from the long haul that is the WSOP.  I made a great showing in the main event but am so so so disappointed.  On Day 1 I was down to 2800 really early from 10K in starting chips and things were looking bleak.  But I didn’t panic and ended the day with 27K.  I came back Day 2 and played at a table with a lot of young talent.  I didn’t know any of the players at the table but I was really impressed with their play.  The talent level from last year to this year sure jumped.  I ran across some really excellent players who I am going to keep my eye on.  I ended Day 2 with about 67K.

On Day 3 I got woken up at 6:30am by some jack hammering at the house next door.  What a nightmare on Day 3 of the biggest tournament of the year.  Joe went outside to see if he could convince them to hold off the noise for a few hours.  He told them I needed to go in and play Day 3 of the WSOP and the guy says, “My wife is a dealer and she makes like $2 an hour in tips so screw you!”  So Joe had to try another tactic.  He paid them $200 an hour to stop work till I woke up! 

Unfortunately the damage was done.  I was exhausted and really felt sick the whole day and when I walked in the room I was at the TV table!  What a day to have to play on TV.  I was nauseas and every time I stood up I started to black out from exhaustion.  I have low blood pressure anyway but when I am tired it gets really bad. 

So that really showed in my play.  I played like crap all day and eventually got my money in with TT on a 992 board against 93.  I was packing my stuff up to go when a T hit on the river.  What a huge suckout.  That was brutal for the other player whose name was Kevin.  I really didn’t deserve to win that pot at all.  He played his hand really well to get me to think TT was the best hand and he should have knocked me out.  I was really lucky there.

I ended Day 3 with 180K which was so lucky considering how poorly I played all day.

I got some good rest coming into Day 4 and had some really good things happen to me.  I doubled up early with QQ vs TT then won another huge pot when the board flopped Q73 two hearts and a guy with a flush draw moved in on me when I had QQ.  We played 6 levels that day which was a really long day but I ended the Day in 26th place of about 140 players with 919K.

I was feeling really good about my chances coming into Day 5.  I was well above par and feeling like I was playing well.  But disaster struck early when I lost 400K with KK right away to knock me down to 500K.  Then Jeff Lisandro raised on the button and I reraised from the big blind with AT.  He moved in and I had to fold there.  He had TT on that hand.  Then the very next round he raised the button again.  I looked at an A in the big blind and moved in for my last 300K.  He called immediately with 88.  I had a 3 to go with the Ace and was out the door in 88th place.  3 hours flat.

Needless to say I was super depressed and bummed out.  I went from feeling really good about the biggest tournament of the year to abject depression in one moment.  Joe and I packed the rental house up right away and drove on home.  Despite being incredibly tired I couldn’t sleep just thinking about what I could have done differently.  If I could have protected my chips better.  Avoided the two Big blind hands.  Just really obsessively mulling over what I could have done differently.

I finally got to sleep at 5:30am and woke up just a few hours later still beating myself up.  Last night I finally took and Ambien at 1:30 am as I couldn’t fall asleep again.  I have been very very had on myself with all this and it is going to take a while to get over being that close to a great result and messing it up.

My friends have been very sweet about it pointing out a top 1% finish is pretty damn strong.  I have gotten a lot of emails of congratulations which has been really nice.  But in the end I am my own worst enemy and time is the only thing that will take the edge off this one.  Joe has been a rock and very understanding of how hard this is for me. I am feeling better today after the rest but time is the only thing that will heal this one.