Blah. I was playing well and felt good, but unfortunately I ran very unlucky in this one. My roommate, Cody Slaubaugh was seated to my immediate left and Theo Tran was to my immediate right. With slightly above the starting stack, I had been playing very tight and raised AJcc UTG in level to to 150. The SB, a middle-aged player from the south who was admittedly in his first live tournament, called 125 more. The BB folded and we took a As Qc 6h flop. He checked and I bet 300. He called, and the turn was a 5c. He led out for 500, and I put him on one of two hands, AT or A5. He never has A6 or AQ here, and I felt AK was unlikely. I just called, and the river was the Ad. He quickly bet 1000, and I told Theo Tran that I should definitely fold here. I still called though, because the price was so good, 3:1. He shows up with AT or even A2 1 out of 4 times here. He showed me A5o though, and I was down to 2000. A few hands later I doubled up with TT vs Theo's A4hh on 7s 4s 2d in a 3 way pot. I was up to 5000 at the first break. In level 3 I came back and found A7dd in EP and opened for 300. Steve Fredrick was next in the pot, calling 300 in MP. The blinds called, and we took a Td 2d 2c flop. The checked to me, and I bet 700. Steve called quickly, and the others folded. The turn was an offsuit 8. I bet out 1700, and Steve called after 30 seconds of thought, leaving me 2800 behind. The river was an offsuit 6 and after some thought, I finally checked. He said, "I missed," and flipped up Q8dd for a pair of eights. I mucked. I then doubled up again when I limp-reraised UTG, something I rarely do, with AKo. The action was interesting. I limped for 100, another guy limped, the button made it 300, the SB called, the BB called, I moved in for 2000, everyone folded, and then the SB (the A5o guy) called with 44. The door card was a K and the board held up. I was back around 5000 when another frustrating hand came up. I limped in UTG with KJcc, and the button and the blinds joined. The flop came Js Jh 9s. The blinds checked to me, and I bet 450 into 800. The button and SB folded, and then the BB raised to 1450. I moved him in for 2375, and he showed J2. The turn was a 6, but the river was a miracle 2 to fill him up and give him the pot. With 1750 left, a guy limped in EP and I found 3h3d in the cutoff and moved in. The SB called and so did the limper, lol. The flop came J62, and the SB bet the limper out of the pot. He turned over AJo :( and I bricked. I need these key pots to go my way in shallow multis to be successful. Things will come together in a tournament soon, I hope. We didn't drink last night, but we definitely plan on it tonight. I'm gonna go to the gym and then we'll probably go out. SS

Busted late in the second level of the 1500 at Caesar's. These small tournaments are so silly and frustrating. I was hanging around the starting stack (3000) with 2950 when the bust hand came up. It was folded to me in the SB and I found ThTs and raised to 150 at 25/50. The BB, a "your not gonna push me around" type player, called. The flop came 9h 8h 4d. I bet 300 and he called. The turn was an offsuit King, which is actually a pretty good card for me. I put the guy on a JT, 87, or 97 type of hand on the flop. He can never have a King here, right? I was ready to get it all-in, and the best way to do this was checkraising. I checked and he bet 600. I quickly moved in for 1900 more into the 2100 pot and he fell out of his chair calling with K8o :( Standard. That's how the shallow tournaments go. Be right in that one pot or be on the rail. The sad thing is just about any card other than a K or 8 can come off on the turn and this guy is gonna get his money in with the worst of it on the turn. Oh well. When I get home I'm going to bring a bunch of money out here so I can play 25/50 and stuff at Bellagio. I have no earning power right now in shallow tournaments and online NLHE cash games are next to unbeatable right now. I'm going to the gym now and hopefully abuse alcohol tonight and watch some NBA playoffs. SS

I overslept until around 1:45 p.m. today, so I didn't make it to the start of the noon 500 dollar tournament at Caesar's. I went to Circuit City and got them to fix my Sirius Radio since it hadn't been working. While they were fixing it I ate lunch at a Red Robin nearby. Later, I got a carwash and then headed for my first workout at 24 Hour Fitness. I'm a long way from where I want to be, but it was nice to lift weights again for the first time in probably a year. I ran into professional poker player Cecilia Reyes (formerly Cecilia Mortensen) and talked to her for a little while. The highlight of the workout had to be when I saw Comedian Scott "Carrot Top" Thompson doing curls. I had no idea that it was actually him. My memory of CT was his 1800DIALATT commercials when he was a scrawny little kid. Apparently though, he has been a huge, ripped out guy for 2 years now. Check out this photo of him from Late 2005. http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=728550 The guy has one of the ugliest faces I've ever seen, however. I'm not sure if it's from steroid abuse or possibly some fucked up cosmetic surgeries. I think he does some shows at Luxor, so I assume that is his reason for being in Vegas. Nonetheless, it was an interesting encounter. The crown at this gym seems to be mostly 20 somethings, so it should be cool. I'm interested in meeting new people outside of the poker community, and I think the gym might do the trick. There is something to be said about life outside of the one-dimensional career we indulge in. Vegas is an interesting city because there are so many people in independent contracting kind of work. You kind of see what the locals are like when you go to the gym. It was an interesting group. There was no shortage of guys who must be bouncers, tattoo artists, and nightclub promoters. Many of the girls appeared to be strippers, models, or call girls. I guess all of these lines of work call for staying in shape. I came home after the gym, lounged around, and watched a good episode of Lost. Tomorrow is the 1500 dollar event at Caesar's. I'm a favorite to make it to the event. I weighed in at the gym, and I'm up to 206 lbs. I weighed in at 199.5 3 weeks ago, but I fully expected to gain a few lbs back. The plan is to get back in shape now and hover around 200 again. SS