Well, the frustration continues. I had an unbelievable first 2 hours. I ran my starting stack from 2500 to 6500 at the first break. I was playing as good as I've ever played. I got moved tables late in the second hour. When we got back from the break every fucking thing began to go wrong. There was an aggressive Lebanese player in the 5 seat. I was in the 2 seat. I raised a couple of pots to 275 and 300 and the kid would just move all-in from the blinds for like 2200. He had no interest in playing flops. He doubled up off someone, and I raised another pot to 300. He moves all in for 4000! Obviously I was raising with marginal cards though that aren't good enough to call 4000 chips. The big hand of the tournament came up 30 minutes into level 3. The kid opened UTG for 300 and the cutoff called. I decided to take the flop with J7ss on the button. The flop came 763 all hearts. The kid led 400 into the 1050 pot and the cutoff folded. I quickly made it 1300. In retrospect, I maybe should've just laid the hand down right there. It's tough though. The kid goes into an acting job and then finally moves in for 2300 total. At this point I have to call the 1000 more just in case he has something like AhKs and we're a coinflip. If he has something like 9h9s I'm in terrible shape though. Even worse, he shows KThh, so I'm drawing close to dead. From there, everytime I raised a pot I got reraised. I think I definitely have an image of a loose-aggressive player. When I sit down, put my headphones on, and quietly go about playing the hands, I think the players automatically assume I'm stealing every fucking pot (which isn't far from the truth). From there, I was priced into calling 2 reraises with A3hh vs JJ and A5o vs AQ. Finally, I shove A8ss from the cutoff and the SB had AQ. That's all. I'll try again in the $2000 NL tomorrow. It doesn't matter to me whether I lose $50k live and win $100k online at the trip or vice versa. Other than winning a bracelet or making a final table, I'm indifferent as to how I make my money. We're all 6 out of the $2500 SH NLHE event. Jon was just eliminated in 25th of the limit event and got $9478 for his efforts. This is his second cash, and he is flirting with the WSOP cash record in one WSOP, which is 7. My 2006 trip stats: Yahtzee: +$1000 Pool: $-100 Online Poker: +$4737 Live Poker: -$7000 Total: -$1363

Today was a very meh day. My online session on 10/20 went well. I won $3500ish. We then proceeded to lose $2700 each playing 25/50 on UB though. We may take a break from those big games. We are down overall now and the swings are so huge (although split multiple ways), that they'll make you pretty sick. We just lounged around the house for the longest time and then Dave and I started playing pool. I was up $400 and had the game in the bag for another $400, but missed an easy shot and lost, so we were even overall. Finally, Jason, Nate and I decided to play some Yahtzee. In the first game we played $200 a game, and Jason had the lead most of the game. It came down to my final roll. I was down 9 points and only had the "large straight" column left on my sheet. I offered Jason $100 to let me buy myself out of it. I figured I'm about 6:1 to have a large straight at the end of the 3 rolls. He pondered and turned down the deal. Amazingly, I roll a 2-3-4-5-6 on the first roll to win the $400 total from both guys. In game 2 I rolled 2 Yahtzees and won as well, making me +$800 at Yahtzee. Total for the day, I was +$23 in all my gambling endeavours :) Also, in some very exciting news: Jon has made it to the second day of the limit hold 'em event. There are 69 players left and he has 27,000 in chips. Average is about 22,800. We're very excited. He has a great chance of making it to the final table. As always, you can follow his progress at cardplayer.com starting tomorrow at 2. Thanks to Jon and Jason, a house member has cashed in each of the 2006 WSOP events. We'll hope to continue that streak tomorrow when 6 of us play the shorthanded $2500 NL event. SS

I just busted in the fourth hour of the $1500 limit hold 'em event. Jon is the only one remaining out of the 5 of us who played today. He had 3500 chips (just about average) when I talked to him on the phone 5 minutes ago. The first 2 hours went pretty well for me. I picked up AA, KK, QQ (twice), JJ (twice), and TT all in the first 2 hours. I lost with QQ once and JJ once. I was up to 2500 after the first break. The second hour the cards were conversely bad. I didn't play a hand for about 2 rounds and blinded down to about 1900. At blinds 150/300 I raised UTG+1 with QhQs. The big blind called 150 more. I got a nice flop of 6h7hTh. The BB checked, I bet, and he called. The turn was the 4d and it went check, bet 300, call. The river was an ugly 8s. The Asian leads out for 300 and I have to pay off this bet for 6:1. He shows As9h for the straight. If I hold off that 5 outter then I have a bunch of chips :( I'm down to about 800 though and a player opens for 300 in MP. I decide to call in the BB with K9hh. The flop is gorgeous. QhTh3h. I check-call. The turn is the Qd. I check and the player bets 300. I put in my 375 total and he calls of course. He shows QT for a full-house which was pretty funny. I played very good fixed limit poker today, and I'm satisfied with my level of play in that game. I look forward to the $3k limit event this weekend because the field is very, very weak. The players are those that pride themselves on their NL game, and they aren't even good at that... I'm going to log an online session and will have a post later tonight on how Jon finished. Our 2006 WSOP stats: Jon Little: $1500 NL (cash for $5000), $1500 PL(out), $1500 limit (pending) Mike Mcstott: $1500 NL (out), $1500 PL (out) Michael Banducci: $1500 NL (out), $1500 PL (out), $1500 limit (out) Shannon Shorr: $1500 NL (out), $1500 PL (out), $1500 limit (out) Dave Anderson: $1500 NL (out), $1500 PL (out), $1500 limit (out) Jason Mellross: $1500 PL (cash for $4500, out in 46th of 2800 entrants) Nathan Hays: $1500 PL (out) Adam Geyer: $1500 PL (out) Donny Carlton: $1500 limit (out) Mats Iremark: Yet to Arrive