$1500 NL

Well this was frustrating. First I was about 20 minutes late because it took forever to get a cab and then the first two levels went horribly. I didn't win a pot until I was down to 575 at 25/50. I pushed over 2 limpers with AQ and then pushed over a button raise with J9 and got up to about 900 at the break. I had Michael Mizrachi a couple seats to my right which was pretty cool. First hand back from the break there's a limper, Mizrachi makes it 300, button calls, I push AQ and triple up when a Q flops (one guy showed 77, Mizrachi mucked). So then I actually had some chips to work with, but things didn't really get any better. I got to the next break with 1900 about to go to 100/200/25.

Luckily I had a guy on my right who was limping way too much so I pushed over him 3 or 4 times in 2 orbits to get up to 3300. The funniest one was when he open limped in the sb, I pushed 2400 with K8o or something (I would have pushed any 2) and he showed me an ace and folded...Then a short stack pushed 1200 utg and I repushed on the button for 3300. sb thinks for a long time and calls with AQ. utg has KQ. Flop Qxx. Turn 7. So now I really have some chips.

I start raising a lot of pots and 2 guys on the other side are talking about that and the "bad beat" I had against the other guy. I raise AQ to 850 (150/300/25) and one of them pushes for 2600 more. I call and lose to AA. In another pot I limp utg with AJs, MP limps, sb limps, bb checks. Flop A76r, checked around. Turn 7. I bet 850, both blinds call. River K, checked around and I win.

I get back to about 7500 and get moved tables. I call a raise in the bb and end up check-folding. So I have 6675 before posting the sb and average is probably around 5000. Folded to the hijack who's a young guy. He makes it 950. I push 99 in the sb. The bb thinks absolutely forever and folds (he said he folded AKs). Young guy thinks for like 3 seconds and calls with 88. This is a 14k pot and would probably put me among the chip leaders. 8 on the flop and I'm done. So that sucked.

On the plus side, Aaron's doing very well and goes into day 2 in 24th out of 157 with 45k.

After I got knocked out, I watched a bunch of the 1k rebuys final table. It was pretty cool being there to see Hellmuth win his 10th bracelet!

Steve