Days 2 and 3

After the highs of day one its not surprising that I went into day 2 full of confidence (something I lack at times) and ready to press on and build that stack of mine. Things look good when I sit down at my table and notice that I'm chip leader by over 20k.. Good stuff, lets take command here . I didn't get off to the best of starts and soon my stack was down to 50k. Things soon started to pick up however.

I won my first decent sized pot of the day when I raised in MP with Ac9c, guy two to my left who had taken a couple of pots off me earlier called as does the button. Flop comes QJT with one club, I check guy to my left sticks in a half pot bet button folds and I call. Turn is the 6c and goes check check, the 3c lands on river giving me the nut flush. I lead and other guy calls with QT for two pair. This pushed me up to around 75k. I then took down another nice pot with KQs busting someones very poorly played KK. So after the slow start I was now flying and had over 100k. Things were looking promising....then the downswing came.

I can't recall many of the hands but I ran very bad for the next 2 levels, I made a couple of errors which compounded things and before I knew it I was struggling badly with only around 38k when I pick up my first hand of the day QQ, utg makes it 3200 and I re-raise it up to 10k and she quickly calls leaving herself only 17k behind. Immediately alarm bells start ringing, she had been very tight, only playing a couple of hands since I got to the table, I feel I'm either already behind or up against AK. Anyway flop comes K high and I'm now certain I'm behind, she checks and I decide I'm done with the hand unless a Q comes on the turn . Its a blank and she moves in, I pass. The table soon breaks and I then spend a total of 3 hands at another table (of course the three hands were UTG, BB and SB) before it breaks and I get moved two to Joe Hachems left with half an hour of the days play remaining. At this point I'm severely pissed off and looking for any excuse to get my chips in the middle. The dealer manages to stop me spunking off the last of my chips by dealing me nothing better than 9 high. So the day ends and I have a paltry 21,600 left!! Not good!! I then have to endure the bagging up procedure which is really should be a simple procedure taking only a few minutes but it is carried out like a military drill and takes forever. On day 1 I didn't mind it although I was shattered, but at this point I just wanted out of there, I was pissed off with the way things had gone and with how I'd played (although looking back with a clear head I didn't do all that much wrong). Anyways eventually the procedure is over and I leave only to be hit with a mile long taxi queue. Happy days!!

The following day was a rest day for the main event and it gave me time to reflect on things and try to get things in perspective. I still had chips which was a commodity 7700 others didn't have. I was odds against making the money never mind going deep which was my aim but hey what was gone was gone, I now had to make the most of what I had.

Day 3 arrived and I set out with the intention of attacking, I wasn't going to allow myself to ante away, if I was going down I was going down fighting. I had drawn a decent table, I was the shortstack but there was only two stacks over 100k so I had enough chips to "hurt" anyone on the table besides them. It was therefore going to be a case of picking my spots (I was assuming I'd get no hands, I had none for first 21hours of play so didn't expect things to change and I wasn't disappointed). I had decided in advance that if any of my chips were going into a pot the lot were (obviously I'd be seeking action with a big hand) to I utilised the allin move on many occasions early doors. Two guys to my left had 60kish and seemed unwilling to get involved so when it was folded to me the chips were in. I made my way up to 30k and bought myself a little time before I got knocked back down to 20k at which point I'm now getting desperate. I find AQo and TT in quick succesion and push, I get no action but the blinds and antes lift me back up to 30k. Then I just couldnt find a spot to push and the bubble was fast approaching, the guy two to my left had been replaced by someone holding a monster stack so I had to tread a little more carefully.

I get battered back down to 14k, its costing 6k a round and its folded to me on the button, I can see up on the screen that there are less than 892 left with 873 paid. I look down at K4s and jam, SB folds and BB thinks for a while, and starts calculating whats in the pot, at this point I know I'm in front. Eventually he looks at me and says "You're in front but I gotta call you kiddo", he turns over T9o. So basically this is a $14.5k pot, and I'm doing battle with K4s :-). Thankfully I hold and I move up to 30kish.

At this point they stop play and announce that they will play one round at each table and if the bubble bursts then anyone knocked out on that round will share any prize money. At this point its -EV for me to get involved until the bubble bursts so i'm hoping it bursts on that round, but it falls three short and we have to play another round. Again I have to fold like a little girl (I didn't pick up any hands which made it easier), incidentally a guy had sat at the table with 80k at the start of the days play and did not play one hand, I guess he needed the $14.5k but it was sad to watch. This time the bubble does burst and I have 21k left, the first hand after we restart its folded to me in the cutoff, I look down at A6o and push, SB says he is all in and I know I need to get lucky. He has AQ and holds and its goodbye WSOP 2006 for me. However I will be back.