Well, my WSOP is over. I got knocked out at the end of day 1. Over all, I played well, but made one poor decision in a key hand and that ultimately was my undoing. I started out playing really well. Not just tight agressive poker, but it was like the light bulb went on and I started to see the things that the pros always talk about; seeing who the weak players are and taking their chips at every opportunity. We started with 10k in chips and I was up to about 13k at the end of the first level. Then somebody got knocked out and unfortunately it was the person to my left. That was unfortunate because he was replaced by a Korean looking guy that had over 35k in chips, easily twice the size of the next biggest stack at our table. Within a few orbits, he too knew who the weak players were and that I was stealing their blinds with impunity. He put an end to that nonsense by frequently reraising me! Terrific move on his part since his reraise had even more clout due to his huge chip stack. With no easy way to get pick on the weak players any more, I had to wait for good hands and those were few and far between. The Korean guy continued to build his chip stack, winning a huge pot and showing his pocket aces when the other guy folded. The very next hand I had AK offsuit in middle position. The blinds were 100-200 and there was an early position raiser who raised to about 600 and I came over the top with a 1500 reraise. The Korean guy then reraises me, firing 5000 into the pot. The initial raiser folds, and I go into the tank. 6800 in the pot, 3500 to call. I’ve got big slick, so I’m really only a big dog to AA and to a lesser extent KK. I am thinking to myself, “no way he can have AA two hands in a row!”. So after giving it a good long thinking, I decide to call. The flop comes rags, and he puts me all-in. I fold. He shows rockets again. Holy cow. Yes, back to back he got pocket rockets. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have called simply because he was the big stack and I should have saved my chips for doing battle with easier opponents. Just like that my chip stack was cut nearly in half. The rest of the way I just scratched and clawed to hang in there. I did really well when I got short stacked by pushing all-in a lot against the weaker players. But then with 5125 in chips, I woke up with TT after one of the bigger stacks opened with a 1k raise. I pushed all in and he deliberated for a very long while, muttering to himself like a crazy man, and then finally called. He turned over AJ offsuit and drew an A on the turn. I had a flush draw at that point, but the club I needed didn’t materialize on the river and I was done.

Ten hours of poker and nothing to show for it. After a whole day of keeping myself emotionless, I was really surprised how depressed I felt as I was walking out of the Rio and realizing that my world series was over. It really is true what they say about the day you get knocked out of the wsop is the worst day of the year if you’re a poker player. I really didn’t think I’d feel that down about it, after all, I’ve always been gracious in defeat and have done my fair share of losing in various competitive activities. But I think maybe it’s the result of that many hours of knowing you’re in the biggest show in history, and you could be knocked out on every hand. It wears on you, trying to control your emotions and thoughts for that many straight hours knowing that any mistake could be your fatal one. Then when it’s over, you let your guard down because you know you don’t have to fight to control your emotions any longer. Then it all comes out. It’s pretty devastating. Hard to explain; I guess you just have to experience it.

I’m still a bit fatigued right now, so I’ll save the rest of my observations of the world series of poker experience for a later date. Time to go out and just enjoy my Vegas vacation…