Warning: This post contains a bad beat story.

I played pretty well today, though there were some missed opportunities. There was a player at my first table who had to have been involved in about 60% of the pots. I was just waiting for my chance to trap him but never really got the opportunity. Professional player Burt Boutin was moved into the death seat [1] at my first table but was knocked out after not too long. I made one ill-advised play with AQ and lost a chunk of chips when my opponent had KK.

After seeing my stack go up and down all day I finally managed to get slightly ahead of the curve entering level six. With the blinds at 200/400 and a 50 ante I had just under 9,000 chips. Not great, but far better than the 1,650 chips I had at my low point.

An early position player with a large chip stack raised to 1,200, everyone folded to me and I raised to 3,700 with KK. He instantly went all in. I, of course, called and he turned over AKs. The flop of 345 gave him a few more outs, the turn was a blank. The river, of course, was the deuce to give him the wheel and send me home.

Said hello to Pauly prior to the start of the tournament. His coverage is second to none, if you're not reading it you're missing out.

Next up: Satellites and either Event 7 or 9. I wish I had the bankroll to play Event 8, just because it sounds like the sickest game ever. But considering how bad I am at Razz and Stud 8 I really can't justify wasting $10K.

[1] It seems like there's always one seat each table where player after player is eliminated. I call it the death seat.