2. Thomas Fuller's mentee has a few chips
I might have just made up a word, but Tom was the guy who introduced Paul Wasicka to poker.  Paul (along with Michael Binger) has proven that his performance in last year's main event was no fluke.  Actually, it's possible that he was a total luckbox who learned how to play since then.  But I doubt it.

3. It's a good day to be a friend of Paul Wasicka's
Actually, I'm not sure if they're housemates or leaches, but odds are since both Chris Viox and Doug Kim have a WSOP final table under their belt they are doing OK for themselves.  Doug finished 7th in last year's main event, and Viox took 3rd in a Pot-Limit tournament. 

They are both friend's of Paul's who are crashing at his place.  Even though he won...well a crapload of money, Doug has never played higher than 5-10 No-Limit.  And this is his very first tournament since last year's main event.    Doug has 72k and Viox has close to 130k.  Mandy Baker, a hometown friend of Tom and Paul (they're all from Colorado), is seated just a few tables away with over 50k. 

 I folded about twenty hands before picking up AQ after the maniac limped. At this point he hadn't yet exhibited his maniacism. I made it 2500 after his 600 limp expecting to just pick it up right there but when it got back to him he quickly moved all-in for around 13,000. I thought for about ninety seconds and then folded. This was literally the first hand I had played so there was no reason for him to think I had anything but a monster. He ended up showing KK.
 
An orbit later the same guy limped and I again made a large raise, this time with AJ, and when it got back to him he reraised me once again. I knew he had to have a monster to pull this one twice so my cards hit the muck within a couple seconds. He showed AA.
 
At this point I was the short stack of the ten. I got lucky though and nailed a K97 flop with the 77 and doubled through an AK in a raised 4-way pot. I checked the flop from the small blind and was facing a bet and a raise for almost all my chips by the time it got back to me, so that was an easy double-up. Not too much later I busted the same guy with AA against his 55.

We got down to two players without much trouble. The professor to my left busted a young player with a sneakily played AA against JJ on a board of 101036 in a reraised pot, then broke Adams with KK against A2 on a 432 board, again by just calling the preflop reraise. I was happy to see Adams go as he is a skilled lunatic and would be tough to beat coming from behind.

On the other hand the professor was getting a hold of a ton of chips and in the shootout format you have to get ALL of the chips so consolidation to one player is a bad thing unless that player is you. Fortunately I was able to win a large pot with QQ preflop, bust an Armenian pro with AK against his AJ, and then oust the Australian to my right with A10 against K3. There were some steals and small pots and a successful checkraise with 99 against the Armenian on a K72 board but mostly it was really easy straightforward poker.

My heads up opponent was a cagey professor named Stephen. He didn't really play tight but he wasn't really loose either. His game was really hard to figure out actually. This tournament was his first ever at a casino but I think he could be an extremely successful player on the tournament circuit if that was what he chose to do. I really had a hard time figuring out what he had in a bunch of hands but it seemed every time there was a big bet out there, he had way the best of it. When we started he was up around 170k-130k and it wasn't too long before he had me down to 100k.

At this point I made a decision that I was going to have to start making some reckless moves if I wanted to get back in the match. The crucial hand came when he raised on the button and I reraised with 75. The flop came Q65 and he called my continuation bet. The turn was the 10 and I decided the tournament was over if I checked so I moved all-in. This hand was pretty wild and non-professional. I can't see a top pro getting all his money in the pot in a spot like this just praying his opponent will fold with no idea what he has. Like I said though, Stephen was running me over and I felt I needed to take some risks to shake it up. Luckily he folded.

Just a couple hands later he limped on the button and I raised it up with Qc8c. He called. The flop came something like 993 and I bet out. He raised liked I had hoped and I shoved in for a huge amount more. He folded and now I had a small chip lead.

The next big pot we played came when I raised the button to 4500 with 96. He called. The flop came KQ7 and he checked. I bet bigger than I usually do, 7.5k I think, as I had earlier when I flopped top set with KK and had shown the hand. He called. The turn came 8 and he led out for 7k. I considered taking the cheap card but instead decided to stay aggressive and represent a big hand and raised to 20k. He thought for a long time and then raised 18k more.

At this point I sat back in my chair and sighed, which was a mistake. People told me later I looked really weak when I did this, though I don't know if Stephen was paying attention. I thought for quite a while about whether to just call or not and then sort of suddenly decided Stephen probably didn't have a big hand, was feeler-raising, and would have to fold one pair if I moved in for his last 100k. I declared all-in and Stephen didn't take too long before calling with K9.

I think I made a good poker play here, and my opponent played the hand quite poorly. I was aggressive every step of the way and my betting represented a huge hand. However, I made a gigantic mistake. I had been pushing Stephen around lately and I failed to consider his psychological state. If I had not gone all-in in the face of heavy betting on two of the previous few hands, Stephen might have given me more credit for a big hand and maybe laid his top pair down. As it was, Stephen was likely sick of getting pushed around and felt he needed to take a stand.

Before I even processed what was happening, the 5 was on the felt and they were counting the chips down. I immediately started apologizing to Stephen for the bad beat and told him how well he had played. His wife had just come over to watch and said "so he just hit a straight on the river?" I felt really terrible, but the match was over and I was going to a WSOP final table.

Mistake #2: I had 13.8k with the blinds at 400-800-100. It was folded to me in the cutoff where I looked at pocket fours. The button folded out of turn while I thought about what to do. Steve Danneman in the small blind had about 11k and the BB had me covered by about 1k. Four of the five pros I talked to said within ten seconds that the right play here is to push all-in. I stupidly made it 2k and the BB quickly made it 5.5k. I was really confident he had crap and moved in quickly. He didn't like it but made a pot-odds call with A7 off and I lost on a board of 10857A.
 
You won't see ZeeJustin or TheWacoKidd make mistakes like these. Today it cost me.

There were some pretty bad players at the table who busted fast in a predictable fashion of losing a cooler, then tilt-panicking and dumping their short stacks. I feel short-stack blowups are one of the biggest ways the amateurs play worse than the pros - they panic and throw their tournament away when a comeback is still possible.

I won a good pot with a slowplayed AK against AJ on a board of A7437 where I may have missed a little value, then lost it back with JJ against 55 on a board of 1055K8. If I had been raised by quads on the flop here I would have been out less than an hour into the tournament.

Then a pattern emerged which would repeat itself the next two tables: I got all my chips from one loose-aggressive player. There was this maniacal amateur who would raise 83 offsuit and other crap like that in late position all the time.

One hand he raised and then I reraised about 60% of my stack with 99. He called so I assumed he was doing a stop n go but heprobably had no idea what a stop n go was. The flop came 975 and he checked, which was weird. I eventually decided to just stick the rest in and he called with AQ...okay. The turn was a scary 8 but the river paired the board and I doubled up to a healthy position. The very next hand I raised 1010 and Howard moved in; I called and outran his KQ and I was now the chipleader.

I extended the lead a bit later when the maniac raised and I reraised from the small blind with 88. He then called half his stack. The flop came J1010 and I put him in. He thought for like two minutes and then folded KQ faceup! Getting like 3.5:1 or something. Definitely one of the worst folds I've ever seen...and he was a maniac. This is why the WSOP is such a juicy tournament, even with the outrageous juice Harrah's takes. The fields are the softest you'll ever find withthese buyins. The equity for good players is just so enormous. The maniac rabbit-hunted and found an ace on the river...which would have made me the short stack with like 5 left.

A bit after this I raised and the maniac moved in. I made a marginal call with 98 thinking he was fairly weak...whoops he had jacks and I doubled him up. Then Jennifer won a coinflip against a really solid player and he was short stacked. Not long after I busted him with KK against A3 suited.

We played three-handed for a while and I accumulated some more chips. One hand Jennifer raised the button, the maniac called and I called with 44. The flop came 844 and we all checked. The turn was a 9 or something and the maniac bet out - I just called and Jennifer mucked. The river was a Q, he bet, I shoved, and he folded. He was eliminated (I think by Jennifer but I don't remember how) a bit later and we were heads up. I think I had 18k and she had about 12k when we started.

I grinded her down a little bit and then she limped the button and I raised with QQ in the BB. She called, then called my bet on a 1085 flop. The turn was a 6 putting two flush draws out and I shoved in. She thought for a good two minutes and folded. I now had a lead of like 23k to 7k.

She came back though and took a small lead. One hand I paid off her 74 on a board of 9449K with ace high. In retrospect this was a mistake because she bluffed pretty rarely. At this point I was really, really worried about losing and what it would do to my emotional state having blown a 3:1 chip lead in my first tournament back at the WSOP. Luckily we went on break and MasterJ and PiMaster were there for me.

We played something like two and a half hours heads up. Jennifer and I both play really nitty small-pot poker so it went on forever. You wouldn't think I could outplay a famous pro like Jennifer playing small ball but, as Jennifer would admit later, she's really not that great at no limit hold em. I know her cards were shitty but she was playing too tight, too passively, and not bluffing enough.

It took me a while to realize it but eventually I decided to just run over her and it worked - luckily she didn't pick up a hand to trap me in that stage. Soon I had her down to around eight big blinds and called her shove with A5 when she had Q5 suited...but she sucked out. I ground her down again though and finished her off raising 103 offsuit on the button and getting it all in on the turn of 1032X when she had J10.

I was really, really excited to win because of all the turmoil in my recent life and how long the heads up went on for. It was a fantastic feeling to have won something.  I'll post about the second round and final table soon...

Right before the first round, Kirk Morrison came up to me and we talked about Speight's, whose brewery logo was on my shirt. It's probably my favorite shirt and I wear it all the time, always hoping someone will know what Speight's is and talk to me about it. After I finished off Jennifer Harman heads up to win the first table, the dealer told me she was a reader of my blog. My head was spinning and I got pulled over for administrative purposes; I really wish I had gotten her name and talked a little more. Those were two nice cherries on this Sundae of a Monday.

Joining me at the final table are:

Seat 1 - Donald Baruch
Seat 2 - Daniel Negreanu
Seat 3 - Jared Davis
Seat 4 - Thomas Fuller
Seat 5 - Fred Goldberg
Seat 6 - Brendan Lee
Seat 7 - Michael Wehner
Seat 8 - Doug Baughman
Seat 9 - Erick Lindgren

_{*Chris Viox and Jason Dewitt (who made this same final table last year)}

It felt great walking into the Amazon Room this evening. Just looking at the chips and the cards and the players felt fresh and exciting, whereas three months ago the same images filled me with cynicism and disgust. Shortly before my "escape" from poker I concluded I was likely the worst regular player on the professional poker tournament circuit.

That's no longer the case. Hopefully it's for two reasons: 1) I'm no longer a regular on the circuit, and 2) an improved attitude (and a couple strategic adjustments) will allow me to play better tournament poker than ever before.

I plan to play 8-10 events this year at the WSOP, beginning with the $1500 NLHE shootout today.