The end of the dream.....for now

Maybe I should stop writing mid tournament blogs as it never seems to end well. After two days of grinding hard and playing well, I felt like I deserved a little day three luck, but that's not how it works in poker, at least in the short term. Shortly after getting aces cracked by kings to bust this year's WSOP main event, I ran into Parky in the corridor. He expressed surprise at my demise saying that himself and Scott Gray figured I already had enough chips at the end of day 2 to last me a few months. I told him I just wished it had happened late on day 2 instead of day 3, as then I'd be home already and wouldn't have spent another couple of grand on flights, hotels and other expenses. Sharp as ever, Parky pointed out that basically I'd done a mini rebuy.

Parky famously said once that the worst day of the year is the day you get knocked out of the main event. This has been true for me in the past, but not this year. I'd be much more upset if I'd gone out making a bad mistake. The Scandi kid with the kings said "Sorry" immediately afterwards as we shook hands and clearly meant it, showing a lot more class then most I've come across this summer.

I still had two horses in running, Nick Newport and Mark Dalimore, and both got through to day 5. Unfortunately both went early in the day, Mark on the TV table where he affected Danny Negreanu to the point where he celebrated Mark's demise even though he wasn't in the hand (and ran over to tell his friend on the rail that Mark was mad). Danny's reportedly had coaching from some of the younger players to modernise his game this year: maybe some of the Scandi kids might be able to help him show a little more class in other's defeat.

Mark was typicially philosophical after his exit: by contrast Nick was pretty inconsolable. Lacking any real reason to linger further, I decided it was best to get out of Rio. In previous year's, I've lingered too long there after my exit and been left feeling like those guys who continue to haunt the campus long after they've graduated, unable to move on from student life. Mark, generous as ever, got me a suite at the Hilton and the plan til I fly out Tuesday is to chill and decompress with him. We went to the Stratosphere Top of the World restaurant last night and today's entertainment was provided by an excellent no budget movie, "The Encore of Tony Duran", at the Las Vegas film festival (it won the Best Film award at the festival).



In Fremont street with Mark

The end of every WSOP campaign is a time for honest reflection and tentative plans for the following year. My tentative plans for next year is to play more events with less than 1000 runners, and also to try to get my non-holdem games to where I feel I can compete against the best. Most seasoned experts say that there is much more value in the other games these days than in holdem. I also have a bit of work to do on my holdem game. While I feel my preflop game is as good as anyone's, particularly shallow, I need to improve my post flop game against the very best players with more cash game experience than me.

The positives I can take from this year is I broke my duck in bracelet events with 3 cashes, I built stacks in several events, and overall rarely felt outclassed by anyone I played with. While it would have been nice to go deeper, I didn't feel I made many mistakes when it mattered and most of my exits were either standard or unlucky.

Well done to Reggie, Pete, Nick and Eoghan for cashing in the main event, and best of luck to Eoghan who is still in at time of writing.

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