So I won my 1st table in the shootout today. I'm guaranteed $5,632 w/ 1st being $382k. We restart tomorrow at 2:30pm. For the most part played well. I went 1-3 in aipf flips but luckily no one had me covered when we got it all in, but each loss hurt as it cut my stack by 30-60%.

I also played this hand...4handed, I have 14k and open to t700 utg w/ blinds being 150-300 w/ JJ, button w/ 4k flats and this sets off all kinds of alarm bells in my head because my read on him was a typical straightforward solid player so he would be shoving nearly his entire range he was gonna play, then the chipleader w/ 20k in the sb 3bets to 2800, and I tank for a bit and fold my JJ. Here are the reasons why...again the button should be shoving nearly his entire range here so his flat call of my raise looks mighty suspicious...looks like KK or AA in my eyes, and the sb was a typical internet kid that knew what he was doing, or so I thought, and I thought he would be thinking like I did and therefore he must have a big hand himself so I folded JJ. Anyway button instaships all in, which I expected, sb calls, I tell button you must have AA, he nods and shows it, sb shows 33 (I was surprised to say the least but I guess I gave him too much credit)...AA holds (JJ would've lost).

Anyway I get it up to 20k 4 handed then lose 2 flips to ss'ers and get down to 10k and the chipleader busts the other 2 guys and I face him w/ a 10k vs 35k deficit hu. I manage to double up w/ A4 vs A7 aipf in a standard spot and we get about even in chips and pretty much own him the rest of the way hu...just playing small pots and taking advantage of his postflop mistakes. Final hand I opl w Q8s on button, he raises to 2200 from his 600bb, I call, flop 843r, he shoves and I snap call and he shows 82o and I hold.

So it's on to day 2 of this event and all I'm gonna do is try to play each hand the best I can. Obviously each table will get tougher but I'd like to think I'll be one of the favs on whichever table I'm on, esp. since I'm ok at fullring, shorthanded, and hu.

Also I mincashed event #30, the $1500nl event for $2,908. It was a terrible 2nd day for me in that event. I had t43,200 when we resumed w/ blinds at 600-1200 and lost every hand at that level. I had 27k when blinds went to 800-1600 + antes and I openshipped in the hijack w AQo and lost to JJ and that was it. I've been losing more than my share of flips at the wsop so far so hopefully that changes.

I also skipped the $5k 6max event I was supposed to play that day because I was in the $1500 event and recently skipped the weekend's $1k nl event to play the $3k horse. I played the horse on my own and it turned out to be one of the most frustrating mtts I've ever played. Basically was card dead 1st 4 levels and finally get dealt KK5 in stud hi and play a big pot where a guy raises me on 5th and tries to bluff me off my hand w/ his board reading xx9TJA and bets blind at riv and I call w/ bare KK's figuring he is rarely showing up w/ a straight because a lot of the cards he needed were already out. Anyway he shows 966 in the hole rivering 2 pair and beating my unimproved hand.

I've been talking w/ a few guys and I guess I will pay out what I owe to guys that invested in me once the WSOP is over so I don't have to do a lot of xfers constantly. I will be refunding $ for the events I skipped, so far the $5k and $1k, inc. markup (btw I have since found out I should've been charging a whole lot more than 1.2 based on my track record..lesson learned). I will pay out immediately if I cash for a big amount (I'm thinking 6 figs +).

Also received an email from FTP saying I was on their vip list for their WSOP suite at the Rio so I checked that out. Not sure why I got to be on the list but I'll take it. It is pretty cool and they have food and drinks there as well as sofas to relax on during breaks so I'm gonna take advantage of that.

Anyway that's it for now...haven't put in any time grinding cash games so not happy about that but the WSOP and meeting people have taken a lot of my time the past 3-4 weeks. If any of you guys are in town and wanna meet up, give me a shout out.