[Kind of got off track in terms of blogging and poker in general since I got back from AC. But thought I would post this and clear out my TextEdit even though it's no longer relevant]

I'm sitting in a limo to get from Atlantic City to Philly as I write this. I had called for a town car and they sent this, but it's pretty sweet given that it's basically the same price.

So I spent a week in AC, made about 3k in cash games and 3k from finishing 10th/112 in the 2k WSOP Circuit event. The money I made was definitely lower than the hourly I make online since there were so many 10+ hour days of poker, but it was a good learning experience given that I'm still somewhat green with live poker. And I entered the tournament because I plan on playing a few WSOP events this year and wanted to get in some practice in multiple day events since I had never done one before.

Day 1.

There were two empty seats for the first hour or two at my table, one would eventually be filled by Michael Binger, and the other by this crazy Russian named Boris. Boris seemed to enjoy muttering constantly about his tablemates and berating the dealers as much as playing cards. At times he was singing to himself, at times he was loudly cracking jokes, at times he was yelling in Russian across the table, at times he was jumping up from his chair and back into his chair, but he was always doing something to call attention to himself and disrupt the table. Eventually someone called the floor because he kept on getting up and leaving the table while he was still in a hand. So while Boris argued with floor, Michael Binger jumped in to say that Boris has been disruptive and berating players and dealers. So when the floor left the wrath of Boris was turned squarely on Binger, and they went back and forth something along the lines of:

Boris: What are you, you think you're a big dog. Go back to reading your magazine, [unintelligible Russian mutterings]
Binger: No one likes you. I was at dinner last night and everyone was talking about what an asshole you are. You are a miserable fucking guy.
Boris: Floor! Do I have to put up with this cursing?

So things calm down, Boris is singing to himself "no one likes me, I have no friends" and play is back to somewhat normal when Boris jumps up and leaves the table during a hand again. The same guy that called the floor the first time does it again, and again we have Boris bickering with the floor and Binger letting them know that Boris is continuing to causing trouble, etc. So when the floor leaves, Binger puts his headphones back on and looks down at his magazine, and Boris gets up and mutters "don't call the floor on me again" and whacks Binger's chair with his foot as he leaves. When Boris returns like 20 minutes later now it's all out warfare between the two of them, and they are yelling at each other in a way that looks like it can only end in fisticuffs. The floor comes over and tells them that they need to stop talking to each other or they will both incur penalties, etc etc. Finally the table breaks and we all breathe a sigh of relief that we can get away from that madness and be able to focus on poker again.

My day of poker started with me bluffing off half of my chip stack within the first half hour. Keep in mind that we start with 25k and the blinds are 25/50, so it takes some real effort to bluff off that many chips in one hand. There was a crazy Italian that was really active and aggressive, and he 3b me, I 4b him with AK, he flats. Flop comes Qxx, and I fire 3 streets thinking he can only call down with KK+. But he has KK. This sucked, and obviously there was no reason to 4b AK this early, and having made that mistake even less reason to get out of line postflop but I got sucked into the bluff vortex once I fired the turn. So I go into lockdown mode because I'm down to like 11k, and more than anything I need to regain my image if I'm going to start chipping up again. I played tight enough and my image improved enough that this hand went down: raise AQs ep, 2 callers in the blinds, the Italian player that I now know is just a straight up fish, and an old but actually fairly competent and aggressive Russian guy. Flop comes 778 and it checks around, turn is a 9, Italian bets 1k, old guy calls 1k, and I instantly make it 4k. Italian instafolds and then old guy grouses for a minute about how unlucky he is and folds, and I show.

So at my new table I get a few big hands and double up twice, I am up to like 50k and probably just a little below average. The next table I'm able to chip up a bit, and then get into a coinflip that would take me down to 20k if I lose, but I win. I'm up to 80kish to end the day leaving me a little above average but way below the chip leaders who probably have 200-300k.

Run good: Won an important flip, got a few big hands when I was getting shortstacked
Run bad: table position, after the first table I always got seated directly to the right of the most aggressive player

Day 2.

I start the day without anything remotely playable for the first few orbits. Finally I open J3o in MP to take advantage of the image that I've surely earned by now, young internet type looks and me and I can see he thinks that I'm a nit, so he 3b me, and I think for 10 seconds and 4b him, he folds and I show. It was one of those spots that I love where your image has basically gained you variance-free chips because you know so clearly what someone thinks of you. In retrospect, I shouldn't be showing as many bluffs as I did, but when table conditions are dictating you play tight I think it's OK to put some doubt in their minds as to what you are up to.

So this day was relatively uneventful. I went from 36 down to 10 with basically the same chip stack of 80-90k. I bluffed away 30k on two separate occasions, but also was able to win enough small/medium sized pots to stay alive. And getting AK > AQ on the bubble and doubling from 50 to 100k didn't hurt. Unfortunately AK < TT knocked me out on the final table bubble.

Run good: almost every continuation bet and double barrel worked
Run bad: horribly card dead, and once again always seemed to draw the worst seat at the table