Nah just kidding, as if that would happen lol

I continued my streak of never having made the dinner break in a WSOP event with more than 10% of my starting stack intact.

Last year I played 15 events and made the dinner break in exactly ONE event - the main event, right at the end of the series, and I went to dinner having lost 95% of my (already considerably larger than starting stack) in a coinflip in a hand that played out over the first 5 minutes of the break itself (KTcc allin on QJxcc vs AA).

So that was a fun dinner break where I didn't want to kill myself or anything like that at all.

I am pretty good at playing the World Series of Poker (to be fair, more than one taxi driver has warned me about the tough competition out here in Vegas...)

Anyway I'm still in pretty good spirits, and I might as well recap the last few days.

Cliff notes on the boring pre 40k stuff first...

Flight in was fine, but I got grilled by customs for a while for carrying quite a bit of money and then my luggage didn't make it on to the flight as I was late.

Then it took ages to sort out money transfer related stuff but eventually I managed to get it done and get registered for the 40k, as well as get a good rate on a large AUD transfer by starting a player account at the Bellagio (which also has extra hidden +ev as it will make me more likely to head down there and play cash sometimes).

Had a good meal and drinks with a guy Kaz that I hadn't met before but who is around Crown a lot and knows a lot of the same people I do, that was cool, he gave me the Bellagio idea and some motivation to play cashgames and go out a lot while I'm here rather than just grind soul-crushing donkaments all the time - thanks Kaz!

I finally got my luggage and went to sleep about 11pm, getting a solid 12 hour sleep in before the 40k.

Rolled in to the venue just after the tournament started, to see the following lineup:

Seat 1: Middle Aged German FT Pro (turned out to be Markus Lehmann, played super aggro)
Seat 2: Cory Zeidman (donk from High Stakes Poker a few seasons ago)
Seat 3: Internet Kid I Didn't Recognise (turned out to be Balla-B13)
Seat 4: Kathy Liebert
Seat 5: Devilfish (lol)
Seat 6: Dan Shak (rofl)
Seat 7: Middle Aged Russian FT Pro (turned out to be Vitaly Lunkin, pretty aggro too)
Seat 8: Raptor
Seat 9: Me

Might have been the softest table in the room, was definitely one of them.

A pretty hilarious hand happened early on, Lehmann opened from MP (was opening a lot), BallaB-13 called, Devilfish called (was flatting pre with any two suited, calling threebets with Q4s etc) and then Raptor squeezed big from the SB.

Devilfish immediately said 'you never miss a fucking chance to squeeze, do you'.

First two folded, Devilfish called (his range at this point was basically napkins).

Flop came J32 with two diamonds.

Raptor bet around 40% of the pot, Devilfish called.

Turn paired the Jack, Raptor checked and Devilfish quickly checked behind.

River peeled off the Queen of Diamonds.

Raptor thought for quite a while, and then bet big - 3/4 pot or so.

Devilfish tanked forever, I felt like he had a pair of 8s or similar and didn't want to fold, but would eventually inevitably fold (body language etc).

After a couple of minutes he finally said 'OK, you got it' and folded 86dd faceup... lolol!

God, words can't even describe how bad he played.

That didn't stop me losing every hand I played against him though.

I lost a bunch of pots with AK, twice I threebet got flatted and missed on a terrible board.

Then other annoying hands like Devilfish limps, I 5.5x it from the SB with AKs he doesn't even consider folding... flop JT7, I c-bet and get called, turn T bringing FD for me I bet and get called, river T I give up and lose to 99.

I threebet Raptor light once and got immediately fourbet cold by Cory Zeidman in the bb.

I bluffraised the Russian on Q62r and he immediately reraised.

I flatted Raptor's EP open with TT and then two other guys called and it came AQx.

I flatted Raptor's utg open the very next hand utg+1 with AQs and the German guy squeezed from utg+2 really small, Raptor called so I took a flop because was getting a zillion to one and was sooooted. 822 rainbow.

I opened ATo from mp, German guy threebet and I folded.

Very next hand I opened 77, German guy threebet and I setmined and it came AT3 or something.

I pretty much did not win a single relevant pot during the first three hours, it sucked so bad.

Then when I had 27bb BallaB-13 opened from MP, Raptor flatted from the SB and I looked down at AK in the BB.

I shipped it in and BallaB-13 instantly iso-ed with AJ.

Flop AJ3, blank... blank.

No-one said a word.

Well, that was fun.

Other relevant anecdotes - Dan Shak fell asleep preflop 4 times (twice he didn't wake up to prompting and had his hand declared dead), I had to borrow $1 from Raptor to buy a coffee as I didn't have any RL money on me (busto alert!), if I could play that table from that seat every day I would.

Oh well whatever, nevermind