It was over a short five and a half hours in.

Some highlights:

-Playing far too many pots, I swing early up to 22k down to 19k up to 24k down to 17k. My downswings being bigger than my upswqings would normally be a cause for concern, but much of that was explained by...
-...being dealt 16 pocket pairs, winning a total of five pots with them, and flopping one set. (and about five hours in, the numbers were fourteen, three, and zero.) I won the blinds twice with KK, flopped a set with KK and won the pot on the flop, won with 99 unimproved, won with QQ with a reraise... and lost with QQ, 77x3, 66x3, 55, 44x2, and 22.
-The first QQ hand: Brendan (2+2's CardSharpCook) makes it 300 in MP; a middle aged player who was pretty loose preflop and didn't seem to care about the money called, then the button (a pretty straightforward / passive player) made it 1200 on the button. I had queens in the small blind. I don't like any of my options, so I call. The BB then cold-overcalls! Brendan and the other caller call. The flop is AJ9 and I turbomuck when the button bets 2000. The BB then makes it 5000, and everyone folds-- the button shows the other two queens, the BB shows his three jacks, and the other two claim to have folded AK. BB lost a lot of value here. (And as I would later discover, he didn't need a hand as strong as JJ to cold-overcall preflop.)
-Later, at 100/200, I limp K7s UTG (I'd been playing pretty loosely and limping a lot even in EP, so this wasn't unusual and I expected to be fine postflop), the loose player from the last hand made it 700, and I called. Flop is KJ2, check/check. Turn 7, I check because I know he's betting anything he has, he bets 1200, I make it 3400, he shoves, I call, he shows AA. And I once again run into an 85-15 as an ace hits the river. I do not dodge bullets.
-I'm at 5650 chips now coming out of the break. The big blind is not back yet, so when it folds to me I raise to 1025 (at 200/400). Folds to the small blind, who double-checks his cards, tanks, asks me how many chips I have left, tanks again, and after a minute or so says, "I probably should do it, but I can't...' and folds AKo faceup.
-Speaking of folding AK: last level UTG (tight and pretty passive preflop) opened to 500, and the loose MP I doubled up with folded and accidentally exposed AKo (yeah, you tell me why). The SB called, and the flop came AKx. Now, this could have led to a brilliant game of chicken where SB and UTG "know" the other can't have much, so they start making moves at the pot and at each other (sort of like the Yeti theorem's schizophrenic cousin), but instead they checked it down; SB showed 99 and UTG showed QQ. God, SB banging at that pot would have been sexy.
-I chip back up, winning a nice pot when I get minraised by 66 on a 743Q6 board after I lead into 4 people with Q5. Not long after, I double up when I defend my BB vs. Brendan's raise with 7d4d (basically planning to check-raise any flop that hits me). The flop is 977hh; I make it 4k with 3800 back (yeah, I know it looks stupid, but I go with whatever seems right at the moment to me) after he bets 1500. He calls, the turn is the Th (gross, can I EVER get a blank?) and I have to shove in the rest; he has JhTx and this time I dodge however many outs I had.
-Kinda drift along after that until my bustout hand. The QQ on AKx guy limps, and a guy I want to say is a Frenchman in his early-to-mid thirties, but I have no idea how accurate either of those depictions are, makes it 1500. I'd been watching him since he got to the table and expected him to do this with almost anything, and he'd been raising limpers frequently. So I decided to pop him with anything decent from the BB. I look at Th8h and make it 5100. Now the limper looks back, asks "what's the total bet?", gets the total of 5100, and eventually calls. (OK, I get some warning bell "WTF" signs in my head, but I just can't imagine what he has here.) The other guy folds.

Now, he obviously has a strong holding, but I seriously doubt he rolls like this with aces or kings. So my plan for the flop becomes "Shove any piece and hope he folds". Not well-thought-out, but I have about a pot-sized bet left; I can't give up on it that easily.

The flop comes KT5. I move all in. He calls. He has AK. The turn and river are queens and i'm out.

Yeah, my bustout hand looks stupid in hindsight, but I don't think it's too bad, and a willingness and capability to make plays like that is part of the reason I'm successful in the first place. If I was wrong this time, well, I can figure out why, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. And even so, I expect most of his calling range there to be in the JJ-99 range, meaning he's going to fold that flop a significant percentage of the time.

So that's the end of my World Series of Poker.

However: Tomorrow the Bellagio Cup begins. I have to decide if I want to enter another 10k event or not, but the allure is always there. That dream of "Oh, THIS time I will spike a big tournament score!" I just don't know-- my excitement for the game and optimism of knowing that i always have as good or better a chance than anyone in the field is tempered by my pessism of the reality of tournaments and the long time that can go between scores. They can be the proverbial cocaine in the rat feeder. Ah, variable reinforcement.

I wasn't even going to enter the Stars 100k until my roommates talked me into it and I registered a minute before it started.

I took down almost 24k for first. Now I'm hitting the strip. I recommend the Petrossian Paris at the Bellagio. Their mojitos are amazing.

I'm liking this new FTP rebuy schedule. I've been playing them as much as I can since they added the $55 rebuy and the $109 6-max rebuy. Tonight I finished 4th in the $55 rebuy for about $2475.

So this is good. I'm gonna keep trying to play these regularly.

Just trying to stay off the strip until the Main Event, more or less. I need the rest for the mental endurance and focus needed to do well.

OK, this one isn't exactly like a huge beat, except that i can't get there on the river:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t150 (5 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: 2+2 Forums)

saw flop|saw showdown

SB (t4033)
BB (t1122)
UTG (t5351)
MP (t2085)
Hero (t8208)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, J.
2 folds, Hero raises to t400, 1 fold, BB raises to t1122, Hero calls t722.

Flop: (t2319) 5, T, 8 (2 players)

Turn: (t2319) Q (2 players)

River: (t2319) 6 (2 players)

Final Pot: t2319

Results in white below:
BB has 9h Qc (one pair, queens).
Hero has Kc Jc (high card, king).
Outcome: BB wins t2319.

Which is followed up by this hand, two hands later, against the same guy:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t150 (5 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: 2+2 Forums)

saw flop|saw showdown

MP (t4183)
Button (t2244)
SB (t5201)
BB (t2085)
Hero (t7086)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with J, J.
Hero raises to t400, 1 fold, Button raises to t2244, 2 folds, Hero calls t1844.

Flop: (t4713) K, 5, T (2 players)

Turn: (t4713) A (2 players)

River: (t4713) 3 (2 players)

Final Pot: t4713

Results in white below:
Hero has Jc Jd (one pair, jacks).
Button has 3s 3h (three of a kind, threes).
Outcome: Button wins t4713.

This summer has led me to one conclusion: tournaments are stupid.

Full Tilt Poker Game #2870798131: $55 000 Guarantee (21385599) Table 27 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:20:37 ET - 2025/07/06
Seat 1: Dungz (2 600)
Seat 2: Tony Pisser (1 175)
Seat 3: Shady Marlin (2 840)
Seat 4: potroast (2 900) is sitting out
Seat 5: AcesCrshMshin (3 765)
Seat 6: Randomizer2 (2 580)
Seat 7: anjlewis (2 950) is sitting out
Seat 8: MountainJay (5 205)
Seat 9: TheAssassinato (2 985)
AcesCrshMshin posts the small blind of 15
Randomizer2 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #4

Holecards:
Dealt to Tony Pisser AJ
anjlewis folds
MountainJay folds
TheAssassinato folds
Dungz calls 30
Tony Pisser raises to 120
Shady Marlin folds
potroast folds
AcesCrshMshin folds
Randomizer2 folds
Dungz calls 90

Flop:
742
Dungz has 15 seconds left to act
Dungz bets 240
Tony Pisser raises to 1 055 and is all in
Dungz calls 815
Tony Pisser shows AJ
Dungz shows J4

Turn :
2

River:
4
Tony Pisser shows two pair Fours and Twos
Dungz shows a full house Fours full of Twos
Dungz wins the pot (2 395) with a full house Fours full of Twos
Tony Pisser stands up

SUMMARY:
Total pot 2 395 | Rake 0
Board:
74224

Seat 1: Dungz showed J4 and won (2 395) with a full house Fours full of Twos
Seat 2: Tony Pisser showed AJ and lost with two pair Fours and Twos
Seat 3: Shady Marlin didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: potroast (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: AcesCrshMshin (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Randomizer2 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: anjlewis didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: MountainJay didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: TheAssassinato didn't bet (folded)

Another at this ugliness on PokerHand.org