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June 8th, Las Vegas: I wake up in the Vegas house a little before 11am. I jump in the shower then throw on a suit and eat breakfast. A number of guys in the house are playing the $2,500 six max event today and we car pool over to the Rio once everyone is ready.

This year at the WSOP the registration booth has been very efficient and today is no different. It is a far cry from two and three years ago when showing up 15 minutes before an event started was a death sentence to your first hour of play because they were trying to get everyone bought in at just a few windows in the Amazon room. Things really started turning around last year and have continued to improve through to this one and so far this year I have yet to wait more than maybe 10 to 15 minutes in line to get into a tournament.

I arrive at my table and find mostly unknowns though one familiar looking face. I glance around the room and realize that there are quite a few tables with a high amount of good players, though I seem fortunate enough to not have a table packed with them. We start play with 7,500 in chips and 25/50 blinds. I am involved in a decent sized pot in one of the first few orbits:
Effective stacks: ~7,500, blinds 25/50, I hold KcKs in the SB.
Preflop: UTG raises to 150, HJ calls, folds to me in the SB, I reraise to 600, BB folds, UTG folds, HJ calls. HJ is a fairly loose guy who I also attempt a bluff on a previous hand in a fairly hopeless way.
Flop: Ac 8c 6c
I check, HJ bets 600, I call.
Turn: 7c
I check, HJ bets 800, I call.
River: 3c
I check (something I never do and really don’t like looking at it now even though I thought he was kind of spewy) and he checks behind. I table the nut flush and take the pot.

My stack drains very slowly over the next few levels. For a tournament that lends itself to deep stacked heads up situations and multi level thinking I find myself in zero thinking situations. Most of the hands I get into have me raising preflop then getting a good board to fire a C-bet on but that misses me, then getting called or raised and having to give up the pot. Not too long into the day I get moved tables and find myself at a much tougher table with online player ‘Threatnasty’ and live pro Nam Le on my direct left. I’m soon in a hand against Threat:
My stack: 6475, Threat: ~10,000, blinds 100/200, I hold TsTh in the SB five handed.
Preflop: UTG folds, CO raises to 600, Threat reraises to 1650 on the button, I shove for 6475 in the SB, BB folds, UTG folds, Threat tanks for a while then elects to fold.

Again after the hand I find my stack dwindling hand after hand. My opens get three bet in situations where I have to fold and almost all of the hands where I get to the flop go the other way. By the time I get involved in a major pot again I’ve lost nearly 2000 in chips in just small pots:
My stack: 4675, CO: ~9,000, blinds 100/200 with 25 ante, I hold AKo in the BB five handed.
Preflop: UTG raises to 525, CO reraises to 1500, button folds, SB folds, I shove for 4675, UTG folds, CO surprisingly folds.

Just an orbit later I find myself involved again, this time against Nam Le:
My stack: 6,800, Nam: ~6,150, blinds 100/200 with a 25 ante, I hold AQo on the button.
Preflop: Folds to me on the button, I raise to 550, Nam throws all his yellow ‘1000’ chips into the pot, practically putting him all in, the BB folds, I shove, Nam obviously calls and then much to my relief tables AcJc.
Flop: A J 3 rainbow
Ah crap.
Turn: 7
River: 2

I am left with only about 600 chips and a couple hands later I toss it in the pot when I find a king and lose the hand to bust out. I wish everyone luck then walk away from the table and wander through the halls of the Rio. I run into ‘Charder30’ and ‘AvrilSharapova’ and we decide since we’re all bust we might as well get something to eat.

Charder drives us over to a well regarded Thai restaurant in the area. We spend dinner discussing what happened in our six max tournament and telling about our various adventures during the series. None of us have done particularly well in the tournaments yet though they’re both very talented so that will likely change for the two of them. After the meal Charder drives me home and drops me off.

I set up my laptop in the living room and spend the next few hours writing. At some point Watts comes into the room and I suggest we go to the gym nearby and get a membership. He drives us over to the fitness center down the street from us and we’re referred to a young dude there who will go through the sign up process with us. We sit down at the desk and start filling out the paperwork. I start talking to him
“How’s your day going dude?” I ask.
“Honestly man, I’m pretty much having the absolute worst day of my life.”
“Seriously?” says Watts.
“I’m sorry to hear that, what happened?” I pry
“Well first I found out from my bank that someone stole my identity and got access to all my information.”
“Ah shit.”
“And then that they managed to completely drain my bank account; took everything I had. I just moved here a few months ago and not sure what I’m going to do about rent now.”
Watts and I are both at a lack for comforting words, mostly muttering condolences.
“And then the girl I had been seeing for the last few months calls me up and ends it.”
“Jesus dude you run so bad!”
“Yea, it’s not been a good one.”
I lean in slightly and lower my voice “That really is one of the worst days I’ve ever heard dude. After I work out I’m gonna go home and blaze and it sounds like that’s something you could use so if it’s your scene, the invitation is open.”
He glances around and states loudly “Nah I don’t do that stuff” then leans in and in a hushed voice says “But between you and me I totally do. I really appreciate the offer, but I don’t have any money for that sort of thing.”
“Oh hell no dude fuck that shit, this is gratis. Consider it some karma coming around.”
“Thanks man.”
“No problem. I’m gonna work out for about 90 minutes or something, when you get out of here?”
“Ten” he says. I look at the clock; it’s nearly midnight. Christ this guy’s day sucks.
“Alright well I’ll let you know when I’m finished and bailing out.”
“Ya know thanks for the offer, but I think I’m gonna get out of here soon and probably just go home and sleep. I just want this day to be over. Some other time.”
“Cool man, better luck tomorrow.”

Watts and I hit the weight room for the next hour and a half and unleash our frustration over failing at the WSOP so much on our bodies. When we’re finished we walk downstairs and find the guy who was having the worst day after has gone home; hopefully things look up for him tomorrow. Does offering people drugs to make their day better count as charity?