Loved it. Was looking a for spot to try to double-up from the start yesterday. Every hand was being raised pre and I was getting no cards. The standard raise was to 2.3k from 1k. Called the extra 1.3k on my BB with 3h4h. There had been two other callers of the raise so a nice pot - also I wanted to play a hand against Paul Foltyn and James Dempsey, who were both in it. I could have shoved pre but I reckoned I was gonna be called. Was gonna shove any low flop and considered shoving the flop regardless, but when KJ6 came I decided it wasn"t a good idea into 3 players. My next BB, I finally got a hand, 99, and decided this was it. Folded to the Cut-Off, who raised to 2.3k, and I thought Great, I"ll have that as well, though I"d prefer if he would call my shove. Next thing, the Button has reraised to 7.5k. Could he have AK? My one chance to get chips, but it seemed unlikely I was ahead of both of them, so I let it go, as did the Cut-Off, saying he had AT. The Button told him he"d had one overcard, so I guess I was behind. Two hands later, it finally gets folded around to me. My stack was down to 10k. J9 on the Button - that"ll do. SB thinks for a while and calls with 44.
Loved the whole thing (apart from my depressed period late on Day 1). I"ve even got an outdraw to hang my hat on and pretend it"s the reason I didn"t cash. It"s a great experience to play against some of the well-known players. Those guys are really strong, but I discovered that they don"t like folding at the end, so I kept betting my good hands hard on the river and they kept paying me. I got a flying start with several good hands and had doubled-up within the first level just by betting hard and being called every time. For quite a while, it looked like I was odds-on to cash, but that went away. The guy who busted my AA with his KK has gone to the FT as chip-leader - funny game sometimes.
Thanks.
