I spent six straight weeks living in Las Vegas. Six. I grew up in Tucson, AZ so it wasn't the temperature that got to me, it was just the neverending rush that the strip gives you that at first is completely addicting, then becomes tiring, and finally just plain annoying. Towards the end of my Vegas summer there were a couple days where I stayed home (at my friend Crazy Mike's awesome house, thanks for the roof roomie!) and watched movies and only went out to get Taco Bell and retreat to the safety of a cool couch and no gambling.
For the first time in my life I ran good in tournaments, like really good. My first event was typical, was out in two hours, and never had above my starting stack. Then I went 3 for 3 in cashes in the only other events I played, which was pretty cool. It was an amazing feeling to sit down at my starting table and just assume I'd be there after dinner - ahhh running good! I final tabled the 10k limit "world championship" and that's exactly the way I tell it - "I final tabled" cuz saying "I came 9th" sounds way worse somehow. I spoke to a couple guys I respect and decided my river checkraise with that AQ was a tournament mistake and that I should have bet and folded to a raise, but oh well. I ran bad in the 20 minutes I was there, it happens to anyone who doesn't win a tournament and is presumably a winning player.
Next came the triple draw, which I posted briefly about, but wow was this a fun event. My starting table was just ridiculously soft, guy on my right hardly knew the rules, and every "name" pro I played with was completely clueless and just gambling it up. On day two the games were playing much tighter and tougher, though I did have a pretty big LAG fish (imo) on my right who eventually busted me when I refused to break an 875 against him and he showed up with #2. I guess I had a tight image cuz he seriously asked me if I had a wheel when I put my last money in. Oh well, got to play a bit with Billy Baxter who seemed to play as well as advertised. There's just something about the presence of the few old time gamblers who actually have a clue, where you just know no matter what you do to them, they've seen it a thousand times before. He had a calmness to him that I have seen in some of the high stakes mixed game players I respect that I'm sure comes from experience, bankroll management, and the quiet confidence you gain by crushing year after year. That's truly my poker goal I think, to walk into a room and see what the biggest mix game is going, to sit down and have that calmness.
Finally I played the limit shootout which was fun for me because I had been playing so damn tight in every tournament I played that I really let loose here. I'm convinced the structure of this winner take all first table is such that you should play like a complete maniac, someone feel free to talk me out of it. That's how I played, probably playing 50% of my hands 10 handed, always putting in the last raise preflop. After an hour I had 600 chips, after two hours I had 6000 and was chip leader, yay variance. Alex Jacob was at my table and I put some stinkers on him then introduced myself by 2+2 posting name on the break - gotta maintain the insane forum image 
I wound up running really well when it got 4 handed or so, picking up solid hands and having AA hold up in a capped family pot. I had the majority of the chips by the time it got down to heads up between me and a decent playing kid who I suspected was not comfortable playing very shorthanded or heads up. He realized I had a clue and was asking me some strategy questions as we played heads up that made me think he just didn't have a lot of experience (like "wow do you ever fold a pair heads up?" when he tried to bluff me on a paired dry board and I had a mid pocket pair). I felt I was running a bit poorly heads up when 1.5 hours later we were right around where we started. We had a break then came back and it seemed to me that he had just given up, which I recognize because I've done it myself in previous years. He just stuck his chips in the first two hands we played in really bad spots and I busted him and had made the money in three straight events.
This was a funny day because I was on a completely goofy sleep schedule, having woken up at 7 pm the night before, stayed up and played the shootout at noon, intending to most likely bust out, go catch some sleep and then pick my wife up at the airport, who was coming to visit for a few days around July 4th. Instead I won and had to play again at 10 pm, she cabbed it over to the Rio from the airport and hung out while I played until 2:30 am, where we called it a night and came back to finish the second table the next day. I was a complete wreck at this point going on 32 hours awake and played pretty badly that night, even though its hard to tell when I'm implementing my maniac 10 handed style (same payout structure for the second round). Unfortunately for me it seemed others at the table were insane too so I had to tone it down some because I just would have had to come in 4 betting with my 97o's etc. and couldn't find as many spots to muck around. 2+2er and Minnesota clone factory limit master Kirby was at my table and seemed to be playing incredibly tight that night.
We came back the next day and Kirby was raising and re-raising every hand (playing 6 handed). I found out he was just incredibly card dead the night before because he sure wasn't shy about mixing it up on day two. I picked up a bunch of playable hands right away and lost many chips with them, so I got a bit short and desperate. Kirby also owned me on a really nice play where I raised preflop from CO, he defended BB, flop was T73 two diamonds (I had 98 of hearts) he check/called. Turn king of hearts, putting two hearts out and I made a debateable check behind after seeing him wait and checkraise the turn a couple times already that day. River was an Ace of diamonds, he bet and I bluff raised, he went into the tank for several seconds and 3 bet me. Thinking about it in retrospect I think 4 betting is not at all out of the question because 1) its a tournament and he won't make a crying call with as much as he would in a cash game, 2) I would play a flush this way and he knows that, 3) if he has a flush himself I don't think he'd really have to tank on the river, he'd just 3 bet me naturally. Anyway that's probably somewhat tainted by being results oriented, as I of course folded and he showed me 56o for a dandy re-bluff. I wound up busting soon after when a weak tight older nice guy on my left flopped a straight vs my top pair in a blind battle, and I turned two pair before putting all the money in. Kirby sadly followed me out shortly and well known Commerce player "JD" or "sleeves" as some of my friends have called him took it down.
That was my last tournament since I don't really know how to play NL even though I probably could fake my way through it for the soft main event field, but I was pretty burnt out on tournaments anyway. I wound up playing a good amount of 100/200 at the Bellagio for my last week or so in Vegas and decided to just run awful, donating back around 20k of my summer winnings before thankfully deciding to drive home.
All in all the WSOP was a huge success for me and for my friends and DeucesCracked teammates - we did really well in tournaments, Vanessa won a bracelet, and I felt we got lucky to be in the right place at the right time at times, gaining some notoriety on the poker forums and around the Vegas poker world. I'm home now and fairly caught up on life, and just excited to get back to working on the site, playing online poker, and seeing what adventure comes up for me next. KRANTZ and Chuck are off to Seattle for several months so I'm sure I'll get up there to hang out, work on some DC vids, and hustle some gin rummy whenever possible.
