For the third straight WSOP I've managed to get sick during the middle of it. What's sad though is that this year I've been taking extra precautions because after the past two years I've come to expect it's a decent chance that I'll catch something due to the combo of touching/handling disgusting poker chips hours and hours a day every day, getting on an irratic sleep schedule, and not eating as healthy as ideal. This year I even did a little more than normal, like mostly ordering bottled water instead of sodas from the drink girls, having fruit parfaits and "healthier" stuff instead of the standard beef every meal, and taking airborne several mornings. Anyway, I'm now fighting off a sore throat, congestion, headaches, and a general fatigued feeling.

The last two nights of my cash game playing went like this:

For the first half of the trip, I successfully won over $100,000 in the LHE cash games. I'm pretty close to 100% sure that nobody has won more in the wsop LHE cash games going in Vegas than me, which I'm basing in part on the fact I've played in a majority of the black chip games that have started and I've done better than anyone in them and I'm doubting anyone has ran up a $100k win playing 100/200.

The $10,000 LHE "world championship," however, didn't go so hot. I know it was a generally tough field, but I'm pretty sure I had one of the toughest, if not the toughest table draw of any tables. Here is how it looked:

Seat 1: DonkofHoldem on AP / Woodrow on most other sites
Seat 2: Hoss_TBF
Seat 3: me
Seat 4: Asian guy who played fairly decent other than cold calling about two times
Seat 5: Pat (winning black chip live player who also plays hold em fairly well)
Seat 6: KPR16
Seat 7: Unknown white guy who played pretty well from what I saw
Seat 8: Terrence Chan (Unassigned on Stars)
Seat 9: Marcel Luske (only soft spot)

Basically in this lineup, including myself, 6 guys who for sure beat 100/200+ LHE games, and two others who I don't know much about.

So yeah, along with the crappy table draw, my luck was equally woeful. I lost twice with KK, twice with QQ, had a few bricks when I opened with solid hands, and missed with 6s5s on a Tx 4s 3s flop. All combined, I was one of the first 5 or 10 people to bust from the event. Just brutal.

One hand from this event is one that I'm questioning myself a little about. I know I would've played it differently had it occured online. Live though, I went with my gut and my feel. In it, Hoss opened UTG and I 3 bet next in with QQ, he called. Flop K94 with two hearts. He checkraised me and I called (I have no heart). Turn Ace. He checked, I checked (online I for sure bet). River Ace of hearts. He bets, I folded (online, if I check the turn by chance, I call his river bet). What I know about Hoss is that there are no hands he'll 4-bet with PF in this spot, and if he has QJ or hearts I think it's a pretty good chance he still bets when the ace hits on the turn. So I really feel like his turn check is quite often with KQ or KJ (which KJ I think he often check/calls with on the flop) or else JJ, or AK or AA. Of all those hands, I only beat JJ. What irks me a little now though is that he would probably bet JJ on the river if he checked the turn, and also because of it being a tournament and not a cash game the likelihood that he in fact did check the turn with QJ or 88 or something like that does go up a tiny little bit. Oh well, guess I'll never know unless Matt decides to tell me someday.

Another kind of interesting hand occured in a 100/200 cash game. David Baker raised UTG, one guy called in EP, and I called on the button with 22, as did one of the blinds. Flop K98r. Checked to me and I bet, Baker called and the EP guy called. Turn 5, same action. River 4, and they both again checked to me. Interesting river decision... Do I bet for value? Do I bet as a bluff? Do I just check it behind? I opted to check it behind, but betting might be correct. David had an A7 and the EP player couldn't beat his ace high, so I won the pot. At the time I felt pretty confident I had the best hand, because I really thought if the EP player had flopped any pair he'd bet the flop himself (so I strongly weighted his hand towards a straight draw), and likewise I figured Baker to have some type of ace high hand. Given those assumptions, I should bet just in case I can get Baker to make a hero call tryin to snap off my JT/QJ/QT hands that I might have. Likewise, I should bet because Baker or the EP guy may have a hand like 77 or 66 (which peeled on the flop, and turned a gutshot, but then may fold if I still bet the river). So, betting the river turns into a dual valuebluff kind of thing since depending on my opposition's moods they may call with worse or fold with better. With these kind of variables in place, I don't think betting can ever be wrong.

I'm not sure what day I'm going to return to Vegas yet, but I kind of hope it's soon enough to maybe take a crack at an NL event or two. Like many of the other CR pros, I'm getting bracelet-envy -- this year specifically I know pretty well many guys who've won a bracelet or came very close to getting one. I also hope that my live reads can stay as "on" when I return. I feel like the past two weeks I had a pretty awesome grip on when my opponents were calling to peel, or calling to showdown, and that helped me make a lot of good decisions about when to check or bet.