i just loled when i re-read my last entry. gives me a little perspective, cause i've been really bummed out about my 10th place finish.

i saw the horse on the wsop schedule and remember thinking it'd be cool to try playing horse live (i've only played tournaments online, mostly $26 and under). i busted the main event sattie on stars around 4:20. too late to join my friends playing o8 which was a cheaper buy in at the venetian, but just in time for the horse tourney. i debated, and in the end decided to listen to my boyfriend. his reasoning was, play if you want, have fun, don't worry about the money. i was 0/3 in my first three wsop events, and figured this would be the one i'd have the least chance to cash in. i was wrong, but i'm ok w/ that. :)

day 1 started slowly, as i acclimated myself to the different games. i registered late and missed almost the entire orbit of lhe. when o8 started i was taken aback. i've never had to look at four cards before, it's hard!! i prob looked at my cards in o8 three times every time. ha. i lost 1k early, and was down to 3500, but won a few pots and got back above the starting stack. right before dinner break i lost a big razz pot to a guy who started with a T showing, hit a K on fifth street (when i made my 86 low) and he continued to draw and hit a 76 on 7th. i was totally steaming and really glad for the break.

omg people played razz so badly. i watched a guy call down w/ KK87 showing v. 2344 showing. really? (although, when we were down to two tables i called a complete w/ a K and ended up winning). i saw players who i thought were good occasionally calling with high cards (and saw people completing w/ a 9 showing, which i did not think was a winning razz strategy), so i finally did it once.

the guy to my left on day 1 was a complete luckbox calling station who called EVERYTHING and kept getting there v. me, and then dumping his chips to the two really good players to his left. our table had very few chips in play, and i managed to get a lot of them before we broke (calling station busted).

my second table i got moved to the right of paul darden. i do not know the guy and barely talked to him, but after playing at his table three different times, i will say i never saw anyone speak so consistently rudely to the dealers in my life. he criticized every single thing they did.

some of the dealers were obviously new to the game, and i saw them corrected many times by players, which is totally cool. however, i definitely think it's out of line to snap at them constantly and call the floor over several times to complain about dealers.

anyway, i lost a bunch of pots to him. my second table was waaaaaay better (skill-wise) than my first, and i ended the day with far fewer chips. i had been up to 30k, but was down to 14k at end of day. to darden's left was a baller who had just finished 3rd in the lhe event. there was another very well known stud player at the table also. the eventual runner-up of the event was also at the table and took a huge pot off of me.

day 2:

started at a table w/ perry friedman (ftp pro) and nobody else i really recognized. a young asian dude took a couple huge pots off of me, and i was not doing very well. i had around 30k and was feeling kinda bad when our table broke. the funniest part of the table was these two dudes whose girlfriends were standing behind railing. for like five hours. it's early day 2 with a lot of people left. did these girls really have nothing better to do than stand around watching their boyfriends play horse? i can understand final 2 or 3 tables, but as much as i love my boyfriend if i'm not playing the event i'm not standing behind him watching the first couple hours of a day 2. found that very strange.

i was moved very briefly to the right of vanessa rousso, where i forgot during stud hi on 7th street that we were in stud hi and called out a low hand. that was pretty embarrassing, and lucky for me it got reported by pokernews. didn't want to admit it was my first time playing, so i just laughed it off. the table was good, but luckily it broke shortly. i decided to play like it was part of my strategy to throw people off. :)

my new table i got moved to the left of lacey jones, and there seemed to be a very aggressive player three seats to my right as well (the eventual winner). i won a couple pots and then scooped two pots in stud 8. one was fairly controversial and reported on pokernews. i checked out of turn (sigh, i'm such a n00b) but then when they both checked i tried to bet, which i wasn't allowed to do. then the dealer was so flustered he dealt 7th face up to the first player, so we all got our cards face up. i bet and got two callers (lacey was already all in) and ended up scooping it. weeeeeeeeeee. went from 35k to 140kish in three hands or so.

all went well until i got moved to my last table of the day, which was insanely tough for me. ron 'schifty' schiffman, who was at the vanessa table was there, and so was fabrice soulier, who killed me in a hand where he raised 74o from second to act (wat?) then called my three-bet and then luckboxed flopping a straight v. my KK. i also got completely owned in a few hands of o8 after that and ended the day very sadly w/ 66k.

day 3:

most of day 3 was reported on pokernews. i raised the first two pots and got no callers, and then won a few showdowns, won a couple three way stud hands, and next thing i knew i was up over 500k. sadly it all came crashing down. i lost a heartbreaking stud8 hand when i had trip 8s on fifth, i thought he had trip 4s, and basically got as much money in as i could. not sure if he hit the flush on 5th or 7th, but either way i didn't boat up. after that i played a couple limit hands marginally, and my final hand i got all in w/ AQ v. 33 and despite the Q high flop shannon shorr hit a 3 on the river to bust me 10th.

making the final table would have been awesome (although there was no money jump for 9th, they played the ft 9-handed to start) and there were stacks shorter than me even after the horrible stud loss, i was playing to win. there is an argument i should have tightened up and tried to make the final table, but i guess it's just not my style.

i'm really disappointed to get so close, in an event i never dreamed it could be possible, but if i'm in that position again i need to learn from it. i should have tried harder to keep the dinner break when it was scheduled, as i could have used the break from playing, and who knows how that could have changed the outcome. i busted in that hour window that they added, and i think it put me at a disadvantage. live and learn.

thanks to everyone who railed, tweeted, texted, commented, etc. <3.