Finished #33 in Event #21, cashed!

Right now, the Renaissance Man ...

is getting some well-deserved rest after completing his run @ event #21, $3000 HORSE, at the WSOP.

While he wasn't able to take home the bracelet, to finish #33 out of 452 competitors and to finish 'in the money' is quite an amazing feat in itself. Very proud to be a fan!

But the Renaissance Man continues to have more prodigious goals in mind, with ambitions justifiably higher than us average mortals. He continues his admirable quest for a 2nd bracelet in @ least 2 more WSOP events - so wish him continued endurance, focus, and luck!

Next up is his defense of his 2008 $1500 HORSE WSOP title!
May the champion continue his reign!

#31 $1500 HORSE: starts June 14th
#32 $2000 NL Hold'em: starts June 15th (If he is eliminated the first day of #31)
#34 $1500 NL Hold'em: starts June 16th (If he is eliminated the second day of #31

The recap from the man himself, @ 3:44 AM:

**********************************************

Received $5800 and change, so about a $2800 profit.

After getting healthy early and staying there through most of the day, my stack was decimated with stunning speed once we got to the 5000-10000 limit level. Two consecutive stud eight hands where I was beat on the river crippled me (one I was splitting and he hit a 4 outer to scoop. The other one I was ahead and he hit a 8 outer with noone having a low).

I dropped from almost 100,000 to less than 15,000 in less than two minutes.

Had a brief period of hope when I spiked a one-outer to climb back to about 35,000 right before hold'em, but couldn't get anything going. Back to back A8 hands where I opened for a raise cost me most of it. One I got called, but had to fold on a KQ97 board. The other I got raised and then re-raised and elected to fold, knowing I was dominated and worried I had no outs.

Last hand was anti-climatic. I was down to 6,000 in my small blind with the small blind being 2,500. Cut-off raised. Getting 4.5-1 on my money, looked down at 9-2 offsuit and called. Cut-off showed Q2 suited, and noone hit anything. I wasn't paying attention. Given how low I was and how marginal the hand, I probably should have folded and hoped to fold into 32nd place, which paid more (I could have folded a full circuit before having to put in another blind since we didn't have antes in the flop game yet).

I wasn't actually playing my best at the end, but I don't think it would have made all that much difference. The two critical hands I played fine, just got unlucky. And the mistakes I made didn't actually cost me any money due to the cards bailing me out.

Most interesting hand actually happened early. I had been crippled in stud and was down to about 6000 with blinds of antes of 200, bring in of 200, limits 400-800. I looked down at buried aces with a four bringing in. One other person limped then a player completed with a door king. There was another ace behind her, which folded. I reraised and got called around. On fourth, me and the limper blanked, the kings paired and led out. I eventually folded, the problem being it was hard for me to be ahead, and if she did have trips, I had to commit my entire stack and only had 1 out. It left me critically short, but I was able to rebuild.

Got to play with Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Marcel Luske, and Chiau Giang (he was the guy who came to my table yesterday, but I couldn't remember his name). I must say, I was particularly impressed by Chris's table manner. He was very pleasant, civil, and enjoyable to play with. He also handled bad luck with incredible dignity and aplomb. Definitely model behaviour.

*WARNING: RANT AHEAD*

Some of the other players, not so enjoyable to play with. To tell you the truth, a bunch of the notable but not really famous pros are total A-holes. People make a big deal about Hellmuth's behaivor, but he's not remotely as bad as some. I think it's an ego thing. So much of their identity is wrapped up in being a good poker player (and they generally are good poker players), beating them wounds them personally. Some are definitely shooting angles too. I get the feeling that some of these guys their whole life is poker and they're basically worthless as human beings. I might be being too harsh though, for all I know they might not be complete douche-bags away from the table.

*END RANT*

Obviously good to cash, but given the possibilites I'm a bit bummed.

And tired, going to sleep now.