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Well, I’m finally out in 78th place on Day Six of the main event. I made every play I saw. I went with my read every time, whether it meant calling, raising, or folding. I focused every day. I left it all on the felt. (And yes, I got good cards. You have to, to make it that far.)

I’m heading home now. Thanks to everyone who’s been sweating me the past few days. In case you’re interested, the people to root for (assuming they’re still in) are right coasters Paul Snead and Victor Ramdin, and Stoxpoker guest coach Garrett Beckman. Good luck, boys. Wish I was still out there with you.

I promise some longer posts soon.

I had a bad last level today, highlighted by a 1 million chip loss in a blind-on-blind pot with top pair vs. better top pair, and augmented by an 800k coin flip defeat. Also today, I lost a million chip pot as a 2.5-1 favorite, and a half million chip pot with 77 vs. 44 vs. 22. Despite all this, I also busted two different players, both times by flopping two small pair, and I was fortunate enough to get AA vs. QQ, so I’m still in this thing. I’m down to 766k, which is the smallest stack relative to the blinds that I’ve had in the entire event. That said, I still have 25 blinds, which at this stage of almost any other tournament would make me an average or even above stack. Besides, I’m better with a  smaller stack anyway. Today wasn’t so good, but I’m thrilled to be in a position to have a shot. Tomorrow is a brand new day at the office. Wish me luck.

They finally gave us some downtime in this tournament, so I’ll post a quick update here. As most everyone reading this probably knows, I’ve made it to Day Five. There are 189 people left, average stack is around 725,000, and I have 1,126,000. I’m pleased with my position, but there are a ton of great players left in the field, and I have very far to go before I can even sniff the big money. I’ve run really good so far. I can’t believe the number of times I’ve been dealt aces or kings in my last two tournaments.

A few corrections for those who read about some hands in the updates. As far as I know, they wrote about three hands that I played, so it’s about right that I need to correct the write-ups for two of them.

On the AJ hand where I called 210k on the river, my opponent did not have A8 for second pair. He had AT for ace-high.

On the 33 hand, it didn’t “appear” that my opponent slowrolled. He slowrolled. I turned over my hand, he said, “that wins” and then said a few seconds later said, “oh wait.” That’s the definition of slowrolling. I never get pissed at anyone at a poker table, but when you slowroll me in a 650k pot in the main event of the WSOP, you go on my permanent shit list.

Anyway, it’s back to work tomorrow. My Day Four opponents were, by miles, the toughest opponents I’ve faced so far. I only expect it to get worse from here. Wish me luck.

I’m sorry I’ve been silent in this space since my final table. To be perfectly honest, I’ve never been more exhausted in my entire life than I was after those six straight days of long hours of poker that culminated with my sixth-place finish in event 51. I rested for two days before I had to play the main event, but I hadn’t totally recovered and felt feverish and dead-tired through most of Day 1C.

The good news is I’ve had three days off since then, and I’ve been sleeping a ton, and I finally feel great. I go into Day 2B today with 66,475 in chips, safely above average, for now. That could, of course, change in an instant.

I’ll be updating my chip stacks on FTSweat, and I promise a long WSOP post when I eventually get finished out here. For now, I’m just trying to focus on my routine, and my game. Wish me luck.

Thanks to everyone who rooted me on and sweated me at my final table. I’ll write more later, but I’m extremely pleased with the way I focused throughout this tournament, with the way I went through each decision carefully, and with how I wasn’t bothered by any of the final table microphone and camera nonsense. Obviously I was hoping for a better result, but I really think I did my job as best I could.

Let’s hope I’ve got one more deep run left in me, and let’s hope it starts this weekend (Saturday, to be precise).

Yeah, I made the final table. You might be able to watch on ESPN360 tomorrow. I’m going to sleep now for a bit.

I thought I was playing a Limit Hold ‘Em shootout today. Turned out I had my dates mixed up and I was registered for yet another $1500 No Limit Hold ‘Em event with 2,700 people. Well, I’m in the money again, and again I have above average chips going into Day Two (41.8K). I’m not in nearly as good a position as I was last time, when I had 113.6K at the end of day one, but you can’t ask for much more than to have above-average chips going into the second day of a tournament. I’m going to try to run up my stack tomorrow and give myself a chance at the final table. Wish me luck.