Well, I just busted about 45 minutes ago.  But I have a much better outlook on how I played than I did yesterday.  I played a much better game today in the 2+ hours I played.  Thanks to my stack size, I had to play a patient and tight game.  I was looking more to re-steal than I was to open pots.  That is exactly what I did mostly.  I re-stole about 5 times and only open raised 3 times.  Like I said, tight.  I only played a total of 8 hands leading up to my demise in what was towards the end of level 10.

I was officially knocked out in about 650th of the starting 1529 when the following hand came down:

Blinds are 600/1200 with a 100 ante.  A pretty active player from utg open raises to 3000.  It is folded to me in the CO and I look down at pocket Jacks.  I am sitting with about 25,000 in chips and have 3 options.  Fold, Call, or re-raise all in.  Folding is too weak, and if I call I would be put to a tough decision on the flop should any cards come higher than a Jack.  So my best choice was to re-raise.  I wanted to take the pot down right there and use every bit of my fold equity.

Nenad Medic, on the button folds; as do the blinds.  Action is back on the initial raiser.  He goes into the tank.  I think to myself well at least it isn’t an instant call (meaning he would probably have QQ+ or AK).  He was in the tank for a good 3 minutes as I was starting to want a call knowing that my JJ was likely ahead.  He finally does make the call and tables 99.

So JJ vs 99, great shape for me as an 80 percent favorite to double up and have an average chip stack.  Until the flop brought out 973.  All I could do was sigh and hope for a Jack or two running straight cards.  The turn nor river were any help as I had to grab my stuff and make the walk of shame.

You always hear how people feel so let down after busting in a major 10k buyin tournament.  But I was almost relieved as I walked through the imperial ballroom.  I had this since of wonderment, in that I was actually starting to feel that I can AND WILL compete on this level once again.  I was all in for my tourney life and called twice, both times as a significant favorite.  That is all you can hope to do as a poker player, continually get your money in good, and the results will show over time.

I made a couple light re-steals early in the day today, that were thankfully not contested.  But I did make a resteal once with AA against Barry Shulman, in which he folded.  Looking back on that hand, I could have slowplayed it some and maybe seen a flop to hopefully let Mr. Shulman hang himself.  But I took the more conservative route.

Overall, a well played day 2.  Looking back on day 1 though, I definitely leaked some chips early on.  But I have learned from my mistakes as to know what to expect next time.  I feel confident that I am a better player today than I was before starting this tournament.  Now I just need to win another satellite to the next big poker destination.

My wife comes down to the Bahamas tomorrow, and it is a little disappointing that she will not see me still playing in the main event.  But at least we will be able to enjoy the Bahamas together.  There are other (smaller) tournaments that are being run here at the Atlantis that I might opt to play.  But in the meantime, I am just going to relax and recount past events that have occurred over the past few days.

Once I get back home, it will be back to the grind as it relates to poker.  Playing 5 card draw regularly, mixing in some SNG’s and more MTT’s.  I have goals I expect to reach by summer time and by the end of the year.  This will prove to be an exciting year.