MY End of Day 2/Mandalay Bay Poker Championship
I came in short, with only 25k chips in my arsenal, but I was able to get lucky and double up early, with vs. , when an Ace flopped.

Then, just a few hands later I busted Bill Gazes with , and seemed to be on my way with 70k in tow. I then moved over to a new table, and two slots to the left of Jamie Gold. This was a great spot to be in as we all know how much Jamie bluffs and how much action he is willing to give. I parlayed that into several fairly big hands and was able to push my stack up to about 90k without ever really getting into too much danger. Now I felt like I could play a little bit of poker and I was on my way.

I then lost a big pot with on what seemed to be a beautiful board of . I was unlucky enough for my opponent to be holding , but lucky enough to be in a spot where a check-calldown seemed to make sense, so I didn't lose nearly as much as I could have.

Finally, I was moved one more time and found myself at a table with a lot of chips when the following hand came up:

James Van Alstyne raised it up to 4k chips and the seemingly new amateur called his raise...with a lot of chips behind. It rolled around to me in the small blind where I held . Normally I would just call here and see what developed, but James opens enough hands liberally that I decided to just take the pot down right there. I re-popped it to 18k and James folded immediately, as I thought he would. The problem was that the amateur called suddenly, which put me into a terrible spot, playing Jacks out of position to someone who could bust me. Grrrr, I didn't like it one bit...

The flop came down and I was in a terrible position. I bet out 25k chips and my opponent immediately went all in. Now I was just sick. He could have me beat...or he could have a Queen, which made my hearts live...or he could just have the naked Ace of hearts. I hated my spot, but I decided that with so much in the pot already and the fact that I could still be drawing very live or possibly even have the best hand, I had stick the rest in and hope for the best.

It was, of course, the absolute worst spot possible basically...he held the , and I was in jail. I was drawing to two outs, but wasn't able to hit anything and thus busted out of the event. I was irritated at myself for making the initial pre-flop raise, but was at least happy that I made the correct read on Van Alstyne. Usually you figure once you get past the initial raiser than you are home free. In this case though, I was big time dead in the water.

The WSOP starts up this Friday though, so no time to cry over spilt dominated hands...I'm ready to get it on...

Music for today...

Level 1: Pearl Jam, "Ten"
Level 2: Motion City Soundtrack, "I Am The Movie"
Level 3: Widespread Panic, "Light Fuse, Get Away"

"The Bet II" Competing Events
Alright ya'll, here are the events that will be used for the competition between Gavin, Madsen, and I:

Sebok/Madsen/Smith
6/1.....$5k No Limit/Limit Hold'em Mix
6/2.....$1500 NL
6/8.....$5k PL
6/12.....$1500 NL Shootout
6/13.....$5k NL
6/15.....$2k NL
6/16.....$1500 NL
6/17....$3k NL
6/18.....$2500 NL
6/19.....$5k NL HeadsUp
6/22.....$2k PL
6/23.....$1500 NL
6/28.....$5k NL
6/29.....$2k NL
7/2.....$1K NL Rebuy

Smith Joker Events
6/9.....$2500 HORSE
6/14.....$3k Stud 8
6/24.....$50k HORSE

Madsen Joker Events
6/3.....$2500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8
6/11.....$2k Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8
6/21.....$5k Omaha Hi-Low Split-8

Sebok Joker Events
6/10.....$5k Limit Hold'em
6/20.....$3k Limit Hold'em
6/26.....$2k Limit Hold'em