Well folks, what can I say, it was fun. NOT! Tournaments can be a form of cruel and unusual punishment at times. Playing day after day in a major event, only to be knocked out by an inevitable coin flip for your life, or even worse, a superably bad beat, is pure torture. These are how my days broke down:

Day 1: Two really bad table draws back to back, first with Chris Ferguson, Michael Binger, and Kelly Kim, only to be moved to a table with Allen Cunningham, Phil Laak, and David Williams, with Michael Binger in tow. Luckily for me the deck was breaking in my favor, I picked up several huge hands and played a couple huge pots that propelled me to the top ten in chip counts for day 1b.

Day 2: Really liked my table draw, not just because anything would be better than the day before, but because it was filled with weaker players, and I had the chip lead at the table. My good friend Etay was the only person for the first few hours that I was weary of, as she was on her game and it was apparent within the first 30 minutes. Lee Watkinson was there also, but luckily, extremely short stacked. I just tried to play a lot of small pots and use my chip lead at the table to continue to accumulate more chips. I ran kinda bad considering I ran into aces twice, but lmanaged not to ose a ton of chips in either scenario.

Day 3: Made a couple of moves later on in the day, tried to slow down in comparison to the other days because I came into the day below average stack. Very selective agression took me into the final 27 players.

Day 4: Extremely short, was looking to gamble and double up considering if I double up twice I would have above average chip stack and could play post flop again. Busted with KQ against 99. GG me.

Of course there is that whole cliche lament of wanting to make it much further than 23rd, and of course I am sorely dissapointed my run was cut short by my standards. The bright side is that I felt really about my game, and I am looking forward to yielding similar and even better results soon as long as I keep up the good work. Etay made it to day 3, but lost with QQ to AK, but she played like a champ and it is only a matter of time before she hits one of these.

Anyhoo, Gravity is a song that I love by Sara Bareilles, and I just have to share it with you all. The lyrics really speak to me and I think we all have someone that we have felt that way about at some point in our life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_U6iSAn_fY

Off to Portland in five hours for my cousin's wedding. This will be my fourth cousin to get married, and I can't wait to see my big extended family, cuz there is never a dull moment. After I get back I will be headed to Borgata, where I will be looking to final table the bitch! =P

I just feel really good and really happy right now, empowered by perspective, I am blessed with the love of family and friends, and ready to leave some things behind me and knowing confidently that the best is yet to come. I wish you all the best of luck and good times ahead!