Take it down, Big Pimp.

What a day. I woke up in what I thought was plenty of time to eat breakfast at my hotel downtown, take the deuce (a bus, not a movement) to Caesars, then the free shuttle to the Rio. The short of it is that everything on my end took longer than expected (who knew that Saturday would be busier than Thursday morning?), but those waiting for the shuttle had been there for almost as long as I had been in transit myself, so it hardly mattered.

Arrived at the front of the Rio, minutes to go to start time. The WSOP is in the convention center. The convention center is in the ass end of the Rio. Jogging time! I'm sure the security cameras have many amusing shots of me darting in and out of the meandering feedbaggers as I made my way to the tournament. Trotted in, hopped past Jason sitting a few tables over, and settled on down. Ten seconds later, shuffle up and deal!

While there are absent players at most tables, mine has the record at only five present. Look down at the first hand, pocket kings! I raise and take down the blinds. Second hand, pocket jacks! I raise and take down the blinds. All right, chip leader!

After a short while our entire table was taken out of the Brazillia room and into the main hall, and I was fortunate not to have my table broken down throughout. I pegged a couple of people as dangerous, one of whom turned out to be a pro. I didn't quite recognize her, but camera crews would stop by periodically and she seemed to know everybody there. I learned a lot listening to and watching her, that's for sure. She had a great attitude overall, very friendly, conscientious. She set a fine example of how one should conduct oneself.

Zack was the first out, on a sticky situation with a flush draw against a set that turned into a flush that turned into a boat. Jason, despite doubling up his short stack with quads, took a brutal tumble shortly thereafter, when his AK was bested by Q3 on KQ3 flop.

From there, KP and I plugged away, accumulating chips where we could. At one point I was up to 7000, and I was hardly showing down any hands. Ultimately, I was done shortly before the dinner break when my TT couldn't hold up against an AKo, finishing around 680th out of more than 2700 starting. Of those at my starting table, only the pro lasted longer than I did; every other seat was vacated twice (on average)

KP, however, made it through dinner only to return to a 600 BB as a short stack of 6k. After folding for two rounds he picked up pocket jacks and got it all in against pocket tens. Flop of J67 looked juicy, until he noticed that it was all clubs and his opponent held the ten of clubs. Turn 8 of diamonds, river 9 of spades. No flush, but KP's top set was felled by a running straight. The 15,000 pot would've given KP a healthy shot at making it to the money. 270 paid, and while KP finished in the lower 400s, several hours later they were still in the upper 300s, so it would've been a tough row to hoe regardless.

Overall the experience was a blast, though of course I'd like to still be playing. I feel my poker education has jumped up a level simply from having participated for as long as I did (almost six hours of play time). Next year, after I win a seat in our league, I'll likely buy in for one or two other events on my own (or try to win the seats elsewhere).

I'll post more thoughts about everything later, but for now there's more gambling and partying to do! Hopefully KP, Zack, and Jason will come on here and share their experiences as well.

Thank you everybody who participated in the league and allowed this to happen. I know we all played our best, so your investment wasn't completely pissed away. With some changes I think we can make next year's league both cheaper to enter and bigger overall, with more seats awarded. And as for me, I think I need to come back to this town on a regular basis. It speaks to me.