US Poker Championship

Natalie and I headed up to Atlantic City directly from Aruba the other day. Mike Matusow and Gavin Smith rode on the plane with us and in our limousine to the Borgata. Once we got checked in, we all met up with Bill Gazes, John Juanda, and David Singer at the AC Bar & Grill for some eats. We watched some football and tried to stay up late since day one did not begin until 3pm. After that, we all headed over to the Taj Mahal to post our buy-ins. The boys wanted to go to John Juanda's room to play some chinese poker, but I figured it was best to save my energy for the tourney.

The next day, we arrived at the Taj and found out that I was starting my day at the feature table with my good buddies John Juanda and Brian Haveson. Brian and I played at the final table in this tournament last year. I played pretty well the first day, and on into the second day. I had gotten up to $65,000 in chips at one time. It all went down in a handbasket in the last level of the second day. A pretty conservative player made a small raise from the button. I had been paying attention to the player and had noticed that he made smaller raises with weaker hands, and thought I could get him to turn over if I raised all in. Man, did he pull one over on me. It turns out that he had a pair of Kings and I couldn't outdraw him.

Now we're on our way to Memphis to visit Natalie's family and then on to Alabama to visit mine.