WSOP Diary: Day Six

I didn't sleep deeply, but I did sleep, becoming wakeful (with bits of dream images flashing and flirting with my consciousness, as if I were still in REM state) some time before 8:00 AM on Tuesday morning, making for about four and a half hours of sleep. As usual, it wasn't enough, but I wasn't going to get more.

I spent some time writing up my Monday experiences, then packed the PowerBook up and took it with me to the Four Queens coffee shop, where I wrote more as I ate. After breakfast, I went to the Horseshoe satellite area, where I played a $225 NLHE satellite and a $215 stud/8 satellite. I crashed and burned out of both of these.

I was feeling grumpy about busting out, and tired, so I returned to my hotel room to finish writing about Monday. The maid interrupted so see if the room was clear for cleaning. The second time, I packed up again and went downstairs to the coffee bar in the hotel lobby.

Writing took a long time, and I was tired. I had a 7:30 PM phone date with D. Potter scheduled. There wasn't enough time for me to me to go out to play cards, so I spent the remaining time in my room.

I sat for my daily half-hour of meditation. I don't think meditation is any kind of substitute for sleep, but the time spent sitting still with eyes closed and not thinking, or at least not dwelling on anything except my breath, is in fact restful.

I also spent some time on the phone touching base with Debbie and with Lynn.

At 8:15 PM, after my phone calls, I put myself together to go back into battle. I returned to the Horseshoe and sat down in a $2-and-$5-blinds no-limit hold'em game, blew off half my stack with semibluffs that got called and missed, then doubled up again when I had a real hand and the table was now convinced I was a bluffer, and then busted a player with a smaller stack when offsuit K-9 on the button in an unraised pot flopped a full house. When I was called over to the stud/8 game, I was up $170, having bought in for $500.

I played stud/8 for a while, and got up $300, but my mind was on satellites, and the lineup in the stud game wasn't encouraging. I picked up, and sat down in a $525 NLHE satellite. I blew off most of my chips because I was thinking like a cash-game player when an opponent bet big at me on the river and I had a bluff-stopping hand. I did my crowd-counting random number thing, came up with a number that said "call", and called him. The other guy showed me a full house. D'oh! I hung on for rather a while after that, but made the mistake of making a stand against a frequent loose raiser with K8 and getting overcalled by AQ. (My hand would have beat the loose raiser unimproved, who had suited 75, and an 8 did flop. But so did an ace. IGHN.)

I played a $225 NLHE satellite in which I simply didn't get any breaks, and went out early. I played another one, and this time I got cards. Three-handed, I was up against a cute redheaded woman who was dressing to show lots of skin and cleavage, presumably to mess with the heads of players who get distracted by skin and cleavage, and a loose-aggressive player who was a clone of Paul Suliin wearing a Gonzaga University sweatshirt and lots of bling-bling. After a few hands of play, our stacks were within a chip or two of exactly even, so we agreed to a one-chip save, and played for the remaining chip and cash.

Knowledge of head-up all-in equity helps. I was able to run over the other two, taking out first the Paul clone and then the redhead. Two chips plus $80 for me, taking the sting out of satellite play. I was now up in cash games and down just a little bit more in satellites, being down a net of $94 since I woke up.

I was hungry. It was almost 2:00 AM. I went to the Horseshoe coffee shop; it was closed! I went to the Four Queens coffee shop; it was closed, too! At length, I settled on the Plaza's coffee shop.

I was nearly finished with a grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich when Andrew Prock joined me. We spent a while talking stud/8 strategy and analysis, until my eyes began to cross. I said good night, and went upstairs to sleep. I was dismayed to see that the time was 3:05 AM when I got in. I was sleepy enough that I opted not to take melatonin, and I drifted off straight away.