Busto

I busted out of my first (and it's looking like only, for this year at least), World Series event last night. It was the 1k No Limit Hold'em event. I had some butterflies before it started, but once the cards were shuffled up I quickly got comfortable. I got my starting stack of 3k chips all the way up to 30k, mostly playing solid poker and getting dealt some good hands. I ran one big (but high percentage, I think) bluff that worked and profited from opponents spazzing out in some weird spots.

In the hand I busted out, I took an aggressive line that I'm confident would win chips on average, but was probably too risky for that stage of the tournament. I ended up getting all-in with 88 against AQ pre-flop, about a 55-45 favorite, but I lost the hand and was out. If I had won I would have had a big stack and been in a great position to go deep into the tournament. I definitely made some mistakes, but overall I was pretty happy with how I played. I thought I might play too timidly because I don't have a lot of experience in big tournaments, but if anything I was over-aggressive. I could have picked my spots a little better.

Going in I didn't really expect much -- only 10% of the field cashes, and of those only the top few make a lot of money. Still, it started well and I was starting to think maybe things would really go my way. I woke up at 7:30 the next morning not knowing where I was. Then I remembered and was disappointed again. Then I went back to sleep until noon.