$38,900. I'm headed to Day 2!

(More in a sec - wanted to post this quick)

ditto.

bills were rough this month so i didnt have any extra cash..

Congrats on a great day 1 showing. Looking forward to reading more.

My goals for this tourney, in case anyone was wondering:

1. Make it through Day 1.
2. Make it into the money.
3. Cash for at least $10,000, so he people who bought shares of me will at least break even.
4. Make it to the final table (9 players) to get some more POY points (this is the least important goal).
5. Make the tv table (6 players).
6. Win the tourney and at least $1 million.

I can cross Goal #1 off the list now, but as you can see, I have a looooong way to go.

Like I did with my WSOP tourney, I will type up a detailed tourney report after I get home. I'm definitely not going to do that now though, as I wouldn't want any of my opponents to be able to get an edge :)

All in all though, the day went really well. I lost a good 25% of my chips in the first level, after getting called down with a 44 (no kidding) and being reraised on the river with a big AQ hand I had. I was realy hoping to start "up" early, but I managed to turn it around in Level 3 and it's been a steady climb since. I've only been all in where I could be knocked out once all day, and my top two pair held up (against a well played gutshot draw). The end of that hand was filmed, but the only way that will ever mke the air is if I make the tv final table. It wasn't very exciting.... just me cringing when I realized his 11k all in raise was a few hundred chips more than I had left and saying, "I don't think there is any way I can let this go" and calling, turning over top 2.

My stack was as high as maybe 42k or so. I lost $1400 on he final two hands of the night just by posting my BB (800) and SB (400) and antes (100 each). I would have loved to fight back against the blind thieves, but with 72o and 73o, literally, I figured there was no need to get silly.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm sure the UB blog and other sites will be updated with all the chips counts soon. I hope so anyway. I'm certainly not one of the leaders any more, but I am well above the average. I'm happy...

Now if you wil excuse me, TP needs to get in the pool!

P.S. I LOVE live tournament poker. I mean, I really, really love it. Online MTTs are fun, but (and maybe because I'm not multi-tasking and doing 5 other things like when I play online), I'm able to get so much stronger reads on my opponent in real life. I don't just mean actual physical tells, but just really getting to know your opponents... knowing who to avoid, who to push around, etc.

I was moved twice today, which was annoying and a big disadvantage for a while... but the second move was to Table 1, so once I got settled there (which pretty much consisted of me folding for an hour), I was in good shape...

Very Cool, TP...

GL tommorrow and watch out for this....

did you play with any pros today?

Was wondering if you were sitting in on John Phan when he was going crazy throughout the day lol.

15th not bad after day 1. GL and have fun. YOU THE MAN!

I see the blog has been updated and I am indeed 15th in chips out of the 79 players who survived. I'm happy with that.

John Phan was at the table next to mine when we started, but then both of our tables broke up and I didn't see much of him after that. Chatted with DevilFish during a bathroom break - he WAS doing really well, but I see he's down to 16k now.

The chip leader, James Van Alstyne - I played with him for a number of hours after I got moved to Table 1. He and Sdouble (Josh Schlien, who they profiled in the blog) were both very solid players. I would honestly rank myself third on that table behind the two of them. I play a bit tighter, which works for me, but their ultra-aggression is awesome.

Anyhoo, I couldn't be more impressed with James' play. I watched him fold to 4 or 5 (maybe 6) BIG check raises and reraises in a row... preflop, and after he'd make continuation bets on the flop. I wasn't impressed with the folds so uch as I was impressed with his attitude. He got fairly low in chips, but kept his cool, stayed patient, and then tore it up later. I even chated with him during our last break... he's been a pro for 15 years (he doesn't look that old). My friend saw him on some Fox Sports poker final table, I think... I don't get that channel.

Anyway, one more thing about him: Inside 20 minutes at the end of the day, he was WORKING his stack... raising nearly every pot to 2500 (I did this myself twice when I actually had the chance to act before him). One hand, Josh reraised to 10k. James thought for a moment, and then pushed in. You should have seen Josh's face. It was the fastest fold I've seen all day (James was the only guy at the table who had him outchipped at the time). Josh said he folded TT...

There were a few other pros I played with today too, but no one really well known. When I make the final table, I hope James is there. I'm looking forward to battling it out with him :)

Well, that's funny. I didn't know who this was, but I described him as "Good, aggressive player" in my journal. He and I only realy butted heads once, when he got me off a decent hand:

So you keep a journal kind of like Raymer did or what?

I don't have a detailed journal or anything like that. I've just been taking brief notes so I will have reminders of key hands throughout the tourney...

So, I ended up going for a swim in the pool tonight. There were wo other people there, in total. KillerDave (UB name) and his girlfriend. I played with ave earlier today. He finished 2nd in the televised $200,000 thingee UB had. He told me the whole story... pretty interesting. He was REALLY close to winning it. I don't get Fox Sports, so I haven't seen it, but maybe some of you have.

When I left the pool, I swung by the beach for a minute, taking the scenic routhe back to my room. I bumped into exactly one person who was going the other way - yup, Phil Hellmuth. He had headphones on and looked like he was going for a jog or a swim or something...

I decided to swing by the bar on my way back to the room, bought a Corona, and noticed P0ker H0 and his posse. I don't know most of these people, but they are huge UB players. I met H0 yesterday, and I really like him. Nice guy. Actually, I quite like the entire crowd. Maybe we'll get some of them to show up around here... Then Tommy from UB stopped by and the conversation got really interesting, with suggestions/criticisms flying left and right. The next thing I knew, it was 2 hours later, so I decided to call it a night. On the way back to my room, I popped into the poker room to see how my buddy was doing, and saw a number of players that I've met these past couple of days. Pretty cool how so many faces are familiar now. The lawyer dude I met the first night is insisting I go scuba diving with him tomorrow afternoon, so I guess I'm just gonna have to go...... Did ou guys know I'm a non-teaching scuba instructor, I wonder? I do love to dive.

Anyway, tomorrow and Wednesday are off days for me, so I'm looking forward to relaxing, hanging out at the beach, diving I guess, and maybe, MAYBE paying some poker. There are 24/7 cash games plus $500 and $1000 daily tourneys. The fields are pretty small though. I heard today's $500 had less than 100 people in it.

Well, that's all for now........

Well regardless of what happens, it seems like this has been the trip of a lifetime so far. Again, great job.

Can someone post a link to this? Thanks.

Thanks BB.

FYI: It's also in the first post in this thread with ll the other links... It's in bold there so you don't have to search for this post every time you want to find the link)...

Great job TP! Keep up the good work. I hope you are taking some nice bikini pics! :)

Sounds like you're having a great time. Stay calm, focused, and aggressive.

:)

Ive seen the Fox Sports Net thing you are talking about... Dave Klassen finished 2nd to Bobby Hill or something like that.

Klassen was by far the best player to participate in those UB matches, he was so aggressive while all the other players were just there to savor the moment.

Thanks TP and sorry I forgot about that. Unfortunately my firewall here at work is preventing me from getting to those sites so if someone doesn't mind cut & pasting any blurbs about our man TP and posting them here it would be much appreciated!! Thanks.

He wont be playing again till Thursday Reel.

Yep, I know... thought maybe there was a blurb about yesterday?

Yes, that was him. And I'm not surprised he was the best player. I played wth him yesterday, nd he was solid. Nice guy too...

This Aruba trip was thrown in for him and the winner... Apparently there was a slight screw up with the final hand of the tourney (Dave was BB two hands in a row), so he thinks they threw it in because of that.

Considering he finished on a $200,000 vs $0 bubble, he had a pretty good attitude.