OK, let's get right to it first:
For the second straight year, I've made Day 2 of this event. 
We are well into the money, with only 40 players left. I'm guaranteed $4000ish, I think. At spot 36, it bumps up another $1000.
That's the good news. The bad news is that I have less chips right now than I had an hour and a half into the event. I have a mere 9200 chips going into tomorrow, with the blinds being 800/1600 with a 200 (300?) ante. Yikes. The good news is I'll be on the button to start.
As for the tourney itself, I wouldn't even know where to start (and I forgot to take a notebook today!), so I'll just be general and random here for a minute:
I've been playing pretty great all day. I have yet to suck out on anyone (of course), but my best hands have held up a LOT - that's my definition of "lucky." I've lost three huge pots when the money went in and I was either on a big semi-bluff or had a monster draw (and correct pot odds to call) for each of them.
I showed up 5 minutes late, and had about tripled up with 15 minutes of siting down (via multiple small and medium pots). The first hour and a half of this tourney was not only the biggest rush I've ever been on in my life, but most of the players said it was the biggest rush they had ever seen. I was being dealt monsters, I was getting action, and people kept going all in on me when I was holding the nuts. I've never seen anything like it.
On the second or third hand I was dealt, I flopped quads with 99. I checked the flop, and there was a bet and a raise behind me - LOL. I called, which ended the action (a flush card hit the turn), of course, but still. Then my QQ overpair held up. Then I flopped a set of Ts and busted KK. Then my AK busted QQ (this was about as "bad" as I got my money in the whole time). then my AA busted KK all in preflop - and he had a healthy stack. Etc, etc.
It was SICK. At one point, Mike (he finished 17th in the Main Event last year - you would recognize him - nice guy) told me he'd buy me breakfast if I'd leave. He later changed his offer to breakfast and a hooker, and then changed it again to "you name it." hahaha....
Steve Danneman was moved to my table after one of the breaks. He's friends with Mike, and I chatted with him for a minute - I told him I think he's "The nicest guy in poker!" - but ONLY for a minute, because I busted him on the first hand he played.
It's funny, when he noticed my stack, he said, "Oh, so you're the guy he (Mike) was telling me about on the break." heh. When he left, Mike said he had warned him.
Let's see... what else? I played with a number of pros today - not really any other big names (there were quite a few in the field though), but lots of guys who are pro players. I really enjoyed most of the people I played with - met some great guys: Tracy, Chris, Angel, Mike, etc... Definitely an enjoyable table. It's funny - I started in the 11 seat, which became the 10 seat when I busted the first guy and eventually became the 9 seat when we started playing short handed. My ass has been in the same exact seat all day, and I've seen a LOT of people rotate through the rest of the table... and I mean a LOT.
I could go into specific hands, but I won't just yet. Not winning any of those big pots I mentioned has kept me from having a monster stack (I think the highest I ever got was maybe 28k or so), but I can't really complain after the start I had. And like I said, I've been playing well... My 9200 chips in nothing - I may only last a hand or two tomorrow, but I'm still happy with my performance, and you never know. If I double up once, I'm back in it, and if I double up twice, I'm in good shape. We start play again tomorrow at 2 PM local time.
Oh, let me tell you about one SICK hand that happened with about 5 minutes left to play. This good player (top internet guy - I forget his name) with a MONSTER chip stack raised to 5100 and the dude to my right (the second biggest stack) reraised 5200 more. The first guy immediately pushed and the second guy instacalled and flipped over AA. The pusher had.... 89s, and didn't get there. The pot ended up being about 120k!!!! Ooops, bad read. How sick is that though??? The 89 guy didn't have all that many chips left and pushed in on the last two hands of the night, winning the blinds (my blinds) and antes both times.... That's my plan for tomorrow. It could be a very quick day for me.
Fabrice Soulier (something like that) is also sitting 2 seats to my left. He was one seat to me left in Aruba for quite a few hours, and he final tabled that WPT event earlier this year. He's a good player.... and has his own film crew making a documentary or something about him.
Anyway, that's it. I'm guaranteed at least 40th place money. I know 36th is another $1000, but I'm not playing for that. I'm going to try to double up and make a run at the Final Table.
GL me!
Oh, two more things....
Zybomb update: After getting sucked out on for a $2200ish pot (KK vs QQ vs XX all in on the flop - Queen on the river), Zy ended up dead even in cash games for the day. He's a really good player.
Also, I met BadBlood today! We only chatted for a minute (I was playing), but it's always good to put a face to a name. Hopefully we can get together again later this week...