Originally posted on 07/13/2015:

Thanks for the words, but I am still pissed at my result!


Even after day 1, I was pretty much 80% guaranteed to make the money. And I was never even short stacked after 2 hours into the tournament. I had 450,000 chips at one point when I correctly called a guys all in for 120,000 on the turn. He was dominated and drawing to 3 cards and he hit the straight. Had I won that pot then I would have been 2nd in chips with around 1500 left.

Instead, I was left with 325000 chips and around 30th in chips. The after we hit the money all hell broke loose.

First of all, you need to know that places 649th-1000th place paid $15,000. Then 550-649th only paid around $17000. 450-550 only paid around $19000. That is important to know because anyone under 100,000 chips felt the need to get it in real quick because of the pay scale.

Also important to note is the $15,000 was not taxed at all because it wasn't more than $5000 over the buy in. This really sped up the payouts by a few hours. So they didn't take out ANY TAXES on foreign players at that level. I heard many of the foreign players saying that the $17000 next pay bump would actually hurt them. As far as US players go, we are supposed to self report. I would do that, but the young players will not. So actually even for the US players, the $17000 is basically the same as the $15000.


Now when we hit the money, I had around 285,000 chips. One lady a the table next to mine had only 7,000 chips at the 1000/2000 level and 500 chip ante. So that is the short stacks were going all in. On my table, the short stacks starting winning hands with cards like 8-9 and so. We were losing around 50 players every 10 minutes when I suffered 2 horrendous beats.

On 1 hand I had the nut full house but was beaten on the river for 3-5 suited for a straight flush. Well that cost me around 200,000 chips of my 285,000. Then I flopped a king high straight with king queen only to lose to another flush.

Truth be told, I was playing real aggressive late but that is because I was trying to build chips. Any cash below $50,000 was a loss in my standards and I was trying to build a stack that could make the final 27 at least.


Also, someone mentioned expenses here. Well just like most of the other professional players who don't pay anything for hotel rooms, they are free. Now most of us cant get free rooms at Bellagio, but we could stay at Monte Carlo, Rio, New York, or Planet Hollywood for example.

I guess that I did rent a car for $14.00 a day and that I paid $350 for airfare. Most of the meals were free actually as long as I ate at the buffet


P.S. My friend actually made it to the $24000 pay bump and cant even play poker. He plays one tournament a year.