I'm out

I felt pretty comfortable at my first table, and though I had a rough start, by the first break (2 hours in), I had chipped up to 4.5k from my 3k starting stack. Shortly before the break, who should walk in and sit two seats to my left, but Phil Hellmuth. I stole (according to him) his blinds a couple times, and I called an all-in bet from him with ATs (He was pretty short-stacked). He also had AT, and we chopped.

By the time that table broke (shortly before the 2nd break), I'd chipped up to 7.5k. Unfortunately, I was apparently in the seat-of-death at my new table. (The last 5 guys sitting at that seat had busted.) I stuck around for a while, but every time I raised, the guy two seats behind me went all-in (he had me covered), and I couldn't call (with hands like AJ, JT, 77). That set up the dynamic for the hand I busted on.

By this time, my M was down to about 5, so I was ready to play a hand for all my chips. I found AQ of clubs 3rd to act, and limped in, hoping the guy two seats behind would raise me, as usual. But he just called, and that let in the blinds for cheap. The flop was 378 with two clubs. The small blind bet 1/3 of the pot, and I figured that I had two overcards and the nut flush draw if he had a pair. I push all-in, he calls with a worse flush draw, and an inside straight draw. He pairs his jack on the turn, and there's no A,Q, or club to save me on the river, and I'm out.

I got greedy by just limping before the flop, and I paid for it. In retrospect, I'd rather have pushed all-in pre-flop, and won the blinds and antes with my AQ.

Oh well. It was definitely a fun experience, and I'll come back next year. Now I'm off to find a good cash game, and there are some other smaller tourneys I might play while I'm here.