June 3rd:
I arrived in Las Vegas on June 3rd. That night, a bunch of us met up at the Wynn where I played $10/20 Omaha Hi/Lo. At least three or four players at the table were planning to play this year's event, so it served as a great opportunity to check out some of the players I might be facing. It goes without saying, these guys were horrible. They make money playing cash games, but they'll never survive a grueling three day tournament. I ended the night a little better than break-even -- up a whopping $60.

June 4th:
I decided to play in a $150 Omaha Hi/Lo tournament at Binions Horseshoe Casino -- original home of the World Series of Poker. I played over six hours in this tournament before busting out. 15 Minutes before busting out, I was probably in the top-10 chip leaders with more than 4-times the tournament average in chips. I lost it all in three hands.

The first hand wasn't very eventful, I lost two pair to a full house, and I lost the minimum I could possibly lose. But the other two hands were absolute killers. The first hand was a battle of the blinds -- and neither one of us raised. I was in the big blind with a very nice A357 double suited; I intentionally didn't raise because I wanted to mask the strength of my hand.

The flop came: 46K. The SB checked, and I bet my open-ended straight and 2nd nut low draw.

The turn looked innocent enough: 46KT. The SB checked, and I bet again.

The river looked absolutely fantastic: 46KT8.

I hit a straight and 2nd nut low. The SB checked, I bet, and he immediately raised. I figured he didn't believe me, so I 3-bet him, and we capped it. I'm very confident in my hand because I have a straight (2nd nut) and the 2nd nut low. There is literally only one hand in the deck that could scoop against me, and that would be A279. Guess what he had: A279. I lost most of my chips on this hand.

Two hands later, an identical situation played out. I'm on the button, and as I often times do, I play a slightly more marginal hand in this position. In this case, I was playing A469 single suited.

On a flop of: 78Q, the big blind bets. I call, and the SB folds.

The turn brings: 78Q2.

I figure this actually helps me because if he was betting a nut low, he just got counterfeited. He bets again, and I call. At this point, I've got the 2nd nut low, and an open-ended straight draw. I'm feeling pretty good about the hand.

The river is like magic: 78Q2T.

The BB bets, I raise to put myself all-in. I'm feeling great, because just like before, there it literally only one exact card combination that can scoop against me: A3J9. Guess what he has: A3J9. I'm out of the tournament. To add insult to injury, this guy was a cocky and smug youngster wearing a bunch of full tilt gear; he didn't say GG (good game), ofer to shake my hand, or even look at me. He just collected my chips -- like he was the best and greatest who ever lived, and ignored how lucky he got with that one card, and how unlucky I got at the same exact time.

In the end, I had nothing to be ashamed of. There's just no way to predict two consecutive hands where one has the 2nd nut straight and 2nd nut low, and both times neither are any good. That's just the dumb luck of poker I suppose.

Update:
I saw a few familiar faces at this tourament. Steve "Shooter" Lustig played. Steve works at Bay-101, and was also at the my WSOP final table from last year. Steve was the first person to bust at the final table. A friend of Steve's was at my table -- I pushed the CadillacPoker tournaments to him; hopefully he'll show up. But I also saw a guy I recognized from my cash games at the Wynn. Ive told stories about a hand with this guy many times -- how I won more than $100 from him in a hand where I claimed to have been betting blind (not looking at my cards), but I had looked when nobody was watching. He's going to be playing in this year's event. Amazingly, he remembered everything I said last year about how I played the WSOP, and was asking me for pointers on his play. I know I shouldn't help the competition, but it's not in my nature to blow a guy off who's asking for help.

More than 300 people entered this event; that's 100 more than Binion's expected to show. First place would have been over $10,000. Just 15 minutes before I busted, it looked like I was almost sure to make it into the money. I had a huge chip stack, people were dropping like flies, and there were only about 60-70 people left.

In some ways, I was relieved to bust out. I had developed a raging headache and it took all of my energy to concentrate on the game. After leaving Binions, I went back to the Rio to meet up with some friends from PokerStars. We hung out there for a couple of hours before I went back to my timeshare for a very quiet night and relatively early bed time (12:30 AM). I got a restful 9 hours of sleep, and am ready for the WSOP tournament.