On to day 2 of Bellagio 5000

I'm on to day 2 of the 5000 dollar event at Bellagio. 14 of us made it through, and we're in the money. There were 197 or so entrants, and first will pay 370 thousand dollars. I have 137000. The average is 140000, but I'm tied for fourth in chips. Tomorrow I'll resume at a 7 handed table with Henry Tran, John Murphy, Farzad Bonyadi, and a really sick, dangerous, aggressive young player named Jimmy who is the chipleader. He happens to be two to my left, so hopefully we will get down to 10 quickly and I'll be lucky enough to draw position on him at the final table. The other table has notables Thayer "Thay3r" Rasmussen, Denny Lee, and Roy Winston. I don't think I know the other 6 players by name. There were a few interesting hands. Early on I eliminated Barry Greenstein when I got in with A7cc vs his T9ss on 865 with two clubs and one spade. Next, Tony Cousineau limped in the cutoff for 400, another player limped, and I raised to 1700 from the BB with JJ. Tony called. The other guy folded. The flop came JTx. I bet 2100 and Tony called. The turn was a Q. I bet 3500 and Tony called. The river was a brick. I bet 8000 and Tony called and mucked. I got moved tables and started to really heat up. An old guy accidentally threw in 2000 chips at 6/1200 while trying to raise to a different amount. He was forced to raise to 2400 by rule. I found a call with 86o in the BB. The flop was T76. I check called 2500. The turn was a 6. I bet out 6000 and he instashoved 30000. I called and his KK was no good for a costly mistake preflop. A few minutes later I raised AKdd in the cutoff to 3400 and Eric Seidel shoved about 28000 from the SB. I called and he had 88. AxxAx, and I was over 100000. I took the chiplead, 118000, to the dinner break with 41 players left. I came back and on the fourth hand Thay3r raised to 3400ish up front. I called with KQdd, David Ulliot called, and Farzad defended. The four of us saw a magic KK5 rainbow with one diamond. FB checked and Thay3r bet out 11500 into us. TR has a King or fives full about 98 percent of the time here, and I missed the opportunity to make a world class laydown right there on the flop for one bet. The problem is he shows up with KJ or KTs often enough. I called in case the other went nuts behind me with 555KK or something. The turn was the 4d. Now I can't fold for Thay3r's last 21500. He checked, and I bet a silly 8000 to give illusion of FE even though TR is way too good of a player to ever fall for that. He moved in and I cried and called. He showed AK. I missed the chop and scoop outs and was all of a sudden down to just above average at 65000. I got moved to a new table and won a pot or two. Then, I spewed some chips to John Murphy when I made a very light defend in the BB with K8cc. I was below average at 40000 with avg 60000 when we redrew for the final 27. 18 got paid. I got all-in with 24 left with KK against Max Pescatori's JJ. He missed, and all of a sudden I was over 100 again. I lost one more pot and then blinded all the way down from 80000 to 55000 once we were in the money because I extremely card dead and had an awkward stack. Bellagio has a rule that you play down to the final 9 or 3 a.m., whichever comes first. With 20 minutes left, I definitely didn't want to limp in to day 2 and miss all the online tournies wif a short stack at the live day 2. I shoved the cutoff for 55000 with 88 at 2/4000 (300) and the button called in for exactly the same amount of chips with AQ. The board bricked out, thankfully. I won one more pot and ended the day in a very comfortable position. Tomorrow, we will resume with blinds 3/6000 (1000), which will play very big. Anything can happen with blinds these big, so hopefully I'll get smacked by the deck and won't get sucked out on or coolered. I can become unstuck overall in 2007 with a top 2 finish :) It won't be easy, as there are several great players remaining. Play resumes 11 hours from now at 3 p.m. PST. Lots of sleep until then.

SS