Out of Event 56 in 37th Place

I'm out of the $5k shorthanded event in 37th place. The finish was good for like $17,200 which is a far cry from the $1 million for first place. I got off to a hot start early on busting a guy with KQhh vs his J9ss AIPF and then winning a couple other pots to find myself around 190,000. Then I got John Gordon in with my JTo vs his Q9cc on Tc8x7x. Turn 4c River Jx to drop me to around 150,000. Then I played this weird hand near the bubble against this nitty older guy where I opened JTo from early, he called behind me and we saw A88r. Check-Check. I bet 9000 on the K turn and then checkraise bluffed all-in on the 5 river when he bet just 12000. Luckily he folded. Soon after, same guy opened and I moved in on him with two sixes. He snapped with Aces, but I flopped a six to eliminate him just short of the money and to land me around 330,000. Then, about 15 minutes before dinner a crazy one came up. A superb player named Rory "Mafews" Matthews raised to 8000, I called with JTo, and a Brit with no fold button called in the BB. Flop Q73r. Brit checked, Rory bet 14000, and I raised to 44000. Brit folded and Rory called. Turn 8. Rory checked and I decided to bluff all-in for his stack of 1.6x the pot. I think I might actually just like betting 72500 instead though. It's close. The Scotsman thought one minute and made a fantastic call and showed me the absolute worst possible hand, Q9o blocking one of my outs. I missed and was left with 59500 at dinner. Came back from dinner and quickly more than doubled when Shaun Deeb raised to 10500, Brit called, Kevin Iacofano called and I found magic AKo in the BB and moved in. Shaun called, others folded and I outraced his 66 on KQJxx. After chipping up some more I doubled through Rory with TT vs his 88 to get to like 340000. A few minutes later Deeb opened up front, Brit called and I called 6500 more with KTo in the BB. Flop TT3r with a diamond. Checked around. Turn 7d. I bet 18000 and Deeb called. River 6x. I knew Shaun would valuebet this river pretty thin, so I just checked and hoped he didn't bet like 50,000 since I pretty much hated the 6. He bet just 15,000 into 80,000 and I checkraised the river to 95000. He tanked for 3 minutes, called, and my hand was good. Alas, I paid off Deeb shortly thereafter on three streets with ATo on a board of AQ873 after defending and was down to 260,000 after climbing to 440,000. Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet and I played two pots blind vs blind in back to back orbits. The first he raised to 18000 from the SB at 3/6000 and I made it 51000 with T7o and he folded. The next orbit he raised to 18000 and I made it 51000 with AKo. He folded. The next orbit in the cutoff Jon raised to 16000 and I reraised A6hh on the button to 42000. He called and we saw QhQd9d. He checked, I bet 46000 and he called. Turn 9h. Check-Check. River Tc. He bet 100,000 of my last 140,000. I called and was shown A5o so we chopped. Jon admittedly called preflop out of spite. I lost a pot or two and was down to 159,000 when the bustout hand came up right before the break. Shaun raised up front to 16000 and the Brit that loved to flat did that behind him. I hoped to find anything decent and was delighted to see KJo. I moved in and Shaun called the 143,000 more with two sixes. I did not win the hand. The payout process was a painful experience. First I couldn't find my Total Rewards card and was told I'd have to get a reprint. I did that and then this guy Lee Childs decided to play 20 questions with me and purposely ignored my body language's request to be left alone for a reason I couldn't figure out. Obviously I'm willing to talk to anyone at just about any time, but right after I bust a tournament usually isn't the time. The preliminary events are over now, and I finish with 3 cashes in the 28 events I played. This is a clip that I can live with. It would have been nice to have a monster score, but it doesn't always work out that way. There's still a decent amount of tournament poker to be played though with my appearance in the WSOP main event on Monday and then some action at Bellagio if I bust out of the Main. I'll be in action in the Bellagio $1500 tomorrow. I just downloaded Entourage season 5. Gonna do some damage on it. SS