Hey guys and gals,

It's another semi-early morning for me. Not sure why I keep wakin up by 8 am, but at least I fell back asleep for a little today. Yesterday I played 3 sessions of poker at the WSOP cash games. I had never played any of the cash games at the WSOP, but I'm glad I tried it out yesterday. The competition varied from extremely tough to extremely easy and ready to gamble, so I just had to try to stay out of the way of the tougher players and wait for the gamblers to make a big mistake against me.

In the first session, I played for about 2.5 hours to the right of the best player who I have played since I got here. It was very interesting, and I felt lucky to be to his right so that I could see what he did before I had to act. It would have been bad news for me if I had been on the other side of him, as he was very aggressive and picking apart most of the other players there. He said he usually plays 5/10 no limit, so I told him he needed to leave my 2/5 games alone. After a few hours of battling with him(on the felt...otherwise he was a great guy and I enjoyed playing with him), I decided that there would be way more profitable games and left the table up about 57 dollars, which was just fine with me. A little later, after watching a little bit of a WSOP final table, I went back to the WSOP cash games and started round 2.

I started out hot, winning a few medium sized pots and getting up a decent amount before disaster struck. I paid off a guy when I had pocket queens and probably could have gotten away from it against his trip 10s and was suddenly down to about $70 from my $500 starting stack. I normally rebuy at this point, but I decided that I would just let the $70 dollars ride and see if I could make anything happen with it. I normally like to have the big stack, but it was interesting to build it up from a small stack. I soon picked up Ace King and got it in and won to double up to around 140. I worked it up a little more til I had around $230. I called a 15 or 2o dollar raise with A3 of clubs in late position and about 4 other people came along. The flop came K73 and it checked around. The turn was the King of diamonds, putting 2 diamonds on the board. At this point I could easily have the best hand and decided to bet when it checked around to me. I bet $40, the lady on the button called really quickly and the rest folded. The river was the Jack of hearts, missing the flush. I decided to check to her as I thought I could get a free showdown and that my hand was likely good. She instantly slid out a bet of $70. It didn't really make sense to me, as I was almost sure she would have bet the flop with a king or raised the turn. Almost noone would make a strong bet onto that board with just a 7, and her quick call on the turn felt alot like a diamond draw to me. After a minute of thinking through the hand and not believing her story, I called with my pair of threes and was good against her missed flush draw. The table was kind of in shock which is always a nice feeling. I played a little longer, and by the time I left I was back above even after working it back up from $70 and was very satisfied with that result.

I took off for dinner and relaxed a bit before playing one more 2 hour session at the WSOP cash games. This game was a goldmine, as there was only one player who I felt was good, and the rest were big gamblers or weak players. The gamblers were really nice, fun guys and it made it a really fun table. I started out down a little before doubling up with pocket Aces vs his AJ of diamonds after he called my reraise and flopped a flush draw. Luckily I faded the 5th diamond and had a good stack when a big hand came u against the one good player at the table. I stayed out of his way as much as I could, but sometimes there is no choice. I had J8 in the big blind, the gambler under the gun raised to 15, and about 6 people called when it got to me. So I threw in another 10 dollars and we saw a 10 9 4 flop. I checked my open-ended straight draw, the gamblers checked and the good player bet $50. We both had well over $600 on the table at this point, so when it folded around to me I saw a good opportunity to get his whole stack if I could hit my straight. I called and the other players folded. The Q on the turn was pretty perfect, as it completed my straight and put out no potential flushes. I checked, and he bet $100. I thought for around 30 seconds before putting out a raise to $235. He called the $135 pretty confidently, and I prayed that I avoided a card that paired the board on the river to potentially give him a full house. The beautiful 5 of diamonds peeled off and now I was sure I was good. After some thought, I moved all in for around $400 and he called and a brief time thinking and my hand was good in a huge pot. That was the biggest pot I had played since I got here, and I was very happy when the chips were pushed my way. Phew. I sat back for another 30 or 45 minutes before calling it a night with a pretty big win.

Overall, it was a very good day of poker and I was happy with almost all of my decisions. Before going to sleep, I went and watched Jason Mercier play for his second bracelet in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha 6max event, which he went on to win for over $600,000. He's ridiculously good. I watched them play 3 handed and then a little bit of heads-up but called it a night before it was over as I was tired and wanted to get a good nights sleep. So that's that. I'm gonna go eat now and then start my day of poker. Tomorrow I will be moving to the Aria for 3 nights, which should be reeeeally nice and a sweet way to spend my birthday. Finally, here is one more picture from my room. There happens to be a window from the bathroom to the bedroom. As you may be able to see in the picture, anyone in the bedroom can see right into the shower and vice versa. It's pretty strange, but still slightly less pervy than the Luv Tub room at Imperial.

I'll update from Aria tomorrow! Thanks again for reading.

-Danny