The temperature crept up into the mid 60s in Vegas this week, but the Bellagio was as cold as it's ever been.  I capped off my Five Diamond series with yet another deep run with nothing to show for it.  Day 4 of the final WPT of 2009 started with 36 players, 27 of which would be getting paid.  I headed into the day with a middle of the pack stack of about 500,000 chips.  My good friend Brent Hanks was in even better shape than me with 670,000 chips, so hopes were high.

Things started slowly.  I folded mostly for the first few rounds, winning just enough pots to preserve my stack size.  This didn't last long however, when I decided to 3bet and call the ensuing 350,000 chip shove from Faraz Jaka with AQ in a cutoff vs. button situation.  He showed me AKcc, and I couldn't bink my flopped heart draw for a huge pot.  Crippled, I was forced to push A6dd the following round, only to run into what?  Good ole AKcc again.  This time I was able to win the small pot for my survival.  I would have preferred to win the much larger pot a few minutes earlier, but beggars can't be choosers I'm told.  I was able to grind my stack back up near the 300k mark, but as the blinds went to 6k/12k, I found myself with just over 200k.  I moved in from the small blind over a button open from Faraz Jaka with AQss, and Josh Arieh moved all in right behind me.  I said a silent prayer for JJ, but as Jaka folded Arieh tabled yet another AK and that was it.  30^th place and a $15k bubble.  Not exactly as planned.  Brent was later eliminated in 17^th place to finish off a tough day.

For those keeping score at home, this marks the 4^th WPT day 4 I've made in the past 12 months, dating back to this same tournament last year.  I've also managed to make zero day 5s.  So this tournament series caps off as well as sums up a pretty tough year on the live circuit.  I put myself in a position to win several tournaments, but ended up with a lot of disappointing finishes.

I'll be flying to New York on Monday to spend Christmas and New Year's with my family, friends, and girlfriend.  I'm looking forward to some good snowboarding conditions on the East Coast (which is rare).  After that, I'm headed to the Bahamas for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, and hopefully a big kick off to 2010.

Congratulations to Jason Mercier on winning the 2009 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year.  Eric Baldwin locked up the 2009 Cardplayer Magazine Player of the Year award with a clutch victory in the Five Diamond $1k rebuy event.  Both Jason and Eric are excellent players and good people, so I'm very happy for the both of them.  Maybe 2010 is my year.

Happy Holidays and good luck in 2010.

It's been a long December and there's reason to believe...

Maybe this year will be better than the last. - Counting Crows