Well, I almost made it through one hour of the 5 Diamond Classic. I hadn't planned on playing at all because I have a vacation scheduled in two days. Guess I'll be making it to that one.

Maybe I shouldn't have, but I had to play this tournament. I love WPT tourneys and I always feel really comfortable at the Bellagio. My first big score was at the Bellagio and I wanted to get in another tournament before the New Year. Since I had to leave in 2 days, I decided to get some chips or go home. Number two happened extremely quickly. Online poker.

In the first level (50/100), there was a raise to $300 and 2 callers. I made it 2k with Kings in the big blind and only the small blind called. The flop came Q 8 6 with 2 spades. He bet $2k into me and I made $6k. He made it $13k and I went all-in. He called with a set of queens. Normally I wouldn't go broke here but like I said, I wanted to get a big stack or go home so I was willing to gamble that he had a draw or was making a move.

Then in very short succession, I lost JJ to KJ and AK to pocket JJs. Pocket jacks hate Pablo today.

Honestly I'm not sure if there's a lesson to be learned here. I guess if I was going to learn something, I probably should have just picked the vacation or the tournament. That way I wouldn't have felt pressure to build a big stack so quickly. Another time.--Paul

Paul Wasicka is a professional poker player based in Las Vegas, NV. For more about Paul, check www.kwickfish.com