I bought in for this event early to avoid the huge lines. The Rio moved the Kitchen to where the satellite room and 5pm event room used to be, and made the convention area into a second huge tournament area along with the Amazon room from years past.

I liked the new setup, however I still think they need a separate room just for single table satellites. For the 4 hours I played, I kept hearing plugs for single table satellites that needed "only 3 or 4 more people".

I got to my table and was pleased to be seated next to Kara Scott. I was suprised that she actually knew my name, and even knew my nickname was "Chainsaw".

Gavin Smith arrived a few minutes later and suprisingly didn't know Kara's name. The two of them tangled in a fairly large pot on hand number one with Kara winning. Gavin played quite a few hands and wound up busting fairly early with 10 8 vs A10 on a 10 99 flop.

Kara and I seemed to have the same strategy, see flops cheaply and extract value after the flop. At $25 25, the utg player made it only 50 to go with QQ and got several callers. Kara called the extra 25 from the sb with 10 10 and I completed from the bb with A 10. the flop came 10 small small, Kara checked, I bet 200 and the utg raiser made it 700. Kara made it 1200, the bare min raise, I folded and the UTG guy went all in with his queens and Kara doubled thru.

I was trying to see as many flops as possible in position cheaply, as 3 of the players at our table played rather transparent postflop. I was down as low as 2000 from the 3000 starting stack, but eventually hit some flops, and stole a few pots in position to have 4100 by the first break.

I had only 2 decisions after the break. An internet player who seemed knowledgeable (he knew my name when he came to the table), open shoved for 1400 from early position. I had 88 that hand and wasn't ready to commit 1/3 of my stack although probably ahead. The only other decision came when i called a small raise on the button with KQ. the flop came KJx and was checked to me. My gut said to check, but I bet anyway and had to fold to a large checkraise. I defended a raise that had one caller with 22 from the bb and was pleased to see a 2 in the window on a J 10 2 flop with 2 spades. The initial raiser bet about 350 and was called, I raised to 1200 with my set, the raiser went all in, then the overcaller, after showing his obvious drawing hand to some of the other players called the allin. I was covered by one $25 chip, but was only losing to 10 10 or JJ. I called as well. The initial raiser flipped JJ, the overcaller had AQ of spades, and I was drawing dead to a 2 after flopping a set. The 2 didnt come and I busted rather early for me. I bought in for tomorrows event to avoid any lines tomorrow. Tomorrow is Omaha 8 or better, an event I finished second in 5 years ago, when I lost the bracelet to Todd Brunson.