Day two was an exciting roller coaster.  I came into the day with momentum, and on the very first hand a dude limped at 1500-3k/500.  Another older dude made it 13k with about 70k total, I started the day with 124k, AQo, the small blind, and said, "All-in."  The limper folded two eights, and the raiser called with AKo.  Oops.  Flp J8x, T, 9.  GG sir, the toll roads thank you for your patronage (yah I know pretty sick right?)  Next hand we open the button with AQo, call a shove from the small blind for like 40k, and lose to 44.  

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.  I chipped up pretty steadily from there to about 450k, and then played another big pot.  I open UTG with AQo, a guy flats in MP with 25 bbs, SB shoves 18bbs, I high five the dealer and say all-in, and the flatter calls within three seconds.  What did I just get myself into?  I still roll my AQ proudly, sadly see KK in the caller's pocket, and say whoops when I see that the shover has AKo.  Txx.  Q.  A.  EZ game.  Congrats on making the money.  4 tables left and we have 1m, good for fifth in chips.  

Down to three tables I'm steamrollin.  I'm opening way more than I should, everything's working, and I steadily chip up to 1.5m.  William Reynolds is on my left and I win like six of seven blind vs. blind battles out of position.  I haven't been three bet in a while, I know one is coming soon, and when it does I have the top of my range, KQo.  I snap shove and the guy goes into the tank, 450k or so total.  I feel like I'm flipping at worst, he finally calls with AQo, I feel slowrolled, flop a king, and he rivers an ace.  

Next orbit in my big blind Jared in the small blind opens for 60k at 10-20/3k with 440k total, I find 9Tss and shove, he snaps (ty for the non slowroll) with AQo, flop Q87, brick, brick.  I feel like the shove is standard, would have flatted if he opened to 50k or less and then gotten it in on the flop, so, whatevs.  It's been a long time since I've lost a million that quick but it sure was fun.  

I chipped up to a little over 600k when I found AK and got it in vs two jacks 19 handed, hit a king on the turn, and doubled up.  That carried me through the last 40 minutes of day two and I ended with 1.15m, good for 6th of 16 remaining.  

That Saturday was Northwestern's homecoming.  Bill and his buds all went there, so they started tailgaiting around 9am for the morning game.  When I finally met him at 3am he was hammered.  Always fun showing up in the 18th hour of a party.  I had two beers to unwind, made it to bed reasonably soon, and was up shortly after noon so I could shower and look good for the last day.

We drove down Lakeshore Drive, made it early, I took 10% of Bill's cash game action, and we got the cards in the air.  First hand I open KTdd in the hijack, Reynolds calls in the big blind, and the flop comes K67ssc.  He checks.  I decide to check.  Turn is an offsuit 9, he bets pretty big, like 125k into 170k, which I obviously don't like, but I'm not folding.  Turn's a red queen, he bets like 250k, sigh again, but I can't really see folding because of how under repped my hand is.. I call and lose to KJ.  Damn.  I lose half my stack and am between 5 and 600k now, still 16 left.

  

I maintain that stack into the final 10, where I hover between 400 and 700k until we get down to 8 players.  I chip up to 1.2m without seeing a flop by the time we're at 7, and then with just under 1m I play this hand out of the big blind.  In the hand before, the small blind lost most of his stack to Reynolds and was left with 180k at 30-60/10k.  He folds his button, the SB limps with like 2.5m, and I find two kings in the big blind.  I raise to 170k total.  The SB, who should have shoved any two pre due to ICM with the guy on the button being so short, makes it 395k.  I move all-in obviously, hating a bit the fact that he's pretty much gotta call since it's 555k more and he's getting about 3-1 on his money.  After about 2 minutes he does with 82cc.  I ask the dealer to please not shove these kings up my ass, and he responds by putting out a flop of 842.  The board bricks out and I bust 7th place for just under $36k, which is obviously a good three days work, but was the most depressing five digit score of my life due to taking the worst beat of my life to earn it.  Obviously I sucked out twice awesomely in day 2 to get me there, but once you're there and then lose an 85% favorite to bust, especially when one guy has three big blinds and there's a $12k pay jump to 6th... I'll never be in that spot again much less six more times to balance things out.  There is no long term in tournament poker.  Some people will run hotter over their lifetime than others.  

Bill and I spent that evening chilling out in downtown Chicago and I was out the door by 9:20 the next morning with all my stuff, headed to the L.  Red line South to Jackson, transfer to the Blue line, all the way to O'Hare.   Back to LA, Karri picked me up, we went home and booked a flight to San Francisco the next day.  Dull lives we lead.  Giants made the World Series baby!  They're my favorite team, I've never been to a World Series game, Linscecum and Lee in game 1... obviously we're going to that.  It's been a nice flight up and should be a fun few days in the Bay.

Peace and good luck,

Devo