This is the big one, the wsope main event. While not as many people enter this ME compared to the one back across the pond, the fact that the buy-in here is £10,000 makes it a very big deal. I played day 1a. Unlike the monstrously huge casinos in Vegas and elsewhere in the U.S., European casinos tend to be much smaller. As a result, they had to split up all the players among three different casinos. I played at The Sportsman, a small, quiet, very comfortable casino on Oxford Street.

 

One downside to playing in small venues though is that when it’s time to consolidate tables, you have a much greater chance of it being your table that breaks. This was the case for me, which is a shame because I was loving that first table. But before long, I got moved to a table with Michael, “The Grinder” Mizrachi and Annie Duke, who seemed to be cruising.

 

I love this tournament so far because of the structure. We are playing four 2-hour long levels a day, which allows for a ton of play. The long levels don’t really seem to slow the tournament down either. I’m a huge fan.

 

I lost a few big pots which dropped me down to $6,000 but then I doubled up against Michael Mizrachi. I had A, A and he had 5, 5, on a 6, 6, 2, 3 board. Very soon after that, he doubled me up again when I had J, 10 suited against his 6, 6 on a board of 10, 5, 2, 3. He’d been playing great for the better part of the day and then got extremely unlucky with set under set for a gigantic ($75,000) pot that sent him to the rail.

 

I entered the dinner break at around $40,000. I spent the dinner break chilling with Annie, who crushed day one. She ended the day with $47,000 in chips and withstood the loss of a $50,000 pot with K,K vs. A,A. She’s an extremely nice woman and it was fun to hang out.

Disaster struck after dinner. I’ve been sleeping like a baby on this entire Europe trip but for some reason, I couldn’t sleep the night before this tournament. I usually don’t have any problems sleeping. I even got a fair amount of sleep before the final table of last year’s WSOP main event. Anyway, the lack of sleep caught up to me and I made some crucial mental mistakes, which dropped my stack down to $18,000. I was really mad at myself for having spent all-day building a stack only to blow up with about an hour left to play. So frustrating.

 

Anyway, I allowed myself about one hour to be pissed off and then I put it behind me. Lucky for me that was easy to do because at 1:00a.m., Monday Night Football was just beginning over here. I watched the Ravens completely gift-wrap a victory for their weaker opponents the Bengals, and then headed off to sleep.

 

Today is day 2, and it’s my understanding that everyone will be at the Empire Casino in Leicester Square. With the blinds where they are, I’ve got about 11 rounds of play. Plenty of time to work. Wish me luck!