Just got home about 4 hours ago after being gone for 5 days. Thanks for all the kinds words of encouragement from everyone here on the board. Just wanted to say that I was happy with my 32nd place finish but it could have turned out MUCH better. I survived only 1 really bad beat on the first day but couldn't survive 4 in a row on day two. Wanted to give you all info on some of the key hands that got me to the final 40 players and how the hands played out. This is all from memory so very minor details might be wrong but Read on and tell me your thoughts:

Day 1 - 4500 chips to start

Since no one at my table knew me and I didn't know anyone else, I wanted to establish a loose/agressive image for the table and was willing to blow off 500 to 1000 chips to do that. I started raising in all positions with mid to higher value holdings and just flat calling with prime holdings. I felt this would get me lots of calls with worse hands later in the tournament. Good things started to happen almost immediately and over the course of a few rounds I was able to build my chip stack up considerably to about 9000 chips with. Then I took a severe beating with Ad3c6d9c. Blinds 300/500, bets 500/1000. Player right after the blinds raises and did so quite a bit with good lows and good highs so I felt I could call with my holdings and fold if I couldn't flop a made hand or nut draw. Player to my right called, I called and the two blinds called. Flop is 3h3s6s so I was last to act and flopped a full house. Blinds checked, raiser bets 500 and the player to my right calls. I raise to 1000 and the two blinds fold. Raiser calls as does the player to my right. Turn is 7s and the original raiser bets 1000 with the player to my right calling. I raise to 2000 as I believe both players have lows or lows with one possibly having a spade flush which is a loser to my hand. Both players call. River come a red K and both players check to me. Still believing that I had the best high, I bet 1000, original raisers calls and the player to my right raises to 2000. My mind is now telling me that I probably just got rivered by a 3 with a K kicker so I just called. Raiser turns over pocket kings with a 45 and king high flush. Original raiser has A2 for low. I just lost 7000 chips to a guy that thought his king high flush or 45 low was good. Really bad beat.
Now only 2000 chips but the next two hands defined my day. Very next hand I was dealt Ad2dXX, 5 people call before me so I raise to 1000 with only 1000 left. All 5 call and the flop comes 678 all diamonds. Action to first player and he bets, next 4 call and I raise all in to 1000 with nut low and nut flush. Both hold and I scoop the pot for about 10000 chips, an awesome outcome. Very next hand I am dealt A27 10 offsuit, 2 players call to me and I raise to 1000. Both blinds call as does the other 2 players making a pot of 10000 chips. Flop comes 56 10 offsuit giving me nut low draw with a pair of 10's. Small blind bets, other 3 call and I raise to 2000. Small blind then folds as does the big blind but two others call. Turn card is a 7 offsuit and both players check to me. I bet 1000 with two pair and nut low. Player one calls and my buddy to my right who had just killed me with his pocket kings RAISES to 2000. Wanting to make a big pot, I reraise to 3000 and both players call. River is my dream card, another 10 making me a nut full house and nut low. Player one bets, player next to me raises to 2000 and I reraise to 3000. Both call and I show my hand. Player 1 folds and the player to my right shows A289 making him a nut low and nut straight on the turn but killing him on the river. I get 3/4's. An awesome beating to a player that had just bad beat me. This hand took me to 33500 chips but one last thing was about to happen to end day one.

At 10:30 pm I was involved in a hand when an anouncement came over the loud speaker. We were in the same room with two other events so things were being anounced a lot for all 3 events but you could not tell them apart if you did not listen intently. I had tuned it out while the hand I was in was played out and when the pot was divided right I stood up and the room had emptied! We had just played for 10.5 hours and stupid me that the night was done so I walked out the door to my truck and went back to my room. What an idiot as there was still 2 hours remaining!!!! Having never been in a WSOP event or any live event this large I had no clue of the process plus I was tired and just wasn't thinking. I thought that they would bag the chips and we would meet again at 2 pm the next day.

So I show up at 2 pm and they are having a different event at the tables where we were playing the night before. I dumbly walk up and ask where the Omaha event is and they point me to another area of the same room. I walk over confused and ask the one of the dealers how I can figure out where I am sitting? He laughs and says it is on the pink ticket that I had gotten the night before. I said I never got one and he said I had to have when I bagged my chips. I said I hadn't bagged my chips and he laughed again saying I should go talk to the tall tournament director in the corner. I walked over and explained my problem to him and he laughed to and asked if my name was Mike Christensen. Turning red I said yea and he pulled out a pink slip in his pocket and said I was the only one of the 197 players who did not bag my chips. I now knew my table and position number but it shows that I now had only 26500 chips. My chip stack had blinded off 7000 chips in my 2 hours absense. What a disappointment but then I thought, hell, I didn't get any bad beats and just one would have easily taken 7000 chips so I was good with it.

Anyway, when I had left the night before there were 392 players but when I got there on day 2 there were only 197 so almost 200 players vanished in the 2 hours I wasn't there. A very good thing as I was now only 107 players away from CASHING!!!

I will describe day 2 tomorrow.

Mike