Vegas trip - Day two

I started off day two by signing up for the 11:00 am $65 tourney at the MGM. I had about an hour before the tournament started, so I bought in for $200 at a 1/2 NL table. I played only 3 pots, winning them all and leaving the table up $310.

The tournament itself is a bit of a crap shoot... with $1200 in starting chips, blinds starting at 25/25, doubling every 15 minutes. Things started off well, I was up to $3000 chips in the first half hour. About an hour in, I'm down to $1900 chips, blinds are $100 / $200, I'm on the Big blind and someone min-raises... I call with Q10. Flop comes 10 5 4, I check, other guy checks, original raiser goes all-in for $500. I call, the other guy calls. Turn 3, I go all-in for my last $1000... he thinks and calls. He shows 99. River comes a 9! Tournament over... a 2 outer sends me to the rail. The river gets me again...

I went back to the 1/2 tables for the rest of the afternoon, playing from about noon to 8 pm. Up and down it went, although I never went under my $200 buy-in. I made quad fives against two opponents to take down over $250, but I ended the session up only $165.

I made more laydowns today... probably folded some hands that were leading, but the point was to not risk all my chips when I wasn't sure. The lesson was learned the night before...

The river cost me on two or three occasions too... for example, a $350 pot when my K10 was beaten by K8 on a K 6 9 5 8 board even after I re-raised the bettor on the flop and the turn. But that's poker!

So I ended day two early... back in my room at 9 pm since I need a good night's sleep. I'm up $410 for the day, so still down $290 for the trip.