Not a great start to the WSOP

So I have not been running well at all. Whether cash games or tournaments I keep finding myself in these ugly sopts having to make tough decisions for a lot of chips. Having a straight with a flush on board, having overpairs to the board, etc. Just been very frustrating. Here is a quick rundown.

550 Omaha H/L @ Venetian

My first real tournament out here and got off to a good start. Ran my initial 10k stack up to about 15k in 2 levels. that is pretty hard to do in a limit tournament. Then I fluctuated between 14k and 22k forever. One interesting hand.

Me ~16k, Old Man to my right ~4k. I hold A2KJ with a suited A spades. Flop comes 67Q with 2 hearts. There is a bet, Old Man calls, and I call on button. Turn is a 9 putting out 2 spades. Gives me Nut low draw, gutshot draw to nut str8 and nut spade draw. Initial better checks, Old man bets 1200, I call and other dude folds. River is a K hearts. Old Man checks and opens his hand to me. He has QQQ. I can't win if I don't bet. I bet 1200. He is like "I thought you checked". "No sir" I say. Floor comes over and Old Man gets irate. Old Man is like "I thought he was checking so I showed my hand?" Floor says I have right to make my action. So I have nothing but missed draws. There is 6600 in the pot and I can't win without betting. He thinks for a long time and is like "Well if you bet after seeing my hand you must at least have the str8" and folds. I say no I had a baby flush...lol. Folded with 1600 chips behind.

Anyway continue on to the final 2 tables with some decent run of cards up to abt 60k at 2 a.m. Monday morning. Have to come back at 4 p.m. on Monday with 20 players. 18 get paid from the original ~180ish. I am probably 11 or 12 in chips but the blinds are high. If I don't get some cards early I am in trouble.

Come back and I am completely card dead early. there is one pro at the table who is raising virtually every hand (as he should be) on the bubble. He is to my left so I can't really do much. I blind off abt 20k in 2 orbits when we finally burst the bubble. I then get moved and first hand in I have A356 with 2 hearts. I raise it up and only BB calls. Flop comes 882 with 2 hearts. BB leads for 6k, I raise to 12k and he reraises to 18k. So I stick it all in to see. KK8T no hearts. Turn J, river T hearts. That helped! Back up around 60k. Same guy raises my BB and I call with KJ9T single suited. Obviously flop comes all low and I have to fold. Blind off a little more and go card dead again. Finally I am down to ~30k at 6/12,000. I am in late position and am dealt. A35Q with A3 of hearts. I decide that if I am going to go deep in this thing I need to build a big pot. So I limp 6k whats normally a raising hand. Button calls and both blinds call. Flop QJ5 rainbow. That's pretty good! SB leads out, BB folds and I decide SB likes his hand so lets build this baby now with 2 pair. I raise to 12k and only SB calls. Turn is just so bad, another J. He leads again for 12k this time and I am sick. There is now 56k in pot and I only have abt. 15k behind. I can't find teh fold button and put it in. Obv he has some random bullshit hand with J5 and I miss my Q. This is the risk I have when trying to build a pot. If I raise he folds in SB and I pick up 9k in chips uncontested. Not sure what the right play is there honestly. Anyway out in 15th for yet another bullshit min cash of like $900. So tired of doing that.

Came back to the Rio and played the nightly tournament. Was going along ok when i was dealt TT on button (I have abt my original stack of 5k) UTG player makes it 600 at 1/200 and I call. Flop comes 952 with 2 clubs. He fires 1500 and I call. Still might have Ak here. Turn pairs the board. And he ships all in. WTF yet another ugly spot for Bri Bri. He has me covered so I have to call all in. Think and think and cannot find a hand that I can possibly beat other than maybe AK of clubs I guess. Finally i fold TT face up and he shows me QQ. But lost almost half my stack there. I grind it back to 4k when funny one happens. A seemingly decent player is in BB. I am UTG and am dealt AA. Raise to 600. BB calls. Flop Q57 rainbow. He checks I bet 1k and he ships all in. I call expecting to see a set or some sort of 68 hand (maybe AQ, KQ I guess as well) and I see Q8...lol. Turn 6 oh boy here we go again...Must be time for Bri Bri to get donkstacked. River is a blank and I bust the goof and nearly double up. I again go card dead for 2 or 3 levels. Finally, I am back down to 5k at 3/600/75. UTG is short (maybe 3k at most) he ships it in. I am on button and folds around to me. I squeeze KT suited and am pretty sure I am ahead of UTG, So I ship to isolate on him. BB then starts bitching and moaning and I now know he has woken up with something here. Most likely TT-QQ. KK or AA he is snap calling. Probably AK as well. He finally makes the call and tables QQ. I miss and am out. I run good.

2/5 cash I built my 400 stack up to abt 800 pretty quickly. Then drifted downward. Finally I raise AQsuited to 40 (there was a straddle of 10). My immediate left calls. Flop KKJ. Check check. Turn rag. Check Check. River T. Check he bets $100. God this is so gross. I river nut str8 and he probably has a boat. I call to see TT. Drops me down to ~350 and I pack it up for the night. Can't stand it.

Because I am running so bad I think I may skip the WSOP 1500 today and just play the Venetian 550 NLHE. The field is probably 600 vs. 1600+ with better structures and more than double the chips stacks. Will decide here in the next few mins.