The world champ has arrived at my table. What a feeling to be in this business, playing, and enjoying. Joesph Hachem has just arrived at my table, the current world champ. We’re from the same town, Melbourne, Australia. What a nice guy he is. He came to the table with about 40,000, but lost about 15, so he’s got about 25 left. Its going to be a lot of fun playing with him. Not many sports that you get to play with the world champion. I’ve done it a lot – I’ve managed to knock out Greg Raymer twice this year, so its been a pretty interesting time. That’s why poker is great – it’s a great hobby for people – you can come in, and play anyone.
Anyway, we are down to 95 players. At the end of level six, which was a pretty eventful level for me. I picked up J8 suited in my big blind, and decided to make a move against a button raise. I had about 7,000 left at that stage. Unfortunately, the button had AQ, and I was behind, She could have layed it down on my re-raise…but she didn’t. The flop came KJ5. K on the turn, and blank on the river, and I doubled up. Pretty lucky….its about 40/60. But those are the sort of moves I make.
So , I got up to about 14,000, and I got involved with David Plastik in a monster pot. There was a raise, and a call, and I had two tens. I put David on two 8’s, and it was amazing – he went all in with two 8’s. I had my two tens, and I was playing a huge pot that would have gotten me up to 30,000. Unfortunately, the 8 came on the river. I was pretty happy with my read. I took it pretty well. I still had 5,000 in chips.
After that I made a few moves with A J, and KQ, and no one called. I’m back up to 10,400. I’m having a lot of fun.
I have this feeling that I will do very well in this tournament. I don’t get this feeling very often, but I think I’ll make the final. I’m going to try very hard. I’m focused, and I’m going to play well. But, I tell you…to play with the world champ right now – it’s a great feeling.
