I guess I can't expect to make the final table every time

As expected, the turnout for the $100+25 NLHE event was huge, 502 players. That makes for a decent prize pool, and there are a lot of chips in play, but that's a lot of players to fight through. Starting stacks are fairly short (10 x buy-in), so if you play a hand and it doesn't hold up, you can be severely crippled. That's pretty much what happened to me, played only 6 or 7 seven hands and then I was out (JJ, beat by a weak Ace that hist; all-in w/ TT, spiked a miracle T on the river for a full house; 9T suited, hit the 9, won a small pot; QJo, I stupidly limped and had to let it go when I didn't hit the flop and faced a bet; all-in w/ 99, it held up; and a short-stacked all-in w/ KQo on the button, called by A8, I didn't improve). I was a little disappointed, but didn't think I was playing badly, so I sat down at $100 buy-in NLHE ring game, only played about 4 hands there, and when busted to slow-played AA.

I don't plan to play in tomorrow's $100+25 LHE event, so I will probably head to a different casino and try my luck there against some different players. I do plan to play in the $100+25 PLHE event on Sat. though, PLHE may be my new favorite game. Too bad there aren't more games spread in my stakes range (Kevin tells me some casinos have it, but it's usually at least a $500 buy-in game.

I loaned Kevin my new copy of Brunson's _Super System 2_, but I'm probably going to just re-read the Harrington book at least once more, since it focuses on NLHE tournaments and that's my primary agenda on this trip.