The first event I played was the inaugural $1K “Stimulus” event, which began this past Saturday and Sunday and concluded yesterday (a day or two behind schedule) with Steve Sung, an excellent gambler and extremely nice guy, winning the bracelet and more than $750K.

For my part, I started off a bit unsteadily in the event, slightly distracted by the hoopla of the first huge-field event and underwhelmed by the prospect of having to look at poker players for the next five weeks, but I got into the groove in the middle of level 1 and worked the 3K starting stack into 15K by level 5 and then busted by level 6, just before dinner, after losing three medium sized pots on hands that I thought I played well.

The next day, Sunday, I spent playing my normal regimine of online poker tournaments and had a typical online Sunday with a few deep runs but no success. During the WSOP, online tournaments are usually totally off my radar, but Sunday is the one exception. I actually think the contrast between the live action and the online rhythm works well, and I believe I play relatively well when I play on Sundays during the WSOP, moreso than when I’m at home and the Sunday grind is just another aspect of the quotidian.

On Monday, I latched onto a group of friends who had a plan to spend the day on Lake Mead. We rented a speed boat and got onto the lake around 11:30AM. In my summer camp days, I used to be a fairly decent, although not competitive-level, waterskier, and I still love the sport immensely, even though I’ve only probably held a towrope in my hands twice since my teenage years, the last time being during the Aruba poker tournament I played in 2005 or 2006. It was exhausting then and even more this time. Turns out I was in better physical shape when I was 15 than I am now.

The boat, unfortunately, did not have much power, and it was impossible for me to get up on one ski, which is basically still like riding a bike. I had to revert to the “dropping” method, in which one gets up on two skis, then wiggles free from the second one in order to slalom (and after the run looks for the jettisoned ski on the lake). In five years out here, this was the first time I did any water sports on Lake Mead, and it was one of the most best things I have ever done on a WSOP day off. I plan on bringing out my Kidder waterski that has been collecting dust in my garage at home and to hopefully get out on the lake at least one or two more times before this series concludes.

It was fun as shit but physically taxing and the next day I was extremely sore. My friend Chris Bush, one of my boatmates who succesfully got up on two skis during his first-ever attempt, texted me during the next day’s $1,500 NL tournament to say, “I got muscles I never knew existed.” I replied, “I know, it even hurts when I muck.”

By the next day, the feeling in my limbs went from a sort of “good sore,” the type of minor muscle strain that serves as a reminder that you did positive activity the day before, to strict pain that was almost overbearing. Despite physical and mental exhaustion, I was unable to fall asleep due to the stiffness in my left leg that prevented me from fully extending it to stretch. I finally faded off by 3AM but woke up prematurely at 7:30AM and could not get back to sleep.

As a result, I was essentially hopeless to play well during the following day’s $1,500 six-handed event, which I had been really looking forward to playing. I got my money in with the nut flush draw on the turn, missed against two-pair, and made my way back to the apartment.

Today is a $2K NL event, my fourth event of the series and the biggest buyin so far. I feel ready to play and to avoid the potential psychological downfall that comes with playing a new tournament each day and busting out. It can be a real mindfuck, but if you maintain perspective and equanimity you can also find yourself with an edge over people who don’t deal with the stressers and defeatism well.

The weather has been unseasonably mild so far and a calming cloud cover has engulfed Vegas for the past two days. In contrast to my feeling on level 1 of the $1K event, I am content to be here, looking forward to playing as many tournaments as I can with a fresh mindset and doing healthy stuff like playing tennis, going to the movies, and waterskiing on my days off.