Ty all

for the support. I can't say I'm happy with my placement, but poker was never meant to be a nice or fair game. During the 14 or so levels i played, their were 2 that i played badly, my first and the 2nd last, where i went from 350k to 200K. I'm very happy I went through this learning experience, and I hope to improve in my game, so that I can take it a step further.

Some thoughts:

Deepstack poker is a very different kind of game than most of the tournies I play online.

Image is huge, to go from being "BodogAri" online to a 22 year kid, who according to some reports looks as young as 14, is a very interesting dynamic. Excluding all other factors, I'm given a significant amount of respect when playing online against a normal opponent. On the other hand, all other things held even, people were very likely to think that I could be bullied out of pots during this tourney.

For example, I had one hand, when blinds were 1200-2400 i believe, where i raised to 6500 under the gun, the button makes it 20K to go, and when it gets folded to me, I make it 65K to go, he then proceeds to go all in. In this situation, bet, raise, reraise, rereraise, my opponent is holding kk or aa, at least 80-90% of the time. I was only able to call his last raise, while viewing it within the light that he saw me, a kid trying to make the money. (About 70 left at the time, with 40 cashing.)

My last hand of the tourney, i think blinds were 3k-6k, and the under the gun player, spiro -55lucky55- makes it 18K to go, i reraise to 56K (around there) to see where I am at, and he immediately goes all in. Well, I could end the hand just there, being that he responded to my "Where am i at question?" with a "you're beat". But, i start thinking a little, and it occurs to me, that in the past he had played with his chips, delayed, etc. when he held monster hands, this time when he went all in so quickly, it almost felt the same as the online pushes that i'm used to seeing with ak. I had played with Spiro the entire first day, and a decent part of the second, so I knew he was solid, and therefore there was definately a chance, that he had an over pair.

In the end, the combo, of a very quick all in shove, me having significant money in the pot, and my "feeling", I chose to call. He showed AK, the flop came ace high, and i was sent packing.