Hanging in by my finger nails at Fallsview

Well, we just finished up more than eleven hours of play in the $2,500 entry event. The field has been whittled down to 58 players from an original 276. I did not stick around to find out my exact placement, but I would hazard I am between 55th and 58th -lol.

Just had absolutely no cards to work with the past few hours. Other than that I really enjoyed my table. Canadian superstar Gavin Smith was putting on a clinic in seat 5 (I was in seat 9) and amassing a large bouquet of chips.

More importantly, he was witty, sharp, down to earth, and a helluva player to boot. There was a fair amount of idolisation going on at the table, but he handled it real well.

For the first five hours or so I was at a very tough table. On my right was Vinnie Lozon, fresh off a 4th place finish in the $1,000 event (cashing $16,238) and on my left was Jason X, who recently cashed $32,000 in a World Poker Tour event.

As I left the playing area I noted that 6 of our original ten were still in the event, and it would have been 7, but Josh was busted with about five minutes to go.

Considering the field is down to around 20% of its original number, for 60% of our table to survive beats the odds.

Vinnie was still in form and amassed over $60,000 chips pretty quickly. Being surrounded by good players in dominating form made my survival a bit sweeter I suppose - but I feel that if I had had any cards at all the past few hours, or maybe an easier draw (if there was one) I may have gone even deeper.

My goal was to cash, since even 27th pays $9,574.

I have some hands, but I don't feel like hashing them right now. I have only a couple of regrets. Once I could have taken down a lot of dead money by executing a squeeze play in the small blind with A9 suited. Had I bet all in at my turn pre flop, I would likely have induced everyone to fold. There were five others in this pot, which is pretty unusual. Most pots end up heads up - or at most three players.

Another time, I gave a second life to Farhad Husaini (who happened to come second in the $1,000 event, winning $40,595)

Just before the dinner break he re-raised my $2,200 to $6,700 (all in for Farhad). I was feeling good, as I had been on a mild heater, winning three pots in a row, including two showdowns.

I justifed calling his all in bet to myself, and saw I was drawing to only two outs, as he had JJ and I had 88.

No miracles here for me,and I donated an extra $4,500 to Farhad. He is a very good player, so maybe he did not need "my help", but I see he is still in the event.

I don't think I had a call - if he had a pair, it was for sure higher than mine - I gambled he was going all in with "paint" - two picture cards - and if we had a "race" that my pair would stand up. No need for me to gamble at that time though.

But I will shove all in without a second's thought if I get 88 early tomorrow.

Anyway, we resume at noon on Monday. For those of you who don't really understand poker, but who are rooting for me - I truly thank you for your interest and support, but I warn you I will likely be eliminated within 20 minutes tomorrow - barring miracles - which of course, I will visualize all night and play for with vim and vigour when the time comes.