Event #5 1.5k NL

I have 70k chips going into day two of this $1500 NL. Average is around 40k. Play restarts at 2:30 PST Tuesday. There are 243 players left and 216 will be paid.

Last year at the WSOP I cashed four times, all in $1500 events. Because of these runs, I missed several of the bigger buy-in events I had planned to play. Tomorrow is the $5k shootout. This will be the third straight year I will miss it.

I don't mind missing the bigger tournaments for the $1500s. I love WSOP $1500s. I am very good at these donkaments, probably because I have a round understanding of the different types of players you might encounter in a WSOP $1500. I am not an outstanding online tournament player, but I might be better than most of them in these WSOP $1500s. I know how a lot of the recreational players think.

I generally have a pleasant time playing the $1500s. I am usually pretty social with the other pros as well as the recreational players. A lot of the n00bs are actually pretty interesting people with real jobs, and it's nice to meet other pros I may not have known before as well.

The $1500s are relatively low-stress tournaments. You don't have to make too many difficult, high-equity decisions. But lurking deep in every WSOP $1500 is big money. My best finishes in WSOP $1500s came in 2008, a 22nd place in a 4000 player pme immediately followed by a 12th in a 1200 player 6-max. In other words, I have never made a big score in a WSOP $1500. I am hoping that changes soon.