I've been playing the $160 Double Shootout every day at PokerStars. You first must win your table of nine, to advance to the final table of nine. If you win that, you go to the WSOP, and if you finish anything but ninth, you get your money back. I have twice made the final table, but have gotten no better than 4th overall. I realized I should be blogging my results. Not only is it good reading, but knowing I have an audience forces me to play smarter.

Today's shootout ended for me this way: Four-way battle at the first table - flop came 79T all diamonds. There was a bet, and I went all in with AT to discourage the draws. Was called by 86 straight. He had no diamonds, so it was a call that could have been much worse for him than it turned out to be. The turn was a diamond, and if the river would have been one, then we would have chopped. No such luck. It put me under $500. I went all in three hands in a row and got the blinds, which began to build me back up. Then I went all in with K3c, and was called by Q9s, only for him to hit his nine and knock me out in 24th place.

In other news, I emailed Ben Grundy, who sat to my right at the Monaco final table, before finishing 7th. He has a poker blog, so I read his EPT recap, and I directed him to The Nuts, which he perused. I still need to post my final table entry, but that one is especially painful.