I have 508k going into day 3 of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E World Championship. That puts me at 6th in chips with 52 players (of the original 148) remaining.

I won a HUGE pot in stud-hi where I had Aces up on 4th street, fours full of aces on 6th street, and my hand wasn’t the best hand until I rivered quads (one of 3 outs for me) on 7th street. It was a ginormous 3 way pot.

I probably should have folded on 5th street, but in my defense: I’ve been asked about a dozen times how I feel going into the H.O.R.S.E. Every time I answered that I felt really confident in all my games except for Stud Hi. Oh well, ship the four on the river.

Actually, I’ve made a few small mistakes so far that I’m kind of beating myself up over, but the tournament isn’t over yet, so I’m going to stay positive rather than discuss my mistakes. Overall I’ve been playing pretty well.

My table at the end of day 2 was SICK.

Seat 1: Hoss_TBF (very good online player that crushes high stakes limit games)
Seat 2: Me
Seat 3: Phil Ivey
Seat 4: Eli Elezra
Seat 5: Phil Hellmuth
Seat 6: Scotty Nguyen
Seat 7: Huck Seed
Seat 8: John Hennigan

This had to be the toughest table of the tournament so far. My table going into tomorrow looks much better even though I recognize every name except for one.

So I have over 1.5x average going into day three. I’m really excited about my chances. The field is tough, but I can hold my own. Tomorrow will be a cakewalk compared to the table I was at tonight.

ESPN coverage starts tomorrow also. This will be my first time on American TV. (Remember way back over two years ago when I became the first ever teenager to make a final table? That only aired in Europe and Canada unfortunately).

Anyway, I feel great.

Wish me luck!

(I’ve got a lot to write about btw, including the best poker story ever – “Nobody calls Earl a chicken”, being a Team Bodog Member, being angleshot by Robert Williamson, Johny Kranyak and the bridge kids, and a bunch more… but I need my sleep now)