the last few days, shot taking and name dropping...

So tomorrow I play Day 1D of this year's main event. Andrew, Wes, Ian, Pat Pezzin, Anh Van Nguyen, you name it, all of the people I know and speak to down here regularly are blasting tomorrow so it's a big day for the Canadian contingent. The last few days we've all just been playing a combination of live and online cash games. Andrew and I took another shot at the two fish that have been playing large limit mixed games online at the $500-1000 games. First session went great, won just under $30k, second went poorly, netting us loser roughly $25k. Then I got banged up in my normal online games and some 30-60 Omaha8'better short handed.
Yesterday we all went to the Bellagio to play, I was all set for some $10-20 no limit hold'em, stress free game. Then Bobby Belande wanted to start a mixed game, 300-600 Omaha8/better, Stud 8/better and Triple Draw. Before I could get up from the table (where Andrew and I were eating), he throws $20k in flags down and I play for 8 hours. The game started really good, Belande's a spot in any game, Toto Leonidas who's A game I imagine is great, he was playing his C in the beginning, and newly-crowned bracelet winner and Rio-barred Thaang Luu who was really live that day, Mike Mizrachi and Chad Brown. Like I said, in the beginning a great lineup. I was up for most of the day, 2-5k and then I lost a 12k pot to Thaang Luu who promptly quit the game (I have A499ds in a 6 way O8 pot, flop was 69Q, 6, 7, Thaang had QQxx) and then I lost back to back Triple Draw hands vs. him, getting him happy/unstuck/and out of our game. The game broke shortly after he left. I lost $12.5k. Went for dinner and got 6k back after in the $10-20 no limit hold'em game. This game's tough, there is a lot of variance in triple draw and in these live games, not that many hands per hour get played so the lineup has to be good for it to be a worthwhile shot. This table was great, the games set-up well for me. Just another bad day.
Pretty rough summer when you look at the shot taking stuff. I mean $300-600 up to $500-1000 have all gone terribly, losing almost every session. After thinking, reviewing and focusing on our opponents, there's no way we're (Andrew and I) underdogs to them, being critical, say we're break even with them, how bad do you have to run to lose 4/5 or 5/6 sessions in a break even or +ev spot. Anyways...main event's here and we'll see how we all do in that. I've been told that the live no limit games aren't always this good so I should soak them in while they're here. Perhaps next wsop a better idea would be to just straight play cash games and stay away from all but the main event. Hard, really hard to have a bad summer in these games. Wes, who has ATTACKED the 10-20 games, is up big and thinks +$2k-4k per day is not out of the question. I really believe that you'd need to play just as long online to make as much and it might not be possible to play that volume online (12+ hours a day at 10-20 nlhe vs. very good players). Keep in mind that's almost 4x as many hands. The play in these games is roughly comparable to $1-2 online I'd say. Anyways, I'm thrilled Wes is winning, someone in this house has too :)