"I get behind myself, I need to rewind myself." - Kid Rock. Eventually I'll stop procrastinating and get my blogs written on time.

That way I'm doing it from recent memory rather than fuzzy memories and notes in my phone about key hands.

I guess part of the problem is that poker players (myself included) have little desire to write when they're running bad. After all, it's obviously no fun to talk about losing money.

But I'd be remiss to speak only of my successes and not of the tribulations ... since tournament poker is chock-full of them!

I have, however, decided not to bore you with all of the painful details of my last few preliminary events at the WSOP. I'll recap the "highlights" below so that I can move on.

In one of the last $1,500 NL events of the series I managed to chip up from $3k to $15k by dinner break, but ended up getting it in with a straight/flush draw and bricking. Then Ben Fineman decided he was going to ruin my day during the $2k Pot-Limit Hold'em event.

I decided to play the tournament despite the fact that I was scheduled to fly back to Atlantic City for the Borgata Summer Open $5k main event the next day.

Ben was a buddy of mine already, and showed up at my table. I decided to make a friendly $200 last-shorter bet with Ben - whoever busted first got $200 from the player still in.

Ben Fineman: Day ruiner.

Little did I know, Ben and I would end up playing a $15k coin flip during the $75/$150 level, my A♣ K♠ against his Q♦ Q♣.

You'd think the loser of the pot would be the winner of the last-shorter ... and so did I. Ben's hand held, and I was left with about $1,400 in chips.

However, I managed to nurse my short stack back to health for a while and Ben's continued to dwindle and dwindle until he was eliminated!

I must admit, it was a pretty gross feeling paying up after he beat me in a coin flip for more than 10 times the amount of chips it left me with ... even if it was only $200!

To add insult to injury, I lost another coin flip, misplayed one hand and was eliminated less than an hour after Ben was. Oh well, at least I didn't have to rebook my flights!

Here's a short story on the Borgata $5k ... the structure was incredible ($50k chips, starting at $25/$50, 50-minute levels), the play was deplorable, and I got off to a decent start but went card-dead for about a day and a half.

I ended up getting my 12BB short stack in with K♠ K♦ against A♦ 7♦ pre-flop when there were about 60 players remaining.

Unfortunately the chip leader was running like a Kenyan and made a flush on the turn to have me drawing stone dead and on the next flight back to Vegas to finish up the World Series.

My results in the remaining No-Limit events (two $1,500s, one $2k, and a $1k+rebuys) before the Main Event were so disappointing they're hardly worth mentioning. I ran up a $25k stack in the rebuy, but did nothing with it and didn't even get close to the money.

Kenna James: worst prop bettor in history.

At least one thing worth mentioning came out of this tournament though - Kenna James may be the absolute worst prop bettor in history. I guess he just wants action, but he will take the dog just for the sake of gambling.

Case in point: We had an Asian girl dealing to us, and her name was May. You can see where this is going ... he bets me at even money that she was born in the month of May.

Even though I feel like I must be getting hustled, he swears that he's never spoken to her before and I take the bet. She was born in September; ship the $100.

He dropped the stakes and got smarter, but nevertheless took the dog again. The next dealer's name was Yuk, and he bet me even money again (this time only $20) that the dealer was born between July and November. Wrong again - February for $20.

Good thing I squeezed a buck-twenty out of Kenna, because I didn't get a dime of that prize pool. Maybe I should take up professional prop betting and follow Kenna around on the tour!

Anyway, on to the big show ... the circus ... the sickest and softest $10k tournament of the year, the WSOP Main Event.

I arrived at my table on the first flight of three, Day 1a. I ran ridiculously hot on Day 1a of the 2007 WSOP Main Event on my way to 118th place.

When I say ridiculous, I mean ridiculous. I had 10 pocket pairs in the first six hours of play before dinner break; flopped six, count 'em six, sets and stacked players who held AA or KK three times.

I'm not superstitious, but I decided to stick with the same starting day in hopes of finding the same rungoodsauce.

I arrived at my starting table to find three familiar faces, which was pretty bad considering the huge percentage of the field that is extremely inexperienced and "barely even breathing," as my friend and grinder Ronnie Bardah would say

Roy "the Oracle" Winston: tough draw.

They were "Miami" John Cernuto, Roy Winston, and Thierry "BOKPOWER" van den Berg.

The structure for the tournament is very good. We only started with $20k chips and $50/$100 blinds, but the compensating factor is the very slow escalation structure, which includes almost all of the levels that mediocre structures omit.

It also has the longest levels of any major tournament, at 120 minutes.

I dodged a bullet in the first level when my 4♠ 5♠ flopped a straight/flush draw on a 3♠ 7♣ 8♠ board and bricked ... against an opponent's A♠ K♠! I quickly went from feeling pretty unlucky to missing my second straight/flush draw of the level to being relieved to lose only $2,500 chips on the hand.

I was fortunate to flop a set in the first level with 6♣ 6♦ on a T♣ 6♥ 4♠ flop, but a seven on the turn and an eight on the river slowed down the action.

I later found out the opponent was one of the top online players a few years ago who hasn't been around much, pearljam1012. He told me he laid down queens.

Not much happened during the second level ($100/$200) except a few ill-timed bluffs at Mr. Cernuto ... who is either a calling station or just had a good read on me/didn't believe me because I'm under 25 and presumably an online spewmonkey in his eyes.

The cork really blew off the bottle in the third level ($150/$300). The table went from early conservative action to ram-and-jam poker, even though the blinds were relatively low.

One player in particular, a Middle Eastern guy who got to the table late in the second level, was particularly ready to gamble.

I've forgotten the exact amounts, but the new player raised from middle position. Cernuto called in late position, and Winston defended from the big blind. Effective stacks are approximately $23k. The flop came J-8-7, rainbow.

The new player bet about three-quarters of the pot, and Cernuto called. Winston check-raised to nearly half of his stack.

With Cernuto still to act behind him, the new player instantly moved all in with A-Jo!!! Cernuto folded, and Winston reluctantly called with J-To. The board bricked out, and the new player had even more chips to splash around with.

Although he happened to have the best hand in this case, it was clear to me that he was going to be my No. 1 mark at the table. He was ready to splash around, for sure, raising over a third of the hands dealt to him and clearly overvaluing his hands.

Then it happened ... Cernuto raised to $900 from early position with the blinds still at $150/$300. I was considering my options with about $15k chips and Q♣ Q♦ from the cut-off.

I ultimately decided to just call since Cernuto had raised from early position and because my mark was in the big blind.

My friend squeezes to $3,150 total from the big blind. Cernuto takes a moment to fold, and I think it over for a moment before moving all-in. Although I hate stacking off here with just two queens early in the softest $10k of the year, it was easily the best play against this spazz in my opinion.

Once he took more than 30 seconds to call, I was very happy with my hand. I was shocked that he took nearly a minute to call with the A♥ K♣.

Doyle's right: The day you bust is in the Main Event is the worst day of the year.

Although I usually have a "whatever happens happens" attitude at this point, even in big events, the Main Event obviously means a little bit more to any poker player. I was almost nauseous going to the flop, to be honest.

Right in the window ... the cruel and disgusting king of spades. Brutal. Two jacks behind it at least for a backdoor straight draw, but not too much hope other than my two outs.

The turn and river bricked out, and I didn't even go through my usual moment of saying good luck to the table. I just bolted for the door and got the hell out of there as quickly as possible.

I never believed it when I heard Doyle say that the worst day of a poker player's year is when he/she busts that tournament.

I've come to learn that unless you have some kind of major life tragedy in the course of that year ... he's basically right. That's one wise old gambler!

--Matt Stout

"All In At 420"

The 2008 WSOP Main Event final table resumes this Sunday, Nov. 9 and will play down to the next world champion of poker on Monday night. To find out more about the final nine players, check out our Nine Lives documentaries in the new PokerListings TV section, and follow all the action live in the PL.com Live Tournaments section.

More blogs from Matt Stout:

• Bellagio $5k: Saving the Rungoodsauce
• WPT Niagara Falls: NAPC
• WPT Legends of Poker Part 1
• Running Bad Part 1