[mshalen]

I played in Thursday's 11 AM qualifier and here are a few general observations.

Play at my table was fairly soft with lots of limping during the first 4 rounds. But if you raised after limpers you almost always got one or two callers and they could have anything. Lots of people chasing flush draws (and hitting), playing any two suited, raising with small pairs and playing any Ax.

About 40% of the players had a good understanding of short stack play and sat. strategy. I saw two people holding copies of HOH 1 (LOL).

The blind/ante levels are brutal and the game becomes an all-in-fest after the break.

We started with 72 players - so 14 seats on Saturday - and were down to about 40 at the first break.

With 2 minutes left to level 5 (400/800/100) and the blinds about to increase to 500/1,000/200 I caught AKo on the button and re-raised allin with my 11,000 stack. The early raiser - who had been playing a lot of hands - sat there for a few minutes unsure of what to do. He kept muttering "why would he push all in". After about 3 minutes he finally called me with 99 and caught a boat. I was out in 34th place. That's poker!