On to Day 5

I survived a shortened Day 4 (I guess we are well ahead of schedule), and we are now down to 189 players. I ended the day with 1.7 million in chips, a little more than twice the average stack of ~750k. It is still very early as it will take a good 15 million chips to be average at the final table. My sole focus is on playing each hand as well as I can.

Some highlights from today:

The Good:
1. I flopped top and bottom pair in a three way limped pot with A6. I think I extracted maximum value against a tough Swedish pro by smooth calling the flop (heart draw on board), betting the turn, and overbetting thin on the river. I did my best to feign weakness like I missed my flush and he looked me up for 110k on the river.
2. Making a big call on the flop and river with A2 on a board of 8,9,2,9,Q (no flush). I almost raised the river in case my deuces were no good, but after studying the kid for a long time, I was sure he had absolutely nothing.
3. Aces versus kings. Timing is everything in poker. A tight/aggressive player open raised to 36,000 at 4k/8k under the gun and I knew he had a big hand. I looked down at bullets and decided to repop since we were both deep and I sensed his strength. I overraised a bit, making it 160k to go, trying to sell AK as best I could. He pretty much insta-shoved after that and I quickly rechecked my hand and then called. The aces held up (despite a queen in the window which I thought was a king) and I was up to over 1.5 million.
4. I called a late position raise from the big blind with 44. The flop came down 3,4,5 and I led for 30k, hoping to get his whole stack of 300k or so if he had an overpair. He raised to 100k and I shipped it all-in. He called with 99 (which is a pretty terrible call) probably because just a few hands earlier I got looked up bluffing with a gut shot on the turn against AA.

The Bad:
1. Terrible bluff with K10 referenced above. Bluffing a short stack is a bad idea to begin with and more than that, I knew he had a big hand. Overall, I have done a great job at trusting my instincts this week and going with my read, but this was one spot where I just didn't take my time, and made the wrong play.
2. I opened up my game a bit more than I should have in the last level of the day, forcing things a bit, but nothing egregious.
3. I folded AQ to an early position raise and a call even though I thought I was good (I was right). It was just easier to play it safe (which isn't a terrible way to play), but again, I am best when I am trusting my reads.

The action starts back up tomorrow at noon. I really need to get a good nights sleep tonight as my body is kind of in shambles right now. I seem to be getting like 5 hours a night (I can't sleep past 9 for some reason), and I have been living on water and coke at the tables.