Through Day 1 - Ship It!

Well, if I am only going to make one freaking dinner break the whole WSOP I guess the Main Event is the one to do it in. I'm through to day 2 with 26,775 in chips. This will be about average on Sunday when play resumes for me. I want to get some sleep so I'll get to some key hands. My first table was pretty tight. Nobody busted out for 5 hours. I didn't recognize anyone but then about 3 hours in Layne Flack showed up and he looked sick as a dog. Immediately he went from 9,000 down to 3,000 and just as quickly moved up to 28,000. He then left to take a nap and didn't return for 3 hours! Apparently he is doing very well still. I stole lots of hands early and took advantage of the fact that my opponents were playing very tight. I had my stack up to 11,500 early in level 3 when I looked down at 99. One player in middle position raised, another called in the cut-off, and I called on the button. The BB called and we had 4-way action. The flop came T 8 2, all clubs. All checked to me and I bet 1200 into a 2100 pot. The BB called and the other 2 folded. I was pretty sure he was on a flush draw but he only had 2500 left. The turn came jack of hearts and he checked. I could have moved him all-in but I checked behind him. The river came 3 of clubs and he led out for 3oo! I had to call 300 into a 5100 pot and he showed me the ace of clubs for the nuts. Oh well. Later that same player was down to 3500. I raised in early position to 900 with JJ and he moved in for his last 3500. I of course called because I never lay down JJ in the main event (kidding). He showed me QQ and I got incredibly lucky when a J hit the flop. Instead of being down to 7000, I was slightly above the average at 14300. One interesting hand came about 7 hours into the tournament at my first table. I raised in middle position to 1100 with J T suited. Blinds were 200 and 400 with a 25 ante. The player on the button tossed in 700 in chips. When told that I made it 1100 he tried to take back his money. The ruling was pretty obvious; he could either call the extra 400 or fold but leave in the 700. He then proceeded to fold! I love this guy. Everyone else folded and I was at my all-time high for the day at 18,000. Just before our table broke a short stack moved all-in for 1500. I called with QQ in late position and he had A T. A ten hit the flop and a ten hit on the river and just like that I lost all the momentum I had. I went card dead for about 30 minutes waiting for our table to break and lost a couple hands when Layne Flack re-raised me. Each time I had no better than KJ so they were easy folds. Still, I was at only 12,000 when our table finally broke. At my next table I was seated 2 to the left of David Grey who finished 8th in the WSOP main event in 2003. For about two hours I did nothing but fold as there were two aggressive players dominating the action. One of them was directly on my right and the other was 2 to my left. Finally, I got to play a hand when the aggressive player on my right just limped in from the SB. I checked in the BB with A 5 off and just the 2 of us saw a flop of A 4 7 rainbow. I checked behind him looking to trap. I know I had a weak kicker but I had a gut feeling he would fire on the turn. A jack hit the turn and he fired 1500 out and I just called. He checked when a 4 hit the river and I bet out 4000. The 4 was a great card for me because it gave me two pair and a jack kicker. He folded quickly and after falling below 10,000 for the first time in a while I was now at 12,000. 2 hands later everyone folded to David Grey who made it 2500 to go. Blinds at that point were 250 and 500 with a 50 ante I think. I just called on the button with my favorite main event hand, JJ. David only had 7000 left and had been playing very aggressive. He was up and down a lot and I just knew I had the best hand. I didn’t raise because I could fold if the SB or BB raised. To my surprise the SB called. He was an inexperienced player I think. The flop came down T 5 3 with two spades and the SB checked. David moved all in and I moved in behind him fairly quickly. I was pretty sure I had the best hand and when the SB folded I immediately showed JJ. David said, “I have that crushed….when I hit my hand”, and showed 7 5 of spades. Not exactly what I wanted to see, but I was ahead in the hand for a monster pot. The turn came 8 of clubs and the river came 9 of clubs. All of the sudden I had 23,000 in chips and I knocked out David Grey. I felt pretty good. The table really tightened up as we got close to our goal of 650 players left. I used that to my advantage and built up my stack by playing aggressively. I seemed to be winning about 1 out of every 7 hands and we were 10-handed. Every trip around the table I seemed to have more than the trip before. I was pretty happy with where I ended up with 26,775. I played for about 12 hours, got KK once and never got AA but I managed to stay alive and keep my stack near the average. Can’t wait for Sunday. Ship it.