I played my day one today. We started with 50,000 chips. 606 players entered. $3.75 million to the winner. Even the 100th place player gets $43,000. It’s a fantastic event. You get seven days of play.
I started slowly today, with 50,000 chips and blinds of 50/100, the way the structure is, I think its best to wait for good hands, flop big flops, and get the money. We played 5 levels of 90 minutes each today. I wanted to wait for big hands, and get someone to play after the flop who shouldn’t be.
I got Aces early on. I raised, and got a call behind me. The flop was K 7 8. I bet, he raised, and I called on the flop. The turn was a King, and he bet 5,000. I thought about it, and this would leave me with about 40,000 if I called. I thought about it for a long time. I was pretty sure I was beat. But, I just called to see if I could get really lucky and hit the Ace, or he would check it down on the river. The river was a blank, I checked and he bet out 12,000. I had to lay it down.
So, after the Aces, I settled down a bit. I made a few moves, but nothing big. I was being very careful today, and wanted to get through. I got involved in a pot with Kenna James. On a flop of Q J 2, I had pocket jacks. I had just called Kenna’s raise preflop. Kenna is playing pretty loose today – raising a lot of pots, and I am raising a lot of pots, so we are having a lot of fun out there. He is on my right. So, anyway, I bet the flop, and he called. The turn came a 6. I bet 5,000, and he called. The river was also a 6 for running 6’s, and I went all in. I was hoping I could get a call out of Kenna, but he didn’t have much of a hand, so he dropped it. That pot got me up to 53,000.
After that, I had a number of Ace King hands. I would re-raise, and miss the flop every time. Nearly every time Kenna, or another opponent would bet into me, and I would have to let it go. A very bad day for Ace King.
Near the end of the day I picked up two Queens on my big blind. An amateur player raised under the gun. We later found out he had pocket threes. He raises 3,000 into a 1,500 pot. I didn’t want to get too busy with my queens, so I just called. The flop is Q 6 9, I’ve flopped the nuts. I check, he bets 7,000, and I raise it 13,000 more. I say to him “You’ve got Ace King, You’ve got Ace King”, really needling him in a big way, it was funny. “I know you’ve got Ace King, you can’t call this”.
So, this poor guy with his pocket threes has a brainstorm. He hears me telling him ‘You’ve got Ace King” and he thinks he’s got better than Ace King with his threes. So, he goes all in. Obviously, I’ve got the nuts, so its an easy call. So, this guy gives me all his chips. He got into this tournament on a $15 satellite, and he was tired – these are the type of people we need. And, at the end of the day, he had just had enough, and he gave me 43,000 chips, which put me up to 96,000 chips with 30 minutes in the day. Later on, I picked up Ace King again, and I finished the day with 109,000, one of the larger stacks out there. So, I am definitely in the running, and looking forward to performing well tomorrow.
