First part done

The good news is that i have made day 2 in the WSOP main event, yipeee!!! Thought it might be a good idea to write up a quick update before day 2 just explaining a few hands.

I basically ran like shit for the first 3 levels, thankfully we started with 30,000 chips and the levels were 50/100, 100/200 and 150/300. If your going to run bad then this is obviously a good time to do it. The first decent sized pot was at 50/100 with AK off (as Cashy will tell anyone i do not play this hand well); i raised to 275 utg +1 and get 3 callers. Flop came A J 6 with 2 hearts, bb checks as do i and the dude in middle position, the button bets 600 which folds out the other two guys and i call. The turn is a 5 and i check call a bet of 1800. River is a 6 which does not complete the flush, i check call a bet 4000 and he shows 65, good start. I didn't love his bet on the river but i think having massively underrepresented my hand i couldn't really fold. I'm repping KK or QQ really well and would expect him to bet a lot of missed draws and bet worse aces on the river for value. I spent the rest of the first level folding, raised AQ, got 3 bet fairly big and mucked pre and gave up on Q3 of spades when i raised and got 3 callers then missed the flop. The table was fairly solid and noone was playing that badly, the young guy on my left ran super hot and seemed to play well. He was opening quite a few hands but instead of getting involved in a pointless lag war in the first level i hust folded the crap i was being dealt, ended the level with 24.5K stack thanks to winning a few small pots at the end.

The second level also failed to go as planned. I felt i had a fairly good feel for the table at this point so i played a few more hands but unfortunately my opponents were making a lot of hands against me and i was being shutdown fairly early. The biggest pot i played was with 75 of clubs when it got folded round to the cut off who raised to 600, i made it 1700 from the sb and he snap called. He seemed fairly nervous and not that great so at this point i was sure he had 99-JJ or AQ, maybe AJ suited at a push. so the flop came 442 and i bet 3000, he called without thinking and now i know he has a decent sized overpair and is calling quickly to actually avoid thinking about the hand. Turn was a 3 giving me a straight draw and i check folded when he bet 5K, at the time i was close to check shoving but i really felt like he would have cry called, somehow managed to convince myself that i have a huge edge in this tournament and shoving into an obvious overpair would be fairly retarded. I ended the level with 19.5K.

The third level saw me pick up some big hands, the bad news was the other players were picking up bigger ones. Twice i raised QQ, got called and check folded an A K x flop. I also raised AQ and folded to a 3-bet and JJ and folded to a 3-bet, both times i felt like they were super strong and both times i was shown KK. Obviously by this point i was steaming a little, nothing was going my way and i felt like a day 1 Knockout was almost inevitable, i then pick up the Ant Yousefian hand 22 and my spirits lift. UTG raises to 800 i call on the button as does the bb. The flop comes with 45Q 2 spades and we check through. The turn is the Q of spades and after the bb check the original raiser bet 1200. I felt he was super weak here and almost defiantly had a pair between 66-JJ or even ace high so i raise to 3600, he calls. The river was the 3 of spades and he checks fairly fast. I felt like i simply needed to win this hand and bet 7000, leaving myself with 7.5K if called. After a horrible 3 minutes he folded, thankfully i had my i've got the nuts face on. This was the only decent sized pot that i won in the first 3 levels and spent the next 30 mins losing a couple of thousand back, finished the level with 24K.

Shortly into the fourth and final level i was moved table and i caught the hot streak that i felt my patience deserved. I managed to win a few pots without showdown and then i raise to 825 UTG playing 150/300/25. The cut off called, as did the button and the bb. Flop hit KJ3 with 2 hearts and i c-bet 1725, the Co folded and the button called, bb folded. Turn was a blank 6 and i decided to barrel thinking that he would fold anything that wasn't a king or better and i bet 3775, he called and the river came another blank 7. I checked and after a while of thinking he checked back, he had Q9 of hearts and i won a big pot with ace high, putting me up over 35K. He was thinking of shoving the river for 11K and the honest truth is my instinct was to call and i tend to always go with my instinct. I didn't think he would bet one pair for value in that spot and thought he would raise 2 pair on the flop, really thought he had Q10 off or a worse flush draw. We will never know if i would have called but i'm 90% sure i would have done. Anyway shortly after this i busted the same gut with AQ v 1010 when i raised and after 1 guy called he re-shoved for 8K total, thought he could have a ton of hands in that spot and i was surprised he was that strong, anyway i won a flip for the first time at the 2009 WSOP. Next i called a bet from the sb with QQ after a guy in mp raised to 1200, (felt he was super strong pre). Flop came Q67 2 flush and he bet 2k after i checked, i then made it 6K and he shoved for 10K more, snapppppppppppppppp!! He showed AA and i won. After that was taking hands for fun, loads of people trying to make day 2 and no one else any good on my table so i ran things for the last half an hour, chipping up all over the place. I also got a bit of coverage from ESPN so would be good to make the tv coverage this year, one time. Ended the day with 71K and about 3 double vodka red bulls inside me. This Aussie on my table thought it would be a good idea to get on it and i wasn't in the mood to turn down $1 drinks. Roll on day 2.