When I arrived at noon, my table was the first to break because I guess ESPN needed that area for camera space. It worked out because I had a great table draw. Anyway, here’s how the day went.

 

Blinds 50/100

 

On the fourth hand of the day, the cutoff raises to $300. I call on the button with A, J. Kathy Leibert folds in the small blind and the big blind hasn’t shown up yet so it’s just two to the flop. The flop comes 6, J, 2 rainbow. He bets $500 and I call. The turn is a 6. He bets $1,000 and I call. The river is a 9. He bets $1,000 more and I call. He shows A, A. I kept the pot small here because his most likely range of hands were big cards or a big pair. There’s not much point in raising because I either have him dominated or he has me dominated.

 

Later, I limp under the gun with 5,5. The cutoff calls and the button makes it $500. The blinds fold, I call, and the cutoff folds. I check the Kh, T, 4 flop. He bets $700 and I make it $2,000 and he calls. At this point I’m done with the hand. I raised to keep him in check because lots of players will continuation bet that flop with nothing. The turn is the Ah. We both check. At this point I think he’s kind of weak because most people would try to protect a strong hand with all the straight and flush draws out there. So when the river brings a 6s, I bet $4,000. To my surprise, he calls, showing A, K.

 

Blinds 100/200

 

A guy named E-Dub (who I’ve played with before) limps under the gun. I raise in 3rd position to $700 with AK. The flop comes Ah, Kd, Qd. He checks, I bet $1,300 and he calls. The turn is a rag. He checks. On the turn, I’m deciding how much to bet and he only has a $10k stack so I make it $4,000, thinking he’ll fold his obvious draw. When he calls, I put him on a flush draw with either a pair or a gutshot to go with. The river is another rag. He checks, I bet $3,000 and he folds.

 

Later, the action folds to the small blind who limps. I check my Q, 7. The flop comes A, K, 2. We both check. The turn is another K. He bets $500 and I call. The river is a 5. He bets $1,200 and I call, thinking I might have the best hand and even if I don’t, the table will know not to bluff me in the future. He shows A, 4.

 

E-dub raises in middle position and the cutoff calls. I call on the button with 7, 7 and both blinds fold. The flop comes 10c, 7c, 5. E-dub bets $1,200 and I just call because I have him on a tight range of hands (i.e. either big cards or a pair). I’m hoping he’s on big cards and he’ll hit something. If not, he can have a big pair and bet anyway (assuming the turn bricks). In either case, I’ll probably raise all-in on the turn and have gotten another bet out of him. The turn is an 8, which might scare a big pair. He bets $2,100. My plan was to raise but I thought that if he had a big pair he would check that scare card. Therefore I thought he had nothing or maybe two pair. I decide to just call so he can hit his nothing or “value bet” his two pair and I can raise him. The river brings a beautiful K. He checks, I bet $5,000 and he calls, turning over A, K.

 

A while later, I make it $600 in early position with A, K. The cutoff is the only one to call and the flop comes K, 6, 4. We both check and the turn is the Kh, bringing the second heart. I bet $1,000. He makes it $2,600 and I call. I think about reraising but I have him on a pocket pair, trying to see where he’s at. I think he might be dumb enough to bet the river if I check it to him whereas I don’t see much value in raising because he won’t call without a K and if he does have a K, he’ll bet the river anyway. The river is a 4. We both check and I take down the pot. I think I made a mistake in not throwing out a $2,000 bet on the river. Since I had him on a pair he might have called a small bet.

 

Blinds 200/400

 

The cutoff makes it $1,200 and I decide to slowplay by flat calling on the button with Q, Q, a low risk, high reward play. He’d been continuation betting most flops and I wanted that extra bet, rather than forcing him out preflop. Both blinds fold and the flop comes 9c, 8, 4c. I don’t have a club. He bets $2k, as expected and I make it $5k. He quickly folds.

 

Blinds 200/400/50

 

Folds around to me in the cutoff and I raise to $1,200 with J, 2 (both blinds are playing very tight at this point).  The button makes it $2,800 and I decide to make a move because he had been coming over the top of me quite regularly.  I make it $7,800 and he folds. I think it’s important to do this with either a really strong hand or a complete nothing hand so that it’s an easy decision if he decides to go all in.

 

Blinds 300/600/75

 

Folds to me in the cutoff, which I raise to $2,500 with K, J.  The button had learned his lesson so he flat calls as does the big blind.  The flop comes Js, 4, 3s.  Check, I bet $5,000, and they both call.  At this point I have the button on a mid-sized jack and the big blind on some sort of draw, most likely a flush draw.  The turn brings a beautiful 2h.  Check, I bet $15,000, fold, fold after a long think.

 

Later, under the gun makes it $2,800 with a $17k stack and I’m two behind with A,A.  I think about slow playing and just flat calling but ultimately decide to re-raise to $7,000.  It folds back to him and he reluctantly folds. Possible missed opportunity here.

 

Blinds 400/800/100

 

I’m cruising along. I’ve gotten my stack up to $90k with few showdowns and zero all-ins. It folds around to the cutoff who makes it $3k. I’m on the button with A, A and I make it $8k. He makes it $18k and I put him all in for $24k more. He thinks for a long time and then calls with A, K, the ideal hand for me to see. The flop comes Q, J, rag. The turn is a rag, but the river is a 10, giving him a straight. This was an $85k pot but stuff like this happens all the time in big tournaments and you can’t let it affect you.

 

At this point I decide to tighten it up and regather my thoughts (and chips), but I can’t seem to catch a break. Every time I raised from here on out, I got reraised. Actually that’s not true. There were two times that I raised and picked up the blinds. Both times I had Kings.

 

With ten minutes left in the day, this hand came up: I raise to $2,500 in middle position with A, Q and get repopped (by the cutoff) yet again. It’s $3k more and I call. At this point I don’t know if people are picking up hands or are seeing that I’ve been folding to reraises but I’m frustrated and ready to turn it around. The flop comes A, 6d, 4. I check, he bets $6k, and I make an obvious call. I’m either dominated by A, K (which was unlikely given the small preflop reraise) or I’m way ahead. The turn is a 2d. We both check and the river is a 9d. I check, thinking he’ll either bluff or make a “value bet” with a worse A so I quickly call his $10k bet. He flips over Kd, Qd. Disgusting.

 

I ended the day with $22k. Obviously it would be nice to be siting with more chips but the only thing that matters is that I’m still in.