So it’s Day 1 at the 2009 WSOP. Chad Norman and Lon McEachern (the ESPN poker announcers) get the honor of announcing those famous words for the start of any tournament “Shuffle up and deal!!” – and Day 1D of the WSOP is under way.
My table this year was very strange. It was a very passive table. Almost no reraising, lots of limped pots. Pots were generally small. Only a few monster hands. No recognizable pros were at my table. In fact, for the whole night, only 1 player at my table was busted out (spoiler alert: it wasn’t me!). Also, the number of total entries grew so much over the last two Day 1s that Days 1C and 1D were played for a whole 5 rounds after all – to thin the field. They’ll make it up to us by having Day 2A go for 5 rounds while we all will go for just 4 rounds on our Day 2B tomorrow (Wednesday). So we did play ‘til 1 am after all.
OK, on to the hands. On the very, very, very first hand of the tournament, I was dealt 44 UTG (under the gun i.e. very first to act after the blinds). I like to make a small raise here to help build a pot should I hit a nice 4 on the flop. Only the guy after me called. We then saw an A Q x flop with two spades. I then will often represent an ace, so I bet out 350 and got called. We both checked when another spade hit the turn. Then the river was a 4th spade. I realized here that I definitely don’t have the best hand (no 4 of spades), so the only way to win is to bet as if I have a decent spade. I make it 750 on the river. He sighs, then folds. Whew! I hate to outright bluff on the frickin’ first hand of the tournament, but there it is. The rest of the round was pretty boring. I got aces once on the button. I raised a typical raise and both blinds called. They then folded to my continuation bet on the flop. Toward the very end of the round, I got into a hand with a pair of nines. I called an early position raiser. Then called his continuation bet on a Q x x flop. He bet again and I laid it down. That took a little chunk. Ended the round with 29,500, slightly down from my original 30,000.
I had a ton of action in Round 2, blinds 100/200. I called a raise from the BB with a pair of 8s. The flop was 6 7 T – not bad for eights. I checked and he bet 600. I raised to 1800 hoping to win it right there. He called. We ended up checking it down after that and my 8s were good as he had AK that didn’t improve. A very tight player made an early raise. I found AK (both diamonds) on the button. I decide to just call. I get a delicious flop of K x x with two diamonds. This is a huge flop with top pair, top kicker and the nut flush draw. I really want action with this hand. Anyway, he bets 1200 and I raise to 3500 wanting him to play along. He thought for awhile, then folded. Oh well. I had KQ of spades once on a K 2 2 flop. I ended winning a nice pot when I got called on my post flop bets then made a flush on the river. All-in-all, things went great and I built my stack to 42,400 after Round 2.
I got a little more aggressive in Round 3 (blinds 150/300). I made a raise from the cut-off (just before the button) with QJ. Only the BB called. I saw a nice flop of J 6 3. I just checked the flop. He then called my turn bet. I checked on the river – turns out he had flopped a set of 3s! Good thing he played it so passively. I could have lost a lot more chips. Later I’m on the button with the K4 of diamonds. There are a couple of limpers, so I decide to play along. The SB next to me then makes it 1100. After 4 people call, I pretty much have to call the remaining 800. Well the flop is garbage, and everybody checks. The turn is a 4, we still all check. The river is a second 4 giving me runner runner trips. Everybody folded to my river bet. Still a nice pot. In a nutshell, that’s how passive my table was. So, a good round. I’m headed into the dinner break with 46,400 chips – good enough for the lead at my table.
Round 4 (150/300 with 25 antes) turned out to be a killer. As the tournament went on, I was raising a lot more and slowly and steadily building a nice chip stack. The guy to my left was getting shorter and shorter (around 15 – 17K). He was very active and I could tell he was in get-some-more-chips-quickly-or-just-go-home mode. I was eyeing those chips longingly and looking for a way to send him out of here. I had built my stack to about 54,000 when this evilness happened. I’m dealt 77 UTG. I make it 700. The villain next to me calls (he’s played a ton of pots, never folding to raises, so he could have had anything). The two of us see an 8 8 9 flop – pretty good for sevens. I call his 1500 bet. The turn is a 7 giving me a sneaky full house. I check, with the intent of reraising big. He just checks. The turn is a J which looks good to me. If he was trying to hit a straight, that should do it which would get crushed by my full house. I bet about 3500, he makes it 8000. At this point, he only had 4500 left. I assume he likely has a ten and I have him. I get him all-in and he calls in an instant (rarely a good sign!). Turns out he had a pair of jacks in his hand giving him a better full house on the river. OUCH! So I had to ship over a bunch of chips to him, knocking me back to an average stack. Dang, all that work destroyed on one turn of the cards. As it turns out, there was really nothing I could have done to alter this outcome. He’s certainly not going to fold JJ on that board no matter what I do on the turn. So it was back to the drawing board. I was at 36,300 with one more round of Day 1 to go.
Round 5 (200/400 +50) was up and down – ending down. I built it up to the low 40s before making some ill-advised bluff attempts late. I got no action when I had QQ (twice). Anyway, I’m down to 26,625 at the end of Day 1. Still beats being felted and out with zero chips – but if I had won that one big pot, I’d like to think I’d be sitting pretty, somewhere in the 70K range. Oh well. I still have over 50 big blinds in my arsenal of chips and will be alive for Day 2. That’s 4 for 4 making it into Day 2. Still an accomplishment.
A total of 6494 entered this year. There were so many people trying to get in at the last minute, that they supposedly turned away 800 people! They just didn’t have room. First place gets over $8.5M. Just making the final table makes $1.2M. So we’ll see how tomorrow goes. Those who have followed these reports over the years know of Sean who comes out with me every year. He plays very well, yet has never made it out of Day 1. Well this year is different as he has 79,000 in chips heading into Wednesday. So keep your fingers crossed for us both. I again apologize if these are so dreadfully long and boring. It still beats the alternative – busting out early!
More later.
Jeff
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