ARCHIVES - 2009 Day 2

Day 2: July 8, 2009

Oddly enough, despite the redraw of tables, I’m exactly where I was when Day 1 ended: Amazon Blue Table 4, Seat 3. Resetting the scenario as it ended before, I have below the starting 30,000 chips (26, 625) after taking a blow late on Day 1. So … I’m looking to make a move. Fortunately, the structure of this tournament is unbelievable. The blinds are still small (they’ll start at 250/500 with 50 blinds) and each level lasts 2 full hours.

Enough of the preamble, on to the hands. I was the big blind on the 2nd hand and got AK after a 1400 raise and call. I made it 4500 and won the pot uncontested. Good start! Just a few hands later, I had QQ UTG. I made it 1300 and got one caller. The flop was 9 8 6 with 2 clubs (my queens were red). I bet 2500 and was raised to 5500. My opponent on this hand had me covered (a bigger stack), but barely. I raised all-in and he took a long time making his decision. This was good for me because at least I knew he didn’t have 3 of a kind, and likely had a big draw. Sure enough, he had AJ suited in clubs and eventually called. Even though I’m ahead at this point, the actual odds of me winning the hand with the turn and the river still to come are only 55%. Fortunately, he misses his flush and misses his ace and I win a huge pot. This got me to about 60,000 right out of the gate! A few hands later in the round, I got AA and had a shorter stack go all-in with his tens. Too bad for him, but good for me. After one round of Day 2, I was significantly above the average stack with 71,500 chips.

Level 2 brought blinds of 300/600 with a 75 ante. There was a super short stack to my right who I tortured much of this level. As an aside, short stack play at the WSOP is for the most part atrocious. People let their stacks dwindle way too low. This guy was just that way. On at least two occasions he raised and I made a big reraise (once with 99, once with TT). He folded on both these occasions. In truth, his stack was so small that he should be pushing his whole stack in and not dinking around with raises at all. On one occasion, it was folded all the way around to him in the SB. This was the typical scenario where he really should have pushed all-in with any two cards. As it was, he showed me his 72 and folded. I turned over my cards and had 72 also! Ha! Well, I did eventually take him out completely when he pushed as the small blind into my big blind. I had ATs which was an easy call. However, he woke up with AJ and was ahead. But when a ten hit on the river, his chips were finally mine. Anyway, I cruised through the first two rounds heading to the dinner break with a whopping 91,600 chips – quite a jump from my starting 26K.

Level 3 was not quite as exciting. I had KK and won a nice pot. The hand I kept getting was Big Slick (AK). However, I couldn’t hit a flop. I ended up losing some chips on the whole with that damn hand. I probably had it 4 or 5 times. Still, I kept the chip count rising, peaking at about 95,700 at the break.

Level 4 brought blinds of 500/1000 with a 100 ante. I was totally card dead during this level. I think I stole the blinds a couple of times, but I really didn’t win a substantial pot. I simply bled blinds as my stack dwindled. We finally ended for the day at around 10:45 pm PST. I finished the day with 80,100. That’s slightly below average and likely close to a median stack overall. For those who know Sean, he’s cruising along quite nicely. He has 140,000 so far. We get tomorrow off (more golf) and resume Day 3 on Friday at Noon. There are roughly 2100 people left of the original 6494.

That’s all for now. As usual, it’s been a blast so far - but it will be nice to have a full day off. I still think that the money bubble won’t break until Saturday - we’ll see.

More later.

Jeff