Overall, it was a good day. Not a great day, but a good day. The only disappointing thing is that it started off like a great day, but I'll still take it.
I got a good table draw. Nobody was particularly tricky or difficult to play against. There were some solid players, but they were of the tight-aggressive variety, so I didn't butt heads with them too often. The table started off tight, but within an hour or so, it loosened up immensely. There was a staggering amount of cold calling, and a little bit of limp-donkishness.
I had four notable hands. Three went well, one went not-so-well.
Hand #1: Very early in the tournament, I picked up AA in early position. Blinds were 50-100. I raised to 250, both blinds called. Pot was 750.
SB (the one I ended up playing the big pot with) was an older white guy, but I didn't have any info on him yet.
Flop: AK7 rainbow
Checked to me, I bet 500, SB acted as if he might fold but called. BB folded.
Pot: 1750
Turn: 5. Board now full rainbow.
Checked to me, I bet 1100. SB made it 3100. I considered re-raising him, thinking he had a set, but decided just to call and hit him on the river.
Pot: 7950
River: Q
He bet 5000. I wanted to raise it to between 12 and 15k. I settled on 12. I probably should have done 13, but whatever. He got angry and threw in the additional 7k. He claimed to have a set, which I believe.
Overall, I got 16k out of him that hand. I might have been able to get more, but I was a little afraid of running him off with the A and K out there. That is, if I went all-in, he probably would have folded. I was pretty sure he had a set when he check-raised the turn.
Hand #2: This one was weird. Blinds were 100-200. I raised in middle-late position with AhKc to 600. Guy to my immediate left made it something like 1600. BB cold-called. I bumped it up to 4000. I had seen this guy raising and 3-betting light at times, so I felt confident doing this. BB cold-called a lot so I wasn't too worried about him. Both called. I started the hand with 50k, but neither of of them (especially the BB) were nearly as deep, so I wasn't going to fold if I hit top pair or better.
Pot: 12100
Flop: 8h5h3h
BB checked. I put out something like 9k. Next player folded fairly quickly. BB went all-in, but only like 10k more, so it was an obvious call.
I thought I had to hit something to win.
Nope!
He had As4s, for a gutshot draw with no heart.
Board bricked out. Ship the 42k pot with ace high!
The guy to my left was annoyed, as he had a pair. Couldn't have been that good of a pair, though, because he tossed it quickly.
It was 3pm -- just about 20 minutes into level 2, and I had over 72k.
Hand #3 occurred about 3 1/2 hours later, at around 6:20pm. This was about 30 minutes before the dinner break. I opened in middle position with AcQc. Blinds were 150-300, and I made it 800. Euro kid to my left who seemed solid made it 2100. Folded back to me, I just called.
Pot: 4650
Flop: AsJc9c
I had in the high 60s in chips coming into this hand, he had around 28k coming into it.
I checked, he bet a weird 1600.
I raised to 4000. He thought for a little bit, then went all-in. I had to call 22k more. I thought for about 15 seconds and called. It was pretty much a no-brainer, but I just had to make sure.
I flipped over my hand and he said, "Oh crap", showing 2c6c.
A slight amount of drama was added when 2d hit the turn, giving him 5 outs. However, the river bricked, and he was gone.
I was up to 96300. I peaked at a little above 97k, then had a little under 97k when the next hand came up...
Hand #4: 5 minutes before dinner break. UTG player opened to 750. He seemed solid to me, and his stack was pretty deep -- around 70k. Two cold-calling donks (who were cold-calling a ton of hands) came in. I was on the SB and found myself with QQ. I raised it to 4k. BB folded, UTG called, one of the two other players called, the other folded.
Gulp!
Pot: 13150
Flop: Td5d2c
I fired out 10k. Some people I have talked to have told me that this bet was wrong, and that I should have fired something small, like 4k. I disagree with that, but I agree that 10k was excessive.
UTG called, other guy folded. Pot now heads up.
Pot: 33150
Turn: 7c
Card mostly meaningless. I was a little worried I was getting slowplayed by a set, but I felt there was a good possibility I was up against JJ, or possibly even 88/99 that was calling flop to see if I had AK and would give up.
I fired 15k, intending to fold to a raise and probably check/fold river if called.
He called quickly. I felt like I was likely screwed.
River: 8c
Pot: 63150
I pretended to think for a bit, and checked.
He checked.
He showed me KK.
Surprising. I didn't expect him to have KK or AA there. I much more expected a set or JJ. He told me that he played it passively because he put me on AA.
Was down to about 67500 and went to dinner.
Didn't do much after dinner. Won a few small and moderate pots, and lost a few others. I bricked a nut-flush, gutshot, and overcard draw against KQ top pair, but later outran a straight draw for a 20k pot. Fell as low as 61k, but finished up at 73475. Got screwed with the blinds, as the selected number of hands to play with 10 minutes left (a number they pick randomly) happened to force us to end right after I took my two blinds.
We do a complete redraw, and I return on Saturday (Day 2b, NOT Day 2a). If Micon makes Day 2, he and I will play on the same day.
Was kinda sad to lose my table. While we had a number of deep stacked players, nobody was particularly tricky, and in fact those spastic all-ins early on were more of the exception than the rule. I was just fortunate enough to be on the other end of them. While there were some solid players, we had plenty of cold-calling donks who also tended to play a straightforward style. For the most part, it was pretty easy to tell where I was in my hands, excluding the QQ/KK fiasco described above. It was also fairly easy to steal blinds, as nobody seemed to play back at me doing so. I also tried to not do it excessively, but rather stick to well-timed steals that kept in line with my moderately tight image. The main challenge was dealing with the cold-callers, but they played so straightforward that I didn't lose much against them when they hit.
I also took some pots off a very loose Euro, who would open frequently but back down easily if you 3-bet him. Again, I didn't do it excessively, so he didn't realize that I was making moves on him at times.
Overall, I'm happy with the day. Would have been nice to finish over 100k, especially with being at 97k with 3 1/2 hours of play remaining. However, if someone told me when play started that I'd finish the day with 73475, I'd be happy with it.
Onto Day 2!
Hopefully I draw another TV table and get some sweet sponsor money like last year.
