Day 1 Summary

Day 1 didn't quite go as I planned, but I guess it could have gone worse. Maybe I was lucky not to really pick up too many playable hands, cuz I can't go broke if my chips are not in the middle.

After about 45 minutes of having an empty chair at my first table yesterday, I started thinking it might be someone good or at least well known. Of course it was Andy Bloch that showed up over an hour late. If you don't know of Andy, he is an accomplished pro (http://www.cardplayer.com/players/results/Andy-Bloch/863) that took 2nd place to Chip Reece in last year's $50,000 HORSE tournament. He was a nice guy (nevermind his shirt was too small) and fun to have at the table with cameras and boom mics in our faces when he played a pot. It was actually kind of a surreal scene for an hour when the big screen TV directly behind Andy from my vantage point was showing the HORSE final table from last year. His head was about 5 time life size on that thing. I got a pic of Andy behind Andy that I'll try to post at some point. Sadly he was busted by a bad player that called a huge preflop re-raise with Ad10d. Andy flopped top set of Kings, but the board came with 2 diamonds. Flop action was check, check. Turn diamond. The guy check-raised Andy all in and he called. No board pair.

The French pro on my left won the first 2 hands of the day, both will full houses, and was the table chip leader from the word go. He had 2.5 times anyone else's chip count for a good part of the day. So I had to be a little bit picky with my starting hands as he was playing fairly aggressively.

I hovered around the starting stack of 20k chips for most of 3 levels, until one of the craziest hands ever. The first hand back from the dinner break I pick up two red Queens. I make a healthy raise, but get 3 callers. Flop comes Jack high. SB checks to me, I bet 5000, but right as I bet, the dealer notices he burned two cards before dealing the flop. The floor rules that the extra burn card, the flop, and the stub be re-shuffled. Flop #2 comes Jack high again with the same Jack of spades. Checks to me again, I bet 5000 again, the guy next to me goes all in having me covered. I end up folding and he shows the table JJ. He flopped a set of Js with the same Jack twice in the same hand! That hurt. Our table breaks 2 hands later and.......

I get moved to a seat with Robert Varkonyi on my left and Chris Ferguson two players over from him. Nice table draw Jake! 2 Main Event bracelet winners at the same table?!?! Wow, I stepped into the lion's den here. ESPN was practically living at the table, so I guess I might actually get some air time. Ferguson made what I thought was a bad call vs. Varkonyi when he pushed on the flop of KQ8. Ferguson showed JJ -- not really sure what hands he thought he was ahead of after Varkonyi called Ferguson's re-raise preflop. Varkonyi's AK held up.

I was completely card dead for the last 2 levels. After doubling up with a set of 6s soon after arriving at that table, I played about 3 hands in the next 4 hours of poker. I re-raised all in with JJ and and AK and won the pots pre-flop. Other than that I open pushed a couple times in the cutoff or on the button to steal the blinds and antes, but really never had any good cards. MAntis, was ruthlessly supporting me from the rail at my back chanting "Go Jake!" every time I folded. At one point he lent me his lucky batman chip card protector and I proceeded to win the next hand with an open push!! Thanks Mark.

As we got closer to the end of level 6 at about 3:30am, I was looking for a spot to try to double up, but couldn't call all in raises with my steady diet of 9-3 , 10-2 , and 8-4. So I ended the night with 13,700 chips with the average at about 52,000 after having been down to as low as 8000. It was a great time and I really enjoyed playing with "Rob" Varkonyi and Chris. I got lots of pics that I can hopefully post later. What a trip to be playing in a tournament at tables next to Ivey, Cunningham, Chad Brown, Danny Alaei, etc.

Relaxing and resting up today and tomorrow. They added a 2nd Day 2 on Wednesday which will combine Days 1C and 1D. I'll need to double up near the beginning of play with the blinds starting at 500-1000 (i think?) for Level 7.

Onward and upward, chip and a chair and all that!