They decided to split the first day players into three groups, each one playing on a different day, and I drew the third day. Many notables had been knocked out already on the first two days including my new friend Chris Ferguson, and many other former champions. Of course there were more than a few world class opponents left in my group. <READMORE>

I felt pretty good as I made my way through the mass of humanity. I wondered whether it was my lingering ambivalence about my fate in the big game that made me so relaxed. The funny thing was that I wasn’t just kidding myself. I really didn’t care and it was very liberating. I was going to play the best game I could and let the cards decide my fate. There was only a tiny little voice inside me whispering that I was wimping out on making a decision to put a dent in my good mood.

Fate tempted me right away as I picked up pocket jacks first hand. My table was in the mood to play as one by one they all flat called. The hands ranged from pocket threes to a suited seven ten of hearts but the surprising thing was that there were no overcards at all out in the first six hands. I resisted the urge to raise and joined the party.

As the guy to my left looked at his cards I felt a jolt of excitement coming from the guy in the big blind. I was so focused on my neighbor that I didn’t even notice the big blind peek at his cards. My neighbor folded and so did the attractive older woman on the button and the small blind completed the bet to call.

The big blind made an odd motion with his hands but did not say a word and the dealer started gathering up the chips towards the center of the table. The big blind jumped up from the table shouting “Wait!” with the image of his ace king burning so bright in his mind that I was surprised everyone at the table couldn’t see it. “I didn’t act yet!”

The dealer stopped what he was doing and said wearily, “Action on the big blind.”

The big blind smiled wide as if proudly displaying his yellow teeth. He slowly and deliberately pushed his stack toward the dealer. “I am alllllll in,” he announced.

I must confess that part of me wanted to call, and not just because I knew I was the favorite. To be honest, part of me wanted to call and lose. That way I could just blame bad luck and be done with all this. But another part of me wanted to win it all. And I made a promise to play my best and not risk it all on a small edge, so my cards joined everyone else’s in the muck.

I didn’t play a hand for almost half an hour, and ironically that hand was an ace king and I ended up heads up against the guy who raised all in that first hand. This time he held pocket eights and there was no pre flop raise. We were in the same positions as we were that first hand so he acted before me.

The flop brought an 8s Kh As, and he checked it to me. Of course I knew he had the set so I checked behind him. The turn was the Ks and again he telegraphed his emotions so much I was sure that any good player could read him. Me, I knew his exact thoughts were, “Please have a flush so I can bust you. No pre flop raise so I know you don’t have aces, kings, or an ace king.”

He checked again and waited to pounce on me. I hemmed and hawed for a few seconds before coming out with a pot sized bet. I heard him think, “I got you now sucker.” He raised it up 2000.

I knew he was hooked and there was no reason to slow play but since he seemed to like the dramatics, I thought I would let him put in the final bet. “Make it 4000,” I said calmly.

Just as he had done on the first hand of the tournament, he slowly slid his entire stack towards the dealer. And once again, with almost the same timing and inflection he said, “I am allllll in.”

I almost beat him into the pot with my call, but I waited until he slammed down his 88 before I casually flipped over my AK. His miracle case eight didn’t come on the river and when they counted it up he was left with two hundreds to continue play with. I felt his shock as he sat down and “heard” his disbelief that anyone could limp in with an AK in position as I stacked my growing pile of chips.

I finished the day just barely out of the top ten in chip counts with 82,000 chips.
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