Hi all, this is my first blog, I hope that you guys enjoy it. I really love the pocketfives community and my game has improved a lot because of this site, so I thought it would be cool to get more involved with the site. Recently I have been writing up all of my interesting hands from important tournaments and sharing them with a few friends as a way of teaching them the game and also to let myself vent a little bit, which seems to help. It has sparked some interesting debate from a few of my friends and we have all learned a lot. I figured I would type these out in a blog so I can expand the number of people who can take part in the discussion about these hands and also having a blog might be fun. My emails tend to focus too much on hands that I have lost, so I will try to include all of the interesting hands, not just the bad beats and coolers. I'm playing the FTOPS Event #1 tonight, so I will write about the hands from that tournament in the next blog. I guess there should be some content in this blog, and all of my emails to my friends need to edited for language before I can put them in a public forum, lol, so I just searched for my report from Day 1 of the WSOP ME to show what my blogs will be like, here it is.
I was really excited and nervous to play in my first Main Event and I started off playing very tight and honestly a little scared. The first thing I have to say about my table is that 2 seats to my right was this kid Rob Eckstut, a 22 year old kid wearing a Celtics Jersey, and he was very very aggressive and very very good. I played with him all day and I have to admit that he pretty much ran over the table. Kathy Liebert showed up about an hour late and Rob and her played a lot of interesting pots and he basically owned her. Kathy was very nice and played pretty good against the more passive players, but she was outclassed by Rob and failed to see that, so she kept coming at him, even though he had direct posistion on her. I also had a good player to my left who kept me in line by re-raising a lot of my late position raises throughout the day.
About an hour in I was at 21,000 chips and had only played 2 hands when someone limped UTG for 100, Rob made 450, I made it 1500 from the small blind with AA and the limper just called and Rob folded. The flop came 655 with 2 hearts and I lead for 2500 and the limper who already lost about half of his stack to Rob, ended up finally going all in with QQ and I held and went to 32,000.
I built to 38,000 or so and then lost a few small pots and was at 29,000 at the dinner break. With the blinds at 150/300 and an ante of 25, Rob raised to 900 in middle position and I called with 22 in the cutoff, the button and the big blind called as well. The flop came KQ2 and they checked to me and i bet 2500, the button called and then the big blind raised to 6,000. Rob folded and I thought for awhile and made it 14,500 and the button folded and the big blind, who had me covered by a lot, moved all-in. I called, obviously, and he had KQ and I held and was at 60,000.
A few hands later I called Kathy's raise of 900 from the cutoff with J,10 of clubs and the big blind called as well, he had 13,000 to start the hand and Kathy had 40,000. The flop came A98 with A and 8 of clubs. Kathy bet 1,800 and I made it 5,000. Kathy had been putting a lot of money in and folding to Rob and I hoped Kathy might 3-bet me to 14,000 and fold. This was not likely, but possible, but more importantly I wanted to win the pot right on flop if possible and even if Kathy or the big blind has a set i'm like 40% to win. So after I raised to 5,000 the big bling goes all-in for like 7,000 more and I called, he had A9. Blank on the turn and a King of clubs on the river to give me the flush. I chipped up some more and was 80,000 when our table broke at midnight, with 1 hour left in the day.
I had a lot of guys at my new table who were openly talking about really wanting to survive until the next day, so I started raising a lot and taking down a ton of pots. Blinds 200/400 ante 50, a guy in middle posistion raised to 1125 and I made it 3300 from the button with A,10 and he called after some thought. The flop came A,10,5 with 2 clubs. He checked, I bet 5,000 and he called. The river came a 4 and he led for 7,800 with 17,000 behind. I shoved all-in and he called, he had the 45 of clubs, for a lower 2 pair and a flush draw. The river came a 2 of clubs and I lose a 65,000+ chip pot and am down to 45,000. I ended the day with 46,675. It could have been a lot better, but I still have a little more than average and am excited for day 2.