Monday, July 06, 2009

On to Day 2...

Man, what a day. Right out of the gate I was up to 37k. Pocket 3s and flopped a set. Had pocket Ks about 6 times. Paid off a couple times, but got stung when Tracee from Idaho turned a str. I could have gotten away from it, but the way she bet, oh well. That hand put me back under 27k. Then the roller coaster began, down to under 20k back up to the mid 20s. Our table was a blast, lots of talking by Carlos from TX in seat 5, the 'princess' P(something) in seat 2 and the bald guy from NY in seat 4. We didn't lose our first guy until just before the 4th break. Then we lost John from Falls Church in seat 1 and then the French fella in seat 3.

I finished the night just under right at 9500. We play 4 levels on Wed and the blinds will be 250/500 with a 50 ante. Short stacked I'll be looking to double or triple up early. With about 30min left in the night I was right around 15k. I looked down at AA in the BB and was looking at a raise from the 3 seat who just sat down. I reraised all in and he called with AQoff. The dealer announced all in at 13 and a call. As usual a ton of people came over from other tables, the espn crew who had been around our table all day was there as well. I just looked at the table and covered my ears. I saw a flop of Qxx and was thinking, 'please not like this'. Sure enough a Q hit on the river. I really didn't react. I laughed and said, 'that's poker.' Everyone at my table didn't really say too much, their looks said it all. I wasn't out, but only had about 3k left. Now I needed to double up and princess P doubled me up all pre flop, she had 6s and I flopped a Q with QQ. With 10 min left the tourney director drew a card, 'folks, it's a 3. There will be 3 more hands and then we'll bag out chips.' The very last hand of the night Oliver from Germany in seat 7 raised pre, I called and saw a flop of Q7x. I had A7. He bet out and I put the rest of my chips in. All the other tables were bagging their chips and Oliver thought about it. I was like 'not like this Oliver' 'I hit that flop', he ended up folding and said he laid down 9s for me. I believed him.

Well, it's on to day two. Spend the next couple days relaxing with the family and get ready for Wed. Thanks again for all the messages, know there are so many out there routing me on helps a ton!

Sunday, July 05, 2009

D Day!

D Day June 6 1944... I just read Eisenhower's message to the troops that were about to make the biggest sacrifice anyone could ask in a man. The message starts out:

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have
striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The
hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you...

These words couldn’t be truer for me today. It’s been many months since I won my seat and I can’t count the number of people are behind me. All the messages, emails and calls have been great. I know you all will be there when I'm playing!

In just about five hours they'll be announcing those words, 'shuffle up and deal'.

I woke up early this am when Anna came in our room, but luckily Kathy was able to take her out and I was able to get another couple hours of sleep. I'm just looking over a couple sites that wrote/blogged/tweeted about yesterdays day 1b play (only 873 runners). Gotta love Daniels 'eye of the tiger' write-up. He talked a little how he approaches this tourney, if the table is soft, attack. Play more aggressive, see more flops and punish the weak scared players. How am I going to approach the Main Event? I think I've got that question 100 times. It's hard to say, last time I did play pretty timidly. Anyone who has played with me knows that’s not my game. If I get chips, look out. I’ll be playing a lot hands, seeing flops and punishing folks when my 78 hits a flop and cracks their AA. Who am I kidding it’s the Main Event. This isn’t any tourney. I’m sure for the first hour I’ll rein it in, identify a few soft spots and try to exploit em’. With 300 BB’s there’s going to be a lot of play so there is no reason to get stupid and try to be cute, like limping with AA and get wacked!

The goal today is just to get out of day 1. There are only 4 2hr levels and 20min breaks between them. There’s also a dinner break after the end of the second level. Hopefully I’ll be writing tonight and sitting around 80k! Today is my D Day and I'm READY!