I played the $1650 Bounty and $2700 6-Handed events earlier in the week but had no luck so when I rocked up for Day 1A of the Main Event yesterday I was hoping that I had saved my run good for when it mattered. I had initially planned to play Day 1B but had an Anti-VirusPro09 attack the night before which basically rendered my computer unusable and technicians had to take my computer away to fix it. Unable to grind online I thus did the only logical thing a poker player can do – grind live!
Day 1A was always going to be the smallest field but even I was surprised at the number - only 81 people showed up. The day was pretty tepid – my first table was the first to break and by the end of my two orbits there I had already lost 5K of my 30K starting stack, mostly due to a failed river bluff. On the whole it seemed like it was going to be a pretty tough table though so I was pretty pleased when I got moved to my new one and saw fish galore.
I had three middle-aged fish to my right, an annoying, slow-acting, and constantly-talking-to-his-imaginary-friend loose nit to my left (loose because he played a lot of hands, but nit because he wouldn’t put a cent in the pot if it put him at risk), a middle-aged Asian TAG two to my left, and then three notables around the Australian poker circuit filling seats 3 through 5. Seat 3 was Jamie Pickering who played in the Aussie Millions cash game with Durrrr and co. earlier this year. Seat 4 was Jason Gray who is an Australian pro and who I believe has come 2nd in this event before but who in reality seems very bad. He called a 3-bet for 25% of his stack with 35s and managed to smash a Q55 flop to crack aces. So that’s how you do it!
And then seat 5 was none other than Tony Dunst, AKA ‘Bond18’. A year ago when I was learning MTTs I actually watched quite a few of Tony’s videos and consider myself a fan. MTT videos are dry as hell since nothing at all happens so you need someone interesting and talkative to keep you attentive. I decided not to introduce myself as a 2+2er as I’m sure it would have affected the way he played against me and would instantly have given him a zillion reads.
I got off to a good start on this table and worked my stack back up to 28K within an orbit. The rest of the day however proved incredibly fruitless. I watched hopelessly as all my opponents received AA at least twice each (being live fish they always showed them) while I sat there mucking hand after hand. The only big pairs I received were KK and TT. The KK I squeezed preflop and took it down. The TT I had to fold because there was a UTG raise and MP 3-bet before it was even on me.
My other big hand of the day proved to be my double up. I had been whittled down to 19K and picked up AK UTG+2. UTG+1 raised to 1500 and I 3-bet to 4200. He called, the flop came K95hh and he led for 6K. I shoved in the extra 9K and he called. I had him covered by about 500 chips and he showed ATh. A much bigger sweat that I would’ve liked! Fortunately the red queen on the river was only a diamond and I doubled up to 40K.
I finished the day on 42600, and although it’s below the average I’m pretty happy all things considered. Tony meanwhile managed to win two huge flips to propel himself to the chip lead with over 100K. He was down to 17K at one stage so it really shows just how quickly fortunes can change in MTTs. You really have to just hang in there, wait till you run like God, and then crush (pretty much what I did at the WSOP ME, which by the way I still have to finish my trip report on I know!).
The highlight of the day turned out not to be the poker but the fistfight that broke out in the poker room. Security took what seemed like an eternity (was a solid two or three minutes) to get there and, by the time they separated the men, one was bloody and mangled. For a good read/recount I recommend reading Terence Chan’s blog entry here: http://terrencechan.livejournal.com/324249.html.
My personal highlight of the day however was a quote from the guy to my left. It definitely gave me a good chuckle. A guy raised in EP and the guy to my left re-raised. He only had about 15bb’s total so he probably should’ve just shoved but whatever. It then comes back to EP who puts him all-in with AQs. The guy to my left calls with AA. After his hand holds he happily proclaims to the table: “I was trying to represent Kings” (to get action from Ax). LOL.
I have two days off now before returning on Friday for Day 2. The blinds will be 500/1000 so I’ll have 42 big blinds which will be more than enough to work with. Hopefully I can pick up some cards though and put up a better showing than yesterday.
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