July 14-15, 2006 - In The Money

Event: World Series of Poker, Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas (Various Buy-Ins), July 13 – July 28, 2006

After four levels in the $2,000 No-Limit tourney today, I have about 21,500 in chips. The second highest chip count at my table is around 6,000, so I’m doing really well so far.

* * * *

I’m on dinner break. Not sure where I am in relation to the field, but I have around 33,000 in chips. Cardplayer.com keeps asking about my chip count, so I’m probably on their site. Still a long ways left for today; we’ll probably be playing until 2:00 a.m. or so. They’re paying the top 153 spots and we’re down to about 400 players from 2,000.

* * * *

Woohoo, I’ve cashed in at the second event! We’re down to about 150. I still have a healthy stack at about 45,000. One more level for today then we break for tomorrow.

* * * *

Ended the day with 56,000 in chips. I’m currently 18th in chips of the 101 players remaining. We go back tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. to get rolling again. I am definitely in the hunt. I don’t have a lot of time to discuss today’s hands because I need to hit the hay, but one interesting hand happened when my stack was at around 40,000. I had red queens and under-the-gun raised to 3,600 (blinds were 600-1200). I just smoothed called his raise to see the hand played out when a tight French player behind me re-raised an additional 10,000. He had about another 15,000 left, so this hand could potentially put me down to around 10,000 if I misplayed it. My first consideration was whether he had K-K or A-A. This was a strong possibility as I’d only seen good hands from him and he’d also shown the ability to make a big fold. I decided I was going to take a flop and if no ace or king flopped, I’d move in. The flop came J-J-6 and I moved all-in. He thought about it and ended up folding. He told me he had A-K and I believe this to be true. He said that if I checked the flop, he would have moved in. My hand was not the type to trap with. I was happy to take the pot without having to endure a turn and river, and giving him the chance to hit an ace or a king. I really like this play — the smooth calling a big re-raise pre-flop and then pushing in on the flop. It puts a lot of pressure on one’s opponent to make the right decision.

* * * *

Got half my stack in with A-9 suited versus A-5 off suit and lost when a 5 came. Then I waited around and pushed in with 10-10 and lost to A-J. Finished 68th. Oh, well. Tomorrow is a new day.

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