On Sunday I started, and unfortunately also finished, my 2006 Main Event run.

Saturday night I made sure I took advantage of the free drinks in Vegas so I could fall asleep. I sure didn’t want to toss and turn all night with nervous tension. After several jack and cokes and white 토토사이트추, I fell asleep fine, but I still woke up around 8:00. With the tournament starting at noon, I had plenty of time with nothing to do. Vegas doesn’t sleep, so play some poker? With potentially 15 straight hours of poker ahead of me, uh, no thanks. Blackjack / slots / roulette / other time consuming gambling? No, no reason to get pissed off before I go play. So I ended up going to the gym, which helped me relax. After showering and shaving (in case I get any TV time), then packing up an extra t-shirt, some water, nutri-grain bars, deoderant, reading material, and of course my entry ticket, I headed to the Rio for the PokerStars free breakfast buffet. Eggs, OJ, hashbrowns, and danishes, along with endless bad beat and success stories from the other PokerStars players (PokerStars sent about 1700 of the 9000 players to the Main Event.). Then after more walking around and just killing time, it was finally time to head to the poker room.

With the Amazon room at the Rio filled to the brim with over 200 tables of players, along with reporters and spectators, my Day 1 kicked off by Penn Jillette screaming at the top of his lungs, “Shuffle up and Deal”. And it was on

There weren’t any pros at my table. The best I could figure was eight internet qualifiers and two guys who decided to pony up $10k themselves. Some pros around my table were Mark Seif, “The Unabomber” Phil Laak, Chad Brown, and Jennifer Harman. My table started off as expected – very conservative. No one really wanted to make any early moves except for one guy who was firing at every pot without even thinking. It was obvious that everyone was waiting to pounce on him when he bet big at the wrong pot. After folding the first 20 or so hands, I made a nice hand when my pocket 6’s connected on a flop of A-A-6. One other guy in the pot obviously had an ace and paid me off until the river when a flush possibility on the board scared him away. But with that I was over $12k in chips (everyone starts with $10k). Not bad, it’s always nice to win the first pot you’re involved in.

But it would be mostly downhill from there. The next big hand I was involved in was A-K under the gun. I raised, was reraised, and I called. The flop came out K-J-T. I checked, my opponent bet, and I raised. He made the call. Which was a concern – even though I had top pair and top kicker, there were so many hands out there that had me beat – AQ, JJ, TT, and AA were all possibilities. My raise was big, so he must have had something. The turn came a blank. I bet again, and he called. At this point, I was pretty sure I knew what he had – QQ. That’s the only hand that made any sense to keep smooth calling. With my pair of kings, I figured I was ahead but somewhat vulnerable. With that in mind, my heart skipped a beat when the river was a 9. At this point, I could have made another stab at the pot representing AQ. But if I was right about him having QQ, surely he would have called with his straight. I knew I was beat. He knew I was beat. I checked, and he made a value bet into the pot. The only possible hand I could beat at that point was, well, nothing except a total bluff. There was an outside chance that he had A-K also and we’d chop the pot, but he would have just checked the river if that was the case. So with his value bet, I had to lay it down, and he showed one Q. Tough break for me, and I was down to about $8k in chips. But no worries – plenty of time, and the blinds were only $25/50 at that point. Maybe next time in a tournament I’ll fold A-K under the gun at a full table. That hand sucks out of position.

The next big hand I was involved in needs some setup. So here’s the hand before the hand. A player who was short-stacked limps in in early position. He gets raised and then moves all-in, and the raiser immediately calls. The short stack limper shows A-A and the other guy shows Q-Q. The aces hold up, and he doubles up to about $4500. Ok, onto the next hand. The guy who just doubled up is under the gun and raises. The action is folded around to me and I have Q-Q. I re-raise. He thinks about it for awhile and decides to call. The flop comes out 8-6-4. He checks and I overbet the pot. My rationale is that I want him to think I have A-K and just want him to get out of there. He thinks about it for a long time before moving all-in. Which is exactly what I want. The raise was only about $2500 but I still had to ponder the decision somewhat. I figured he put me on A-K because of the overbet. And I figured he had a range from 9-9 to J-J or possibly 5-5 or 7-7 given that he thought about it for a long time. Surely he had to think I was calling regardless of my hand. So I was pretty surprised when I called and he turned over K-K. A-A and K-K back to back. I definitely didn’t see that coming – I guess he fooled me. With no help on the turn or river, I was down to about $3300. Not good. I’m not sure if there’s any way I could have gotten away from that hand. With his stack and the fact that I wasn’t putting my tournament at stake, every play by me was pretty much automatic. Oh well, that happens. I wasn’t feeling good, but still plenty of time.