Main Event Day 1 Fun hand

About to go to bed so will get straight to it. Tight player, not in terms of number of hands played, but in terms of preflop raising frequency raised under the gun. Two called, including the button James Obst. I called from the small blind with Qc Jc.

The flop came J T 9 with two diamonds. I checked, tight player, otherwise known as Tony "Muscles" bets 2600 on the flop and Obst calls on the button. I call.

Turn 3s, total brick. My read on the hand was that Muscles had me beat and Obst was on a draw. Against Muscles I figure I have a lot of outs, he likely has a hand like AA. That's what he said he had later anyway. I decided this was a good spot to put Muscles in the middle. If I lead the turn he has to worry about both my hand and Obst behind him, so I bet 4200. Muscles tanked for a while and finally folded, while Obst called.

River was another blank, 5 of spades and I saw no reason to bet the end. I'm never getting called by worse, and I may get a free showdown if he happened to have a hand like KJ. He checked and I won the pot as he missed his draw. Plan worked perfectly. I got the best hand to fold, and the draw to call and miss!

I ended day one with 129,250. Day off tomorrow, will be a gym/golf combo day then back to work on day two. My intention is to end day 2 with 320,000 in chips, make the final table later this coming week, and win the event in November. There will likely be an after party somewhere after my win but I haven't booked anything just yet.

Daniel Negreanu is the 2004 CardPlayer Magazine and World Poker Tour Player of the Year. He presents his poker strategies in one-on-one virtual training at pokervt.com and writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column.
Read all of Daniel Negreanu's poker blog and poker articles at Full Contact Poker.