Hard fought WSOPE Day One

Posted: September 28, 2008 03:47 PM

Hard fought WSOPE Day One, $55,000 win?

With a great structure here at the WSOPE main event in London, I expected great things. What happened was a near KO! I lost a huge pot with K-K, with $11,000 going in after a 9s-4h-2h flop, against a very live player. I knew it was a bad sign when I moved in, and he insta-called! This put me on about $4,900 in chips, and I lost another few hundred the next hand while I was negotiating a bet with Eli Elezra. Eli laid me 11-to-1 on whether or not I could get up to $35,000 in chips at some point in the tournament. I knew I had way the best of it, and I was happy to bet $5,000 to win $55,000. Still, Eli has won tons of insurance bets from me for hundreds of thousands of dollars, so I need to win this bet! I am proud of the way I played as I ran my chips up to $15,000 without ever being all-in and called. I lost back to around $10,000 and hovered there for many hours with my stack mostly hanging between $7,500 and $12,000. I told myself that I would gamble and put my chips in weak if I had this range of chips late in the day, because my wife is waiting for me in a penthouse in Aruba at the UltimateBet.com championship event. My thinking was get decent chips or go to Aruba!! I abandoned that strategy for three reasons: one, my side bet with Eli; two, the structure gives you so much time to maneuver; and three, it is the last WSOP bracelet awarded in 2008!!

You know my affinity for WSOP bracelets!! I NEED number 12! Finally, with about 45 minutes to go, a loose player raised in the cut off, the small blind reraised, and I moved my last $12,000 all-in with A-K from the big blind. The small blind called with A-Q getting about two-to-one on his money (I hated his call because I was only all-in one time that entire day and he saw me NOT reraise with hands like J-J all day long), and the flop came down K-K-5. One all-in all day long, and fortunately I won it and finished the day with $27,025, which is only a little tiny bit off of my chip peak for Day One. $27,025 feels like a HUGE stack to me!! Especially after where I stood chip-wise all day. Because the structure is great, I feel completely comfortable with $27k. Check it out: on Day Two the blinds will start at $300 - $600 or maybe even $250 - $500, and $27K is a ton of chips with those blinds. I need to find a way to make it through Day Two, and it would be nice to crest $35,000 at some point and collect the $55,000 bet from Eli!!!