Main Event Day One recap

Hey guys :) It's 5.20am here, and I am sitting in the office scarfing nuggets and drinking cider while dave798111 is grinding majors in the background after busting out midway through the day. I played Day One of the Aussie Millions Main Event from 12pm yesterday through till bagging up at 2am, then hit the bar with a few of the Aussies for a few hours and thought I'd post some key hands from the day before I crash. My tables weren't exactly difficult, but I consistently got put in dumb spots where I had to puke fold strong hands which made it really hard to get momentum going in building a stack.

First Level (50/100) - Billy the Croc limps UTG, an American guy who has already had six vodka oranges makes it 400 on the button, and I make it 1200 in the SB with KK. Billy snap makes it 2700. lol. All I know about Billy is that he's a livepro and could be limping anything, and the button is probably already drunk and iso'ing really wide so I threebet to get value for my hand. Obviously I am puking when Billy limp fourballs and just try and decide whether he ever does this with AK or air. I convince myself that he might and that I'm not purely setmining, that he will probably play AK face up if we go to a flop so I reluctantly flat. The flop is six high, putting me in a really stupid spot. I check, Billy bombs 4500 into 5800, I tank, sigh, and muck. He tells me later he had AA and I think folding pre isn't horrible there given I have 200bb and most of the table is really ordinary (especially if I'm going to fold a six high flop, ldo).

First Level (50/100) - I open black QQ MP and an English guy who has been playing tons of hands flats in the SB and the BB flats. The flop is 7 high with two diamonds. I bet half pot and the SB check calls. The turn is 2d, I bet a little over half pot when checked to and he checkraises to the full 3x. I've already seen enough to know he bombs the river and I slide QQ into the muck without too much thought but am now down to 12k or so.

First Level (50/100) - Gary Ablett Jnr. is on my immediate right and makes it 300 in the CO. He has been playing really snug and so I flat QQ in the SB. He bombs 600 on QJ8ss and I am just thinking "yessss...he has a monster and is never folding flop"..but the board is so gross that so many cards will slow the action so I make it 2k. Gary tank makes it 4k and by now I'm almost certain he has AQ/88/JJ/KK/AA so I lob in 12k. To my disappointment he folds and I find out in the break that he had J8, obviously not the best way to play bottom two but I still thought it was pretty sick for him to lay it down there.

Third Level (100/200/25a) - Old nitty guy attempts to raise but accidentally limps UTG, three limpers behind him at 100/200 so I make it 1k btn with AKo to get heads up with the old guy. The old guy immediately makes it 3k and I make another sigh fold leaving me with about 15k.

Third Level (100/200/25a) - Aggro guy opens HJ, CO flats and I flat BTN with TT. Flop is eight high, all spades. It's checked to me and I bet. The guy checkcalls his flushdraw twice (turn is an offsuit King), and the river is an offsuit ace. I decide that As is likely but decide he won't fold a bluffcatcher even if I bomb it so I check back when he checks. He has As6x and I am down to 8.5k.

The blinds go up to 150/300 so I have <30bb, and get moved up to the studio tables on level 3 to a table with tollgate, juzlearnin and bdybldingpkrplyr, a MSNL reg from Ireland and some other internet guy. This kinda sucks because they are all competent but at least I know how three of them play. I go on a nice heater, flat a ton of monsters then get AdTx in against some randoms' black sixes on an 8 high all diamond flop and win, and suddenly have 100bb!

I play at this table for another 3 levels and it feels just like playing a midstakes tourney on Stars, everyone is really active and not afraid of getting it in. My stack goes up and down a bit then I lose four decent pots in a row and fall back to 20bb as we're moved back downstairs for the last level of the night.

I get back up to 50bb really quickly opening lots, reshoving a ton then getting JJ > AK against another shorty. It's almost 2am, there's twenty minutes left and I am getting really tired and just tell myself not to do anything stupid, get some sleep and come back comfortably stacked for Day Two.

The call is made for the final three hands, random who just lost a huge pot barrelling off air opens MP1, I flat AJs MP2 and the BB who is a Euro guy wearing a bwin shirt flats. Flop is JT9r and the pfr checks, I bet 2/3rds pot and BB calls. Turn is another Jack and I bomb it again and he calls, river is a K and he bets half of what is a very decent pot. I tank muck and the 40bb pot goes his way, and as we're bagging up he tells me he had a pair+open ender on the flop.

With the blinds going up to 500/1k on Day Two I'll have exactly the starting stack of 20,000 in chips..such a rollercoaster day but I'm happy to be still in it after such an ordinary start :)