WSOP Day 1 going into Day 2

[Brian McDonald]

OK I have no idea why the first post lost it's heading but here is a brief version of my WSOP so far.I met lots of aussies before I had to play on Day 1C, guys I hadn't seen for almost 7 years.There was Gary Benson, Tino Lechich, Sam Khouiss, Sam Korman, Jason Gray is here some where I believe and Danny McDonough at the Aussie Millions stand.

[Brian McDonald]

I had decided to Play 'small ball' poker and not to endanger my stack on day 1, especially early. So much for Plan A.After 10 minutes I see a flop with Qh Jh after 4 people limped in before me and I could see the guys behind me were going to fold. The button also called.Flop comes Js 6s Qs and everyone including me checks. The button puts in $300 and only I call.Turn is the Qc and I check, button bets $600, I call.River is the Td and I lead out with $600. Button raises a further $1,200 and I reraise an additional $3,600.He goes all-in & I call of course. He shows a QT for a smaller full house. I double up after 10 minutes and he exits stage left.By the end of the first 2 hours I have about $19,800. So far so good.In the next 2 hour session I lose a couple of pots and finish at about $15,500.During the next level there is a real goofy looking guy starting to raise most pots with fairly ordinary cards and he is up & down with about $5k in chips.The blionds are 100 / 200 and he raises it to 800 pre flop. I call on the button with 77 and look at a flop of 2s 7c 4h. HE GOES ALL-IN. Curiously I call quickly. He flips over TT, says 'you must have me beaten' and we all watch the turn card. A TEN. Many dirty french words.After the 3rd session I have about 12k. The wheels are starting to fall off and I'm feeling grim.I get down to about $10.5 but find some small flops to build up to $13k by the break.Now it gets interesting when I get KK in late position and reraise the crazy guy again. The flop comes low, I bet $1200 and he goes ALL-IN.I call and he shows A8 suited. I double up to $26k and head off to a new table.

[Brian McDonald]

I get to the new table and spend a bit of time checking out the new players, especially the girl in seat 5 with the super low tight tank top who evidentally has spent some of her winnings on cosmetic surgery (or the top is too small).There is some guy there who is low chipped and I generously donate 2k to him on a hand that I can't recall.Not long after I get QQ in mid to late position and the same guy has raised it to 1k UTG on a 200/400 blind structure. I know his range of cards is quite large but I need to check it out so reraise to 4k.He ruminates a bit and goes all-in for a further 6k. At this point I'm thinking of folding as he's had pocket Kings about 5 times. But, I'm not good enough to fold pocket Queens so I call to check out his KK. More dirty french words and I'm back to about 15k.A bit of a reprieve half an hour later when I get AA in late position and a guy overplays his KT on a board of 4K6 - 6. He thinks I'm pulling a swifty, reraises me all-in and I win with Aces up to take me over $30k.A bit of toing and froing in the last 30 minutes with everybody just wanting to survive and I take down the last pot with AQ when everyone folded to my last second raise of the blinds.The experience is invaluable. This day was VERY tiring with over 15 hours of play. Probably more of the same tomorrow and in later days it will get easier.I hope I'm still there to find out.

[yoyo]

Good luck on Day 2 Brian.Like that guy with KK, its amazing the cards some players get. I got moved to a new table just 20 min before the last break, and a guy open-raised 6 hands in a row. Now, normally, this screams "TARGET" to a player like me, and I was just about to start dancing with him when the break came. During the break, I was chatting with a big 25/50 NL online pro about him, and he said, "Don't target him. He's not aggressive. He's just getting monster hands."I thought to myself, "Yeah, sure, no one can get big hands that many times in a row."The advice was correct though. In the next two hours, whenever someone tangled with him, he'd show down AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, AQs, AJs - not a single hand below that range. Most of his hands got cracked though so he only finished with 40k otherwise he'd have about 200,000 - like me, no one believed him and kept paying him off.yoyo

[joethenuts22nd]

long time sinse I spoke to you good luck over there ,it would be great to see you win it.

[maxypaxy]

Hi Brian, It's Lola, T's wife, best of luck.Do you believe that Peter "Sun" ex backgammon player is there?! Great to hear you're there and still alive, touch wood. Giddyyup!

[Brian McDonald]

Thanks Lola. Yes still in, (just).Managed to turn 32.7k into 31.2k after a further 12 hours play.Very card dead all day but hopefully Friday will see a turnaround.Had dinner with Tino, Mel & the Croc last night during the break. Nice spread put on by PartyPoker. I ate while the boys watched the dancers in the band. Tino is thinking of going home tomorrow but still has a broken down horse running on Friday.I need to change my flight to London but Virgin can't find my flight details, looks like a bad beat coming up.Met Corey very quickly yesterday but no time to talk yet. Seems like a nice lady.I missed Jason Gray, think he's gone home, also only saw 'the tank' for a couple of minutes. There are so many people here it's almost impossible to meet up a 2nd time unless you make specific arrangements.Very interesting story about Sam Khouiss, a well endowed young lady and some security guards. Sam never packed so quickly in his life I believe.JK, will be extending my stay here at least until Saturday, longer if I get lucky. Probably see you sometime early next week.