Pretty Slow Day One

Not much happened, so this should be a short entry. I was at a table where I recognized just one player, an internet kid named MattG who also won a bracelet at the WSOP this year. After being at the table for a bit I realized that BodogAri, a name I’d actually heard of was sitting on my right. To my left, another internet player who came up with one of the best lines I’ve ever hear. He’s a 24 year old kid, and for fun, I decided to ask him if he was married. His response, “I’m too good lookin’ to get married.” Classic. I spent most of the day pretty bored and not focusing too hard. The structure was slow moving, which is good at some tables, but this table was pretty nitty overall so it was tough to get any chips at it. On breaks I did some fun interviews, one on the WPT site and then another goofy one with Lizzy Harrison. She definitely caught me off guard, put it to you that way. As for cards, I got AK once, QQ once, and 10-10 once. No monster hands really to speak of. I’d rate my play between a C+ and a B- because I didn’t make any big mistakes, or even medium mistakes at all, but to beat the kind of table I was at today it would have required a level of focus that wasn’t available to me due to my feeling a bit under the weather and having not played a lot of poker recently. I was lucky, in a sense that the conversation was good. BodogAri is a good Jewish boy and he taught me all about being kosher, respecting the Sabbath, and about his travels across the world due to his father being a Rabbi. I stayed right around even the whole day before flopping a set in the last level and losing to a straight. BodogAri raised to 600, I called with 44 and it was four way action to a flop of 7-5-4 rainbow. I bet 1500 and the big blind called. The turn was an 8, an ugly card and it went check-check. The river brought a 10 and the big blind led out for 2500 and despite feeling like I had to be beat here, I decided to call thinking that if my opponent had the 6 he probably would have bet the turn. He showed 6-4 and that had me down to 20,000 and I anted down to 17.625 to end the night. No worries, though, the blinds are still very small tomorrow, just 200-400 so I could have 8000 left and feel comfortable. I did play one other hand of interest against a guy who limped under the gun, a player who made it 800, and I called with Ad 7d. The flop was 4d 5d 6c. They checked to me and I bet 1000. The limper called. The turn was the 3c and the limper bet 2500 and thoughts of, “Ding, ding, ding, freeroll” danced in my head. I figured he had to have the 7 so I wanted get max value for my freeroll and moved all in for 24,000. He thought about it for a bit and finally folded. It’s an interesting hand, in that, if he had a 7 and folded, that’s not a bad result. If he had a 7 and called, that’s cool too. I spoke with MattG about the hand at the end of the night and actually said that if he had a 7 for the straight I’d prefer it if he called to take a free shot at winning an extra 23k when I hit my flush. He argued that it’s better to get him to fold a 7 and pick up the dead money. I argued back, that obviously in a cash game that’s absolutely true, but in a tournament, where I’m going to be at, say, 32k instead of 28k if he folds, I’d much rather take the free shot to exceed the 50k mark as it would free me up to be even more active. It’s an interesting situation, and I stand by the fact that I’d rather him call me for all of my chips there with me freerolling than stealing half the pot away from him. It was a tough table to double up at, and this was an excellent opportunity. I was sick that he folded, I thought for sure he had the 7… oh well.]]>