As I write this, Casey has finished Day 1 and will be playing Day 2 tomorrow (or in a few hours, actually). The rest of us knuckleheads busted out already. Because there are so many entrants in these $1000 events, they split Day 1 into two actual days. Day 1A was Saturday. Day 1B was Sunday. One of us (Chris) played Day 1A and the other five of us (Casey, Me, Jason, Dave, and Todd) played Day 1B.

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I got up at a reasonable time Sunday morning and got a ride to the Rio from Todd. After some cheering and all that with the group in front of the tournament area I went inside and took my seat at about 11:59. There were some announcements over the loudspeaker and cards were in the air one minute later. There were four of us at the table for the first half hour or so, then a fifth, then a sixth. We played six-handed for the better part of two hours.

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Now don’t get me wrong. I play shorthanded poker and like it. In the right setting. And this was not the right setting. Short handed poker is a lot more volatile than full ring. That’s cool and I’m perfectly able to adjust for that, but we’re in a full ring setting regardless. You can get your short handed game on and accept the variance, but as soon as it becomes a full table, you might regret donking off chips when you didn’t have to. Therein lies the dilemma. One part of the brain is thinking ‘6-MAX YEAH, AGRESS!!’ and the other part is thinking ‘How the fuck do I get these chips back when everyone gets here?’

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Oh well. Minor stuff indeed, just something I was absolutely aware of.

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For the first two hours I stayed about even in chips. We started with 3,000 chips. I fluctuated a tad up and down until right before the first break.

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I’m in the cutoff (one before the button) with AK. Its folded to me and I open for 150. Big Blind calls and we see a flop. I missed. BB checks and I Cbet 175. He checkraises to around 500 and I fold. First limb chopped off.

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Two hands later, in Middle Position, I peek at AJ suited. Its folded to me and I open again for 150. The button calls and one of the blinds decided to jack it up big. I fold. Whatever, who cares, but the bad karma is starting to set in. I fold a few hands, the button gets back to me and it folds around to the CO (one before the button) and the chick there pops it up to 150. I look down at AK suited and make it 425 to go. She calls and the flop comes A94 with two diamonds. Nice.

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She checks and I bet 500 into a 900ish pot. She calls.

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Okeedokee. Where’s SplitSuit when you need him?

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Turn was a blank. She checks and I fire. In retrospect I think that was a mistake. At the time I wanted to price out a flush draw. When I fired the bet, all I could think of is SplitSuit, in a calm yet firm voice telling me that there are a million reasons to check back the turn. Manage the pot size with a one pair hand……open up her bluffing range on the river…..yada yada yada….okay, I fucked up.

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She called.

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Fuck. Now what do I do? The river comes a total blank and the pot is enormous thanks to yours truly. She fires 700 into a 8 trillion chip pot and I call. She flips over a flopped set of 9s and I am now what we call a SHORTSTACK.

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Whatever. I know how to play those.

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We go on our first break and I have like 850 in chips.

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After break, I put on my old Sit-n-Go hat and shoved like a champ. I chipped up to about 4,000 and back down to about 2,300 by the time the second break rolled around. Nothing special happened. I won some, I lost some. The biggest loss was AJ on the button. Its folded to me, I open, get called by a blind. Blind checks the flop, I bet, he checkraises, I fold. Whatever.

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We come back from the second break and the blinds are now 100/200 so I’m sitting on 10ish big blinds. Not good. I folded both my small and big blind as they came around and found myself with 7 or so bb left when the last hand of my tournament came up. It goes fold, fold, fold, and the dude in middle position opens. How much doesn’t matter. It was a standard open. It could now be debated whether he was opening light for a kind of steal or whether I should have known he was opening strong considering his image (tight).

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Whatever. It folded to me and I look down at AQ. I pushed. He called and flips over AK. I suck and am now part of the cheerleader squad on the rail.

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Another perfectly good opportunity to get rich quick squandered away by stupid cards. In five hours of play I was dealt one pocket pair that I was unable to play. 33 on the button with a raise and a reraise in front. I folded. Other than that, I didn’t get dealt any other pocket pairs.

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whaaawhaaawhaaaaboohooohooo who cares? It’s poker. There will be another tournament.

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Onaflag………..