The Bat Cave

I’m not gonna lie, it’s been a brutal month in Vegas. I will do a full recap when I get home, but after over a month here I have managed a measly three min-cashes (none in the WSOP) while enduring many bricks – including shocking instant exits and last minute exits when my opponents are trying to punt to me – and lots and lots of pain.

Today I am playing my first Main Event ever and I have to say it feels totally surreal and I haven’t even stepped foot in the Rio yet. I can’t even really describe what I’m feeling right now. I’m not particularly nervous (please no superstar wizards on my left on Day 1 and please don’t put me on a feature table) but I am sort of in disbelief. I’ve never woken up and had playing the $10,000 Main Event on my list of things to do for the day. What a day.

We start with 50,000 in chips and blinds starting at 75/150 so everyone is sitting down with 333 big blinds and insanely deep stacks. We will be playing five two hour levels today before bagging and resuming play on Friday.

Bagging seems pretty simple. If you somehow just maintain a starting stack throughout the entire day you would start level 6 on Day 2 with over 80 big blinds.

And yet every year, many players – players much better than me – don’t make it to Day 2. I read that Max Silver picked up AA on the very first hand of the day yesterday and somehow got his opponent to put in all 333 bigs before the flop with KK only to see a king flop and find himself busted on the first hand of the Main. What a horror story.

I don’t have any expectations today except I want to play as well as possible and mainly I don’t want to rush my decisions, especially the big ones should they arise.

I will NOT be posting updates while I’m playing. I will be paying attention to what’s happening at my table. I will post stack updates on breaks and maybe a critical hand or two if I have the time or feel it’s necessary.

Check in here every few hours for an update!

Let’s do this. THE MAIN EVENT! Holy shit!

11:01 AM: Jack Effel still doing announcements.

Good news: I recognize zero players at my starting table! 🙌🏻

11:43 PM: For the third NL tournament in a row I had AA cracked in the first orbit! I had two black aces on a flop of 8h7h4h vs 6h5h! I check-called flop and turn but folded to a river in a 3-way pot. I lost 4% of my stack.

1:06 PM: First off, I love, love, LOVE my table. I don’t recognize a single player, there is a decent amount of limping, almost no 3-betting, and very little bluffing. Through the first level, it seems very soft.

I’ve logged 82 hands so far and the loosest player is sitting at 29% VPIP and the tightest is at 13%. No one seems dangerous. I hope I get to play here all day long.

I was sitting just below starting stack when this hand came up on the last hand of level 1. A 22/8 opens from early to 600 and it folds to me in the big blind, holding A6 of clubs. This is the biggest open raise I’ve seen at my table and part of me wants to fold, but I feel like I can win a huge pot if I make the best hand. I will not be looking to play a big pot with one pair.

The flop is 985 with two hearts and one spade and I decide to check-call 1000. I’m planning to bet 6s and 7s and possibly hearts.

The turn is the ten of spades and we both check.

The river is the jack of spades and this is obviously a great bluffing card for me, so I fire out 3600 and he immediately expresses displeasure and goes into the tank.

I expect him to fold hands as good as sets here, but after tanking for over two minutes he eventually calls it off with 77.

I have just above 43k heading to 150/300.

Omg the halls are straight madness during break. If you’re claustrophobic or hate crowds you might have a panic attack.

3:36 PM: I have made it to dinner break with 47k. I have to say I’m a bit disappointed with my current stack size because my table draw is such a gift.

I have 152 hands logged so far and I have been the second loosest and most aggressive player at the table. There is one loose/bad calling station at my table and everyone else has been playing pretty snug and straight forward.

I rivered the second nuts on JTxxK against the calling station after he bet flop and turn, and when he led 3000 on the river and I made it 11k I had visions of being completely incapable of folding my hand if he happened to jam on me. If he happened to barrel off with AQ here I’d be out of the tournament. I considered raise-folding but I can feel this dude is just too capable of jamming with worse. Fortunately he basically snap-called and ended up showing JT.

I was peaking over 60k after that hand.

I ended up chipping back down when I flopped top pair against aces and ended up paying off small bets all the way down.

I thought I had a great spot when the station open raised, I called with 65hh from cutoff, both blinds called, and we ended up going to flop four ways.

It was sexy: 874 with two diamonds. The station leads out for 800 and I decided to make it 2200 since a) I had two players to act behind me and b) if the station has a good hand, he’s never folding. NEVER.

Everyone folded.

Dang it. I really think if he has TT+ there I might end up stacking him (depending on runout). Pretty unfortunate.

Tormund is firing the Main. I have 5% of him, or 15% of him, depending on if Joker ever pays me for the 10% I fronted for him.

Tormund Update: 61k on dinner break

Cameras in the building.

6:29 PM: Just below starting stack after three levels. I have four more hours to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity I have at my table. I doubt I will ever have it easier the rest of the Main.

I don’t really have any notable pots to mention.

I am now the most active player at my table and by far the most aggressive. There is still some limping going on and basically no 3-betting – especially no light 3-betting.

I have been playing a lot of pots against the station at my table and I am getting way the best of it, but still haven’t picked up the big clash I’m trying to get involved in.

I am yet to hit a draw after the flop which has kept me from being able to get past the starting stack.

But hey, I’m still in there and I am definitely in a favorable spot for the rest of the night.

Four hours of play left!

If you are watching on ESPN or PokerGo (later), you might be able to catch a glimpse of me if you see any of these guys:

-I am directly behind Benjamin Pollack. I’ve seen cameras pointed at him and they are aiming right at me.

-Former Main Champ Robert Varkonyi is at the table in front of me.

-Former Main runner-up David Williams is at the table behind me.

Tormund Update: 58k

7:33 PM: The easiest chips at the table has busted.

8:50 PM: Finally was able to chip up at my easy table. I’m at 74k and have very good reads on every player and I feel like I’m exploiting appropriately. I’ve taken down the pot 100% of the time I’ve 3-bet light and I suspect I’m the only player doing that based on the 3-bet frequencies at my table.

I’ve had good timing/reads with my bluffs, but I haven’t really gotten paid off when I’ve had big hands, except that rivered straight very early in the day.

Two more hours left in Day 1!

Tormund sitting on 60k.

12:07 AM: What a rush! As I’ve mentioned I was totally in control of my table. Pretty amazing, considering how many great players are out there and I got such an easy draw.

I finished the day as the most active and aggressive player at the table. I played 31% of my hands and the next closest was 24%. One guy was at 13%, another was at 19%, and everyone else was between 22-24%.

I raised 18% of my hands, one other player raised 15%, and everyone else was in the 9%-13% range except for the two nits at 3% and 6%.

I was sitting at about 80k with two hands left in the night.

I opened to 1100 at 250/500 with JJ from UTG+1 and a 23/11 with no history of 3-betting makes it 4050 with a stack of 25k to start. Definitely not looking to get 40+ bigs in here with JJ against an uncreative player, so I call.

Flop is J32. Pretty cool because this player type with his stack size is never folding. I check and he just jams it in. I snap and hold vs his QQ.

Very next hand I open 1100 with QQ and one middle player and the super nit in the small blind call.

Flop is Q65 with two clubs. I bet 1600, first guy calls and the small blind jams for nearly 15k. Happy happy joy joy!! The other guy is deep with me so I call and try to give him some rope to do something stupid but he tank-folds (88… what?) and small blind is so tight I’m hoping he turns over a made hand… but he has the A3 of clubs and I dodge it and bust a player for the second hand in a row… on the last hand of the night.

I bagged a very sexy 137.9k and Tormund bagged 61.9k. Just got word from Chief Wiggum also and he bagged 51k.

We will all be back in action after a day off for Day 2 on Friday.