Inside Day One

Heading into level four I had about 16k in chips. During level three I never saw a hand better than QT (which of course I had to reraise with) and played few pots. But during level four, with 100-200 blinds with a 25 ante, I suddenly found myself in the heart of the action.

The very first hand I was in the cutoff and the button had not yet reached his seat. With two weak players in the blinds I decided I was raising with any two cards if it was folded to me. And that's exactly what happened - but I actually had two red kings! The weak big blind called, and immediately moved all in on a T high flop. My chips beat his into the pot, his JT did not improve, I became the first executioner at our table, and I was sitting on over 20k.

Then I got myself involved in a big hand with "The Eagle", 9-7 of spades. What happened, with my thoughts in italics:

UTG raises to 1000 and I call in 3rd position. He probably has a big hand here, but a scared hand like JJ or AK. If I can hit a big flop here I could win a humongous pot because he has a big stack as well. Also, I'm in position, so I can see what he does on the flop and maybe bluff him if he doesn't like it.

The flop comes down AcTcTs. He bets 1000. This seems like the kind of player who would bet the flop no matter what. If he has anything but an ace he is going to hate that flop since I very well might have a big ace having called that raise in position. Unless he has a big ace, and I kind of think he doesn't, he will have to fold if I raise here.

I raise to 3000 and he quickly calls. Shit, that didn't work. I'm done with this charade.

The turn is the 6c and he quickly checks. Whoa, wait a minute! What a scare card! Now if I bet big again he has to fold even if he has AK! If I bet big again then I likely have a ten or a flush.

I bet 4500 and he calls. What have I done??? I just blew 8500 on a bluff drawing dead...pathetic. I was cruising along with a big stack and I just threw half of it away and now I am below average...what a mistake. What does this guy have anyways? KcQc? AQ or AK with a club? Four tens? I have no idea. Can I still win this if I hit the miracle 8? Should I bluff if another club comes?

The river is an offsuit queen and he bets 2500 into the pot of about 18,000. Dammit. This guy is using the weak lead on me. He doesn't have that much. Probably just an ace, maybe AQ. He doesn't want to face a big bet here but he wants me to call with AJ or AK. Damn this man! If I was Phil Ivey I would go all in and he would fold and I would scoop a monster with nothing. But I'm not Phil Ivey, and he might have four tens, or a flush, and he might not fold, and I just can't risk my whole tournament on a bluff. When I fold everyone will know I had nothing since I would have to call this bet with anything because of the pot odds.

I folded and I was down to around 12k and feeling horrendous for the first time.

A few hands later I get AK in middle position and everybody folds to me. Obviously I should raise. But I hate raising with AK. It's so obvious. It's so hard to win a big pot because if an ace or king comes your opponents will just fold unless they have you beat, in which case you are going to lose your stack. If I limp no one will think I have AK and it will be very sneaky.

I limp for 200, the guy behind me limps, and the button who is new to the table raises to 1000. This is most likely a bullshit button raise since he thinks we're weak and he has position. I should really reraise this and take it right now. But what if he calls or reraises? I'll be in an awkward situation having to play AK out of position. I'll just call and if I can hit a pair he'll have no idea how strong I am.

I call and the guy behind me folds. The flop is K86 with two clubs. I check and the raiser bets 2000. Whoa, that's a hefty bet. Does he have aces? KK is possible but that bet doesn't look like three kings. He still has no idea how strong I am and he's probably still trying to steal it. I'll call and see what happens on the turn.

I call. The turn is a rag and I check. He bets 3000. Jeez this is getting scary. If I call this I am sort of committing myself to the pot. This could be ugly. But how can I fold this hand? It really doesn't seem like he's bluffing though. I'm really worried he has aces. Then again, he might have hit some weird two pair since he might have started out with two random cards on a complete steal. What the heck my hand is too big to fold.

I call. The river is the 9c. That's an interesting card. That's real good news if he has me beat. He has to think I might have been on a flush draw so if I bet, he can't raise. Perfect time for the weak lead.

I bet 2000 and he quickly calls. Crap. He's got me beat. I'm in deep trouble.

I turn over the AK and he mucks his cards. I'm back!

In retrospect I think I misplayed both these hands pretty badly. Obviously I screwed up bigtime on the first one. On the second I think I should have just checkraised all in on the flop rather than play a huge dangerous pot out of position with just one pair. It's hard to say since I don't know what he had and I might have won less if I had moved in, but I was being extremely risky by check-calling the whole way.

Those two hands show why poker, and especially no limit hold em, and especially deep stack no limit hold em tournament play, is so fascinating. There were a million different ways to play both hands and tough decisions every step of the way. But probably the most important thing to remember is that in the first, I had a bad hand and I lost a big pot. In the second I had a good hand and I won a big pot. The difference between yesterday and the previous few weeks is yesterday I had a lot of good hands. I didn't play any better yesterday than during the previous weeks (in fact I actually think I played kind of poorly). Sooner or later in this tournament I am going to get unlucky and I will have to play my way through it to have any chance at a big result.