Was a pretty swingy Day 1.

My starting table had 2 big fish and 3 solid younger guys.

I chipped up a little bit to like 17k starting with 15k in level 1. In level 2, I open AJs in the HJ and the BB who is a younger guy calls. I had won most of the pots against him earlier and he seemed like the type that although he was playing solid, he could definitely make some moves.

Flop comes T42r and he c/c's and I feel like he has a midpair here pretty often and think with around 100bb effective I think he is always cr'ing a big hand on the flop. The turn is a J which is the nut turncard as I would always be bluffing it which he will probably expect and call me again maybe with a mid pp and definitely with a T.

He cr's which I wasn't expecting but I thought the only credible value raising hand he can have is JT. I thought maybe he was turning some pair into a bluff or just on a pure bluff and called. The river was the 9 which wasn't the greatest river but I figured he would always bluff it if he was bluffing on the turn and again I was worried only about JT and KQ. I ended up calling and he had 87 for the ole' float oop with bare 8 high, turn the low gs draw and go wild, then get there.

His flop float is obviously awful against anyone aggressive/competent and the gross part is he probably is bluffing every river but he obviously hits his only out.

That knocked me down to like 7k or so. I chipped up to like 12k when this hand happens:

I isolate a big fish (middle aged, foreign, wearing a Party Poker shirt with the collar popped lol) with AA after he limped, I raised from the SB and he called. Comes K27r he had like 10k to start the hand I bet he calls, turn 2 I bet he calls, river T I stick the rest in expecting to get called by a K he calls but has 24s wtf so dumb.

That leaves me with 2k which was 10bbs. I grind a shortstack for a while and win a couple flips to get up to like 7k.

Our table breaks and I move to a table with Chris Ferguson. I came to the table with 6k and grinded it forever and didn't get back to a starting stack until level 7!!! Levels 8-10 were great for me.

The table at that point had Ozzy87 on my direct right with a ton of chips, Ferguson on his right with a ton of chips, young aggro guy who was playing really well on his right with a ton of chips. The guys on my left were weaker but still fairly solid with average chips.

I doubled to like 12k when I got 66 in against A5. Later I won a flip with AQ against 99 and that got me up to like 25k when the average was about 50k.

Then I got gifted a stack by the guy on my left. I opened the button with A9o he flats from SB comes AT4 with a fd. He checks I bet he INSTA jams for a decently big overbet. I figure that he never overbets or instajams 2pr+ and big aces were unlikely given preflop so I thought I was really only behind AJ and that he has a worse A or a fd really often. He turned out to have KT so I was way ahead and held.

So then I had 50k but lost a pot that was 3 to the flop against a shorty when I had KJ and he had KQ. Ozzy was the opener I flatted otb like 50bb deep effective with Ozzy the BB comes along with like 25bb. K94r Ozzy cbets I call BB ships it in and I'm getting like 3:1 and figure he has KT maybe K8 sometimes and rarely AK or better based on his quick timing. Oh well.

So then I was back down to 25k. Ferguson opens his btn Ozzy flats I had like 22bbs or something and was ready to jam a huge range with a solid image, got T6s and beat Ferguson's AJ.

Then I won a couple small pots. Then with 2 hands left in the day I busted Chris when I 3bet/called with JJ against his 99 preflop. Flop was AJJ lol.

So I ended the day with 100,700. There will be a redraw tomorrow one timeeeeeee.

Also I had dinner with Phil Laak and Bruce Buffer which was a pretty awesome time, maybe more on that later.

Craig