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Main Event Day 1a
So I was 0/6 heading into the Main Event. I didn’t particularly want to play but I’d prepaid my ticket. The pain induced by poker was clearly outweighed by my laziness to seek a refund.
My Day 1 table was pretty soft except for Dean Nyberg who I knew would give me some grief two to my left. I nearly four-bet him light with my 98s when he squeezed, but there was a short-stack in the middle, so I decided I’d give him benefit of the doubt for a real hand. He showed K2o. Hmmm. As he amassed chips, I kept my distance and chipped up pretty solidly without any real confrontations. I got up to about 35,000 from my start stack of 20,000 when I finally picked up a real hand. I had AcAd in the small blind and popped it up when two players limped. One of them called. The flop was king-high with two baby spades. I fired a standard c-bet and was called. The turn was another spade.
This is where things got tricky. The right play is to probably bet and fold to a raise. After all, I don’t want to give a free card. So of course I check, with the intention to call. He then overbet the pot by several thousand, which would commit roughly half my stack. A very weird bet. At the time I was totally confused and went into the tank for what felt like an eternity. I’ve never had the clock called on me before but they were well and truly justified in doing so. Worst case, I was drawing dead to a flush, or to potentially two-outs against a set. At best I was up against a king with no spade, but more likely was flipping with a pair and flush draw combo. There wasn’t much that I beat, so in hindsight it was an easy fold. At the time, it took me a while to find it but eventually I tossed those beautiful cards into the muck. The decision played on my mind, but two days later I bumped into the guy and he said he had a baby flush. NF me.
As we entered the last few levels of play my stack drifted back towards the starting stack. Since it was a repechage event, the correct strategy was to gamble and try and get a semi-decent stack, as I had the option to rebuy back into the tournament if I busted. I’m not balla enough to think that rebuying for $550 is a small thing, but if I’m going to play an event, I intend to play it properly, and in this situation gambling to get a big stack or use the repechage is the correct play.
I saw a few raised flops with suited connectors but missed every time, and eventually got my chips into the middle in the final ten minutes of the day in a limped pot with A8 on an ace-high flop. When my flop bet was called I felt like I was beat, but I didn’t want to be left with 10k in chips so I stuck it in and found myself drawing dead to my opponent’s set.
I was happy with how I played and how I was able to chip up throughout the day with little confrontation. The aces hand was hugely disappointing but I need to be more positive about making a great laydown than letting it affect my play. I could’ve easily survived the day with 20k-ish if it wasn’t a repechage and only busted because of the second chance concept. Hopefully things would turn around on Day 1c.