I drove down Monday morning, arriving about 5 minutes before the scheduled start of 10:45. Day 1A was much less crowded than day 1B on Tuesday, so I had no trouble buying in directly and getting a seat. My starting table was awesome, so I was in excellent position to build a big stack. The ’shooting star’ at our table was Marco Traniello, the husband of Jennifer Harman. It became apparent that Marco wasn’t a particularly great player, but he was also playing fairly tight most of the day so it wasn’t going to be so easy to pry his chips away from him. The rest of the table was made up with various amateurs, local and otherwise. I was undoubtedly the best player at the table by far.
We began the day with 20,000 chips and 25/50 blinds, as is customary for such tournaments. In the second hand of the day, I picked up AQ in the blinds and raised to 300 after several limpers. Marco, who had opened the limping party, was the only caller. The flop came out JT9 with a flush draw, I bet out 500 or something, and he called. The turn was a Q putting up another flush draw, I checked and he checked behind. The river bricked off and I checked again, planning to fold to a bet since I couldn’t really beat anything, and he checked behind again. Somehow my hand was good. The next big hand I played, I raised KJ from middle position after a few limpers, and got called by 3 players. The flop was KJ7 with a spade draw. I bet 775 and was raised by a player in position to 2000. Given position and stack sizes I saw no reason to reraise, so I called and looked for a safe turn card. Unfortunately it was the 7s, and I check-folded to a t3500 bet.
During the second level, I played a fairly sizeable pot against a very loose, presumably foreign player on my right. I opened AKcc under the gun to 350, and he was the only caller in the BB. The flop was T33 with a few clubs, and he check-called 550. The turn was an offsuit 7 and when he checked I decided to barrel again, making it 1350 to go. He surprisingly checkraised me to 3800 and I was faced with a tough decision. On the one hand I could be drawing dead, or at least some of my ‘outs’ (A, K) might not be good. On the other hand I had seen him make a boneheaded semibluff on the turn in a recent hand, so I figured he probably had a lot of that sort of thing in his range. He had about 8k behind at that point, and eventually I decided to call. The river was another 3 and he checked quickly. I checked behind almost immediately, which I decided was a big mistake when he showed me 74cc and won the pot. I don’t think he’s checking there with any hand that can call a shove, and my hand looks a lot more like an overpair than a draw too. But so it goes.
In level 3, I got back some of the chips I had lost earlier. The same aggressive guy opened the CO to 475 and I flatted ATcc on the button. The SB called as well and we all checked the 522 flop. On the A turn, the CO bet 1200 and I called, as did the SB. The river was a glorious T and when they checked I bet 3500 and was called by the SB, who mucked his hand.
During level 4 I lost a few medium pots in unfortunate spots like barrelling into the nuts and valuebetting thin with QJ on an AA66Q board only to be check-called by 76. I did win one nice pot though: I overlimped 64hh in position, and floated the T65r flop when one of the blinds led out 500 into it. The turn was a 4 and he check-called 1400. The river was a 3, I valuebet 2400, and he called with something that was worse. Worth noting: I was probably the only player at the table who would even consider valuebetting there when a 4-straight came in, even though it seems so obvious to me. Live tournament players suck.
At some point around then, a young new player was moved to the table and it became apparent that he knew what he was doing. Fortunately though, he was positioned to my right and the rest of the table was so soft that we didn’t really need to get involved in big pots against each other. I did play one pot to put him in line, somewhat. He opened from late position to 550, and I called the BB with A2o. We checked through the 432 flop, and I check called the Q turn and 4 river. He admitted defeat before I showed my hand.
My first big breakthrough came later in level 5: I overcalled a raise on the button with K4hh. The flop came out K64, all clubs. An old guy who normally works as a dealer at Bay 101 led out for 800 after the raiser checked, and the loose foreign guy on my right called. I overcalled, and the turn was an offsuit 7. The old guy checked, the loose guy bet out 1200, and I called again. The old dude folded and I binked a K on the river. He led out 1500, I raised to 7500, and he called with the nut flush. My stack was up over 40k for the first time. Booya.
Level 6 wasn’t so pleasant for me, as I ran a few marginal made hands into the top of my opponent’s ranges. Once I had AT, raised pre, bet the T9x two-tone flop, and check-called the K turn and brick river against a very fishy opponent. He had KQo. Later I opened 99, trickily checked the 743 flop OOP, then check-called the Q turn and brick river, and ran into a set of 7’s. Guess I lost the minimum there, heh.
During level 7 I opened K9 in the small blind and the fishy guy called. I bet the J53 flop and he called. The turn was a 9 and we both checked, the river was another 9 and I overbet 7000 into 4000 or so and he called quickly, showing KJ. Robert Williamson III (another bounty player) was moved to my immediate right with a short stack, but sadly our table broke before I got any good shots at him.
My new table appeared to be equally soft, other than a few online players and a big-stack who also was a Bay 101 employee (and had his big stack mostly punted to him when he had AA and the previous big-stack 4-bet shipped a huge amount with AKo.) I dwindled my stack a little, folding a lot and losing one medium pot when I barreled AK into an old crazy dude on a T73Q board but give up when he tries to raise less than the minimum on the turn “to see what I have”.
During level 9 I have a shortstack and begin looking for spots to move in, eventually reshipping 33 against the bigstack, who called with AQ. Somehow he whiffed and I was back in action. I later opened AK to 1800 and get a few calls. The flop was AJ4 with a heart draw, I bet 4200, and one of the online players raised 11k more with about 11k behind. I shipped it in, of course, and he tanked and berated himself before folding what was apparently AQ. I was back above average in chips and pretty comfortable with my stack going into level 10, the last level of the day.
Sadly, my plan to coast into day 2 with a solid stack didn’t pan out. An old asian guy on my right openlimped his SB into me (at 400/800/100) and I raised 2k more with AJ (perhaps a bit small?). The flop was QQJ and we both checked. He donked out 5k on the brick turn and I called. The river was another J and he donked out 13k. I called again, obviously, and learned that he had coolered me with his monster Q5o and cut out a big chunk of my stack. I became pretty steamed up afterwards, but was well aware of it and wasn’t going to make any bonehead plays. I just hoped that I could find a hand to get stacks in with so I had a shot to double up (or bust out before the day was over)
The clock was ticking down and I kept get dealt rags, which was frustrating. The fact that the other players were taking so long to make decisions and/or handle their chips certainly didn’t help. When a few of the fish who had taken chips from me punted their stacks off to other players with completely idiotic plays, it was even worse. Fortunately I picked up AQ with about 12 minutes left in the day, and was able to reship when the chipleader opened the pot. He called me with TT and his hand held up. I’ve never been so happy to bust from a tournament before. Being out completely seemed like a much better option than having to drive all the way back down to San Jose again on Wednesday, just to sit behind a short stack and probably bust early anyhow. Doubling up and having an average stack again would of course have been awesome, so I was just happy to have that opportunity.
Better luck next year I suppose! Also, hopefully some local chumps win big money and start playing in the Lucky Chances 20/40NL game 
.
T
T
Sometimes there's a man... and I'm talking about the Dude, here. Sometimes there's a man who, well, he's the man for his time and place.