Day 2 disaster again

Again, in a big tournament, I do very well on the first day and get crushed during the second day.

Day 1 I drew a table with Jan Boubli and Kido Pham. Amazingly, I managed to get all 300 bb's of my stack in in the first level, along with two other players! We had all flopped the nuts with 54. My 54 was the 54 of hearts and the board had two clubs and one spade. Unfortunately one of the players had two spades and one had a club, so when the turn came a club both Kido Pham and I faced elimination, but the river was a blank and we survived.

My biggest hand of the day was a hand I probably grossly misplayed. I opened for 3xBB (600) UTG with AsKs and had four callers when it got to Kido Pham in the BB. He re-raised to 6000. I had 30k left if I called the raise and he had me well covered. I think Kido is perfectly capable of making a play here as well as holding very strong cards. I gave it some thought and figured him for a pair like 99-JJ. If I had had about 16k after my initial raise the decision would be pretty easy to just go all-in. But since I still had 150 big blinds, I decided to just call. I figure his range to be larger than normal here, I figure he is going to be ANY flop, and if I move in his calling range will be quite small. (And often I would be in bad shape). So I went ahead and decided to just call and then vowed to flop the nuts. The flop came QJT two clubs and Kido bet 10k. I had 30k left, and I was even more certain now that he had JJ or TT and would call if I moved in, so I did, and to my surprise he folded. This meant that before the flop there was a very good chance he did not have a premium hand.

This put me above 50k - during the 200/400 level my table broke and I got moved to the Fontana Lounge. To my direct left were Bruno Fotoussi and Erik Sagstrom (you know, Erik "$10mil playing poker before I was 21" Sagstrom), both with large stacks. In fact I was the 5th largest stack at the table. I avoided confrontations, one a nice pot with pocket kings and finished the day around $68k.

I really liked my day 2 draw. Jen Harman was to my left and John Esposito to my right, but they both had very small stacks. There was only one other player that I recognized at my table and that was Eskimo Clark. Just like what happened at the Stars event and the World Series, I never got above my starting chips on day 2. Eskimo got off to a really good start and I was impressed with his play. Jen and John both busted pretty quickly and soon Mark Seif came to the table. Mark is quite an active player and he was pretty impressive as well. I ended the first level of the day with 60k but the second level was a disaster...

I actually won two pots early, one when I raised with AQ and got no callers and the second in a blind vs blind with Mark Seif. But then I got frisky with a tightish player and re-raised him without a hand and he jammed on me and I was forced to fold. I then splashed around a bit when the following hand came up. A player opened for only 2xBB , Seif called, I called with 5d4d and the blinds called. The flop was 36T two clubs leaving me open ended. The preflop raiser bet small, around 6.6k, which was only about 60% of the pot, so I decided to call. I think in retrospect it was a pretty bad call because I was risking one of the blinds to wake up with a big hand, which one of them did. The small blind raised all in, the preflop raiser folded (what he later said was aces). Now there is $54k in the pot, I have to call $21k. If I call and lose I'm down to about 17k, but if I call and win I'd have almost $100k. I think it was very close, the small blind either had a set, a pair and a flush draw, or just a flush draw. I decided to make the call and he flipped over 66 for a set and it held up and I was in dire straights.

I survived the level with 16k but when we came back the blinds would be 600/1200/200. I sat idle for two orbits, once calling a small raise in the BB (in a three way pot) with 33 and missing the board completely. Soon I was down below 10000. During this time the 1 seat busted and Mark Seif also busted and they decided to bring us Doyle Brunson. I only played with him a few hands but it was pretty darn cool. In the same time I managed to go from 68k to 10k he went from 12k to 240k (in a little over two levels). Soon I was at 7300 and pushed with QJ and got no callers, winning the blinds and antes to go over 10k. On the very next hand, I saw JT and decided to push again but the button called me with AJ and the board gave me no help and I was sent packing again.

Pretty card dead the second day. I saw AQ twice, once I saw the blinds and once I called in a multiway pot and flopped nothing. I saw AJ once and raised Seif's open limp, got cold called by the button and then the BB decided to re-raise and everyone mucked. I held pocket 9's once in the BB but missed my set in a three way pot and gave it up on the flop.

I missed out on the Bahamas this year which is just fine. A bit tired of travelling but I am fairly sure I will be going to Tunica and or Atlantic City in January.