Vegas Day 5 - $5k WSOP Day 1

Made it through to day 2 with 39k in chips, average is 59k. 120 players left, 72 get paid so I lot of work to do early tomorrow.

Starting table was tough - 3 young internet pros including Steve Billirakis. John Murphy, WSOP main event finalist 4 years ago. Phil Galfond, one of the “Ship it Hola Ballas”, plus directly to my right the legendary Chris “Jesus” Ferguson. 720 entrants…10k in starting chips, 1 hour blinds…from the top:

Hand1
Early position raiser and 4 callers, so I make up the big blind with 2♥3♥. Flop J, 7, 6 (no hearts)
Checked around
Turn Q
No one seemed interested so I bet 70% of the pot and took down a nice opener with my 3 high :)

Hand2
Murphy limps into my BB. I raise it to 300 with KK.
Flop 2, 8, 9
I check raise him and take it down.

Hand3/4
I raise with AQ and AJ and contination bet after missing. I am check raised both times and have to lay down.

Hand5
Murphy raises to 600 and I flat call in mid position with KK. Jesus Feguson makes it 2200. Murphy folds, I raise to 6600 and Ferguson pushes for 9k total. I snap call and it holds up against Jesus’ AK. Coverage of this hand is on pokernews. The flat call of Murphy’s raise was enough deception to get all of the legend’s chips there.

Hand6
Brazilian youngster raises to 600 and I call in BB with QJ.
Flop Q, 5, 6
He bets 800 and I check raise him to 1800 and take it down. I am now on 28k.

Hand7
Phil Galfond pushes over a Murphy raise for 4k total and I shove over the top of him with QQ. It holds over JJ. I am up to 35k after this hand.

Hand8
Crazy hand. 2 limpers and I make it 1k to play with QQ. I get two callers, but have the button.
Flop is Jack high, but all clubs.
Both check to me, and I am worried of the young internet guy using the clubs to check raise (he has a huge stack) so I check.
Turn is a brick

We all check, and I plan to call down the imminent river bluff.
River is another club (I have Q♠Q♦).
Internet dude bets the pot and the other person calls. I figure one of them must have a club so I pass. They have 22 and middle pair, no clubs. I could call one, but not both. I go for a cigarette to avoid tilt. I am down to 32k after this hand.

Hands9-12
The internet guys only raise 2.5 times the blind, because they are cash players and love playing flops. I try to play them at their own game, but it doesn’t work and I end up burning about 9k learning this lesson. Down to 21k in a sequence of missed flops, with suited connectors/suited gappers.

Hand13
Older guy raises to 600 and I decide to take a flop with 4♥6♥, as he is only playing high cards, and if I hit hard, I will stack him.
Flop A♥ 4♠ 6♣
Looks perfect, but when I check raise I lose my customer. Back up to 23k.

Don’t play many hands, but pretty much hold my own for a few levels.

Hand14
I raise to 3k with 5♦7♦ from mid position. BB with massive stack calls me - oops. Flop 6d8cJh
I lead for 5k with my open ended straight draw and he passes. Up to 25k.

I move tables twice now, and end up at the end of a table with 3 internet geeks (IG). They are very annoying. The talk about other players, particularly the older ones, as if they are not there. They incessantly tell stories of $250k pots they have played, of $50k river bluffs they have run, and use words such as “sick”, “good sweat” and “ship the pot”.

Hand15
I re-raise Canadian IG with AK he folds.

Hand16
I raise with AT and get re-raised by American IG. I fold.

Hand17
I raise with 66 and get re-raised by American IG. I fold.

Hand18
I am now down at 19k after suffering geek ownage. I raise with 77 to 3.5k on the button. IG re-raises to 14k from the BB, effectively putting me all in as I have no fold equity. I have had enough of this, and I decide I don’t want to come back tomorrow with only 10BB. I put him on K10, QJ, KQ type of hand, as they have been re-raising light for the last few hours. I shove and he calls the last 2k. He has QJ.
Flop: Q, J, 5 (great).
Turn: SEVEN (woo!)

River: blank
I double up to nearly 40k. “Sick” mumble the IGs. Tough sonny - if you guys re-raise all the time, sooner or later someone is going to look you up. One final hand worth mentioning - 5 minutes before the end of the day a hand develops and one of the internet guys takes FIFTEEN minutes deciding whether to call an all in on the turn. We can’t put the clock on him as it’s the end of the day. He eventually folds…King high. Thanks for wasting 15 minutes of my life.
Hopefully I can get off to a fast start tomorrow…