$1500 6 Handed Recap - Day 1

Day 1 of the 6max event was one of the most rewarding—and educational—days I’ve had playing tournament poker. Last week I wrote the first part of a couple (few?) articles on gathering information and trusting your reads, so I figured there’s nothing like putting it to the test in the second level.

I called a raise in the big blind in a 3 way pot with Ah8h, and ended up check-calling three streets on an Ad6d6xTx3x board. My opponent had a pretty significant physical tell when he was bluffing, but he put me to the test on the river with a big bet. However, I had made up my mind on the turn based on the physical read and his bet sizing pattern (overbet with air, bet smallish with decent hands). I would’ve been under 1k if I was wrong, but I went with it and had over 8k.

Then nothing interesting happened for 5 levels. We lost 3 players in 6 levels. The field shrunk from 1459 to 302 at dinner break, and we lost 3 people. 3 people in a 6 handed event! It was sooooo frustrating. I would climb up to 20k, then lose a race versus shortstack. Climb back up, drop back down. However, I stayed patient and didn’t do anything too silly…which is a bit of a challenge for me at times.

On the previous night, just after he made the final table of the 1k, I went to dinner with Steve Sung at a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant just around the corner from the Rio (he made me pay for dinner based on some superstition he has…then went on to win $771,000 and the bracelet so I might try picking up some superstitions). It was sooooo good I had to go back for some more.

With about 30 minutes left on our break, I headed over to the final table to sweat Steve for a bit where he was putting on a clinic. It was ridiculous how he destroyed that table. I headed back to the table with blinds at 200-400. Action picked up a little bit with one of the shortstacks jamming a few hands in a row. I was tempted to call his 4k button shove in the big blind with QJ in attempt to gamble a bit for some chips, then remembered that I’m a terrible gambler and wisely folded. He busted on the next hand, and they broke our table which was the best news I had heard all day.

I quickly headed to my new table where there was no shortage of chips:
Seat 1 – 25k
Seat 2 – 15k
Seat 3 – me w 15k
Seat 4 – 60k
Seat 5 – 55k
Seat 6 – 10k

By the end of the next level, I had busted seat 4 & 5 with seat 1 shortly after that. In the first orbit I doubled with KK vs A8 on an 8 high flop versus seat 5, then chipped up a bit more in a couple small pots. I was sitting around 35k when I called Seat 5’s 3.5x raise in the big blind with 67 and flopped the joint on a 985 flop. I checked, he said “you don’t have kings over there again, do you?” and shoved all in for 26k into a 6k pot. He turned over a set of 8s before making his way out of the Amazon Room.

I continued to chip up with small pots, showing some big hands along the way. I had whittled Seat 4 down to 25-30k when he and seat 6 limped into my big blind. I checked my option with KhJh, then put in a hefty check raise on the Th9s4h flop which would commit Seat 4 to the pot if he called. He did call, Seat 6 folded and I bet enough to put Seat 4 all in on the 8x turn. He called with T9o and when the 7h fell on the river I had won my first big race (had a few less outs than I thought, figured he had JT, QT, KT etc).

That pot put me around 115k halfway through level 8—from 15k to 115k in 90 minutes! That’s a sick heater, and I’ve had some sick ones. We were approaching the money bubble when I busted Seat 1 when I flat-called in the SB with TT, then check-raised enough to put him allin on an 8xx flop and he snapcalled with A8.

Interestingly enough, I’m not much of a check-raiser but it really paid off in each of these spots (twice with the best hand, once with the monster draw). I played fairly tight for the remaining two levels, until I decided to run a bluff against a player in Seat 2 who had shown me a lot of respect. I raised UTG, got three callers including Seat 2 in the big blind, then c-bet the AJ7 flop for 6k. He was the lone caller, then checked the 8 turn to me (no flush draws). I thought for a moment, then decided to fire a second barrel in an attempt to move him off a bad Ace. After I bet the 13k, he tanked forever then moved in for another 25-30k. Whoops

That was pretty much the end of the night, and I was somewhere around the top 10 with 103k going into Day 2.