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After many months of bad poker luck, including the past 3 weeks live events in Vegas, I’d got myself into the mindset where I wasn’t even nervous or excited about playing the Main Event, just ready to do my best and let the cards fall where they may.

I managed to get a reasonable amount of sleep the night before my Day 1A start, but still got up in-time to cook myself breakfast and get over to the Rio at about noon. I knew they’d be late starting, so I pretty much got sat at my table in the Amazon Room just as they did the announcements.

The first surprise was the announcement that we’d only be playing four levels; quickly followed by the news that our “dinner break” would be after Level 2 at ~4.30pm. I was immediately suspicious that this was simply a cynical ploy by Harrahs to both get players to stay longer in Vegas and to get all the players into their restaurants when they would otherwise be empty. On later reflection, I can see that the fact that a thousand or more hungry poker players don’t have to try to struggle to find restaurant spaces in the peak evening time over the holiday weekend might not be such a bad idea.

Expecting some major celebrity and/or poker player to announce shuffle-up-and-deal, I was also a little disappointed that the honour went to the Chewbacca mascot from Official WSOP sponsor, Jack Links Beef Jerky. My table was like this:

Seat 1 Loose-aggressive 30-40ish guy in shades and cap: played really well all-day and accumulated a big stack
Seat 2 Young Euro, probably Scandi
Seat 3 Middle-aged American Woman played fairly tight early on, but loosened-up through the day: she was a straightforward ABC player who over-valued single over-pairs or top-pairs after the flop
Seat 4 Middle-aged South African guy played very few hands, but then played them badly
Seat 5 Empty at the start, but later occupied by young fairly aggressive competent player
Seat 6 40-50ish Vegas cash game pro, played very tight, but had the occasional move and was a tough opponent, although I did bluff him out of one pot later in the day
Seat 7 Me
Seat 8 Tough-looking pumped-up guy with tattoos, loose aggressive (**Edit: after checking the updates, I've discovered that this player was Erik Cajelais; a skilled pro with over $1.4M in live tourny earnings, including a WPT win)
Seat 9 Middle-aged English pro, Nick Gibson, plays a reasonably active but not over-aggressive style

In early action I noticed that Seat 1 was in every pot, playing passively before the flop then actively after. After he called my MP opening bet on his button, I tried a 2-barrel bluff with complete air on him, but he stood his ground and I gave-up to his bet on the river. That put an early dent in my stack, but it was nothing serious and I soon won most of those chips back in a few small pots.

Meanwhile, Seat 4 managed to play AA incredibly dimly by calling all-in following a betting sequence on a 669 flop where the guy in Seat 2 obviously had a minimum of trips. After being shown the rather obvious 64s, he managed to river an Ace to double-up to 60k and send the poor Euro kid home with a bad beat story.

My first big pot happened after around an hour:

My Stack ~29k, Seat 8 ~25k, Blinds 50/100, I hold AKo in MP.

I open for my standard raise size of 250, Seat 8 calls and we see a flop of K33. I bet 350 and get a quick call: Turn Qo. I check for pot control, but he bets out 900. I feel uneasy about his hand (with KQ being possible, as well as trips), but he had played aggressively and what I had seen up to this point, combined with his physical appearance, had led me to believe he was not a good player who might also overvalue other Kx-type hands here (although through the day he actually proved to be quite competent and I changed my initial view of the quality of his play: sometimes a “meat-head” type appearance can be very deceptive). As such I called: River Ao. Going with my incorrect read on him, I figured that I was now beating his KQ, as well as all of his Kx hands and that I should therefore bet the river for value. I made it 1200 into the ~3k pot, but he quickly popped it up another 3.5k. At that moment I needed to pause and re-evaluate my read, but I couldn’t find a fold and crying-called to be shown the mighty 23s.

**Edit: As I've now discovered that this guy was Erik Cajelais, it is no surprise that he outplayed me on this hand. Had I known that at the time, I'm almost certainly not calling his river raise here, but I'd under-estimated my opponent at this early stage of the tourny**

A little while later:

My Stack ~23k, Seat 6 ~30k, Blinds 50/100, I hold QQ UTG.

I open for 250 and it folds to the BB who makes it 1000 straight. He arrived late and has barely played a hand. I’d already overheard him talking to one of the floor staff about how he was regularly playing 10/20 and 25/50 NLHE in Bellagio, so I knew he was a tough, skilled opponent. I called and the flop was KJx. That was pretty bad for me because it hits most of his range that I was beating pre-flop, but when he bet only 1k I decided to peel another card: Turn another Jack. We both check. River blank and he bets 2k. I was thinking maybe I might just have him beat at this point, I called and he showed me AA. I immediately realised that I made a mistake calling the flop bet here: I really was beating none of his range and should have just given-up to that lousy flop. After that his pot-control check on the turn convinced me to call the river bet, but again it was obvious I was beat.

Not long after that:

My Stack ~19k, Seat 3 ~30k, Blinds 50/100, I hold KK in SB.

Seat 3 opens for 350 and I make it 1200. She then quickly and confidently pops it up to 4k and I’m thinking whether I can really be running my Kings into Aces here. I didn’t have any previous evidence to go on, but I felt that she may also make this play with QQ, but not likely with AK or JJ (as it transpired she later over-played QQ in almost exactly the way as she played this hand and lost a massive pot to KK on a J-high flop). As such, I decided to peel the flop and judge her reaction, rather than guess whether she had AA or QQ here: flop QT7cc. I check and she immediately went to her chips and bet 6k into the 8k pot. I thought about it for a while and it now seemed obvious that she had AA. Even if she did have QQ, she had out-flopped me, but I just don’t see anyone flopping top-set reacting the way she did on the flop. Similarly, there is no way AKcc or JJ reacts that way, so I was sure it was AA. I open-folded my KK, saying “Alright, I know I’m beat” and she kindly showed me two red Aces.

Knocked-down to half my starting stack before the first break, I was pretty shell-shocked. I opened a pot with JJ and got 3 callers: flop JJ3r. I check first to act and everyone checks behind. Turn offsuit blank. I check again hoping someone will have a stab at it, especially Seat 1 OTB, but they all check again. River is another useless blank card meaning there is no possible straight or flush and no cards higher than a Jack. I finally bet 1k into the 1.2k pot and everyone folds. I muck without showing. I later learned that there is a $100 bounty on Quad Jacks sponsored by Jack Links Beef Jerky, but missed-out on that by not showing, sigh.

I lose some more small pots and end Level 1 at ~14k. I go for the break and consider my situation: I still have 70BBs and anything can happen from here on in. Although I have a tough table draw, with some difficult players on my left, I just need to be patient and wait for my spots where someone will make a mistake.

Nothing much happened for me in Level 2 and I bled away some more chips without playing any big pots to be down to ~11k at the mid-afternoon “dinner break”. I went to the American Grill to try to get a seat at the bar, but it was full already, so I asked for a table. After a 10 minute wait they asked me to share a table with two other guys. They were both friendly and after some small-talk it transpired that one of them was non other than Reuben “SeaAnchor” Peters, the guy who beat Annette_15 heads-up at EPT Dublin.

I’ve played Reuben in lots on online tourneys and he recognised my name. We soon started to get along really well and he started to give me some advice about how to play my position better and stop so opening so many pots out-of-position. It wasn’t really revelatory or anything to me, but perhaps it reinforced something that I’d perhaps let get a little sloppy in my game. He especially told me to play any suited cards in position, as that had been a major boon for him lately.

I’m not sure if this advice made me play the key hands in Levels 3 and 4 any differently, but these were the ones that really got me back into the game:

**Edit: First I dropped down to ~9k by trying to bluff Erik Cajelais on the river, SB versus BB, with K2 on a TJQxQ board, after some betting before the river, and he called with J6. Had I known how experienced and skilled he was, perhaps I don't try the bluff in that spot**

My Stack ~9k, Seat 9 ~25k, Blinds 150/300, I hold Kd7d OTB.

Folds to my button and I make it 800: both blinds call and we see a 789ss flop. It checks to me and I check-behind: Turn Ko. SB checks, BB bets 900 and I make it 1800. He thinks for a while, then slides a big stack into the pot covering my remaining chips. I insta-call and I hold versus 89 to double through.

My Stack ~15k, Seat 8 ~60k, Blinds 150/300/25, I hold KdQd on the CO.

EP opens for 750 and we have 5-way action to the flop of Jd9d2c. It checks to me and with 4k already in the pot, I decide that this is the hand I’m going with for my tourney life. I make a 3500 bet into the pot leaving only ~11k behind and Erik Cajelais makes it 15k to put me all-in. I obviously call and it’s no surprise to see he has two black Nines. I’m not even worried and don’t get anxious or stand-up, but just sit there calmly as the dealer peels off the 6d on the turn. I do sweat the river a little, saying “now hold”, but it’s a harmless Ace and I’ve doubled-up back to my starting stack.

**Edit: This hand was reported in the Pokernews live updates, which is how I've discovered it was Erik Cajelais, but they mis-reported the board as Jc9d2d whereas I am certain it was Jd9d2c because I wouldn't forget having a gutshot straight flush draw**

I maintain for the rest of the level, gaining a little in the last orbit on a nice bluff over the Vegas pro and I’m back for Day 2A with 30975 chips. Quite an achievement after my shocking first level. Phew!