Day 1 Cont.

100/200 6050 in chips

Fold the first 18 hands after break. With a semi short stack, antes not kicking in, and at a fairly strong table that is about to be broken, I find no reason to look to play.
1) BB QT, UTG (Schneider) min raises to 400, I call
982, check fold to 700 bet
Table Change (I wrote thank God....I hope)

I do not recognize anyone at my new table except for Bill Edler in seat 9. I am in seat 5. I soon have this impression of the players - awful!

Seat 1 eventual champion Carlos Uz - he is siphoning big time with his limp folding/calling of raises pre. post he only bets if he hits hard, only raises pre (wait never raises pre except AA)
Seat 2 a tighter slightly more agg version of carlos (gets 9th in the event), later gets moved and eventual 2nd place finisher sits down with huge stack but plays it very conservatively/weakly
Seat 3 a slightly more tight aggressive version of carlos
Seat 4 a local that is below avg at best, mainly just siphon via bad calls and bets
Seat 5 me
Seat 6 a short stack that is playing very tight
Seat 7 a very big stack playing tight solid poker (we rarely play any hands together)
Seat 8 a LAGish 20 something who just isn't quite good enough to pull off the LAG style
Seat 9 Bill Edler (not in top form), Chad Batista sat down after Edler's elimination
Seat 10 an extremely loose player, loves to limp call raises, but will also raise pre very light sometimes when tilting, post wont fold any hits even thin draws

2) BB 95, SB raises to 600 I fold (1st hand at table)
3) SB T4, 4 limpers and I just fold
4) CO 88, 2 limpers, I limp, blinds come in
K(43d) check check, seat 2 raises to 525 all fold
5) HJ KJh, I raise to 600, all fold
6) MP 88, seat 2 raises UTG to 600, I just fold, this is the right play with my stack in MP but the board came JT8J and one of the callers took it down (who knows maybe I would have been beat)
7) 3rd 66, I limp (marginal at best - but the table has been vey passive) HJ, CO, BUT and both blinds come in,
A95, checks @ to button (seat 10) who bets 875 and all fold
8) BB K9, three limpers and SB, I check
(75d)5, checks @ to last guy who bets 400 and all fold

I end the level at 4550. I voluntarily put money in on only 4 hands (and two of those were marginal) and raised only once. I only took down one pot for 300. However, I am starting to set up my image for the important 200/400 50 ante level (if I can make it there). My goal is to switch gears into 4 or 5 when that level hits. This table won't be able to handle me if I can get a hold of any chips.

On with the countdown:

In at #12) This hand occurred at my 3rd table on day 1 very late in the day. It was during the 600/1200 200 ante level. It started with the HJ (Vito) raising to 5000. Vito ended up getting 3rd in the tourney. He had a monster stack of around 110,000 (good for around 2nd or 3rd at the time with around 30 players left). At the time he was playing pretty tight. When he came in it was usually for a big raise and presumably only with big hands. The BB raised to 15K. He was also fairly tight, but was not very good post flop (this cost him numerous times during the tourney and led to him being the bubble boy). Vito called after saying "I think I have you crushed, but I'll just called." Even though I hadn't played with him much up to this point I actually believed him and thought KK or QQ was very likely.

The flop came A94 with 2 clubs. They both checked. A low club hit the turn - check check. Then a club came on the river. BB led out for 15K, and was instantly raised allin by Vito. BB begins tanking. It was so obvious to me and everyone else Vito had the K of clubs (and more than likely started with KK). I thought the SB had QQ with the Q of clubs. After about 2 or 3 minutes he finally folds showing JJ with the J of clubs, and sure enough Vito shows his KK with the K of clubs. The BB botched this hand so badly. Firstly, against this guy the JJ RR pre is iffy but not totally unjustified. However, I think a continuation bet on the flop is a must because it is the only way to move him off a better hand which is surely what Vito had given that flop and the preflop action and Vito's style. Once he checked the flop, the check on the turn is fine. However, the river bet is so bad because it is virtually valueless. Vito's not calling with a worse hand, but he is calling with the Q getting over 3 to 1, and he is obviously raising with the nuts. Once he did raise, how do you tank for 3 minutes with the J. The Q is an obvious fold, but the Jack? The BB lost 30K with JJ when he should have lost 5K (if he just called pre) or even won the hand on the flop given the preflop line he took.

Hand #11) This hand is unique because it featured minor to major errors by all three players involved. It was on the 200/400 50 ante level at my second table. The cutoff in seat 8 raised to 1200. He had about 20K in chips at this point. He was the guy I described as "a LAGish 20 something who just isn't quite good enough to pull off the LAG style." Chad Batista called on the button with about 11K in chips left. The SB (seat 10) then called, and our favorite Carlos Uz just called in the big blind leaving himself about 5700. The flop came AAx, and it checked around. Turn was a K (putting 2 spades out there). Checked to the pre flop raiser who made it 2K, Chad raised to 4300, the SB folded. Carlos immediately went allin for 1400 more. (It was so obvious he had at minimum trip A's but more than likely a boat.) The pre raiser tanked for a while, but eventually called with what was more than likely a big A. Chad called. River was the T of spades. Chad insta folds before anyone can even act, so they just showdown the two remaining hands. Carlos shows KK!?!?! to win, while the pre raiser mucks an A9 faceup. Mistake one: Carlos - how does he just call pre with KK against 3 others as the last to act with over 4K in the pot and just under 7K to start the hand. However, his turn check was perfect. Mistake 2: Pre raiser - his call after all the turn action was fairly weak given it was for about a quarter of his stack, and he was likely drawing to at most 3 or 4 outs. His check on the flop fine, but from the turn action it was pretty apparent where he was to any reasonable player. Mistake 3: Chad - his raise was dangerous on the turn, but I will give him credit for having it well thought out. It was for 40% of his stack though on a (semi?)bluff that is unlikely to work. However, I can not figure out what he had that he instamucked when the flush draw got there on the river. If he had an A, he is not instamucking. A flush he isn't either. So what did he stick in another 1400 of his 7000 stack on. It had to be a smallish pair. Did he really draw to 2 outs when they may be dead anyways for 20% of his stack. The pot was big but not that big. He was tilting prior to this hand and afterwards as well. I think that had more to do with it than anything. Nonetheless this is the hand that propelled Carlos on to bigger and better things (so he must have done something right....right?)