Day 1 Summary

While I'm certainly happy to be at 56K at the end of day 1, I'm definitely aware of the luck factor in achieving it. First of all, I got hit by the deck, both in terms of cards dealt and flops hit. I had aces 5 times yesterday (but none of them won me a decent pot). I hit some good top pair-top-kicker flops, and also several strong drawing flops, including two open-ended-straight-flush-draws. I also had a good table draw, with no tier 1 (or event tier 2, that I am aware of) pros. Donkey on my left gave me all his chips like he was supposed to, and most of the table was clearly looking to "survive the day", enabling me to steal frequently late in the day.

I did an awesome job reading hands, however. Here are some samples:
- Call a button raise from BB w/ 65. Flop is K63 two-suited. I check-call the flop. Turn is an offsuit 8, check-check. River is T and makes a 3-flush, button bets big. Although this bet can be a wide variety of hands (including frequent bluffs), I folded, telling the button "I know you made your flush, nice river". He shows Q-high flush.

-Limp UTG with 88. Call raise from UTG+1. On J9x board, raiser c-bets and I call. On blank turn, I check, and he fires big again. He's shown capability of firing multiple bullets before. I interrogate him for a bit before folding, he shows a J.

-J8s in BB. SB starts the hand with 6K (blinds 200-400) and open-limps. Board is QJ4, two-suited. SB shoves. I think for a long time and call, confident that he has either a 4 or a flush draw, but no Q. He shows 98 flush draw, but hits.

-Limp JT in EP. Guy on my left raises like 5.5x BB. Folded back around to me. My first instinct is that he has TT, but I discount that possibility since I have a T in my hand. I fold, saying, "my hand no good against your 99, sir". He says, "you're close", and shows me TT.

Here's the hand that I lost a lot of chips in level 4 (150-300 with 25 antes). I start hand with 70K. One MP limper, cutoff makes a smallish 3.5x raise to 1500. I have 55 in the BB and call. 4750 in the pot. Limper calls. Flop is A32. I check, limper checks, and raiser bets 2200, and it feels like a c-bet. I think he has an A maybe 30% of the time in this situation? He has about 16K left in his stack. I raise to 8000, and he thinks a bit and calls. Turn is a middle card like a 8, and I put him all in. He install calls AK and I whiff the river. I think on this board, given his stack size, other lines such as check-call flop, donk any kind of scary turn might be better? On the other hand, I put him to a test if he has any pair below aces, and I have a full 6 outs (24% if the chips go in on the flop) if he has AK. Any comments?

Plan for day 2 is to quickly identify which players are playing to survive, and which ones are playing to win the tournament and play accordingly.

In case you're curious, here's what the payout timeline was like in last year's WSOP:
Last year, there were 6358 players, and 621 spots payed out. The bubble burst around 6:30PM on day 3. Survival to the end of day 3 ensured a payout of $39,445. At the end of day 4, 114 players were left, and payout reached $58,570. Day 5 narrowed down the field to 27 players, with a payout of $333K. And everyone who made it to the final table at the end of that day was assured a payday of $526K.

Lots of good things have to happen to make it that far, but I know I can do it! Keep your fingers crossed for me!