Wynn Day One

Three hours into the day I think I would have laid even odds on making the final table. At this point I was at 42k (we started with 20k) and my table had to be the best in the room. The only players I would even call decent at my starting table were Rhett Butler (wildly underrated), Gioi Luong (never able to get anything going, and then stacked with K9 vs Butler's 55 on KK5 flop), and a tight, straightforward player named Scott Epstein.

Then this hand came up in 50-100 blinds where UTG limped, the guy behind him made it 475, Epstein called, and I decided to call with 22 on the button. UTG called as well and the flop came AK2 with two hearts. UTG checked, the preflop raiser checked, and Epstein bet 700. I just called since Epstein is a conservative player and might find a way to fold AQ or AJ if I raised. UTG folded and then the preflop raiser made it 3000. There was no chance this guy was bluffing, it was just a matter of what he had. I thought AK was easily most likely. Both he and Epstein had about 25k. Epstein then made it 7k, and I thought for five minutes as the hand went into the break and then folded. I ultimately folded for two reasons:

1) The table was super weak so there was no reason to play a huge pot unless I knew I had the best hand

2) I thought Epstein would put the guy on AK like I did, and he reraised anyways. I thought he might just call the checkraise even with AK.

They got it all in, Epstein's KK going down to the other guy's AA, and I went on break extremely fired up about my laydown, my table, the tournament, and poker in general.

A few minutes into the next level (100-200 no ante) this momentum-changing pot took place:

The AA guy limped, Butler limped, and I decided to make it 1200 on the button with Ks7s. I was pretty sure this would just take it down but I kind of wanted a call anyways since these guys both play straightforward. The first limper picked up his cards so Butler could see them (idiot) and folded. The hand was turned over (KhQh) and then Butler said "I'll gamble with you" and then called 1000 more, which kind of stunned me. Limp/calling big raises is not something Butler does much of, so I was pretty taken aback. I figured him for some good hand, JJ-77 or maybe AK or AQ. The flop came AsK8s and Butler checked. I decided to check since Butler was just going to fold his pair to a bet anyways, call with his AQ, or checkraise his AK or 88. The turn was an offsuit jack and he made a small bet of 1000. I decided to make him fold his AQ (I have seen Butler fold a number of big hands to aggression) and raised to 3000. He grimaced, called, and asked for a spade on the river, which was some rag. He checked and I made a very poor bet of 5000. I bet because he thinks I'm solid and makes huge laydowns. He didn't like it but called with a set of jacks after one minute.

This was a very, very devastating hand as I managed to lose 9200 with a K7 and completely lost the momentum I had gained the first three hours of the tournament. I was also one-outed during the hand, though no money went in with me having the best of it. The river bet of 5000 was the only play I really regret all day.

After this the bad players went broke, Kathy Liebert and Mike Matusow showed up in their place, and my cards went downhill. My best hands were during the first two levels and my worst were during the last two levels. I thought about it and I got paid off on every single monster hand I had all day. It was weird, I either had monsters or nothing the whole day. I also got called or raised every time I was bluffing. If I hadn't bluffed all day I might have 40k or more. Instead I have 15,225, which is very short, but I feel comfortable. The blinds will be 400-800-75 tomorrow and the levels are 90 minutes long. There's no reason why I can't make a run, and the field is so small we'll be down to the final two tables in no time.

The Fish has 60k, Toph has 70k, and Alex has 13k.