Day 1

I arrived at my condo/apartment in Vegas a little late this afternoon, and had no choice but to play the 5k Mixed Hold'em event at 5 rather than the noon pot-limit tourney (I was leaning that way anyways). The field was very tough (as I expect all of the 5pm tournaments to be) and I literally drew the worst starting seat in the entire tournament. To my immediate left, Phil Ivey, to his left, Hasan Habib, and to his left, Gavin Smith. Brandon Adams, Doug Lee, and a couple of tough online pros were also at the table. After 4 hours of play our table broke and I moved to another table, which included Phil Hellmuth, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, David "Devilfish" Ulliot, Hoyt Corkins, and Humberto Brenes. Needless to say, terrible terrible table draws (at least from a poker perspective - both were highly entertaining tables to play at).

Despite the two tables of death, I managed to survive the day. After 8 hours of switching back and forth between limit and no-limit, the starting field of 332 is down to ~95. I have 17,100 chips heading into day 2, with the average stack right around 35k. Unfortunately, limit is first and with small and big bets of 1,500/3,000, I will have to be very selective and likely commit myself to any hand I play.

Overall, I felt like I played good/solid poker today. I made a few poorly timed moves, but overall, my instincts were on target. Limit hold'em was an interesting challenge, as I have not played it with any consistency since I was 21 years old, playing 3/6 at the Taj Mahal. Knowing my limitations, I employed a tight/agressive approach which worked surprisingly well for me. It didn't hurt that I was hitting flops early. There were many many interesting hands from the 8 hours of play, but I am too exhausted to review them right now (I have been up for 23 straight hours and can barely see straight). I will give the full update when I'm done playing tomorrow.