Still Alive in the Rebuy

I took Monday and Tuesday off and was definitely ready to play today's event, the 1k No Limit Hold'em Rebuy. I rebought once (lost 88 against A10, all-in pf on the very first hand of the day) and added-on.

879 people entered and there were an additional 2,508 rebuys and add-ons, making the average stack after the rebuy period ~8k (total prize pool ~$3.2 million). From the original 879 players, we are down to 115 after Day 1. The average stack heading into tomorrow is ~59k and I have 54,100.

81 players (standard 9% of the player pool at WSOP) will make the money, but I have every intention of staying aggressive (especially early), and if I bubble as a result, so be it.

The biggest hand of the day for me occurred in Level 10, 30 minutes before the end of the night. I started the hand with 24,600 in chips and with blinds at 600/1,200 and antes of 100, I open raised from under the gun with 8c9c to 3,600. I had a fairly tight image at the table at this point, and I was trying to steal the blinds from under the gun (knowing that the other players would have to respect my raise from out of position). The button, who had recently gone on a rush from 30k to over 110k, smooth called. This was definitely unusual at this point of the tourney (it was normally either raise and win the blinds, or get reraised), but I didn't sense from his body language that he was trapping me with a big pair. Instead, I thought he likely had a hand like AJ,KQ or a mid pair, and wanted to see a flop in position. As such, my intention was to stay aggressive post flop and try to force him off his hand. The flop came down Jd,9s,3d, giving me midpair. I shuffled my chips for a good 90 seconds and was considering making a continuation bet. The stack sizes, and the fact that I had flopped midpair, however, made checking the better move. If I led for 6k, and he had nothing, he would just fold and I would get no value for my hand. If he got a piece of the flop (or sensed weakness), he would raise me all-in and I would have to fold. Whereas if I checked, I knew that he would lead with a wide range of hands, many of which I was ahead of, and if I thought that he was weak, I could check raise all-in, getting value and protecting my hand...I checked and I could tell that he was a little bit surprised, as he was definitely expecting me to fire out. In a lot of ways, it looked like I had given up on the hand with a hand like AK or AQ. He waited another 2 or 3 seconds, and then announced all-in (a 21,000 chip bet into a 9k pot). Not exactly and ideal spot for me with midpair and my tournament life on the line, but everything about his body language suggested to me that he already regretted his bet. It could have been him protecting his hand with AA or Jx, but it felt more like KQ (gut shot and two overcards), a flush draw, or a medium or low pair...I tanked for a good minute or so, but ended up going with my gut and made the call. He flipped up 44, and I faded his two-outer on the turn and river to double up. Hands like this are why I love poker. In one situation, top two pair is no good and you have to make a big lay down, but in another, mid pair is good, and you have to make a big call with your tournament life on the line.

The tourney gets going tomorrow at 2, which means I will unfortunately miss the 5k 6-handed event.