A pretty uneventful day...

So it turns out they did split the event into two flights. I played today (295 people today) and we played 5 90 minute levels, the last of which was 300/600/75. Since we started with 50k in chips, the stacks were ridiculously deep all day. My starting table wasn't great. Marco Traniello (Jennifer Harmon's husband) was directly to my right, some full tilt pro I didn't recognize was to his right, Josh Arieh was across the table from me, and some guy who had gone deep two years in a row in the WSOP was beside him (he turned out to be probably the best player at the table). So that wasn't encouraging. I guess I'll just post some hands now:

Hand 1 - 50/100
All stacks are around 50k. Tight guy raises to 350 utg, loose-bad guy cold calls, I decide to cold call with QQ. Marco calls as well and 4 of us see the 742r flop. utg checks, loose guy bets 600. I raise to 1500 mainly to isolate the bad player and if anyone 3-bets I can fold pretty easily. Folded around to him and he calls. Turn's a complete blank, a 9 or something. He checks, I bet 3k and he calls. River's a K. He looks pretty happy and then checks. I check behind and he shows 77, which I didn't really expect to see. Down to 45k early.

Hand 2 - 100/200
The only bad player bluffs off all of his chips and gets replaced by Sammy Farha...great...
Loose aggressive guy has raised my blinds a bunch of times and I've never had anything so I've folded everytime. I decide I should do something about that sometime. He raises from CO+1 to 600, Farha calls in the sb, I call with Jc3c. Flop comes 5h5x2h. I check, he bets 1200, Farha calls, I raise 3k more. He thinks and calls, Farha quickly folds. Turn's the Qd. I bet 6k and he foldsd after some thought. This was pretty much my only real bluff of the day.

Hand 3 - 100/200/25
I raise earlyish to 600 with 5c4c. Arieh calls in the sb, lag from hand 2 calls in the bb. Flop's Jc9c2c. They check, I bet 1600, bb calls. Turn's a J, he checks I bet 3200, he calls. River's a blank, he checks, I bet 5700, he calls and mucks. This (and some small pots) gets me to around 65k.

Very little happens for a long time. I barely win any pots and get played back at a few times and am down around 55k when this hand happens.

Hand 4 - 300/600/75
Tight UTG raiser makes it 2k, I call with TT. SB (very good, aggressive player) calls, as does Arieh in the bb. Flop comes JcJx9c. Checked to me, I bet 5500, sb thinks and calls, others fold. Turn's an offsuit 2, check check. River's an offsuit Q and sb bets 6k. I tell myself I'm beat, then talk myself into calling. He shows JTs and I'm down to around 40k.

Hand 5 - 300/600/75
I've bought the blinds a few times and am a little of 40k. Loose passive guy limps early, I make it 3k with AsKd. He thinks and thinks, gets ready to fold, gets ready to call, asks how much I have left, gets ready to fold, then calls. Flop's 7c3c2. He looks back at his cards (looking to see if he has a club?) and then checks. I check. Turn's a 5c. He gets a bunch of chips to bet and then checks. There's no way he has a hand. I bet 5k. He again takes forever doing who knows what and then folds.

Hand 6 - 300/600/75
A few hands ago they announced that each table would play 9 more hands before we stop for the night. Arieh has played all 3 since then. The only time he got played back at, he won a big pot with QQ. He's not as active as they portray him on TV, but he's slightly loose and pretty aggressive. He raises to 2200 in middle position. Guy who likes to call raises calls. I call in the sb with Kc9c. Flop's 9d7d5h. I check, Arieh bets 6400, other guy folds. I'm a little surprised at the size of his cbet, but call after some thought. Turn's the Th. I check, he immediately checks behind. River's an A. I check, he checks and I chop with his K9.

I steal some blinds in the last couple hands.

So all in all I did very little and finished the day with 50,225. I had AA/KK/JJ 0 times. I had QQ 4 times in the first 2 levels, won tiny pots twice and lost two biggish pots. The only set I flopped was one with QQ and I got no action post flop. Thankfully I won that big pot with the flush and my bluff worked, otherwise today could've been pretty awful.

Anyways, the Bellagio is pretty awesome, although I haven't been able to see much else. Nat and I had the buffet today when I finished and it was phenomenal. I have tomorrow off, so hopefully we'll see a bit of Vegas and relax a bit before it starts up again on Thursday.

Steve