We’re in the money!
From 219 entrants, 22 will return for Day 2. The top 27 get paid, so I have $1470 (minus a tip, to be decided) in the bank. With the $920 from Thursday, that means all my backers are already getting virtually all of their money back, with a possible profit on the horizon.
The next money checkpoint is when 18 are left – we’re playing 9-handed – and then 10th to 18th place receive $2525. Top prize is $57,000, but that’s a long way off.
Don’t get too excited, though. I only have 9500 in chips left (the second shortest stack), the next level is 1000/2000 blinds with a 500 ante. Oh, and I’m also on the big blind next hand.
I had to survive two 50/50s to get this far (pocket 9s and 6s both holding up against overcards, all in pre-flop) and I’m going to need to gamble again almost straight away tomorrow. I never really managed to accumulate chips, after seeing almost no cards at all for the first nine hours! I’d seen ace-king twice (one time folding it pre-flop when facing a raise and re-raise) and pocket tens once. No pair higher than that the whole time. It was a tough table to steal from, so generally I stayed out of trouble.
My key hand – and in fact probably the most difficult hand I ever played – was when I was finally dealt QQ. Blinds were 400/800 with a 100 ante, and I raised to 2500. The player to my immediate left, who had come to the table with a large stack and played very aggressively since arriving, just called. The small blind also called.
Flop: jack-eight-something.
I can’t remember exactly, it took me quite a while to settle down again after the hand!
The small blind checks, and I bet 5,000 – I have 11,000 left. The aggressive player moves all in and the small blind folds. I change my mind about what to do 300 times, amazed that nobody calls the clock on me as I must have taken at least five minutes to finally call. He flipped over ace-jack for top pair, top kicker and I didn’t get unlucky. For the first time in the tournament, I was above average in chips!
I’d love to be able to explain what exactly convinced me to make the call, but it’s just a bit of a blur. 🙂
We’re back in action at noon (8pm UK time) tomorrow (today, in fact, just about everywhere now).
EDIT: I’ve pulled the live update graph for Day 2. It didn’t serve much purpose. I saw 98s on my big blind and moved all in after one player raised. I was just hoping that I wasn’t dominated, getting more than 2-1 on my money with the high antes. No such luck – he flipped up A8 and I didn’t get there. One hand played, and 22nd place.
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