BELLAGIO FIVE-DIAMOND CLASSIC (MONDAY)

Day one was a roller coaster. I played a lot more hands than I figured I would, and I had very little respect at the table once I was caught stealing some blinds with junk hands. We began the day with $30k stacks and $50/100 blinds and 90-minute levels. Day one consisted of five levels and the antes kicked in during the third level. I was thankful to be seated at a table with no recognizable faces. There were some good players, but nobody who has ever made a big splash in a televised tournament. Two young guys were wearing Empire Poker gear, and I always love to see young internet players at my table, although neither of them turned out to be easy money. The guy to my left was really good, and the guy to his left was also a player who demanded respect. He reminded me of M Emmitt Walsh from BLOOD SIMPLE because he wore the same constant scowl. I often raised on my button to swipe the blinds, but this guy kept me honest by often smooth-calling. Of course, it doesn't hurt when he's got queens, jacks, and god knows what else. He would let me fire out a continuation bet, which he would call, and I learned real quick to slow down when I missed the flop.

The guy to my left kept flopping sets, straights, top pair, all kinds of stuff, but he would make excellent laydowns on the turn. I was really respectful of his ability to get away from hands. Then finally, he check-raised all in with 99 on an eight-high board, was called by AA and in a flash he was gone. I guess he reached his breaking point. His seat was filled by Tobey Maguire, whom I played with the rest of the day.

I have nothing but nice things to say of Tobey. He is really a great guy. I don't think I once opened my mouth during the first level, since I have a bit of laryngitis, but I exchanged pleasantries with Tobey when he sat down, and we never stopped talking the rest of the day. You can tell that he just loves playing poker. Sure there are people who are star-struck between levels, but at the table, he is just a cool guy who wants to discuss poker. He was really good at reading peoples' hands (except for mine) and we had some good post-mortem analysis of key hands. He also has a great ability to run the numbers in his head, which I have acknowledged as a weakness of mine. I must have some kind of mild dyslexia when it comes to counting five-digit figures. I get confused between the thousands and the hundreds. In Monte Carlo, I realized it is best if I simply ask the dealer to do all the heavy counting for me.

Well, soon after Tobey sat down, I got involved in a pot, where I had to make a big call, so I tossed in a $5000 chip, which was the biggest denomination in play. The change due was some kind of $2375 or something like that, and I just waited for the dealer to give me back my change. Well, the dealer got it wrong, and Tobey, who wasn't even involved in the hand, spoke up and got me all the money that was due. I said "thanks, Spidey" and he smiled. The guy really is a super hero. He came to my rescue one other time when a different dealer also nearly short-changed me.

The first really key hand I played was with the player to my right, who was easily the weakest player at the table. He raised on the button and I had AQ in the small blind. I called, and figured I could extract all this guy's chips if an ace were to flop. Sure enough the flop is AT3. I checked, and he bet. I check-raised. I was concerned with AT or AK, but I thought he could just as easily be playing AJ or even a weaker ace, and I was willing to go all-in to find out since I had him covered. He came back immediately with an over-the-top all-in, and it started looking fairly good that I was against AK. I hated to call, but there was a ton of money in the middle and still a good enough percentage chance that he was pushing with AJ, so I called. Sure enough, he showed AK and I was drawing slim. I hit a queen on the turn, which was a fine gift from the poker gods, and we had our second victim. Notice how bad players often get unlucky. If I respected this guy's play, I don't play this hand nearly as fast, and I respect the all-in and get away from the hand. He left the table cursing his luck, but indirectly, it was his bad play (from earlier) that got him knocked out, since I couldn't put him on AK there.

After a couple hours of nothing happening, my stack was at $28k or so when I raised with 99. The BLOOD SIMPLE guy to the left of Tobey reraised and I made the call. The flop came nine-high rainbow. I checked and he made a strong bet. I performed the whole routine of putting aside the chips needed to call, and seeing what I had in reserve. It turned out to be about $13k in reserve, so I deemed it an appropriate amount to go all-in rather than getting cute. It was not only a great flop that it gave me a set, but with no draws out there, I can play the hand the same way I might if I had tens, jacks, queens, or kings. I'm hoping he has aces or kings and makes the call. He does make the call and shows aces. This was the first time all day that I was all-in, but my money was in good and I doubled up to $56k.

The next big hand I was involved in was for me, the play of the day. I attempted to steal the blinds with K6 and the rock on the big blind called. This guy only shows down winners, so I'm certain he has either a middle pair or a strong ace. The flop came JJ7 and he checked. I could tell by watching him that he didn't connect with that flop. I used my superior position to bet $2000 in an attempt to take it down. He mulled it over and came back with a $5000 raise. I know he has a better hand that I do, but I am also sure he doesn't have a jack. It would be unorthodox to make a move in the early levels that would put at risk half my stack, so I thought, if I came back with a reraise, there is no way he can call unless he has a jack, which I am confident he doesn't have. I called his $5k and added $10k additional. He asked me for a chip count, and he put on a good show, but I knew that if he didn't call immediately, then he wasn't going to call. I had about $22k behind my raise, so it looked like I was pot committed and he would surely be playing for all his chips if he got involved. There was no way I was going to put any more chips in that pot, so worst case, I still had $22k if I needed to fold. I don't condone making big moves this early in a tournament, but I felt that everything in this instance added up to the move making sense. There were a lot of chips available which I thought I had a good chance to add to my stack without risking going broke. He folded and my stack climbed to $66k.

Soon after, I was knocked back down to size when the BLOOD SIMPLE guy raised under the gun and the rock smooth called the $4000. It came around to me on the button with QQ. There is $9500 in the pot, and I've got both opponents covered. I knew if I pushed, then the rock would surely fold, and I only have to be concerned with the original raiser. He probably has AA, KK, or AK, with the AK twice as likely as the other two hands. He might have jacks or tens also. I could have simply taken a flop, which is not a bad play in this position, but I didn't want two opponents. If the raiser has a pair less than queens then I'm sure he folds. If he has AK, I would think he would fold with his tournament life at stake. Even if he has kings, I think he is capable of folding in this spot, so the only hand that concerns me is aces, and I know that he has had it recently, so I feel confident I can win preflop by pushing all in, which I do. Sure enough, he has aces again, and doubles up $28k through me, bringing me back down to where this whole day began. In hindsight, had I called, I would have given up when a king flopped, and the hand would have cost me only the $4000, so the big push at the pot turned out to be a major misstep of day one.

I tried to steal this guy's blinds with T5, but the play backfired as usual when he called the large raise. The flop came 543 and I bet the size of the pot, looking to take it down. He called and I knew I was cooked. The flush scare came on the turn and we both checked it down. He showed QQ and when I showed my hand, my credibility was shot for the remainder of the session. I suppose I could have gotten away with taking more blinds if this guy didn't always wake up with some kind of hand. When I tried a legitimate steal with KQ, he was right there with JJ. I bet the ace on the flop, but when he called, we checked it down the rest of the way. When I tried to take Tobey's big blind with 97, he defended. I bet into the 765 flop, figuring to have the best hand, but once again I was called. I bet again when a 4 came on the turn, but even this didn't scare him. I knew at that point he had trips, so I could only win if an 8 rivered, but no luck, and he took it with trip fives.

I was now the guy who would try to steal blinds with junk hands. Tobey got creative on me when I raised with A2d from the small blind. He called and the flop came K74. I fired out a continuation bet, which he called. The turn was the 7d which gave me a flush draw. I checked, but called when he bet. The river didn't bring me a diamond, but it did bring an ace. I bet straight out. Tobey looked at me sideways because he considered that an odd bet after he had already represented trip sevens. I never even considered that he was representing a hand. I just figured he tried to swipe the pot at the turn. He came back with a raise, which caught me off guard, but his raise was too small to scare me. Suddenly I realized that he probably had an ace and we were looking to chop the pot with AA77K. I called, and he mucked without showing.

Tobey and I were all friendly, but I think he had designs on my chips since he thought I was playing rather erratically. When I tried to win the blinds with a big raise from the button holding KJ, I got called in both places. The flop came KJ9 rainbow and I was first to act. I was willing to go broke with this hand should somebody show up with QT, so I decided to go for the check-raise. In a perfect world, Tobey bets and BLOOD SIMPLE, my nemesis, raises into me. Tobey did bet $5k, but to my dismay, my archenemy folded. I decided not to get cute, since he figured to have a straight draw, so I went all in, giving him a good chance to get off of his hand before an unwelcome turn card scares me to death. Any AQT or 9 on the turn would make me want to throw up, so I didn't want to risk seeing one. Tobey thought good and hard about calling. I naturally assumed he had AJ, KQ, KT, or JT. He thought he had the best hand, but decided to fold. When he told me he folded A9, I have to admit, I lost some respect for his game. He should not have fired at that pot in the first place, much less contemplate calling off all his chips. I told him it was a good fold, but he didn't buy it. I told him I had KJ and he said "you didn't have KJ." A moment later I hear in my left ear "I don't think you had KJ." I tried to convince him that I'm not as crazy as he thinks, and I'm not all in there without top two pair. I explained that I thought he had a pair and a straight draw and I didn't care to take off another card. I didn't want him to think I was playing him and giving him false info after we were chummy for all those hours.

My final two hands of the day were tumultuous to say the least. First, I called Bradley Berman's under-the-gun raise with 99. Three times prior, I tried to resteal a raise from Berman, only to have him go all in and force me to fold. I had learned my lesson, so I just called his raise this time. A small stack in late position went all in, which was an instant call for me. But in the meanwhile, Bradley decided to move all in to squeeze me out of the pot. I've got both of these guys covered. I figured that between these two guys, I am looking at either of two scenarios: They both have overcards with a card in common, or one guy has two live overs and the other has an underpair. Either way, there are only eight cards that can hurt me, so I can go into the hand as a favorite, which is what I chose to do. The short stack showed KQ and Bradley showed KJ. If I can avoid some overcards, my stack is going to grow by leaps. The flop brought a Q which was painful but not disastrous. The short stack hit his card, but the real money I stood to win came from Berman's stack. The turn brought a K and it was official, disaster had struck. The short stack and Berman both doubled up through me, and I was down to $23k with one hand left to play.

I wasn't tilting, but I did have a real aversion to going into day two with less than $30k. I decided that if I had any kind of hand, I was going to gamble with it, because I could end up at a table full of big-stacked poker legends tomorrow and I don't want to be on the short stack. I had one final opportunity to take some money off of this table. I got 77 in second position and I thought about pushing it all in and hoping for a race. I settled on just raising, but with the intention of pushing in if anybody tried to reraise me off of it. Sure enough, Tobey Maguire bumps my $2k up to $5k and when it came back around to me, I shoved it all in there without hesitation. He made the call quick, putting his tournament life at stake with AJ; not a good move in my estimation since I could have had him dominated. But he was roughly 50% to hit one of his cards, which would have dropped me down to $7k to end the day. When a jack hit the flop, I figured the downslide was nearly complete. I wouldn't be broke, but I would be as good as dead in the first level of day two. Did I get the miracle 7? No, I got the miracle running clubs to give me a flush, knock Spiderman out of the event, and bring me up to $41k to end a wild day.