2012 World Series of Poker Main Event Trip Report, Day 1

The full report from my first day of play at the 2012 WSOP main event is now appearing in Two Plus Two Magazine. It contains both strategic insights and a few anecdotes about the crazy stuff you’re pretty much guaranteed to see in that tournament. Here’s a little teaser:

Despite my early winnings, these recent losses had ground me back down to more or less the 30,000 chips with which I started. I believe in avoiding big confrontations so early in the tournament when possible, but when your opponents are tough, you can’t afford to play scared. You have to be willing to take the appropriate risks. I was, and it ultimately paid off, but I had a few heart-stopping moments along the way.

The first was against my Hawaiian friend. I open raised to 750 holding KQo in the CO, and he reraised from the SB to 2,550. Generally I would consider that a large re-raise and he’d mostly been avoiding confrontation with me, so my first instinct was to fold. However, there was something suspicious about the size of his bet. In the past, his re-raises had been even larger, often as much as 3,000 over a similarly sized raise. I took it as a sign of weakness that he’d chosen to risk less this time.

As always, I’m eager to hear what you think!