102,900 - Off to a Good Start

Thank God for Painkillers! I arrived at the Main Event yesterday with a splitting headache and a temperature running at 102. Not really the kind of physical condition I had envisioned but I was seriously running out of Main Event start days so I had to sit down and get into the groove regardless of how I was feeling.

Fortunately the rather uncommon mixture of painkillers and the best tennis match ever on TV (if you didn't see the Federer-Nadal match yesterday you should stop reading now and find it on YouTube or someplace else) got me through the first hour. The rest of the day I was playing in a haze.

Long story short: Around 1 AM, I was able to fill up my little plastic bag with 102,900 chips putting me in the top 100 out of the remaining around 4000 players. Not bad at all!

Besides my whining about feeling sick, the cards were on my side for most of the day. I got off to a really good start quickly crossing the 35k mark and besides a dip to 25k somewhat later in the day I was never in any danger of busting.

At times when another shot of Advil was starting to work, I became ultra loose-aggressive. One example: I decided to call a raise from a fairly conservative player with



one off the button.

Flop comes:



He bets and I call. Now this is no so insane as it might look. Plan A is to check whether the guy has an Ace or not. I might be able to bluff him off a big pair. Plan B is obviously to hit my gut-shot. Turn:



Lol! He checks, I bet and he calls. River:



Again he checks, I make a medium-sized value bet hoping he might have a big Ace and he calls. I don't know what he had but probably AT or something.

One of the highpoints of the day was when I hit a straight flush. I limped in with



along with four other guys and the flop came:



People tend to get overly excited about a straight flush draw but really against four opponents you have to proceed carefully. Guy no.1 bets, I call and the rest of the pack folds. The turn card is the



Great card even though it pairs the board. Heads-up my hand is no longer as vulnerable. He checks and I check with the intention of making a big value bet on the river. He didn't seem very strong, so I was hoping he would catch up just a little on the river. Skill card:



WOW! My opponent bet right into the ice-cold nuts and I raised only to see his cards hit the muck faster than you can say Howard Lederer.

So, what is the strategy from here apart from getting better? Well, last year I accumulated 100,100 chips on the first day only to go into the lead at the end of day 2. That sounds like a good plan J.

Later

Gus

Gus plays online exclusively at FullTiltPoker.com. Be a part of Gus Hansen's poker community at www.theplayr.com, where among other cool stuff you can check out Gus' blogs, analysis, poker articles, Gus TV, Tips'n'Tricks, "Ask Gus" and even play against Gus in exclusive online and live tournaments.