Or at least it used to be.
Waking up at 9am, with a cup of Sainsburys red label tea, and a couple of digestive biscuits. Normally this would be happening in the sedate world of West Norwood, and I'd be contemplating the rest of my day. However, today it's happening in the suberb of Summerlin, Las Vegas, and I've dragged all this crap 5000 miles across the Atlantic because I'm an eccentric creature of habit and I like my morning time.
It's also the first day of the WSOP main event for me, kicking off in a few hours. Time for a swim, and to put my party face on.
Off and running. A friendly face on my right in the form of consummate pro Mel Judah. Other than that it's generally light and talkative with only one exception, who I'll try to bust in a few levels if he doesn't revise his table manner.
About an hour in, and my 30,000 now looks a lot like 29,500. Starting to panic now and obviously looking for a spot to get it in.
Just kidding.
Just snapped off a river bluff. Something I'd rather not be doing on level one, but there it is. Up to 31,500.
A small amount of momentum has been gathered. Up to 32,500 with 25 minutes to go before first break.
Mission accomplished so far. First break 32k.
Obviously I have to be careful what I write. The website isn't exactly a covert outfit what with my "Kevinolearypoker.com" patches on display, and the curious will of course visit the site, which is fine. Just means I need to be careful what I sometimes say. However the first table isn't a bad draw all things considered even though noones doing anything overly stupid right now. A few guys were betting quite big considering it was only 50/100, but I'd say generally people are playing it pretty cautious and ABC, with the odd bluff thrown in for variety.
Just found a fairly quiet spot outside on the break. Some socially inept looking kid with an electric toothbrush was enjoying a 20 min grooming session, whilst another is on the phone, possibly to his backer, using the word "fuck" every 7th word, and is telling the guy how his entire table is so bad, and that he'll hit 100k by the end of the day with no problems. Good luck with that son.
40 minutes approximately into level two at 100/200, and this post is to report that there's nothing to report. Lost two small pots, and then check-raised another to get the loot back. Still around 32k.Chatting to my lovely wife via Whatsapp as she supports me from the UK whilst also drifting off to sleep. Poker still isn't much of a spectator sport really in my opinion, but I appreciate the love nonetheless.
A bitoif action on my table at last, thanks to the only young kid who's really shown some loose bluffing tendencies. Both Mel Judah and myself have taken a bite, and my 32k is now around the 39k mark. Onward and upward.
Coming up to break number two, and some truly dazzling footwork, combined with fortunate flopping probably has me up around 46k now. Happy with the unfolding of events thus far today,and back in 20 min at 150/300. Off outside to get some sunshine.
Horses for courses.
Maybe not the ideal time for me to write it, but walking the halls of the Rio on the break, I am reminded day and day out how truly different I am from the majority of the players in this building. That's not to say different is better or worse, it's just to say I'm different. Personal hygiene habits aside(I've just seen 25 guys use the bathroom and not wash their hands afterwards) it's more apparent with each passing year that I think and play poker in a TOTALLY different way to most of the herd. Of course I have some good friends in the game, and some great players whose game I respect, but past discussions have shown that whilst others are watching poker training videos, and have almost all moved over to the online mentality of min-bet,don't miss value, put someone on a range etc, I simply don't think that way at all. I just don't. And I never will. The maths and the mechanics are fine of course, but to me it always has been and always will be primarily a people game. The more I walk through listening to guys tell flop stories, and explain why it was just impossible for them to fold(once they've busted out), the more I vastly prefer the way that I choose to play results or no results on this trip. Walking past all the displays where video screens are telling you how they can teach you how to "crush live poker" (for a fee obviously) or how to "beat any game" with the correct brainwashing just reminds me that I'm happy I still haven't bought into this play by formula approach that is now almost the norm with so many of today's players. It certainly never hurts to know what the up to date kids are doing nowadays, in fact that's positively advantageous, but I'll never be one of them. Obviously I'm never going to be a kid again anyway. That ship has most certainly sailed. I don't miss pimples and awkwardness around the opposite sex anyway.
So too unfortunately has my 46k. A few 3-bets and missed flops and my 46 now looks more like 41. Back into my shell for a bit.
Back again up to the magical number of 47k. A few guys have got slightly frisky on my big blind and so I've opened up a bit. Once I had it, twice I didn't but decided that I wanted the pot anyway so I took it. Dinner break shortly and I'll be leaving the building a few minutes early to avoid the great unwashed as they jam out of the exits like a cork trying to escape from a bottle of cheap wine.
Back from the break and I lost my blinds, but picked them up straight afterward in a small pot.We just lost Mel Judah, which surprised me as I thought he had a reasonable stack. I found out that in the 10 minutes I wasn't there before the dinner break he lost a big pot against aces, so was pretty crippled.
Oh how it changes, oh how ugly the game can be...
My 47k is now 25k thanks to two hands in succession which really couldn't be avoided. A short stack shoves for 5k on my big blind and I wake up with two red 10's. I call and he flips over AK offsuit. He proceeds to hit both of his cards and doubled up.
The immediate hand after that I get raised and call with Kd10d, I turn the 2nd nut flush(Qd on the board). The raiser has the nut flush. Sigh. Keep it going.
Played some small-ball pots and ran it back up to 30k. Not feeling the pressure at all but felt a tad unlucky to lose two such big pots in a row. Shrug it off and keep going. We're currently nearing the end of level 4. More fun and pain, against the short stack I doubled up earlier. This time my AhQh couldn't beat his KK allin preflop for his last 5k again. This time he flopped quads. Down to 25k again.
Now bounced down to 21k after losing two more pots where decent holdings ran into suited garbage. No complaints. I'd rather have had my hands than theirs, it's just the way they happened to run out.
20 min break now then last level of the day.
My bad. It's 200/400/50. Pretty sure I did that the other day as well. You got the idea.
Back from the break and a few players have changed gears a bit and started putting in bigger raises and 3-bets pre-flop. No big deal, just knowing how to react to it is key. My stack is the same.
Milestones.
Another aside from the small matter of getting violated in this tournament. A quick check of the stats for my website whilst writing shows that on this day, in this event, during this very update, kevinolearypoker.com has hit it's highest ever website traffic for one 24 hour period.
So to you 12 people.... I say thank you.
No. On a serious note I don't think Google has too much to panic about. However I'm creeping towards 400 unique hits just for today, which means(unless I somehow drastically oversold for the series to 400 people) that around 383 of you are also interested observers to the ups and downs of my tournament life. Like I said,I doubt it'll break too many website records, but for one schmuck with an idea and the limited brain capacity to turn it into something resembling a professional looking website format to sell action I suppose you could say I'm immensely proud that it's been a success, even if my poker in the last few months hasn't. Once I win something I expect traffic to go mental. The fact my principles prohibit me from spamming this site on Facebook and Twitter to my friends and that's it's still a hit does make me glow a little.
Anyway, enough of that, I'm not accepting an academy award. Just a note of thanks to my shareholders, my friends who like a sweat and to read the sarcastic crap that I write, my mum, Alina my beautiful wife, Doyle my 11 year old dog, God, Allah,Buddah,etc,etc.
Ahem.
Back to it and I just found KK. I got zero action and picked up the blinds and antes. Marvellous.
Had a few small ups and downs, but just got lucky and crept back up to 23k. We have 45 mins left before bagging up for the end if day one. I'd not be overjoyed to end the day on 20k or less, but at the same time I'm not about to spazz out if I see a suited ace. We'll see what happens.
Back up to 25k. I'm going to keep the updates short and sweet because my iPad is threatening to die on battery fumes. A good sign I guess if I've been updating for 12 hours straight.
Looks like people are still watching my ramblings late into the night. I'd guess a lot of you are UK based, so that actually means you're eating cornflakes and wiping the crud from your eyes after enjoying a wonderful nights sleep. In about 21 minutes hopefully I can get some too.
25k still.
Nothing to report in the interim. The floor called last 5 hands before close of play for the day, and I've seen nothing to get into any mischief with so barring the holy grail appearing I'll settle for bagging up and calling it a day. Total to follow unless the next post is to inform you of a catastrophe.
Two hands from the end, and I'm out. QQ vs AK, he turned a king. Sigh. Why am I so cursed?
Just kidding.
Yes, I know, I'm an asshole. Someone just texted me to that very effect. Sorry. Even after the gruelling day I'm still mischievous...
I'm utterly exhausted. Will write more later. Off to bed and I have a day off until I play day 2 on Tuesday. Thanks for all the love everyone xxx