Eric Rizen Lynch

Day 2 of the ME today

I made it through day 1 with ~44k in chips, and even though that's around average it was a real struggle for me to make it through with that stack. Day 1 just felt like I had to work REALLY hard with lots of really tough decisions and lots of places where I could have very easily made other decisions and either won or lost more. I think i played pretty well, but it was a very tough day of poker and I'm pretty sure i laid down the best hand a few times.

That being said, the structure is great and I did make it through with around an average stack. Hopefully today is easier than day 1, but my table looks pretty tough with Brian Lemke, Joe Hachem, 'mman_status', and 'JohnnyBelow' all at my table along with a 120k stack to my immediate left. I'll be over 80 big blinds deep though so we'll see how the table plays and how I run. Lots of chips on the table could be a very good thing.

Given that a lot of other players check this blog now when they know they're playing me I'm not going to share any of my hands that didn't show down until the end of the tournament. That being said my two biggest hands on day 1 happened after dinner.

In the first hand, the button open limped and I was in the small blind. The button was a pretty tight player who didn't like to fold pre-flop once he put chips in the middle, so I just completed in the small blind with Th5h. The flop was KhQhx. I lead into the flop and the big blind called and the button folded. turn was Jh so I had the second nut flush and a straight flush redraw. I bet 1100 into a 1800-ish pot and the big blind made it 3100. After checking my cards to make it look like I might be on a draw I called. river was a brick and I check/called a 4k bet. Big blind had 4h2h for the flush as well and I wondered to myself several times if I should have won more there, but I'm pretty sure he folds if I 3 bet the turn. I could have check/raised the river but I'd have really hated it if he shoved, and I'm not sure I get paid off by his range.

Second hand I had AQo in the big blind and a very aggressive opener in the CO had raised. I would 3 bet a lot here but the CO player was one that wasn't folding pre a lot and REALLY liked to try to outplay people post flop. He was really tough to play against and I didn't want to 3 bet then miss 2/3 of the time and have to decide to c-bet or not. I figured just calling would disguise the strength of my hand as well, so that's what I did. Flop was Q-8-4 with two spades (I had no spades). I check/called because I really thought this particular player based on a few previous hands at the table would 3 barrel a really wide range here, so letting him bet my hand for me would be more profitable than check/raising, and since he 3 barrels wide enough a flush draw isn't a huge part of his range. Turn was a 2 or a 3, and I check/called again. The river was a terrible card, the Ks, but I checked and he bet about 3/4 of the pot and I called and he said 'i can't win' which was nice and I won a nice pot.

Those two hands took me from around 18k to 45k after dinner. I had a really tough day 1 table with Matt Matros, Jimmy Geary, and Joe McGowan at my table. There were a couple of clear marks, but my seat was pretty poor to take advantage of it. I had some really tough decisions in the first 3 levels and dipped as low as 16k, but finished the day really strong and am looking forward to carrying that momentum into today!

-Rizen