Monday morning after Days 1 A and B of the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event and again I’m torn between hope and despair. I was knocked out on Saturday night about 20 minutes before the end of the day’s play. I’d had a rollercoaster day but was struggling with about 15,000 chips, half my original stack. The average was creeping towards 60k meaning that nearly half the field was out. It was the strongest line up I’d ever seen in a poker tournament. Everywhere you looked there was a famous name: Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth (more to come on him!), Mike Matusow, Eric Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Allen Cunningham…unbelieveable! It was a “Who’s Who of Poker”. Then there was me of course, bringing down the average! I admit to being slightly overawed at the start. I vaguely recognized a few players at my first table from the EPT tournaments on TV. But the ESPN cameras focused mainly on another player who I didn’t recognize at all, an older guy in a baseball cap and dark glasses who was with his Dad. Eventually I worked out it was Steven Begleiter, one of this year’s “November Nine”. Lucky bastard!

My tournament started and finished with TT.

In my final hand I was in late position and was looking at an early position raise and another caller in front of me. The Original Raiser was a young kid who was very aggressive, and the caller had called because he could have anything. The blinds were 250/500 with a running ante of 25, the raise was 1,400 so there was already about 4k in the pot. It was a perfect spot to squeeze even if I didn’t have a hand. I looked down at my second TT of the day. My options were to re-raise to 4k or so and expect to see a flop in position against one or two callers; or to push all-in and hope to take the pot. All-in is easily the most conservative option here and my game plan was safety first, so I shoved. The Young Gun thought for a good three or four minutes and reluctantly called with KJ diamonds….marvellous. The river obliged with a J.

Several hours earlier, my day had started just as badly when, in level 3 with the blinds at a paltry 150/300, I found my first TT of the day on the button. A young American had raised in early position. He had played very solidly so far so he probably had either a high pair or AK/AQ. I needed to know which so I reraised a small amount on the button. He flat called which honed my radar towards AQ or a medium pair (which is what I was hoping for). The QQT flop could not have been more perfect if he had AQ. He checked, adding to my read that he had AQ. Now I needed to disguise my hand. If I checked behind it would look very strange. If I had AK or AA/KK (the hands I was representing with my reraise before the flop) then I would bet. I would only check with a huge hand (QQ, AQ or TT). So I needed to bet to make it look like I didn’t have it. Make sense?

I bet 2k into the 3k pot. He flat called, again confirming that he had AQ. So I was mortified to see the A on the turn. I felt a bit sick. My certain early double up had gone down the tubes. Nooooo! He checked (obviously) and I checked resignedly behind him sure I was beat. The only question was whether I would call his river bet, which turned out to be one 5k red chip. I knew I should fold but I couldn’t. I was down to under 20k already. I had slid down a huge ladder. I felt like a popped balloon!

Eventually, I found the Boots (AA) and got it all in against Poker’s latest superstar, Tom Dwann (known as Durr, his online soubriquet) who had AQ. But that was the last time I had any chips in the pot until my TT went down in flames. It was disappointing to be knocked out without any kind of chance. Even worse when, as I was packing up my stuff and walking away from the table, I saw Vicky was also all in. I peered over to see she was ahead with AK and a King high board. Phew! Unfortunately I failed to notice that the dealer was in the process of dealing the river. The guy in seat 4 leaped up in delight.

But The Coach had a different story. He couldn’t miss all day and ended Day 1 with roughly 90k, triple his original stack. Come on The Coach!

Before you go, check out Phil Helmuth’s arrival at the WSOPE:

http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/photo-gallery/?t=122&e=465&p=10

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