I knew there’d be no chance, absolutely none, of recalling much of the details surrounding my play in the main event, so I tucked my Moleskine notebook—it’s advertised as the notebook of Van Gogh, Picasso, and Hemmingway.
into my back pocket with a promise made to myself to record my thoughts and feelings after every significant hand, or every half-hour.
Doing so, I hypothesized, would help to focus my thoughts and efforts, which is no small task when you’re playing in an event that begins at noon and figures to end somewhere around 3:30 or 4:00 AM.
I had a plan too, and was hoping the note-taking would keep me on track there too. Unless I was shortstacked, I did not want to go all-in before the flop unless I had pocket aces or otherwise knew I had the best hand.
The way I figure it, early days are all about survival and the downside of going all-in and losing so far outweighs the upside of winning an all-in confrontation that I wanted to avoid taking risks for all my chips if at all possible.
I planned to play few pots, have the edge in those I played, and survive until Day Two. My plan will change later, but first I have to make it to later, and that can be difficult, the best laid plans of mice and poker players notwithstanding.
Day One begins for me with a whimper. I fold the first five hands I’m dealt, although somewhere in the room a player is already knocked out on the second hand he plays. My table is full of players I do not recognize, with the exception of David Williams, who finished second here a few years ago, losing to Greg Raymer in the main event.
I’m in an area of the room filled with name players, and I see Sam Farha, Bill Chen, Patrick Antonius, Tony G, and David Singer at adjacent tables.
My table is aggressive. Every hand is raised, and by 12:30 PM Williams has a big stack and is playing a lot of hands.
A half-hour into the event I have played two small pots and won both of them. At 1:00, an hour into the event, I’m in the profit zone—barely. I now have $20,500, a mere $500 above my starting stack, when I have A-T, flop two pair, and have no callers into my $300 bet.
