WSOP Day 1...what a field...what a day.

Well over 3000 players, the announced attendance was around 3200 but I'm not sure, if any event, it was the largest tournament outside of a main event in history.

For the first 2 hours(2 levels), I really didn't move any chips around at all, I had a goofy table that I was uncomfortable putting chips in against, so I decided to really bide my time. At first break, my starting stack of 3000 had become 4300. Bruno's was already 7000.

As a side note for those who are poker fans, a few names I saw around me, Rene Angelil was on the table to my left, and busted in about 20 minutes. Kenna James was sitting directly behind me, and Phil Gordon was at the table to my right.

After that table broke, I didn't see another pro until I wound up at a table beside Greg "FBT" Mueller's table.

Anyway, that table break was big right before the first break, it set me up at a really nice table. After that break, I went to work, and quickly turned the 4300 into around 7000. The last hand before our second break was an easy score, middle position short stack pushed, I found KK on the button and re-raised all in, and isolated the MP player who held 55. I went into 2nd break at around 10,600. Bruno was at 17,000.

After that break, I went on another mini-tear, and quickly found myself up to 18,000 in chips. Then my table broke(incredibly unfortunately since my table was easy as hell).

I got to the new table and immediately lost a huge pot(16,000 chip pot) when my QQ lost a flip against AK. That stung, it left me at around 10,000 again, and I lost another small pot and found myself suddenly at around 8,000, and blinds were coming to get me.

Come dinner time, my count was 8700. Bruno was over 27,000. At dinner time, we were around 640 players to go, 324 of which cashed, so I was looking at maybe not cashing, and Bruno had double the average stack and was still in great shape.

I'll give you a specific hand andecdote from him, not me, since I didn't really play alot of interesting pots. UTG limped into the pot with blinds at 300/600, Bruno, at UTG+1 limped in also, then 4 more players limped behind, until the button made it 5000 straight to go. It folded around to Bruno who decided the player on the button didn't have anything, and open shoved with 9/10 offsuit, causing the player to lay down pocket Jacks. Gotta love the maniac in you Ottawa kids(Bruno's sporting the Jackseven hat by the way).

So...after the meal break, I again get a mini run, and suddenly we're at around 400 players left in the tournament, and I have 8500 with the blinds at 400/800 with a 100 ante(I think), it folds around to me in the cut-off with Jd/10d. Those of you that play on the tour know I love this hand, but this is a move I don't really advise, the only reason I make the play is I need to steal since I'm not finding big hands to play pots with. My entire game to this point has been theft of blinds and antes, and this is a pretty good spot. So I open shove my entire stack, around 65 players from the bubble, and SB calls instantly and rolls over 9/9. The flop is bad, K/5/4, turn, Q, river, Ace. Beautiful.

After that my game starts to pick up a bit again, I elminate a player whose short stacked and shoves the small blind when I'm BB and I have AJ of diamonds and call, he has A7 of spades and I make the nut flush. A few hands later a MP player shoves, and I find JJ behind him so I shove over the top and my Jacks hold to his eights. Suddenly I'm at around 26,000, and off to another break, where Bruno tells me he's over 50,000.

After that break, we start to get down, and I find a few bad setups, and suddenly find myself short stacked again around 15,000 with the blinds at 800/1600. Once we start going hand for hand on the bubble for money, Bruno comes over to tell me he just lost an 80,000 pot when he got cooler KK vs AA. Once we start playing the bubble, poker apparantly decides it's time to test me. The first hand of hand for hand it folds around to me on the button with KQ, a raising spot, so I don't let it affect me, and do infact raise to 5000. SB shoves. I have to fold, he shows 88. I'm down to around 12,000 and getting concerned about the money(2600 awaits in 4 players). The next hand I find Ad/Kd in the cutoff and open shove all in. SB tanks and eventually folds 22, thank god because if I lost that race as my out on the bubble I'd have snapped.

Anyway, not much more happened for either of us. But suffice it to say, the bubble burst, we're both in, and we're both onto day 2. I beleive there are just over 200 players left in the event, Bruno has 17,900, I have 17,200. Tomorrow we had back at 2pm. Although the stacks are pretty small relative to the blinds, most stacks are pretty short at our tables, so even the big stack at my table(59,000), I represent a third of his chips, so I still have more than enough chips to put people to tough decisions.

Today was gruelling, to anyone who has any doubt how hard a WSOP event is to play, 14 hours of poker is stressful. My back is killing me and I'm dead tired, but I'm guaranteed no less than 3,100 dollars for my effort so far, so I feel great at the same time. This has been alot of fun.

So there you have it, me and Bruno buy in to the largest live tournament outside of a WSOP main event in poker history, and we're both into the top 200 of a field somewhere around 3200 or more. It was alot of fun, and hopefully there's more good to come.

For those keeping track, that's 1 for 1 for both of us cashing at the WSOP.