Hard fought WSOPE Day One, $55,000 win?
With a great structure here at the WSOPE main event in London, I expected great things.  What happened was a near KO!  I lost a huge pot with K-K, with $11,000 going in after a 9♠-4♥-2♥ flop, against a very live player.  I knew it was a bad sign when I moved in, and he insta-called!  This put me on about $4,900 in chips, and I lost another few hundred the next hand while I was negotiating a bet with Eli Elezra.  Eli laid me 11-to-1 on whether or not I could get up to $35,000 in chips at some point in the tournament.  I knew I had way the best of it, and I was happy to bet $5,000 to win $55,000.  Still, Eli has won tons of insurance bets from me for hundreds of thousands of dollars, so I need to win this bet!  I am proud of the way I played as I ran my chips up to $15,000 without ever being all-in and called.  I lost back to around $10,000 and hovered there for many hours with my stack mostly hanging between $7,500 and $12,000.  I told myself that I would gamble and put my chips in weak if I had this range of chips late in the day, because my wife is waiting for me in a penthouse in Aruba at the UltimateBet.com championship event.  My thinking was get decent chips or go to Aruba!!  I abandoned that strategy for three reasons: one, my side bet with Eli; two, the structure gives you so much time to maneuver; and three, it is the last WSOP bracelet awarded in 2008!! 

You know my affinity for WSOP bracelets!!  I NEED number 12!  Finally, with about 45 minutes to go, a loose player raised in the cut off, the small blind reraised, and I moved my last $12,000 all-in with A-K from the big blind.  The small blind called with A-Q getting about two-to-one on his money (I hated his call because I was only all-in one time that entire day and he saw me NOT reraise with hands like J-J all day long), and the flop came down K-K-5.  One all-in all day long, and fortunately I won it and finished the day with $27,025, which is only a little tiny bit off of my chip peak for Day One.  $27,025 feels like a HUGE stack to me!!  Especially after where I stood chip-wise all day.  Because the structure is great, I feel completely comfortable with $27k.  Check it out: on Day Two the blinds will start at $300 - $600 or maybe even $250 - $500, and $27K is a ton of chips with those blinds.  I need to find a way to make it through Day Two, and it would be nice to crest $35,000 at some point and collect the $55,000 bet from Eli!!!