Day 8: In the money!

We're in the money!

From 219 entrants, 22 will return for Day 2.  The top 27 get paid, so I have $1470 (minus a tip, to be decided) in the bank.  With the $920 from Thursday, that means all my backers are already getting virtually all of their money back, with a possible profit on the horizon.

The next money checkpoint is when 18 are left - we're playing 9-handed - and then 10th to 18th place receive $2525.  Top prize is $57,000, but that's a long way off.

Don't get too excited, though.  I only have 9500 in chips left (the second shortest stack), the next level is 1000/2000 blinds with a 500 ante.  Oh, and I'm also on the big blind next hand.

I had to survive two 50/50s to get this far (pocket 9s and 6s both holding up against overcards, all in pre-flop) and I'm going to need to gamble again almost straight away tomorrow.  I never really managed to accumulate chips, after seeing almost no cards at all for the first nine hours!  I'd seen ace-king twice (one time folding it pre-flop when facing a raise and re-raise) and pocket tens once.  No pair higher than that the whole time.  It was a tough table to steal from, so generally I stayed out of trouble.

My key hand - and in fact probably the most difficult hand I ever played - was when I was finally dealt QQ.  Blinds were 400/800 with a 100 ante, and I raised to 2500.  The player to my immediate left, who had come to the table with a large stack and played very aggressively since arriving, just called.  The small blind also called.

Flop: jack-eight-something.

I can't remember exactly, it took me quite a while to settle down again after the hand!

The small blind checks, and I bet 5,000 - I have 11,000 left.  The aggressive player moves all in and the small blind folds.  I change my mind about what to do 300 times, amazed that nobody calls the clock on me as I must have taken at least five minutes to finally call.  He flipped over ace-jack for top pair, top kicker and I didn't get unlucky.  For the first time in the tournament, I was above average in chips!

I'd love to be able to explain what exactly convinced me to make the call, but it's just a bit of a blur.

We're back in action at noon (8pm UK time) tomorrow (today, in fact, just about everywhere now).

EDIT: I've pulled the live update graph for Day 2.  It didn't serve much purpose.  I saw 98s on my big blind and moved all in after one player raised.  I was just hoping that I wasn't dominated, getting more than 2-1 on my money with the high antes.  No such luck - he flipped up A8 and I didn't get there.  One hand played, and 22nd place.