IPO 2009 Diary

Well, was I glad I made the effort in advance, as predicted it sold out and my preferred day was snapped up pretty quickly!

With hindsight, working the night before Day 1B was a bad idea, but I managed to drag myself out of bed just in time to make it to the Regency for 1pm, or thereabouts.

I got loads of low-middle pocket pairs early on but couldn't hit a set to save my life. I was also rivered in a couple of pots by fishy callers hitting their gutshots, which pleased me no end and I went from maintaining close to starting stack, to drifting back dangerously low.

My lowest point was approximately 3.5k, which was scary low given the size of the field and the pace the tourney was moving at. I decided to take a stand and started shipping any opportunity I got, which paid off no end. Then I finally managed to get a few hands which got paid due to my stepped up aggressive image. To be honest, I was always happy with my starting table, I thought the standard was ridiculously bad and was probably one of the best in the room in terms of value.

That was what frustrated me more, I felt like I should have been flying from the off, but it seemed like I couldn't catch a break early on. Still, once I got going I went on a flyer and reached a high point of about 112k an hour or so before the end of play.

It then went a bit wrong. I lost a couple of flips. Thankfully, both pots were all in shoves from shorties and it didn't kill me completely, but it do damage to the nice stack I had scraped together. I finished the day on 61.5k, which I was quite disappointed with in the end. I was hoping to clear 80-90k to ensure I was at least average, but like Killarney the week before, I knew a double up within a few laps would see me right on Day 2.

I'll be back on Sunday with my Day 2 diary.