Another try at the WSOP with the $1500 NLHE, 2095 runners, 4500 chips and my starting table is, as I expected, pretty weak. We start with 8 players until they sell the 5 and 10 seats to late arrivals. It is a mixture of 5 middle-aged recreational players and 2 younger players. Notables:

Seat 1: Younger guy who was just terribad aggressive the whole day. Kept 3-betting without a plan or stack-size awareness and, as a result, frequently found himself in tough spots with marginal hands, but managed to suck-out 30/70s for massive pots three times.
Seat 2: Middle-Aged spewtard
Seat 4: Competent young player, fairly tight-aggressive, but not overly so
Seat 9: Me

I was happy with my table, then after around 15 minutes Seat 5 is filled with the skilfully loose-aggressive online pro tEh_R3aLde4L (named "w33ktight" on 2+2, which is the polar opposite of Wesley's game). During the first orbit I'm involved in action, just as he sits down:

My Stack 4500, Seat 2 4500, Blinds 25/50, I hold 88 in BB

Seat 2 limps, 1 more limper, SB completes and I check my option. Flop A84ddd. SB checks and due to the monotone flop, I think leading my set here is always the right play versus a bunch of limpers because I want to thin the field and not let too many draws get there or at least make them pay to do so. I lead for 125, which is perhaps a little small and I should maybe make it 150-200, but I only get a call from Seat 2.

Pot 450
Turn Ah

I'm pretty happy to see that card and figure I now get good value from trip Aces, flopped flushes and maybe even flush draws, so I make another lead bet of 325. Again maybe I could bet more and get the same frequency of calls, but I didn't want to lose my customer by betting too strong. He thinks for a while and calls.

Pot 1200
River Jh

Naturally there is a chance that I'm beaten boat-over-boat by a number of hands, but this early in a tourney versus an unknown apparently recreational player I'm prepared to go to the felt with my hand here because he can easily get it all-in with a flush or trips. So I lead for value for the third street and make it 725. He ponders for a while and just calls. I immediately show him the bad news and he shows me Td9d.

In hindsight I sized my bets a little on the small side and perhaps could have won a few hundred more chips, but with a 90BB stack it's hard to get full value out of a flopped set this early in the tourney.

After that I managed to pick up a few small pots, including uncontested AA and KK (sigh), while I watch as Wesley puts on a clinic as to how extract chips from weak-tight players with a loose-aggressive style. Into the second level:

My Stack ~5k, Wesley ~7k, Blinds 50/100, I hold KdQd in SB

Wesley opens for 275. He is opening a lot of pots and has insta-folded on the rare occassions that he has been 3-bet. I feel that a 3-bet here is the right play given his opening range and if he pulls a 4-bet on me I can get away from my hand. So I make it 800 and he thinks for a while and just calls.

Pot 1700
Flop T97dd

I'm a little worried by the board texture as it gives him a lot of semi-bluffing opportunities, but I have to follow through with representing the stength of my hand and make a confident bet of 1200. He thinks for a while and folds AQ face-up. Versus this type of player, I think there's a lot of future value in advertising a successful bluff, so I show him my hand and he congratulates me on my play.

At the break, I ask him if he knows me (because I thought that he might - we have chatted online in forums and tourneys before). He says no, but even though perhaps there might be some value in keeping my identity from him, it would be quite douchy to ask such a question and then not tell him, so we shake hands and wish each other good luck. After that he generally stays out of my way at the table.

Also, just before the first break we are joined by two interesting characters:

Seat 7 has busted and is replaced by the attractive young English astro-physicist heavy rocker, Liv Boeree. She plays a pretty standard tight ABC game and unfortunately busts after a couple of hours, but in the meantime we are treated to some of her air guitar while she rocks out to some stomping heavy metal on her ipod.

http://www.livboeree.com/

Seat 10 has been vacant until it is filled by the very late arrival of Jean-Robert Bellande (who everyone calls Bobby). He plays a little looser and more aggressive than the average player, but nothing too out of line and is constantly bemoaning his lack of cards. Not a douche though and pleasant to everyone at the table and passers by.

Incidentally the legend, Allen Chainsaw Kessler, is one table over from me and banters a little with Bobby.

Not much happens for me in Levels 3 and 4 and my stack hovers at around 5-6k with just picking up the blinds once an orbit or so until this hand near to the end of the level:

My Stack ~6k, Bobby ~4k, Blinds 100/200

Folds to my SB and I complete with Qs4s. I expect him to raise in this spot a lot of the time and I'm not really worried about calling and playing him OOP because I can soon discover the strength of my hand on the flop. me makes it 525 and I call.

Pot 1050
Flop QT9 rainbow

I know he will c-bet here most of the time and this might commit his stack with any kind of straight draw or even just second pair, so a C/R for value seems likes a good play. He makes it 475 with 3k behind, I move in and he snaps me with KJ, sigh.

That leaves me short, but I manage to open shove a couple of times to take the blinds, then I successfully 3-bet Wesley's open to 475 without a showdown (I had KQ) and the same thing versus Seat 6 the very next hand with AQ and then take another pot with KQ with an opening bet of 525, BB defended and check-folded to my c-bet and all of a sudden I find myself with a reasonable stack again.

I keep accumulating without showdowns through the 150/300/25 and I make my first WSOP Side Event dinner break with 6.3k. Still way below the average, but workable as we enter the 200/400/50 level. I pick-up a couple more pots with open shoves (AQ/AK) and one 3-bet all-in (AK) then find this hand:

My Stack ~7.5k, Seat 1 ~20k, Blinds 200/400/50, I hold AJo UTG+1

With my stack size, this is a hand I have to go with. You could argue for a simple open-shove here, but I think my stack is too big for that, so I make a standard open raise to 1025. Seat 1 decides to flat-call, which appears a little weird, but he has played so bad that I assume he is not aware of the constraints that my stack-size should put on his cold-calling range and therefore he can have any kind of medium strength hand here (he would 3-bet a strong hand).

Pot: 3150
Flop T84dd

With 6.5k behind and 3150 in the pot, I feel that I have to try to immediately take this down. I know that most live nits would just check-fold their miss and keep grinding a short-stack, but imo you have to try to aggressively accumulate chips once the blinds reach this level. That flop misses a lot of his range and I can get folds out of a lot of hands that beat me such as A8, A4, 89, 78, 45, 22, 33, 55, 66, 77 and maybe even get him of some weaks Tens like T9.

There's no way I am bet-folding here with my stack, so I think the play with the most fold equity is to shove it all in. Unfortunately he snaps me with 44 and I'm virtually drawing dead. The sicko dealer gives me JJ just to run it in. I was pretty annoyed about his retarded cold call preflop with 44 there, but I guess we want bad players like that in these touneys.

At least I made it past my first dinner break and got that monkey off my back, but no cigar.

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