WPT Day 2

I came into the day with only 28K which was still good for 35bbs. My table was pretty decent considering. I had Charder, Bax, Josh Arieh, and a wildly aggressive Hungarian on my left. I found a spot early to limp push from the SB with AKhh. The Hungarian looked me up with A8dd. Shortly after that I raised with AK and got 3 callers. The flop came K52 with two hearts and I attempted to check raise. Arieh ended up betting and then calling my push with KJ. My hand held and I was up to 90K. Shortly after that I was in the BB and it folded around to the SB he completed and I raised it up with A8cc. He called and the flop was Ah7c2c. He led out 1.5x pot and I raised full pot to pot commit him. He beat me in the pot and showed A7o. I still had 12 outs twice and the Kc hit the turn to bust the SB. We were pretty close on chips and the pot pushed me near 190K. After that Phil Hellmuth moved into his spot. He immediatley lost 3/4 of his chips and was pretty active. I doubled him up with JJ vs KK all in pre and then AJ vs AA all in pre. Those pots and a few others put me down around 20K again. I raised with A10o and the Hungarian called. The flop was 992 and decided to check raise all in for value. A scary move, but one that worked out as the Hungarian bet 2x pot and then called my push with Q6o. My hand held and one orbit later I took QQ against the Hungarians AK. The board bricked out and I was up to 85K. I became a bit more active and was able to chip up to 180K with out having to show down to many hands. Then late in the day I found AA for the first time all tournament. I raised Brandon Cantu's BB and he called. Cantu is a very good and creative player so all I could think about was pot contol. Then the flop came down AJ7 rainbow relieving all my worries. He checked and I bet 7K in to 12ish. He made it 17500 and I was in heavan. I was pretty sure he didnt have much, but I threw in another smallish raise to entice more action. I made it 42.5K total and called quickly. The call told me he had a hand, but not AJ or a set. I put him on AQ and was looking for one big value bet, so when the 2 hit the turn I checked behind him to set up a big bet or raise on the river. The river was a K and he checked. I fired 68K and he snapped with AKo. Looking back I coulda/shoulda doubled up, but the way the hand played out I still think my plan of one big value street was correct. The pot pushed me to about 280K and I ended the night with 296K.
Day 3 coming soon.

Justin "robert07" Young