I made day 2 of the $2,500 8 game. My chips aren’t great, about half average at 8k, but I’m still in it. 40 get paid and 192 people are left. I had quite a bit of nerves for the first two hours of play or so since I haven’t played live in year, but after that they went away and after four hours of play I started really feeling comfortable and confident again.
My table draw was pretty tough. I had Daniel Negreanu, David Williams and four other fairly tough guys at my table. There was one live one, some russian guy obv, but he busted halfway through the day. People seemed to play alright, but some are horrible at O8 and Triple Draw. In triple draw, I saw people coldcall and draw 3, open 348 utg, stand pat with a Ten to start etc.
The most interesting hand I played was vs Negreanu. I came very close to busting Negreanu, but it was not meant to be. In PLO, the cutoff opened and I cold called AsKc8s3c on the button, Negreanu defended his big blind. Flop came down 974 with two spades and Negreanu leads out for 2/3 pot. Cutoff folds, and I ask Negreanu how much he has left. He was pretty toned down from what you see on TV for most of the day, but in this hand he really came alive.
“About 2100. You want to put me in? You can put me in if you want? Go ahead.”
I normally don’t get intimidated by pros, but this was still like level 4 or so and I haven’t played poker in awhile. He has a very big table presence when he wants to and he makes it hard to think, I almost did what he wanted and put it in right there. Instead, I end up calling. He starts bantering again,
“Now you’re going make me think. Why can’t you just put it in and make my life easy?”
The turn was an offsuit 8. He shoves and I think for a bit. He starts talking again,
“What do you have JT or something like that? You should probably call. Look at this guy. Probably doing math or something and just wants me to shutup.”
I reply “pretty much” Because I am doing math and trying to figure out pot odds and my equity. With my pair plus flush draw have equity to call if he just has 97, but I’m drawing pretty badly if he has a straight. I tank for a bit and end up calling, but his flopped 3 pair holds up and he doubles through me.