So the big moment arrived when I sat down at Table 41 in seat 4.  At first glance nobody to be afraid of, no famous poker stars, just a bunch of what looked to be online qualifiers plus an older guy with a wish to be confused with Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.

Chip stacks were $10,000, blinds $25 and 50. Levels were 2 hours each, 20 minute breaks between levels, one dinner break of 90 minutes after third level.

Play was quiet and conservative, not a lot of big pots, but a lot of jabs and stabs at the blinds, which would be won with position raises a majority of the time. Without really having had a decent hand I had accumulated $10,725 at the first break. At the second break I had $11,525 and I thought “well, little by little, everything is going as planned”. My strategy and whole mindset was aimed at the patient play, wait for the good cards to come by themselves.

During the second level I found out my buddy Lars Bonding was sitting at a table close by. He was already at $48,000 and one of the chip leaders of day 1B overall. At another table in the opposite direction I saw Ron Jeremy – not as famous for his card skills as he is for his “licor in the front, pok’er in the back” – he was wearing a “Naked Poker” T-shirt and caught a lot of media attention.

Less than five minutes into the first level the first player was out of the tournament, and only a few hours into the event it was announced that Phil Hellmuth had busted, which was met with a loud applause in the audience. Later in the day Doyle Brunson received a big applause when he exited his 37^th WSOP main event.

In the fifth hour I finally made some real progress. First I was allowed to play “for free” with 65h in the big blind with 3 other players in the pot. Flop came 24J, everybody checked. The turn brought a 3, no flush draws out there, I was sitting with the nuts. I bet about half the pot, one folded, while the guy on the button, raised me. Now he was short stacked but did not go all-in, so he definitely had a good hand. Now it was only about how to get all his chips in there. I called.

The river was a blank, and I decided to check. He bet almost half his remaining stack, and I re-raised him all-in. He quickly called and showed a set of 3s – I had busted my first player at the WSOP!

Later I won another good pot, and exceeded the $20,000, but before dinner I lost an important pot holding AK, hitting the king on the board, but losing to a guy who had called a raise with J2d – he caught his two pairs on the river.

Dinner after 6 hours of play – we were half way into day1 and I was just above average with $16,600. I was happy with my play, although I didn´t think I had received my share of cards and luck.

Level 4 didn´t bring much new exciting material for a blog, until the very last hand of the level. I was on the button looking down at the “Hilton sisters”, and before me the fake Jesus had raised under the gun, with only a few chips left. I re-raised him all-in and he called with a pair of jacks. Flop came AAQ, turn another queen, complete overkill. Lars had lost a chunk and was down to $30,000, while I had hit $26,400. I proposed we took 1% of each other, deal!

However, level 5 was a drag. Complete card drought, except for my A10 I had position raised, which got beat by the KK in the SB, followed by my pre-flop raise with queens, called by the kings. The two hands knocked me down to $20,000 again. Mean while Lars had regained momentum and was now at $68,000.

Level 6 was even worse for me. Apart from the struggle to stay awake and concentrated a number of gigantic stacks had joined our table, and the nature of the game had shifted quite a bit for me as now one of the shorter stacks. It was all about picking your spots and stealing blinds, and I did do a decent job of staying afloat, only lost one big hand, where I should have pushed all-in against a button raise when I held KQ – but I REALLY wanted to survive day1.

I did. Mission accomplished for my first day at the WSOP. However, I am slightly crippled with a stack of $15,675, when the average is around $25,000 or more. Tuesday we will resume play at noon, and the blinds will be $250/500 with a $50 ante. That and the fact that I am seated with Annie Duke Tuesday is the bad news. The good news is that it looked like there were no really enormous stacks at my new table, so with a little bit of luck……

One of the big stacks at my first table today told me of his pal, who at the dinner break during day 1a had only $8,000 left, but ended up chip leader with $123,000 at the end of the day (or morning, should I say). Just got back to my hotel room and it is 4 a.m. – 12 hours of poker!

Time to sleep now, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………