I'm from the East Coast of Canada and been playing for several years but never for any serious amounts. Decided on our annual trip to give a main event 1k qualifier a try on the Saturday before day 1d. There were 640 runners for a total of 61 seats and I think around 8k for 62nd. I was surprised at the level of play for a 1k event, alot of weak tight players, probably two guys at the table that were somewhat tricky and creative.
I'll do what I can to remember all the details but the that Saturday and Sunday have turned into a bit of a blur/whirlwind. Only hand of note early, call an early position raise with 9c10c, flop 953 with two diamonds, call a flop bet. Turn is an offsuit q, raiser checks, I'm pretty sure I'm good but decide to check and get to the river as cheap as possible. I think this is a mistake, I should have bet the turn there. River comes 6d, original bettor leads out on river. I'm positive he doesn't have a flush and decide to raise it here as I think if we does have a better hand I can make him fold rep'ing the flush. my hand does have pretty good showdown value so I think the call might have been the way to go here. Anyway, he mucks fairly quickly.
It's about 3 hours in and I've chipped up a little but starting to get fairly short stack in relation to the blinds. John Myung(sp?) gets seated at our table and brings it in UTG, finally I pick up two black aces, I don't usually get too cute but decided there was a good chance if I move in pre i lose him and figure him to be quite aggressive so decide to smooth call and roll the dice. Flop comes down 10-5-2, 2 spades, he makes a pot size bet at the flop and I move in, slightly more than double his bet. He is steamed and giving me the stare, he finally mucks and says "slow playing aces on me?". Crossed my mind to say "sorry John, I don't remember", decide against it. Pretty good read on his part I guess. That puts me back into average, another couple hours past and I'm short and looking to push. i jam with 76o, q10, kqs never getting looked up and I'm basically treading water.
Move tables are we are getting down to about 150 left, jammed with kj off and then it's folded to me on the button. I look at one card and it's a king, jammed, both blinds fold and the other card was a king too, what a waste! Players are dropping like crazy and I get moved to another table. We are down to about 90 and I'm probably in the bottom 10 stacks, folded to me and I jam with 10-8 off, big stack that has just shown aa three hands in a row (must be nice) calls with kjh. Happy to see that hand, flop comes a103, take it, but any paint kills me, turn is a beautiful 10, no queen on river and I've gone from life support to short stack. Things have tightened up considerably, I move in with a2, 10-8 again and q10o again. We were down to about 70 it really slowed down. About an hour later we are at about 68 and our table gets accused of folding around to sneak into the money (not true, but def playing very very careful). Tournament director comes around and we to keep our cards in front of us after we fold to make sure we are playing straight up.
I've chipped up a little and now dread looking down at a hand. Utg short stack looks at his hand and sighs, limp utg, I have aqd in the small and call. Flop comes a72 and i check, he is absolutely not betting anything except ak so it gets checked around, turn is 4c (second club) and i min bet, the bb calls and the other guy folds, later he has to show 1010. river is a 7 and i check, the bb checks and my aq is good and I'm in great shape.
Scott Clements is trying to organize a deal and they pause the tournament for about 10 mins of absolute chaos, everybody agrees to a deal and then the chip leader states he wants 12k now. So no deal and after tons of yelling we get back to our seats with no deal in place. Director is loosing his mind, tells Clements if he gets out of his seat one more time he's out of the tourney (def wasn't nice about it). Clements manages to get a bunch of guys to chip in $200 apiece for the bubble, totalled $4400. At this point we are down to 64 I think and the short stack at our table picks up 1010 from early, he folds and at the conclusion of the hand is giving a penalty of once around the table. Buddy loses his mind and is threatening a lawsuit, "you can't make me play 10's in that spot!". He decides his best option is to walk away.
My back is to the rail and every guy in the tourney has about 5 friends back there screaming at all the chaos. I slowly realize that the tournament started at 1, it's now eleven and I totally forgot to eat today. Head is pounding it's been about a two hour unreal stressful bubble. Tournament director screaming at players again for something at another table, I'm not really sure what happened. "That's it, everybody is redrawing and sent to totally opposite ends of the room". We redraw and I end up at the table with Scott Clements who has exactly 3 antes left. This does it though as all previous table "relationships" are done and we play two hands when it finally ends.
I can't believe it finally happened, trying to qualify for years and I finally get my shot the next day at noon. As I'm walking to the cage there is a scalper type guy looking to buy the tourney chips they give you. 10k is a lot of money to me but it's a once in a lifetime thing and i don't even think twice about walking past him. A friend of mine won a seat on stars a few years ago and just took the cash and to this day says it's one of the biggest regrets of his life. My buddy with me was on the rail and we went for a late supper and it was time to get focused on the next day!.
part 2 to come, will just be main event content.