Yesterday, a friend of mine sent an email that included the following snippet:

“I’m amazed at how many top pros have busted out seeming early in their first day. Do you have a theory here? It can’t be that they are ALL getting crushed on set-under-set… I’m wondering if the pros are playing a little looser, taking a few more chances simply due to the need to accumulate chips to deal with the MASSIVE field.”

I posed the question to Howard Lederer, who busted on his opening day. He gave following reply:

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I busted from the Main Event on Day 1. Of course, I’m not happy about it. But I think I played well over the last six weeks. In the entirety of the WSOP, I got my money in bad only twice. After cashing in the first event, I was hopeful that it would be a really good World Series. But it wasn’t to be. That was my only cash.

Tournament poker is tough. Right now, I feel kind of like someone kicked me in the stomach. I’m going to take a little time off now, about 10 days, but then it’s off to The Bike and then Aruba. It’s what I do.

I’m playing well, and I’m sure I’ll be awarded for my good play soon.

Today started the fourth day of the opening rounds of the Main Event. The days have tended to move very slowly. At most tables, you can watch for long periods of time and witness any number of hands where a few hundred or a couple of thousand chips change hands. Eventually, though, a big hand goes down. One person’s stack is severed; another’s grows.

To get a feel for the Level 1 experience, I spent the first two hours of today’s play sweating Erik Seidel. The play at Erik’s table was, for the most part, unexceptional. While there were no other notable pros sitting with Erik, this was not the easiest table assembled at this year’s WSOP.

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Perry Friedman and John D’Agostino were chatting about poker, when Mike Mike Matusow stumbled by, clearly a little tilty after busing out of the main event.

Matusow: “It was the sickest thing ever.”

D’Agostino: “It wasn’t that sick.”

Matusow then went on to describe a hand where he re-raised a button raise with 7-7 and was called. He then flopped a set and bet out. The button moved in with a flush draw which eventually cracked his set.

Matusow: “I can’t believe he called the re-raise with King-Jack.”

D’Agostino: “They always call. And they always hit.”

Matusow: “They hit every time. I hit like one percent of the time. It’s just so sick.”

You need to pick up hands in this tournament because these guys just keep calling. I’m not all that healthy right now. I’ve got 3,800. But I think I’ve got a good read on the players at my table. I have a good sense if they’re strong or weak when they raise preflop. A couple of re-raise steals would really help. And I’ve got the Rock of Gibraltar to my left. I should be able to steal his blinds pretty regularly.

I’ve got 19 big blinds, so I’m not out of this thing. Back to the tables.

David Singer to Melissa Hayden: “If I had a gun when I saw you yesterday, I might have shot you.”

David then related that he had seen Melissa after busting out of the Main Event. His early exit also cost him a big side bet. So his mood wasn’t especially bright when Melissa told him that he looked like crap and needed a shave.

I caught up with Erik so I could get his toughts on the 2006 WSOP.

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There have been no shortage of problems at this year’s WSOP. Most difficulties stemmed from poor planning; other cropped up because the staff had little experience. But in the Main Event, the tournament organizers put their heads together and came up with an incredibly stupid idea: The All In Chip.

I guess it was conceived as a time-saving device. Rather than take the four seconds that’s required to push a stack toward the pot, a player can simply flip out the All In Chip. This chip is the same shape and size as any other poker chip. The only difference is that it’s blue, which doesn’t match the shade of any of the other chips.

You see the potential problem? I thought you might.

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I witnessed a hand yesterday in which one player, a young women who seemed to be a very good player, took a long time to consider whether or not she wanted to call a river bet. Given the action, I was pretty sure she had a Kings or Aces, but she was pretty sure the hand was no good. Finally, she made the crying call.

Her opponent showed down two-pair, and the young woman nodded and tapped the table in a show of sportsmanship. Then a player not involved in the hand asked to see her cards.

“You want to see my cards?” she snapped. Then she flung her cards at the muck.

Yet another player chimed in, offering,”it’s bad etiquette to ask someone to show their hand after they’ve lost and mucked.”

“This is poker! There’s no such thing as etiquette,” the man shot back.

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Mark Vos finished Day 1 of the World Series of Poker Main Event with over 70,000 in chips. He is among the chip leaders. I chatted with Mark about his Day 1 experiences and his strategies for the coming days of play.

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