Matt at the WSOP

My friend Matt Lessinger has made it through day 1 and day 2 at the WSOP main event! Here's the e-mail he sent me summing up the conclusion of day 2 action:

Hi all,

OK, two days down. I made it past Day Two, and I start Day Three in about half an hour. Yesterday was a real struggle, including (as I told Dave in a phone call at the break) playing at what I consider to be the toughest table of players I've ever faced. I am very happy to draw for a new table today and take my chances with some new opponents.

I hovered between 30,000 and 50,000 for most of the day, but right near the end, I had a hand that worked out well. I picked up two black aces. Someone raised to 3,200, I made it 8,000, and he called. The flop came K-Q-3 all diamonds. He checked, and I bet 12,000, which basically committed me to the pot, since I had only about another 25,000 left. He sat and thought for a while, and he looked like he was really struggling with what to do. I didn't think it was an act. Finally he shrugged and said, "OK, I'm all in." I thought briefly, but figured that he most likely hand was A-K with the ace of diamonds, and I had to go with my aces. I called, and was thrilled to see that he had A-K with the ace of hearts, so the only thing that could save him was one of the two remaining kings. They didn't come, so I doubled up to about 90,000 in chips.

As it turns out, I didn't pick up a single hand in the last 45 minutes that followed, so I ended Day Two with 82,000 in chips. That's slightly below average, and slightly below my goal of 100K going into the day, but all-in-all I'm fine with it.

There are about 1,350 players left, and the top 666 make it into the money. At this point, realistically my chances of finishing in the money are about 40%. In order to do it, I need to make it through all of today, and with the blinds starting at 800-1,600 and going up from there, I will obviously need to win some decent pots to make it through the day. But so far so good, and I'll try to continue the upward movement.

Thanks again to Jeremy for making the trek to the Rio to give his support each day. Thanks to Alan for going clothes shopping for me at 1 AM when I realized I had no clothes left for today's tournament. And thanks to Timmy for stopping by on his way out of town.

I'll let you know how today went. Hopefully we'll all have a little more money in our pockets at that time.

Regards,
Matt


Just a reminder that I have 10% of his action! 666th place pays $21,000 so it will be a great pay day for us both if he can make it that far. You can check out other details of the main event at www.pokerpages.com. I'll put up a post when he goes broke or makes the money.