Day One Borgata

I survived a day of cold cards thanks to the Borgata's fantastic structure. We got 20k to start and I was down to 7.6k at the end of the fourth level. I was ice-cold flopping sets all day long (less than 10%) and won nothing the one time I hit. I also got very little out of my suited connectors which I consistently took to the flop. I had only a few big pairs and lost chips with hands like AQ and AK. Somehow though I was able to grind my way back into the mix by picking up a few unwanted pots and finished the day near my high-water mark with exactly 21k.

Hand of the day: I limp behind a limper with 99 in mid-early position for 200 (it seemed everytime I raised with something like this I got reraised by a rock) and a good player with a fairly short stack limps behind me. An average, fairly loose player in the SB raises to 1000. At this point I have about 13k. The first limper folds but I quickly call the raise in position and then to my shock the other limper raises to 4500, leaving himself with about 5k more. The SB thinks forever before folding his pocket tens and it is up to me. This is an extremely bizarre play, to represent a big hand after limping behind two limpers in late position. I was completely befuddled. I couldn't see this guy not raising us limpers with a big pair, but I couldn't see him reraising half his stack wiithout a premium hand. I had talked with this guy during the breaks enough to establish that we are both good players with some experience. So I knew that he knew that I would know he was making a very weird play. Also when the small blind raises limpers like this it is often a real big hand (since they can just see a cheap flop if they wish and they are out of position). So he had to know the SB had something in this spot. I just couldn't figure out what to do. If I played all-in with him and lost I would be crippled. I thought about the stop and go and I also thought about moving all-in but finally I mucked. He said he would later tell what he had but I lost track of him when we broke tables. Hopefully he's still in it and I'll find him tomorrow.

I still have high hopes. The goal for tomorrow is the same as it was today: survive.