Day 1 afterthoughts

...I was always at a comfortable level during the day since I was never short stacked. I was able to build my stack up quickly and I was never all in once during the day. I pushed all in a handful of times, but I always had my opponent covered by a wide margin. The only all in where I could have been crippled was the early one when I had A-A against the A-T on the ten high board.

...Chip counts during the day:

First level: 16K
Second level: 12K
Third level: 32K
Fourth level: 33,650
Fifth level: 26,925
Sixth level: 40,825

...I eliminated three players during the day, which nicely corresponds with my chip stack at the end of the day. It's about what I would have had if I had simply taken 10,000 chips each from three players.

...The advantage of getting our seat assignments is that I was able to see how I stack up against my Day 2 table tomorrow. Here's the names and chip counts:

Table 143

Seat 1 Ralph Caparotti $15,475
Seat 2 Johnny Kampis $40,825
Seat 3 Patrik Selin $48,075
Seat 4 Peter Blow $8,100
Seat 5 Peter Lidekraus $14,425
Seat 6 Empty
Seat 7 Mark Wellen $54,050
Seat 8 Jay Zimmer $6,600
Seat 9 Vinny Curry $65,650
Seat 10 Andrew Berner $11,950

I'm fourth of nine players in chips and was a little unlucky to get a table where I don't rank higher in the chip count since I'm in the top 20 percent in chips overall. Blow and Zimmer will probably be looking to double up early with their short stacks and the blinds at 250/500 with the 50 ante. I looked up all the players on Card Player's Web site and only found Selin and Curry listed as having cashed in tournaments, though their results are scattered over the last couple of years, indicating they're good but not fantastically superb tournament players. I'm ready to take them on!