The last of the day 1’s saw the bulk of the Carbon Poker qualifiers hit the felt. There was Rob “bigdoggy1234″ Ludlow, Dustin “DrextheTex” Drexel, Greg “KiwiGreg” Familton, Fredrico “Lord33″ Silva and Jonatan “FATSTAKK” Soderstrom.

DrextheTex had just driven into town from a road trip down the east coast of Australia but probably looked the most relaxed, Lord33 was bursting with energy ready to get going, KiwiGreg looked the most nervous, while bigdoggy 1234 staved off his nerves with a couple of shots of liquor and FATSTAKK just looked red, REALLY red. There is an Australian saying “slip, slop slap” which is short for slip on a tee shirt, slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat. FATSTAKK only had the teeshirt out of those three for a day at the tennis and it showed! This was made worse by the fact he has actually lived in Australia for 6 months previously in Sunny Queensland, he really should know better.

KiwiGreg was the first to go out, in fact I’m yet to see him since the first break so I’m left to assume he went out. After looking the most nervous before play he settled in quite well and looked very comfortable at the felt. Early on he check raised a 3 way KQ2 all hearts flop taking it down uncontested showing the low flush with 10-8 of hearts. He played quite a few hands early, losing some chips when his AQ ran into an AK on a KQJ flop. He was well alive at the first break with 12k in chips, his only lament was having his AA cracked. Things must have taken a turn for the worst soon after the break though because by the time I came past his table again his seat had been filled and I haven’t been able to track him down since! I will update you as soon as I find him.

Lord33 was the next to go out. He had played some nice calm poker all day, his only complaint of his early play was not pulling the trigger on one last bet in one hand. Holding 3-4 of hearts on a A23 flop he checked and called when his opponent raised. A 4 on the turn gave him two pair and a straight draw to go along with his straight draw, he bet out, his opponent raised and he made a decision that he regretted later, he just called. A blank card on the river left him with a low 2 pair and when his opponent bet out he laid down his hand, if he had that hand over I dare say he would come over the top hard on the turn. He survived a couple more levels not losing chips but not really gaining any, he eventually managed to push his short stack in the middle in a decent situation, a classic race AK vs 99. The nines held up and he was out, not too unhappy with his days play, but still lamenting the hand that got away.

With two players knocked out the pace really slowed, especially compared to the previous days play were Elliot raised almost every pot. All three players were struggling to find action but stayed patient forever looking for decent spots, not panicking and throwing their chips away.

A couple of observations from around the poker room… firstly the best footwear of the day should probably go to Mark Vos who was wearing teeshirt shorts and the hotel slippers at the tables. He tells me his thongs were hurting his feet and he hates wearing shoes at a tourney so it was an obvious choice.

The other observation is on table image. Throughout the poker room there are plenty of players trying to put together different table images, none came even close to one girl. Seen bouncing across the poker room between hands was a busty blonde girl in the shortest of shorts, a tight bright yellow teeshirt finishing the whole look off with pig tails. I hold grave fears for any hot blooded men at her table, I have a bad feeling she knew exactly what she was doing.

FATSTAKK spent most of the day sharing a table with the ever aggressive Tony G. This meant he had to be careful where he picked his spots, but when he did he wasn’t afraid to pull the trigger. In one such hand with J8A8 already on the board FATSTAKK threw out a big raise which Tony called down sending them to the river possibly looking to make a move. A 10 landed on the river and FATSTAKK quickly shoved all in ending any chance of Tony pushing him off his hand. Tony quickly mucked and FATSTAKK took it down unchallenged. Later in the evening FATSTAKK showed he could also play from behind calling raises on every street to a AJ39A board showing J8 for a higher two pair. Through the entirety of day one FATSTAKK never got a premium hand, however he just kept grinding away and was eventually rewarded sneaking through to day 2 with 33,700 in chips.

DrextheTex was described to me as being a linebacker, they really weren’t wrong. The guy is HUGE! I’m sure he was never afraid to mix it up on the field in his football days, and his table demeanour is no different. Mixing it up unfortunately sure him shipping chips away early, quickly getting down on chips. He finally found some traction with a nice hand against an even nicer young lady Haley. With just DrextheTex and Hailey to a QT4 flop DrextheTex bet out on every street and was called down all the way by Hailey. Hailey flipped AT for middle pair crushed by DrextheTex’s pocket fours that had flopped their way into a set.

This was the second time Haley had been at a table with one of our qualifiers in fact it seemed like every time a table broke she was moved to share the felt with another Carbon qualifier. Back to the felt and DrextheTex’s early losses may have led to him being a little gun shy, at one stage in the early evening a short stack  shoved all-in over the top of him and he turned to myself and DADuhWEEwah on the rail and showed us his A5 as he folded. DADuhWEEwah was disgusted and told DrextheTex it was a snap call for him in that spot, advice that soon paid off.

Drex once again had a shorter stack shove over the top of him and this time after thinking it over he called it down, his opponent showed 88’s for a slight lead over Drex’s A9 all diamonds. Drex’s stress didn’t take long to be relieved as he flopped two diamonds followed by diamonds on both the turn and the river cementing win, flushing his opponent to the rail. A move up to the feature tables in the studio slowed down Drex’s action considerably, but he was able to roll into day 2 with a decent stack of 65,000.

Last but not least of todays runners was the little dog that could, also known as bigdoggy1234. I haven’t patience like he showed since my poor mother had to raise me. bigdoggy was quick to get a small stack when his pocket 8’s went up against KT and K hit on the flop, that dropped him quickly down to 11k setting the scene for the rest of the day. There were two chapters to his day. The first chapter was the longest run of pots taken without a flop dealt that I have ever seen. Literally not a single person would see a flop with him but at least he was taking some small pots down. The small pots didn’t keep coming and the blinds eventually forced him to break one of his remaining 5k chips, eventually taking him down under 8k and in trouble. Ever the fighter he got up off the canvas in one hand. Raising preflop he found one caller 567 all spades on the flop saw him raise and get called again. A 7 of clubs came on the turn and bigdoggy1234 put his tournament life on the line for the first of MANY times forcing the fold from his opponent and at least moving back up to a 5 figured chip stack.

This leads me to the second chapter of the day, a chapter called “Can’t someone just double me up one time?” He begged, he pleaded, he even asked nicely but for the rest of the night no matter how many times his chips were shoved in the middle he just couldn’t get a call. Instead he had to just grind the day out eventually surviving to day 2 with just 800 less chips than what he started the day with. Hopefully his prayers get answered and someone doubles up his 19,200 chips early on day 2.

As the night dragged on there was one other non-Carbon point of interest… a John Juanda sighting. Talk about the forgotten man of tournament poker. With all the new kids dominating the block I had completely forgotten about him. Good to see him back at the felt, too bad his chip stack probably wont keep him in the tournament for too much longer.