How hard can it be?
Is surviving Day 1 of the WSOP Main Event really that difficult?
After all, the last player standing has included the likes of Chris Moneymaker, Dan Weinman, Michael Mizrachi, Jamie Gold, Annette Obrestad, and plenty of other seemingly ordinary humans.
Then again, plenty of accomplished pros will tell you they have never made it through Day 1, or that if they have, it’s rare.
Today is the last day for many would be Main Event champions to take their shot at glory.
So, we wandered the halls of Paris and asked one simple question: What's the best advice for making it to Day 2 of the WSOP Main Event?
Be patient
2005 WSOP Europe Champion Annette Obrestad’s answer was short and sweet: “Fold a lot. Don’t do anything stupid.”
We're guessing she did nothing stupid. Annette bagged and will move onward.
Alec Torelli, who finished in 11th place in the Main in 2003, reiterated advice shared by many pros over the years.
“Just treat the Main Event like a marathon, not a sprint. Remember that on Day 1, you can't win; you can only bust. It doesn't matter if you end the day with what you started with, because there are still plenty of chips in play for Day 2.”
Not everyone was quite as confident as Alec.
Tournament and cash game professional, Xuan Liu, has played every Main Event but one since 2010. When push came to shove, she shared her not-so-pretty track record. She'll play today.
“I don't have very good advice regarding making it to Day 2. I think I'm like a 35% hit rate from past Day 1s to make it to Day 2. But if you really want to make Day 2, it's not that hard.”
Just survive
The former WPT Player of the Year, Matt Salsberg, has a similarly realistic take as Liu.
"If I have clay in the bag, I've made it to Day 2. My secret is just to put clay in the bag, whether it's 1 chip or 300,000 chips. I find playing these early levels to actually be pretty challenging. Some people are loose cannons, and others play super tight. So, it's pretty tricky. It's not like any other tournament we play all year.”
Christina 'BabyShark' Gollins knows all about the Day 1 challenges. This summer she has already made a WSOP final table, but making a Main Event Day 2 has eluded her until this week.
“I’ve never made Day 2. But my advice is not to go too hard in the paint. But to be honest, I don't know. I can't really live by my own words. I'm a hypocrite. I just play this tournament like it's every other tournament."
Gollins ended up bagging up almost 150K chips to take with her into Monday's Day 2.
Heather Alcorn also wasn't about to pretend she'd discovered the secret formula. Last year’s runner-up to Shiina Okamoto in the Ladies Championship promised her advice might be boring.
“Don’t get in big pots. That’s probably not a good one. Actually, my best advice is to make friends with your table mates, so they don’t want to bust you.”
Alcorn must have flashed that radiant smile; she made Day 2.
Play to win, but pick your spots
Justin Arnwine has made one final table during the series as well as taking down first place at Aria’s $1,100 NLH BetMGM Mystery Bounty this summer.
“Don’t try to cooler everybody because that’s what everyone else is doing. Play poker. Yes. I know it’s the Main Event and it only happens once a year. So, what? Play it to win.”
It would seem that Arnwine took his own advice and finished Day 1C yesterday as a top five stack of 280,600.
By this point, one theme had become impossible to ignore: patience beats panic.
Jamie Gold, the 2006 WSOP Main Event winner, wholeheartedly agrees. He has plenty of experience dodging and weaving through a massive field.
“The old saying is that you can't win the tournament on Day 1, but you can certainly lose it. That’s very true. I advise people to play more conservatively and pick your spots. I think that patience is key; I try to remind myself of that all the time I play the Main.”
Later in the day, Gold ran out of steam and lost to pocket aces holding AQ on a 
flop.
It would make total sense that Main Event winner Qui Nguyen hasn't changed one bit since his extreme aggression carried him to the final table in 2016. It worked then, why not now?
"You don't have to be too aggressive or even play well. The two-hour levels is a lot of time to wait. But for me, I’m different. I’m very aggressive; I don't want to wait."
The proverb holds true: Live by the sword, die by the sword. Nguyen didn't make it through the day.
Then again, you don't actually have to play the Main Event to learn a thing or two about surviving it.
The dynamic WSOP commentary duo of Lon McEachern and Norman Chad have never played the Main Event, but they’ve been around long enough to learn from the best in the game.
“People playing the WSOP Main Event for the first time have no idea how to play two-hour levels," says McEachern. "They get anxious. They haven't played a hand in half an hour or whatever. So, I remind them to just have patience, patience, and more patience."
“It's pretty simple,” says Chad. “Enjoy yourself. You can't win the Main Event on Day 1, but you can lose it. And it’s a very, very slow structure. Don't do anything fancy. Let the game come to you, and you'll make it to Day 2. If you try to get fancy, you’ll be out in the parking lot very, very quickly."
So, how hard can it be?
Apparently, hard enough that plenty of the game's best players still haven't completely figured it out.
Actually, the not so secret formula seems surprisingly simple: fold a little more, panic a little less, have a boatload of patience, and just put some chips in the bag at the end of the day.
Sounds easy... right? Right?
Additional images courtesy of WSOP/ESPN.
