Getting Close...

So in the past 3 days I've made it to 2 big FT's and taken some horrid beats to bust out in 9th and 8th. The first tourney was a $10 freezeout that attracted 601 players and and had a prize pool of just over 6K w/ 1st taking $1400. I went into the FT with an average stack and told myself going in that I wasn't going to sit around and wait for hands but rather play a LAG style and exploit any small edges I thought I had. Well my game plan worked exactly how I planned and after a few re-steals and maybe 35 hands in I got the donkey at the table to call my all in w/ an A6off vs. my AKdd. This was a huge pot at the time and would have locked down second place for me except for the 6 that spiked on the river. That was quite a depressing card and even more my profit on the tourney was a minuscule $120.

So then just last night I played in the $5 re-buy that starts of 4:15am and was having a great tourney. The re-buy period wasn't all that exciting and after the break I was sitting with 6K in chips and was in for $25. In these re-buy tourneys I feel I have such an advantage over most other players due to stack sizes and their inability to stay away from the unnecessary large pots early. Coming off the first hour most players are sitting 40 - 125 bb's deep which is a shit load of chips relative to the blinds. I feel that most players don't understand this concept and instead feel that they on any given hand all their chips have to be in the middle. Anyways, I'll quit ranting and get back to the big hands of the tourney.

Early in the second hour sitting with roughly 7K in chips I limp 22 from early position for $100 and it folds around to the BB who pumps it up to $300. This is a no-brainier call given the stack sizes and also know that if I hit I can bust him. The flop comes 2Q7 and I check it to him and he bets $450 into $750...I minraise w/ my set and in true donkey form he moves all in for another 4K. I call and the turn and river come Q Q to ship him the pot with a higher boat :(. This was a tough hand and it dropped me down to 3.5K, but not 4 hands later I pick up aces and double back up to around 8K. From here I play some solid poker and chip up relative to the average stack and make the money which was at 27 players.

Once we were in the money I turned it on and pick up some key hands at key times. We got down to 11 players and I was now still sitting with 70K or so and needed to make a move seeing as the blinds are at 3K/6K. At my table we were playing 6 handed when this hand came up...I was in the sb with AJoff when it was folded around to the button who is a known tourney monster who pushed for 60K'ish and I was now put to a decision. My rational here is that being a well known profitable tourney player I know that his pushing range here given his stack and the blinds is so wide that AJoff kills his range. I call and he flips QJoff and I win and 175K pot moving me to 5th place now on the final table bubble. not 5 hands later it is limped from the chip leader and folded to me in the sb w/ 92off. This guy had been limping a lot so I decided to take a stab at the pot and raise it to 30K. Well the BB calls, scaring the shit out of me and the limper folds. I put the caller range on AK, AQ, and any pp given the way he's been playing, all I could do is hope for a monster flop and I got it with a 9 2 10 board! There was about 85K in the pot and I was sitting with 120K behind and figured that on a rag flop like this a push might induce a call from a lot of hands (smaller pp's and maybe even AK), so I push and he insta-calls with QQ. I was in the lead but the turn and river brought an 8 and a J for his one card straight. Lucky for me someone at the other table had busted so I got 9th place money, but the pot I had just lost horribly would have put me in 2nd entering the FT. Oh yeah and first place nabbed $1600 :(.