Well its Saturday night and I am exhausted after getting 3 hours sleep on Friday night because of a late night at River Club. I played 2 SNGs on Fulltilt at the same time. One was a $10 9 man SNG and the other was a $6 6 man SNG which was a ticket qualifier for a $24+2 tourney.
I ended up heads up in both but interesting enough I should have been out of the smaller tourney. I almost folded KK preflop because I was certain my opponent AA. Then I realized this is a $6 online tourney, the guy could have A7 or something so I called his all-in. He did have AA but I hit a K on the river....ship it.
So then it happens...Skip asks me around 10pm if I am busy. I am like not really. He says: can you finish this tourney for me? I am thinking its a SNG or something. I sign in and skip has 20k in chips in an 837 person 20+2 MTT on Partypoker. Average stack is 12k and there is just over 200 peeps left. I hate partypoker but I stayed and played.
On my 5th hand I came in for a 4 x bb raise with AA. I believe it was about 1800 in total. A small stack is in the BB flat calls and leaves himself 2000 behind. The flop comes KQ7. It did not matter what he had as I was not folding. I went all-in and he insta called with K7. Turn was a K and my aces were cracked.
Oh well I moved on and played no real significant hands until I had 106o on the button. My wife was watching at the time and she had just saw me fold AJs UTG. I jump up and say awesome hand. She was puzzled. "What are you doing"?. Well what happened was there was an MP limp and 2 calls. There was so much dead money in the pot I decided to exploit the fact that I had not been in many hands and I had an ok size stack to steal some blinds. Blinds were 400/800 and I made it 3200 to go. The problem was the SB flat called. Everyone else folded. Well this was a problem for sure as knows what the SB had. So the flop comes down 1062 rainbow. The SB checked to me and I bet 8000 into a pot of 10000. I only left myself 14000 behind me. The SB pushed all-in over top and I called and he showed AK? Very strange hand.
I then coasted for about an hour not really getting involved in any hands. I choose another wrong spot to make a move and got lucky. I was in the SB with 1010. Blinds were 2000/4000 and I have about 46k. There was 2 limps and the button made it 10k to go. He had about 50k behind him so I felt there was a lot of fold equity and I pushed. He called with QQ and I hit a 4 card running club flush to double up again. So here I was around 96k and I coasted into the final 20 spots. I told Foggy who was watching me at this point that it was just a 20 person SNG now. 2 table SNGs are my strongest game because most of it is played shorthanded.
At this point blinds were huge and when we were down to 15 I was getting desperate. It felt like everytime I was in position to make a move someone beat me to it. I then decided it was time to take a chance to get some chips. I was in the SB and the button raised 1/3 of his stack. I pushed all-in with K8o hoping to take a huge pot of dead money. It worked and the button folded. I had such a tight image at that table he must of thought I was huge. I then pushed 3 more times with K8s, 55 and KQs. These were not premium hands but you had to push at least once an orbit to survive. I was to the left of the big stack and waited for hands he was not in.
I then made an incredibly tight fold. We were 5 handed on the bubble for the final table. I was second in chips with 155k but 5th had 106k and 1st had over 700K so every hand started to matter with blinds at 8k/16k - 400 ante. I really never think about the final table bubble or payout bubble as I am playing for first always but the player who had 700K raised to 32000 so a min-raise. I was in the BB with 16k in and it was folded to me. I had AJo. I thought about just calling but out of position I would not know if my A or J would good if they hit. The pushing option was out there but I thought there was an outside chance the min-raise meant he was huge and he wanted a shortstack to push. I made the last second decision to muck (I think partypoker actually folded my cards for me) and he showed me 88. I was behind and I did not want to push. I feel it was a good fold.
A few minutes later the final table started and I still had 155K. The first hand of the Final Table I was in mid position with TT. I pushed all-in and stole some blinds. A few minutes later I was on the button and a MP player raised and I pushed allin with 99 figuring I could use a race. They folded. I folded 66 UTG a bit later because I had my chip count over 200K and did not feel the need to play it.
The next hand I played was TT again and I was allin with no callers. A few minutes later with blinds 10k/20k - 500 ante the dream for every poker player happens.
There is a EP limper for 20K, I am in CO and have AA. I had 218K and the limper had 208K. I made it 80K hoping and praying for some action. It folded back to the limper who pushed all-in with AK. My Aces held and I was sitting pretty with almost 500K in chips.
We were down to 5 handed and I felt like for sure I was going to be playing heads up for this tourney. I waited patiently for the 2 shorstacks to bust. Well actually that is a lie....I pushed allin from my SB everytime it was folded to me because the BB was so short. One time he called with K10 and I had 106o what a dirty scenario. The flop came 993, turn 8, river 7 and a str8 for me...runner runner victory the best kind.
We got to 3 handed after the shortstack lost a race. 3 handed was uneventful except for 2 hands. One I chose to limp with AA from the SB. The BB just checked. The flop came AK10. I min bet, he called. The turn was a 5. I bet pot and he called. The river was a J and I was scared but bet min again and he just called. Top set was good on a very scary board. Then I was waiting for these 2 guys to kill each other. They hated each other after one guy called an allin with KQ, the other guy had QQ and he hit his K. The button limped and I was in SB with A7s. I was not sure what the button was doing and I knew it was 5050. He either had junk or was huge. I decided that down to just under 300K this was the time to push and I went allin. Blinds were 20K/40K and I did not think I could wait anymore. The BB called and then the button went allin. I knew I was in trouble but then the BB called and I figured I maybe had a preflop flush draw, maybe running 7s. The BB only had KQ but the button had KK. Luckily I hit my Ace and tripled up.
Sure enough on an 8 high board, my 2 opponents were all-in. The big stack had slow played AA and the shortstack had 108 which never improved. So onto heads up.
Without getting into every hand heads up was like this:
1) Mark lose small pot because blinds
2) Mark lose small pot because blinds
3) Mark lose small pot because blinds
4) Mark crush opponent in big pot
5) Mark lose small pot because blinds
6) Mark lose small pot because blinds
7) Mark crush opponent in big pot
Well you get the picture. I was really just breaking even and I was looking to get ahead. I had just finished a hand where I had AK and my opponent had A9 and we were all-in preflop. The flop came 10JQ rainbow and he did not hit his 3 outer to split.
The next hand I made a criticial error and called all my chips off with KJ. I knew at worst I was a 42% dog to win the hand but I was hoping to be ahead. The flop came J high and the river was an Ace to give me 2nd place and Skip and I a share of $2290.
I was pretty happy with my play even though there were a few suckouts.
I have been behind in my blog a bit. It took me 3 days to finish this!!!!!
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