A brilliant play, by my opponent

[fnord_too]

$25 rebuy, still in rebuy period. Opponent is a very good tourney player. Both of us are perennial final tablist in this tourney. I have like 3700 to his 3400 or so before this all starts. (can't figure out how to get hand histories on royal vegas, so I may be off a bit)

I have 56o in the cutoff. There are 4 limpers so far. I make it 800 to go to steal the pot pre flop. Strong player smooth calls. The flop comes

K /images/graemlins/club.gif A /images/graemlins/club.gif K /images/graemlins/heart.gif

he bets a curious 600 TC.

hmmm, he left me room to make a legitimate play at this pot, so I pushed, raising him his last 2k. He calls and flips up the J /images/graemlins/club.gif Q /images/graemlins/club.gif and ends up taking the pot.

Here is what I think his thought process was. It's still in the rebuy period so he can gamble some. I have to believe he knows there is a good chance I am stealing, even though I have been playing tight as a drum up to this point. Hence the smooth call after the other limpers had folded. (there may have been one more to act still)

When the flop came, I think he was committed to his draw. Here's the clever bit: If I'm ahead, I will undoubtedly be pushing, but if I am behind, I probably fold to a big bet, and may muck a loosing hand without putting any more into the pot. That is, if the initial read that I was on a steal is correct, he may not get any more out of me, but if I am ahead I will push for sure. So, he makes a bet that begs me to push regardless, and snaps off my bluff. This is all speculation of course, but if he does decide he's seeing the river with that flop, I think the under bet is pretty slick.

Oh well, we'll see where I end up now that the rebuy is over.

[fnord_too]

Well, I went out in 38th. Here are the two hands that put me out, which should illustrate why I love this tourney so much (sincerely).

EP QQ, medium stack, raise 3X BB, folded to a stack with maybe 6 or 8 BB who pushes, I call, he flips up AT and hits both on the flop, so I am out about 40% of my chips.

A bit later with JJ on the button I think. I am 36 out of 38 at this point. Big stack (in the top 5 overall) in EP calls, smaller stack than me pushes, I seriously consider folding for a second but I push thinking I will probably get HU with the shorter stack, one of the blinds calls and the big stack calls (eek!). Fop comes a ragged 3 6 9 or something like that. Blind checks, big stack bets, blind folds and we all flip. Big stack had 66 for a set and the small stack had AK.