Tournament Report, Lucky Chances $100 rebuy (long & full of bad beats)

[SossMan]

Tourney Report
Lucky Chances $100+25 w/ one $100 rebuy
NL Hold’em
Start with t1000
Rebuy is t1500

I rebuy right away and start with t2500.

Blinds start at 25/25 and go up every 20 min.

First hand of the day, it gets folded to me in the CO and I raise to t75 w/ KTo. Local regular (semi-tricky) calls on the button. SB calls, BB folds.

Flop is ATx with two hearts.
SB checks, I bet t75, button makes it t250, sb calls, I fold.
Button ends up pushing on the turn with 6h8h and gets called by AJo and misses his flush.
First hand and SB doubles.
I only mention this because he is the only stack at the table that I can double off of (or, for the ‘glass is half empty folks’, the only guy that can cripple me).

I mostly fold a bunch of unplayable hands for the most of round 1.

Last hand of round 1.

I have about 2500. Older lady (t1200) who is too loose and likes to try to use her little old lady image to steal pots preflop, but plays like a fish postflop (checking too much, calling too much, not raising enough) raises to t75 utg. This can mean anything from AA to what a fish would think is a monster (as bad as something like A9s) but she wouldn’t realize that she’s stealing…you know the type.
I have QQ on the button. I have made a few moves over limpers on the button in round 1 to keep my stack at the starting level. I make it t225 to go. BB (sb from hand 1) with about 2300 calls. This is probably some relatively good but not great hand (KQ, AQ, 77-JJ). Little old lady calls.

Pot is t700
Flop is 2 3 3 rainbow
SB bets out 600. old lady folds.

He has 1475 left and the pot is 1300.
If I pushed, he would be getting a little less than 2:1.
What did his bet mean? Almost certainly a 88-JJ. I don’t think he bets into me with AQ or KQ. If he made a little move with an overcard, he has 3 outs. It is much more likely that he has a medium pair.
I decide that he’s not sufficiently committed yet, so I just call.
This makes the pot 1900 and any bet by him on the turn should tie him to the pot.

Turn is another 3. That was nice.
He bets out another t600, and I push, and he instacalls w/ TT.
Of course, he hits at te…..j/k river blanks out and I just about double.

I think I could have pushed on the turn. If the turn comes face or ace, I may not get his action.

So, I am now chip leader for a while, but decide to stay relatively conservative (for me, that is). We are at table 4, so we will be together for awhile, and I wanted to try to maintain the solid image until the ante stages when the blinds become important.

In round 3 (50-100), it gets folded to me on the button w/ ATo. I raise 3x and steal the blinds.
Next hand gets folded to me in the CO and I raise 3x w/AJs. Blinds fold.
Next hand, one MP limper (loose), and I make it 4x w/ AQs. He calls, I check it down to the river with him and my Ace high is good.
Next hand I get AA in MP and make a 4x open raise. Local pro from hand 1 pushes his remaining t1000, (I have about 4k at this point), BB calls, I push and BB folds. I am up against 4h5h. He’s drawing dead on the turn on a Ax33 board.

A few rounds later, I am on the cutoff w/ AhKh.
Tight player raises from MP to t300. I look left, and the button/blinds look uninterested, so I call. Only BB calls.
Pot = 950.
MP has about 2500. I can’t remember him raising preflop all day. He has won only one or two pots by flopping a set v. top pair all in on the flop. I haven’t played with him before.
BB likes to call preflop.

Flop is Ks Jd 6h
SB checks, MP checks, I bet 600, sb folds, MP pushes for another 1600.
I’m getting (950+600+2200) 3750:1600. About 2.25:1 on my call.
But I get this feeling. Now the regulars on here know that I’m not one to play by feel, I’m more of a math guy, but I really couldn’t see a hand here that he does this with against me. I still have a solid image. He hasn’t been out of line all day. I don’t think he’s the type to play KQ like that. He played his set fast last time, so I’m not discounting KK, although unlikely. I have his squarely on AA or JJ with a possibility of AK.
With the blinds going up, I really want to keep my chip lead, and my stack is still in tact going into the first break if I fold, so I fold.
He shows AA and I jump for joy. I call there most of the time, and I’m still not sure it was the right play, but it worked out that time.

So I go into the break with about 5700. I am second at the table in chips and in a good spot so far. I still have a very tight image, and the blinds and antes are about to get important…time to go into agro mode.

Blinds are at the 75/150 w/ t25 ante level.
I am in the BB w/ 78o. LMP player who is the other big stack and who likes to min-raise, min-raises to open the pot. He doesn’t protect his raises postflop, so I decide to use my image and I call. BB calls.
Flop is 5d 4h Ad. I don’t have a diamond.
He leads out for t300. I raise it to 900. He thinks a bit and calls.
Turn is a black 2. He quickly checks, and I decide check behind and pray for a 6 or a diamond.
River is the nearly perfect 3d. He checks and as he thinks I am about to check, he almost turns his hand over as I am saying ‘all in’. He looks at me surprised and says ‘all in?’ I say ‘yup’.

He thinks for about a long time before showing his ace and folding and I take a big pot.

I then steal a few more by limping in LP and betting when checked to me. I pick off a medium sized stack when he raises all in on the button and I pick up AK in the BB. He had A8 and I held up. I have a nice stack of around 15k when we are broken up and moved to table 1.

I get the 8 seat. To my left is a guy that was moved to our other table earlier. He has been jabbering about how weak he plays on the bubble, so I figure I got a good seat. He was talking about how he doesn’t want to tangle preflop with anyone who has him covered. I thought I would use this info. At table 1, seat 7, to my right is a 2+2er, Bosco. Good aggressive player who has been nursing a short stack and caught a few river cards to stay alive. First few hands, I have 12k with the blinds at 400-800, 100 ante. Folded to Bosco in MP who pushes his 6k. I push behind him w/ black JJ. Folded around.
He has 4d4c.
Flop is safe, but has two diamonds. Runner runner diamonds to make his one card diamond flush and he doubles and I am down to under 10x.
We are down to about 20 players w/ top 10 making the money.
A few hands later, I open push from SB w/ A5s and all fold.
Next hand I get the same two cards and open push again from the button and blinds fold.
All of a sudden, I’m back up to almost 10k.
A few hands later, I pick up QQ.
MP with a stack my size opens for a minraise (he’s the minraiser that I bluffed last table).
I push w/ QQ, CO with about 6k calls and opener calls.
They have AQ and 99 and my hand holds up for a big nearly triple up.
I am now safe for the bubble.
I try to get aggressive, but the few times I try, someone behind me picks up a hand and pushes me off it or calls and I whiff the flop.
The bubble bursts and we get to the final table.
I have a medium stack of about 30k heading into the final. I push when folded to me in the SB w/ A3, BB folds. That’s the only hand I play because there are like 3 stacks that are about to bust, but they keep hitting rivers to stay alive. Finally one of the big stacks busts (with the shortest stack about to be all in for less than the BB!!) when he decides to try to bluff the massive chip leader of 56o on a 569 board w/ 67o. Chip leader wins, and shortstack busts out next hand and we are down to 8. One more SS finally busts.
By this time, I have been ground down to 3xBB. I look for a spot, but don’t get any chances to either open or call all in without a crappy hand.
I am down to 1.5BB, and call a raise in the dark on my BB. Raiser had AK and I flipped over Q6…live cards.
Q high flop got me excited until the K hit the turn and no 5-outer for this shortstack and I bust out 7th out of 125 players for a payout of about $1100. Meh.

Total top heavy payout structure, too. 22k was total prize pool, and first was 8k and 2nd was 4.5k.

All in all, I think I played as well as I have ever played and plan on dominating more next week.

Thanks to smoothcall / vince lepore / tek / wpt forum for all your insight. I know I couldn’t have done it without you.

-Vince