Oops I did it Again

[MLG]

Well, here we go again. I’d been running really badly. Before Sunday I had exactly 1 4 digit score since being back from the Bahamas. That might not seem like a big deal, but when you consider that on an average Sunday I can spend over 1k on tournaments (3 200 Buy-ins and 1 100 rebuy) I’d taken a big hit since the Bahamas. Then this happened.

It started like any normal Sunday tournie. I was at about 3k when I was moved to Don Buttons table. In the space of about half an hour buttons got AA twice, flopped two straights and then had KK cracked. He was at like 8k, and I had to catch up. An unbelievably fishy fish raised it to 300 on the button with the blinds at 25/50. I push my stack in the middle (somewhere between 3-3.5k). He calls with A4 off, and I obviously hold up. Well, now I’m rolling. I chip up a little and then raise from EP with AQ. One call, and then a push. I make a loose call with AQ and river a Q to get me up around 11k. At this point the guy next to me decides to lay into me about the AQ play. That was fun, calling me a crappy aggressive player, which I guess is half true. Much trash talking ensues, good natured on my part. SoBeDude comes to my defense and offers to bet on me in a heads-up match. Good times all around. Anyway, so we’re now into the second hour and my guy limps UTG, and I make it 800 (blinds 100-200) with KQ right behind him. SB comes along and we see the J10x flop 3 handed. SB now wakes up and bets out, UTG folds and I call. I thought about raising but decided that if SB had a hand like AJ he wouldn’t fold now, but would still payoff later. The turn pairs the 10, and he bets less than he did on the flop. Huh?? I call. River is a Q, and now the guy bets like 1/3 the pot. Hmm, I’ll stick with my AJo read and call. He has 99, and im at 18k or so. I get to about 30k without a memorable showdown. Then I get moved to TripleQ’s table.

This table had a big stack bully, I don’t like bullies. I thought we were gonna play a big pot at some point. Anyway we sail into the money, and the blinds have shot up to 15.k-3k and my stack has stayed at about 30k. After the bubble bursts a shorty moves in and I move in over the top with 55. He has A10 and the ten on the flop disappoints me so much it takes me a full 10 seconds to realize there was also a 5 out there. Sweet. My stack dwindles a little more until the AQ hand. Im in the SB with AQo and the big stack opens. Great, now I know he doesn’t have UNO cards. Shortstack behind him pushes. Hmmm, now what? If its just the big stack its an easy push. If the shorty knows how loose the big stack was then I’m probably ahead of his range. I push, big stack folds. Shortstack has AK ugh…..until a Q flops, and bang I go from the prospect of 3x to a real stack. If there is one aspect of my game that is better than others it is playing against tight opponents with shallow stacks, and I proceeded to steal more than well, ummm, more than somebody who steals a lot. During this time period I was only all-in with somebody who could bust me once, I had just been played over a couple of times, and had about 100k with the blinds at 2k-4k and the CO who had me covered open raised. I pushed with KQo on the button. After that I won a couple of monster hands. I open raised with AA, very short stack called all-in. A good player in the SB thought and then pushed, and the short BB called. I was up against 22, AK, 88. 22 dragged the smallish main pot and I won the gigantic side pot. At another table I raise with QQ and the SB moves all-in. He has 75s, flops a straight draw but doesn’t get there, and I have a huge ass stack.

We now enter the absurdly high blind portion of the tourney. I keep open raising from the CO, and the BB is annoyed. He min reraises me when I raise with 108o. I call. He checks the AJx flop and I bet about 1/3 the pot. He is displeased. He folds. Then I raise a lot. Then I get AA and get Mr. Minreraise all-in when he has 88. Sweet. Eventually we get to 10 handed. At some point my computer gets screwy and I can’t see observer chat which is annoying, because I like observer chat. Also, since I was up near the chip lead people apparently were inquiring as to who I was. Prime Time was kind enough to explain that I am Stu Unger. Anyway when we get down to 10 people I start raising every hand. Not some hands, not most hands, not in position, every hand. Everybody was trying to fold their way into the money and I made lots of chips. The only hand I actually played, the only non-micro stack at the table raised UTG, and I called on the BB with 22. Flop was 3 cards above my 2, but below a K. I can’t remember more specifically than that. Flop goes check check, so I bet the turn, he calls. I shut down on the river and he checks behind. MHIG, yes you heard me, my 22 somehow is the best hand. Around this time Prime Time and Chieff911, being the wonderful guys that they are start chatting about how much it would suck for anybody at my table to bust in 10th. Anyway, eventually somebody at the other table busts and my table congratulates itself on giving me all the chips because hey, they made it to the final table.

I slowed down for a bit at the final table, although there were two hands that really put me in control. The first I raise to 100k with 55 from CO-1. BB calls. Flop is A23, two hears. Blind leads out for 120k, I make it 300k, he calls. I’m done with the hand, except that the turn and river go check check, and he has 6-4o. Huh? Anyway, MHIG. Same position and I make my standard raise with 9-7o. BB calls and leads at an A96 (I think) flop for 120k, I call. Turn is an 8 and I check behind. River 5 fills my straight (turn and river might be backwards here) and when he bets 120k I raise to 300k. He calls, and once again MHIG (see a pattern here?). Then when we got down to about 5 people I decided that if anybody played a hand with me I was going to put them in a position where if they wanted to win they were going to have to put their whole stack in the middle. That meant raising or c-raising with air, but like I suspected they had no desire to put their stacks in, and I ran over the table. Thus, when it got to deal time I had just over 3 million, and the 3 remaining weaklings had just over 1 million.

The deal I made was 82k for me and 52k for each of the 3 others. I gave up about 4k from a straight chip chop. I was perfectly willing to deal as these seemingly monstrous chip leads are really fragile things short handed late in a tourney. Could I have gotten the extra 4k, probably. Should I have, in a vacuum yes I should have. If I said give me my 87k would they have buckled and figured it out amongst themselves they probably would have. However, I decided that setting my bar at 82k was absolutely going to get the deal done, so I did it. It was still a good deal for me, but it probably wasn’t the best deal I could get. Anyway, I obviously have no regrets about the whole thing. Finally, a giant thank you to all you 2+2ers. I wouldn’t be half the player I am now, or be able to become the player I still aspire to be without you guys. The support and the sweat really means a ton to me. A special thank you to Chieff911 and Citanul on this one as they both spent some extensive time sweating me on AIM. Being a solely MTT player is somewhat taxing on the psyche since you can go so long between scores, and this place really helps me with that. It is valuable to on the one hand have a community that reinforces my belief in myself when I’m running bad, but on the other isn’t afraid to criticize when I goof, and believe me I do goof, more than I like to admit.

[Shaun]

Great post. Congratulations on a huge payday. Anytime you beat over 2500 players you did something special. Have you won one of these before? Just wondering because of the post title. Again, great job and congratulations.

[legend42]

Big congrats MLG. I silently sweated you for awhile, and I could not believe how you were demolishing them with those small preflop raises. Especially when it was down to 3 tables, and the blinds were huge, they were still just toppling like dominoes. It was beautiful.

[Rocco]

Major congrats to you... I'm still waiting for a top three finish at $30 MTT:s but once in a while I take a shot at the bigger tourneys. At least one ITM for me this weekend.

[HoldingFolding]

I was watching you in a PP MTT last week and really thought you made a couple of dubious moves, but watching last night just proved to me how little I know.

I couldn't understand why other players didn't learn from littleben and come back over the top at you, after all, you had shown down some truely appalling hands - easier said than done, as I know from personal experience. I think you got a great deal, as, as you point out, shorthanded things can really turn around quickly.

OT: littleben seemed to know who you were and was from Vegas - did you know him?

[Toro]

I think you could have squeezed out more in a deal, but in the same spot I would have done the same. Lose one hand to any of them and they are even with you. I've seen so many times the chip leader refuses the deal and goes out 4th. You got substantially more the 2nd money.

That being said, they were dying to make a deal because they knew they were outclassed.

[Prime Time]

Stu
Congrats.
It was fun watching and great report.
I was wondering what you held one hand when you reraised w/ a 3 5 5 board, I think I posted on the main thread?
You absolutely owned them, it was just a dominating display.

Repeat next week?

PGA

[Mike Gallo]

Mike,

Congrats on an excellent job.

Congratulations on a great job. I was sweating you silently till about 6 left when I cannot keep my eyes open anymore. Anyhow, I did not see any observer's chat and kind of scratching my head why. Is there a different option on Stars to do this? [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[TexTiger]

Stars cut off observer chat at the final table. Dunno if this was a one time thing or if they usually cut it off on the $215.

TT