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1-2. Pretty standard, I think. Checking behind in BB without much and then betting top pair. I was obviously playing pretty tight and not getting many cards considering that I played just two hands in over 20 minutes, both of them from the big blind.
3. With vic and Maria both having almost 10x behind my 150 chip call, I think I played this correctly for set odds.
4. chory77 was limping a lot of weak hands UTG, so I tried a squeeze player here. I don't think I had a great read on BlackMaria, so this might have been a mistake. Fortunately, I hit TPGK on the flop and it made the play easy.
5. On the button here, I definitely wanted to play my KTs. madesa bets weak on the flop (2BB into 800+ pot), and I hadn't seen any hole cards up to this point, so I'm not going away just yet. The turn gives me an OESD, but I have no idea where I'm at, so I figure I might as well see the river for free. I think there's a strong argument for value-betting my OESD here with a good chance at an immediate fold by madesa. The river gives me MPGK on a scary board, but after madesa's second check in a row, I'm pretty sure I'm winning. My instincts were screaming "Bet!" but I was really curious to see madesa's cards, so I just went to the showdown, and was rewarded with some good notes. Looking back now, I don't think a bet here really buys me much, it only gives the opponent a chance to check/raise, where I might be forced to fold to a bluff, so I think my check behind was the right play here without even considering my curiosity.
6. And on the very next hand, I'm rewarded for my new notes on madesa. After Hand 5, I figured that madesa was minbetting with weak hands, so the minbet on the flop doesn't scare me at all, and I just come over the top for a little more than 1/2 pot. As expected, I get a fold.
7. I don't think anyone believes the BB betting at this board, so I'm content to just check/fold this hand with 3 to act behind me.
8. I'm not sure about this call out of the SB. I think chory77 may have been minraising some reasonably strong hands, so I was wary of reraising. I think my real error, though, was in check/calling the flop. With a nut flush draw and 1100 chips already in the pot, maybe a re-raise makes sense here. After the way I played the flop, I think check/fold (except to a small enough turn bet) is the right play on the turn and river.
aside: I see that I folded 25o on the button in an unopened pot in the next hand. I'm glad to see this, because this is the kind of crap I might have raised in the past in an attempt to steal the blinds.
9. You gotta love getting QQ in the big blinds. I have a question here, though. When I'm betting 3BB+1BB per limper, do I count the small blind as a limper? Back to the hand, I'm greeted with one of the worst flops that a QQ can run up against. vic bets tiny and I have a gutshot (6 outs to the nuts), so I just call. When he checks behind on the turn, I'm convinced that he doesn't have an A or a K, so on a non-scary 2, I'm value-betting. I definitely did not expect to be re-raised AI here, and I thought perhaps longer than I should have before folding. In the chat, after I guessed that he hit a set, he told me that he had A2. I gave vic a little more credit after the way he played this hand.
10. I'm under 10BB at this point when I wake up to KK UTG. Unfortunately, I can't get any action and only take down the blinds.
11. Getting better than 5-to-1 odds on my call, Q9s looks pretty nice. Equity is 45/55 here if you're curious, and lucky for vic, his K6o held out and he ended up making it to heads-up with me.
12. 2 hands later, I'm just over 9BB and I have a K in an unopened pot on the button, so I push. This may have been slightly premature, but I hadn't been playing very aggressively up to this point, so I figured that I had some great fold equity. I take down the blinds and put myself barely over 10BB.
13. The very next hand, I get lucky to get KK after just having pushed slightly weak. I want a little action so I give a standard raise instead of pushing immediately. I was just fortunate that vic was short-stacked and 2 others called our bets, because vic had AA. The flop isn't scary at all so I push something close to 1/4 pot. I can't really fault BlackMaria47's call here (can you?) but my KK holds out and I am fortunate to add a couple hundred chips to my stack after having KK vs AA. vic, of course, quadruples up, and in 2 hands he has gone from a 1.5BB stack 55/45 AI to a comfortable 2239 chip stack.
14. Two hands later, I get K8s in the BB. Schuettel1's complete looks weak, so I raise, and I'm happy to take 150 of his chips, bringing me close to 2000 chips before the blinds get to 100/200 in 7 more hands.
15. This is pretty marginal play, but filoxera has been playing very tight, and with play folding to the SB, I'm raise/folding here. It worked and I stole the blinds.
16. On the very next hand, I get AJo on the button and raise again, taking down more blinds. I'm quite happy to be increasing the health of my stack on these last couple hands without having to risk too many chips.
17. This hand definitely turned things for me, but perhaps I shouldn't have even been in it. chory77 raises to 3BB in the CO and I'm in the BB. I'm getting over 2:1 to call and 67d seems like a nice hand to see the flop with, so I make the call. Of course, I get one of the best flops I can hope for with the top half OESFD. I'm trying to figure out my best way to get the chips in, and with chory77 being the preflop raiser on a low board, I'm expecting a cbet, so I just check, and as expected, he bets 450. I raise all-in with 1,000,000 outs and I'm honestly expecting a fold here, but he calls with the two overcards. The equity going to the turn is an amazing 70/30 in my favor even though I'm currently behind in the hand. I hit my 7 on the turn and double up and all is right and well in the world. The question is, was my pre-flop call the right play here?
18. And now I'm running well, as I get 88 on the very next hand. I raise in the small blind, and filoxera, who had been tight all game and has a pretty healthy stack right now, pushes all-in. I think this was my best decision of the match. I'm putting filoxera on two overcards or a pocket pair, and the best I can really hope for is a race. Considering that I still have the biggest stack by far, I let my 88 go. This also may have helped set up what happened on hand 26.
19. Here I started to change up my play a little bit. I had only flat called one other time all match (my pocket 4s), and I wasn't sure that everyone would fold to a raise, and I didn't really want to turn this into a huge pot. With a tight player on the button behind me, I figured to be playing a reasonable hand in position. The flop is horrible for me and I expect to fold, but after two checks in front of me, betting 400 into a 700 chip pot turns out to be enough to take it down. I wasn't scared of a slowplay by Schuettel1 because I had noted that he would minbet with strong hands in hopes of inducing a raise, so I wasn't worried about a check-raise from him. With vic checking from the small blind, I simply didn't have much to be afraid of with my bet.
20. Not the best hand in the button, but good enough for me to try to steal the blinds, and I wasn't ready to discount filoxera's tight play based on one AI push. But here again, filoxera pushes, and now I definitely have to respect his blinds and make sure to button raise with hands better than Q8o. Again, this may have helped set up hand 26, so I don't mind handing over a few extra chips on this hand.
21. Down to 4-handed now, and I wake up to 77 in the SB. chory77 is extremely short stacked so I consider my hand to be close to 50/50 (give or take) to his pushing range. Perhaps this is a weak call getting just 1.4-to-1 odds, but I made it anyways, and my 7s held out. I doubt that chory likes 77 as much as he used to.
22. Easy fold.
Aside: Starting around now, vic begins pushing with more frequency, and lucky for me, he shows his cards every time. And every time, he has them. All game he's been betting his hands (QQ = 10BB, JJ=6BB, etc.), so I'm not worried about him sneaking up on me with a good hand. This also made my K9o an easy fold to his push, where I believe he showed something like KQs or AKs, where I would have been dominated.
23. Perhaps overly-aggressive, but as chip leader on a reasonably tight 3-handed table, I'm not folding a K on the button.
24-25. Standard raises.
26. Here my aggression pays off (as well as my folds to filoxera's pushes). I had raised on my last 4 opportunities, and then I find myself with AA. I play my standard raise and apparently filoxera was tired of it, because he pushes with 54o. My aces hold up and I have a solid lead going into heads-up.
27. Standard play.
Q6s fold: all I can figure is that vic must have raised pretty big and I believed him. Throughout our heads-up play, he continues to raise or push over me and then show me premium hands after my folds, so I don't feel like I played too passively heads up, even though it might look like it at first glance. I am expecting him to eventually push somewhat weak, though, or why would he be showing me all these hands?
28. Standard play.
29. I make my standard button raise as I do with any reasonable hand. He flat calls, one of the first times he's done this, so I'm figuring he has a reasonable but not great hand like Ax, Kx, Q7+, low pocket pair, suited connectors. The flop comes and just looks great to me, so after his check, I'm betting. His check/push looks an awful lot like he has a Q7, a set of 4s, an OESD, or an all-out bluff (since I had been folding to his pushes regularly and he had been showing good hands). So I made an insta-call and was unfortunate to run up against a higher flush-drawing hand. After the heart comes on the turn, I'm drawing dead to the river.
30. I played this hand pretty badly. I didn't raised my hand preflop because I was pretty sure he wouldn't respect it, but I probably should have, anyways. I'm not really repping anything at all with my check/raise on the flop other than something crazy like 34 or 25. I get lucky that another heart comes on the turn, so I made a bet with two purposes: to prevent him from betting and to get another shot at him folding, but he doesn't go anywhere. When the river comes, I decide I've lost enough this hand and I'm happy to not have to show my cards. This is definitely one of my worst-played hands of the match, spewing about 1400 chips out of a 4942 stack. Given the way I played pre-flop, the flop should have either been bet/fold (not very good, really) or check/fold
31. I made this raise fully expecting to call one of his shoves, and fortunately I sucked out (not too badly) with 43/57 odds, bringing us back to even stacks again. It does look like his range is widening a bit, but this is still a reasonable push by him I think.
32. vic continues to push all-in on my re-raises and show premium hands. He really has been running extremely hot in our heads-up play, so I'm not too unhappy with how I played.
33. Decent hand, played fine, no love on the flop. vic shows 2 pair (Good Lord!) when I fold to his push. I'm not sure about the flat call with J6s, can I get some opinions?
34. Weak hand. I figured I'd take a stab on the turn. Maybe I should have bet the river, too, but I didn't really want to get too deep into such a small, stupid pot.
35. Perhaps a bad raise on my part? He shows QJo this time, his range is definitely widening.
36. My standard preflop raise. Surely vic can expect me to have anything at this point, so he doesn't respect my c-bet and calls behind with bottom pair. When another A came on the turn, I knew that I would have to bet pretty big if I wanted to continue to rep the A, and I just didn't want this pot to get that big. The river gave me my 9, and vic's small bet looked fishy, like he was just begging for a re-raise. There's no way I'm folding here getting 15-to-1 on my call, so call is really the only play I considered. It was fortunate for me that those aces paired on the turn, making my K9 the best hand.
37. Another raise-push-fold to a premium hand. Maybe I should have considered flat calling a little bit so that I could see flops with hands like 67s.
38. I'm still raising any K on the button, not letting his pushes bother me. I finally hit top pair and bet 2/3 pot to a fold.
39. So here I do try my flat call method, making it much easier to get away from Q9o when he pushes (with another hand, of course). Looking at it now, Q9o doesn't play too well post-flop, so maybe a raise is the right play here even though it worked out better as played.
40. I finally get the hand I've been waiting for, and I played it perfectly in my mind. After he completed the small blind, I figured that his hand had to be pretty weak, so I immediately tried to figure out how I could get all his chips in preflop. My standard raise probably chases him out of the pot, so I do something I haven't done all game and just raise 2BB. He bites on it and pushes all-in, and I snap call. Unfortunately for me, he sucked out on my 61/39 advantage and won the tournament.
I was surprisingly happy with my 2nd place finish. I think I only made a few mistakes, and when I did bust out, at least I got my chips in good.
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Originally Posted by bigstock2001
