Some hands from a live game

Last night was round 2 of our 13 tournaments to win a buyin to the WSOP ME. 27 players, once a month, half the money is paid out at the tournament, the other half is paid out as prize packages at the end of the year.

Some notable hands last night for me:

-2nd hand of the tournament, I am on the BB with QQ. 5 limpers to me and I make it 5xbb to stay in. I get 1 caller from the SB: Chasing Charlie. Flop comes Jack high with 2 spades and no straight draws. He leads out for 3/4 of the pot, I min raise him which basically commits me to the pot with the small amount I leave behind (I have no intention of folding; I'm trying to draw him into the pot). I am barely a favorite if he has the A or K of spades soooooted, but well ahead if he has any pair. I think AA or KK reraises me preflop -although in these tournaments, everyone tries to be sneaky and slow play. He tanks forever -keep in mind it is 2nd hand only and finally comes over me all in. I call and he shows KJ no flush draw. He doesn't improve and I double on the 2nd hand.

-A few of hands later, I raise from the Cutoff with KJ soooooted and the SB calls. Flop comes AKJ with no flush draw. SB raises, I reraise him all in, and he insta calls with A8 off suit. My two pair holds up and I am now the chip leader of the tournament.

-I ride this chipstack for quite a while. This is a hard tournament to run over the table because there are very few people that can lay down a hand. So you better be able to beat 2nd pair and make sure your opponent doesn't hit a draw to win a hand. I actually have several hands hold up with top pair to beat draws and this helps me make the final table. I am in the middle of the pack chipwise.

-The final table took what seemed forever for the first player to go out. Every time someone would go all in, they would end up doubling up. My stack went up and down, but eventually I managed to catch a couple of thieves trying to steal blinds and took them out with Ace high hands.

-Down to the final 2, and the chip leader has me 3-1. I begin maximum aggression and go all in almost every hand. She folds to every all in until I have almost a 2-1 chip lead. I go all in with 1010 and she wakes up with QQ. Queens hold and I have to work to chip up again.

-I decide to slow things down a bit and see if I can outplay her post-flop and it works. I see a few pots and bet aggressively after the flop and get the chip lead again. Then on a KQ3 flop, I go all in and she calls with Q9. I show Q6 and drop down again. I managed to get a chip lead again and we both limp in to see a J56 flop. I'm holding 107 and check as she does behind. Turn is a 7 and I move all in. She instacalls with 89: the straight. This pretty much crippled me to 10,000 in chips with 2500/5000 blinds.

-Very next hand, I go all in for 10,000 with A8off, and she calls with 96 off. 9 on the flop and I go home 2nd place. I was disappointed but overall, happy that I did finish 2nd.

-I saw QQ once, JJ once, and 1010 once. I had AK once, AQ twice and several AJ. I won big hands with 33 twice, KJ sooted, QQ, AJ, A5sooted and K2 sooted. I never had AA or KK.

After finishing 2nd and then 3rd last tournament, I am in 1st place in the standings. Only 11 more tournaments to go. Yikes! Gotta stay patient...