Here's my screen shot from the first break. I won a couple of decent sized pots, moving up to as high as 5800 (starting stacks were 5000). I had a pro at my table:
Berry Johnston, but he played super super tight. He only played maybe 1 hand every 3 or 4 orbits. Somehow, people didn't realize it and he doubled up twice when he got dealt pocket Aces twice in 3 hands.
Here's a hand that I got burned on. I actually played it poorly. I raised pre-flop, as I tried to quite often from the button and cutoff.
Harlindo is wearing an FTOPS jersey, so I know he has to be a decent player, since he has won an FTOPS event before. He has ~4000 to start and I have ~8000 in chips. He smooth calls my raise. After the flop, he checks and I decide to check behind. The turn comes a blank (but does give me some interesting outs) and he checks again. Now, I decide to fire out to see where I am and I bet about 3/4 of the pot. He smooth calls. Now I put him on a straight draw like K10 or maybe A6 or A5. After the river hits, he checks and I insta-shove to put his tournament on the line. I figure, he missed whatever draw he could be on and without a Queen, he can't call for his tournament to be over. He made a good read, called and won. I should have checked it down and saved myself about 2800 in chips. Now I'm right around 4100 in chips.
I still have enough chips to play aggressive, so I chip up buying blinds and c-betting a few times when needed. After the 2nd break, I am just under the average chips by about 1000. You can see Berry hit his two AA double ups, and Harlindo has hardly played anything.
This next hand is when I took Harlindo out. The nice thing was that I was putting in standard raise sizes still. I think later in the tournament you need to start varying things up, but this was in the third hour and I kept all my raises the same, so when I came at the blinds from the cutoff, AGAIN, Harlindo fired back at me all in and it was an easy call for me.
My buddy Rich (
TheCloserX5), who plays fairly tight, at least a lot tighter than I do, was below average in chips but not short stacked by any means. He raised the big blind, who smooth called, and then couldn't get away from this flop no matter what. He finishes in 2511th place.
This is an example of the shitty play you will see, even though we have almost half the field gone. This guy was not short stacked at all. I raise pre-flop, then check call after the flop and after the turn. He checks on the river and when I shove all in and he calls, I think I might be in trouble. NOPE! I guess he put me on a total bluff.
Here's another race I won. I'm only a 53/47% favorite. I don't think I have lost a race yet, where I am getting my chips in ahead. That is critical in being able to continue moving up the ranks.
This is right at the 3rd break and I am sitting in 8th place with over 1700 players left still. The nice thing here is that my pre-flop raises are winning more pots now just because of my stack size. I'm still folding to large re-raises and I'm barely playing anything out of position.
Here's another hand where I got in ahead and it held up. I can't tell you how many times that I held up with the best hand in this tournament, and we all know how rare that can seem sometimes.
Here's one where someone limps, I re-raise and get two callers. After the flop, the first player fires all in from a short stack, so insta-reraise all in trying to isolate. Of course when I get a call behind me I know I am in trouble. This takes me from about 72000 in chips down to 50000. It was enough to sting. Are you getting away from this hand after the flop? Maybe if you don't have the other two covered, but I couldn't see anyway that I am folding this, especially given my relevant chip size.
Here's another example of the fabulous play on here. We are down to almost 1300 players and
mc_gambler has been very aggressive with all in moves. And especially coming from the button, I put him on a pretty wide range. He had over 20,000 in chips and I had just over 50000, but I figured this was a pretty easy pre-flop call. I didn't realize how easy, but it was a nice gift he gave me. Again, getting it in with the best hand held up.
Here's another big hand that held up. I was a 60% favorite getting it all in after the flop, but it felt like he had about 45 outs.
4th break. I'm very happy to be in 10th place. I was in first or 2nd for half of the last hour so I'm starting to get excited that I have a shot at taking this down. But there is a lot of poker still to go!
This hand costs me half my stack, taking me from over 100K down to 50K. I really screwed this up as it was unnecessary to go all in preflop with QQ here. Especially since the Ace came on the flop, there would be an opportunity for me to outplay the Kings or get away from the hand. Either way, I was getting too cocky that all my good hands were holding up and I didn't take into account that I could be behind pre-flop.
Here's an easy laydown where I raised the blinds and got re-popped from the small blind. Some people are shoving with any pair here, but I think that I would rather play post-flop for all my chips.
Break #5 and I've dropped in the rankings considerably. I've basically hovered around the same chip stack for most of the hour by buying some blinds. But I'm starting to feel real pressure to make something happen. This is not a good feeling as I don't want to lose focus. We are in the money though, so even if I go out now, it is not a total loss.
Here's a hand I would like your feedback on. I'm in the small blind with 70,000 in chips and the big blind has 72000. The button is short stacked with 19,000. The button limps in and I simply call. The big blind raises 3 1/2 times the BB and the button comes over him all in. I folded. Would you have? Of course this would have been a huge double up for me.
Here's a hand I raise and get a call from the button. A c-bet takes it down. But it sets me up for the next hand which happens to involve the same player.
Here the villain raises pre-flop 2 1/2 times the BB. I insta-shove, hoping to take down the pot with antes. He insta-calls and tables the might ACEJACK-OFF. I absolutely hated the flop and confirmed that on the turn. I think if I smooth call him we are both getting it in after the flop anyway. So it was my time to go home.
214th place not bad, but was disappointed I couldn't go deeper. The real money didn't start until about 86th place and you needed to final table to make it to 20K or higher. Maybe next time.
Feel free to point out all the mistakes I made.
Hope the tables are treating you right. Stay patient...
