Another Deep Run In The 50/50

I made another deep run in the Full Tilt 50/50 tournament last night, this time finishing in 18th place and a profit of $305. So that is two top 18 finishes in this thing the last three times playing. Not too shabby. And just like the last time I went deep in this thing, I got absolutely zero for cards. Number of dealt hands = 355. Number of times dealt AA, KK or QQ? ZERO. I was only dealt JJ once! AK four times, and AQ once. How pathetic is that? But I still got 18th place. WTF? So in my two latest deep runs in the 50/50 and 725 hands, I have been dealt AA zero times, KK zero times, and QQ once. Hmmm, maybe that is the key to me doing good in these things?

This tournament was a little bit different than the last one though in that there were quite a few suckouts. Very rarely, when I was all-in PF, did the best hand win. I was even on the suckout dealing side a few times.

I doubled up a half hour in when I raised Q9s and got called by the Button. Flop was 644 with two of my suit and I c-bet. The Button called and the turn brought my flush. I checked, and like a good donk, he bet full pot. I pushed and it wasn't much left for him to call, so he called and showed 22. Nice.

During the 25/50 level, I had an interesting hand go down. I raise TT from MP and the agro donk button, plus both blinds call. Flop is Q83 rainbow, and both blinds check to me. I decide to check also and the agro donk checks behind. The turn brought another Queen. My read now, is that if either of the blinds have a queen (and they were looking to check-raise the flop), they will come to life right now, as they want to try and get something out of their trips. But they both check, so I decided that my TT is good and bet out. The Agro donk on the button now raises me 3x my bet amount. There is no way he has a queen, because if he did, he would have certainly bet the flop. So I pushed and my read was right and he folded. That hand brought my stack up to a healthy 5700 in chips at the 25/50 level.

I had built my stack up to 8300 at the 10/240 level when I pick up TT again and raise. The player immediately behind pushes for a total of 3700. This player had shown down some really bad hands lately (including J2o when he called a short stacks all-in for 10 BBs). So I made the call and he showed 99. Unfortunately the turn brought a 9, and instead of having a top 50 stack, I am now down below average.

From this point on until the end of the tournament, I was always a short stack and never getting back up to an average chip stack. But I stayed alive! I pushed pocket 6's with an M just below 4. I get called by the bigstack who has A2s. Board goes 43756 and he rivers the two outer to split. Suckout #1 for me as I beat AQ with my AJ when the board goes 2Q6KT and I go runner runner to stay alive. Suckout #2 for me comes when I push KQs with an M of 2.3 and get called by QQ. I flop an open-ended straight draw and hit on the turn to double up again. Then I double up again when I actually have the best hand AJ vs AT. My M actually got up to 5 at this point. Wow! I suckout again with A7 vs. AQ. Double up again with A9 vs. A8.

Then another interesting spot happened at the 1500/3000/400 level. My stack is at an ok level of 49k, which gives me an M of 6.7. I raise AJ from EP to 10,000. The big stack in the SB 3-bets to AJ. This guy had been really active and using his big stack well. The last 40 hands or so, he was running around 28/21, which is super lag for a full table late in a tournament. I ended up folding, but I wouldn't mind some opinions on this one. (Oh, and looking at the HH, I just noticed Hoyazo was railing me! Thanks Hoy!!)

I finally went out an orbit or so later. I had a stack of 34k at the 2000/4000/500 level. A MP player, who had 74k in his stack open pushed. I'm in the SB and look down and see AJ. I couldn't put him on a big hand like AA or KK as I think he'd just raise a normal amount there. Of course I am worried about AK or AQ, but I thought his play seemed strange, so I called. I fist-pumped when he flipped his QJ over. Dominated!! But the flop had a Queen, and I go home in 18th place. Looking back at this hand, I think I probably should have folded PF. I think I am well behind his range there. I probably can find a better spot to get my chips in and be the one pushing. I think the MTT pros out there would agree.

Oh well, live by the suckout, die by the suckout. Thanks to all who railed me!

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I also played in a bunch of other tournaments last night. I almost made the money in the 28k, but went out when a guy limp/called my push of 11BBs with pocket 7's. I didn't fair well in the Mookie and went out when I raised AQ and got called in one spot. Flop is ace high and we get it in and player was playing tricky and had AK.

I also played in the $24+2 32k guaranteed and went out toward the end of hour two when a guy called me with K7s and flopped a flush. I played in both Daily Double tournaments and did fairly well in both. I lost in DD A when I raised with AQs and got called by the loose donk (My note said he played any suited A or K). Flop was Ten high with two of my suit, and I pushed. He called with AKo, no pair, no draw and I didn't hit. DD B ended with my TPTK going down to KTs when he rivered his flush.

Cash games were super swingy, but I managed to pull off $500 or so. I had some massive beats and one massively misplayed hand. I had my JJ cracked by pocket 4's when the dude called my big flop bet with his underpair and hit his 2-outer on the turn. Had another guy go runner-runner flush on me with K4s to my AK and TPTK. I raised PF and flopped two pair, and a monkey min-raises me, so I push. He had TP crap kicker and goes runner-runner Full house on me. Standard stuff. I was pretty happy with my play, though I played super nitty again ( I tend to do that when also playing MTTs). I think I made only a few mistakes, the biggest being me not getting away from AA against a nit who flopped an obvious set with 33.

Also, have any of you signed up for the BoDog blogger tournaments in the last week or so? I tried signing up before the Tuesday night game, but I got a page not found error when trying to sign up. I tried on both my desktop (Win XP) and laptop (Vista), and no luck. MaybeI'll try Firefox next.

Cheers!