ToC Recap

EDIT: I removed the pokerxfactor replays, as it was screwing up the format of the blog

I just got done reading loretta8's recap, and I really like the hand history viewer he has on there, so I decided to copy it. (Edit, looks like pokerhandreplays isn't working right now, so I'm going to use pokerxfactors replayer)

Here we are in the first level and the 5th hand of the tournament. My stack was down 300 chips when I called a raise, then called a small re-raise PF with a small pocket pair. This small pocket pair hit the flop nicely :)

Level 2 had two interesting back-to-back hands. The first I just called a pre-flop raise with a good suited ace and I flopped the nut flush. Original raiser checked and I bet, but they folded. Next hand, and I call out of the BB with a suited connector. I flop the straight and get it in vs ChippyMcStacks who flopped a set. Total cooler for him.

This hand obivouly brought me up into the top 3 chipstacks, and I stayed up there until the final table. I stayed fairly active the next few levels, but I wasn't involved in any interesting hands. Then during the 8th level, I limp in with a small PP in EP.

This hand easily kept me near the top of the leader board. Once the antes came into play, my table got very aggressive, and I really tightened up. I still had a really big stack, but two of the three people with higher stacks were at my table. But this hand put me back on top.

I really really contemplated pushing here, but I decided to play it weak and flat call the min-3-bet, lol. If you read this blog regularly, you know that I despise min-bets, especially PF. Obviously that flop is the perfect flop, and I was freerolling against him.

Now with my bigger stack, I decided to start playing a little more aggressive. Well, with osu754 at your table, you will never be the most aggressive. The following hand I decided to make a move on him, which obviously didn't work, lol.

I call osu's raise out of the blinds with 44. OSU had been running about 40/30 since the antes kicked in. Flop came KQ8 and I checked raised him on the flop. He called, so I folded to his pot size bet on the turn. Oh well

Not soon after this, the final table bubble burst with me being in the middle of the pack. I was involved in another hand we he who does not fold. This time with me 3-betting PF with AK in position and him flatting the 3-bet. Flop was 9h 6h 5c. I checked behind with my whiffed AK. Turn was a 7 and I folded to his pot size bet.

I don't know, maybe I should have c-bet this flop. I didn't because osu had shown he doesn't like to fold. Oh well.

Then I folded the next 20 hands. Stole with T9o and 8000 chips at the 300/600 level. Then folded the next 8 hands and then stole with A8o.

Then came my big suckout of the night. osu raises from UTG, which means his range is slightly less than any two cards. I'd say about top 90% of hands. So I push my 12.5 BBs in. Much to my surprise, scottc25 also pushes. Oops. Then osu calls Scott's push!

I think I'm supposed to say "Boom". That brought me back to life and an average chip stack with 6 left. I then went back to folding ways. The next 21 hands, I attempted to steal with just two hands. I folded to a 3-bet by cmitch with A5o, and won the blinds with A9o. The only other good hand I had in that stretch was KQ, but I folded that to a bet and 3-bet in front of me.

The next hand that I was involved in was when I busted cmitch in 6th place. It was folded to me on the button (First time in about 30 orbits since that happened) and I opened pushed my 14 BB with QTs. cmitch called out of the BB with K9o, and I won the 45/55. After that hand, the stack sizes were:

oossuuu754 (33,366)
wwonka69 (12,822)
Loretta8 (57,579)
OMGitsPokerFool (24,072)
katiemother (10,161)

I dwindled down to 18,000 in chips in the 600/1200/150 level. Then I found AKo on the button and raised it up. osu came over the top and pushed and I made the easy call. He had AJo and I doubled up. This brought me up to even with loretta for the chip lead.

Two hands later I knocked out wwonka69 to burst the bubble when I held AK again, and him holding AQ. At that point, the chips stacks were:

oossuuu754 (16,233)
Loretta8 (35,810)
OMGitsPokerFool (54,013)
katiemother (31,944)

With the prize bubble burst, and me having the chip lead, I started playing my game and became a lot more aggressive. I stole as often as I could. For the most part, I got away with it. I did fold 77 to a 3-bet by kateimother though. Eventually, osu was knocked out in 4th place, and the three of us left were pretty much even in chips. I lost just over 1/5 of my stack when I attempted to steal with Q3o. katiemother call from the BB and the flop was JT3. I c-bet, but she called. We checked it down after that and she won the pot with AT.

A few minutes later I called a raise from the BB with QTo against loretta. Flop was T97 and I raised his c-bet and took down the pot.

The only other interesting hand from then on out was the one "move" I made during the whole final 3. I called a raise from katiemother with KJs and the flop came A98. I led out for 2/3 pot and she folded.

I didn't have to do anything else as loretta and katiemother got involved in two all-ins with loretta coming out on top both times and knocking out katiemother.

I'm pretty happy with how I played. I did play unusually tight, but that was more because of how my table was playing. For most of the tournament, at least three of the top 4 chip leaders were at my table, and playing very aggressive. I didn't get AA or KK at all during the whole thing, and got QQ once (Which lost to a short stacks Ax). The only other big pocket pair I got was TT, and I folded that PF to a bet and a push before the action got to me (One had JJ, and the other had TT, so I would have been drawing virtually dead). I was fortunate enough to hit some big hands early to build up a nice stack, and I went on a good run of cards for a brief stretch at the final table.

Congrats to loretta8, katiemother, and oossuuu754 for a great match. And a huge thanks to Alcanthang for setting all of this up. Oh, and if you're not playing poker over at Full Tilt, what the hell are you doing? Stop playing at Absolute and Ultimate Bet and get on over to Full Tilt. If you don't have an account there yet, go on over to raketherake, get a rakeback account, and profit. Look at the prizes they just gave away! They just gave away $40,000 during the BBT3!! Thanks Full Tilt!

Cheers!