Well my latest strategy to try to avoid spending 100's of hours making .25 an hour while simultaneously alienating my family and generally ignoring all my responsibilities paid off a little sunday night.
I've been playing alot of small sit n' go satellites to accumulate tourny chips in an effort to get into alot more multis at a reasonble price, hopefully cashing a big one, one of these days. (I've come to the conclusion that low limit ring is a colossal waste of time)
One of my favorite tournies is the double stack 8500 guarantee on full tilt (2:00pm Saturday and Sunday) They start you with 3000 chips vs. the 1500 you get in most tournies so you have a little more play. Early on I got dealt pocket queens three times and was able to build my chips to around 5,000 at the first break. I continued to build to around 25,000 3 hours into the tourny when I reached a familiar position. With blinds of 2000-4000 and a 500 ante I had to hope to double up if I was going to go deep. I was dealt pocket sevens in the cutoff, a short stack (21,000) who had been pushing virtually every time it was folded to him went all in and I called. He turned over A9 of diamonds (perhaps this was a sign i missed) and I caught a beautiful 7 on the flop to double up.
I had been stealing relentlessly, and in the next level with blinds at 2500-5000 and a stack of 53,000 I still needed to make moves to stay ahead of the blinds. Folded to me on the button I raised with 7-4 os and was called by both blinds the flop was KQ4 which figured to hit one of my opponents but when they checked I had no choice but to fire. I bet 18,000 into the 34,000 pot and moved to 75,000 in chips when they both folded. I wouldn't have been able to call a reraise here and would have been crippled had I been forced to lay it down.
There's no doubt you have to have some things go your way to get deep in these things. I must say though that I had laid down several pairs to big raises and before it was all said and done I folded AK suited twice! With two tables remaining I finally had to make a stand for all my chips with TT my opponent showed JT clubs and when the flop came 8, K, Q all clubs I figured I was down the road. Miraculously I avoided all his outs and doubled through to 150k.
I came to the final table with that 150 and was forced to a big decision with AK suited on the button. Blinds were now 4000-8000 with a 1000 ante so it's costing 21,000 to go around. A medium stack raised to 26,000 (standard) and I called from the button. The small blind pushed for 278,000 and the initial raiser called with 123,000 to put 400,000 in the pot and I had only 100,000 left! What a brutal spot. I used all the time I had and finally decided I didn't want to race for my tourny life against two hands. I've found that in these multis it is sometimes the big laydown you make that gets you deep rather than the big hand. I came out of my seat when they showed.....AT and AQ. I had folded the best hand with a chance to triple up and take the chip lead! Despondency turned to elation when the flop came with two queens. I was supposed to go broke on this hand-but "I can dodge bullets baby!" (LOL)
I had stayed ahead of the blinds and built my stack to 160,000 with seven players left when I was dealt....you guessed it A9 diamonds under the gun. I made it 30,000 to go and a late position player with 400.000 in chips raised me to 50,000. The small reraise screamed monster to me and I had laid down some hands to just this move earlier in the tourny. I decided to call the raise and see a flop. I could easily fold if I didn't hit my hand and still be left with 100k+. I got the flop you dream of...A, 9, 3 with two clubs. I thought about pushing but felt that I had to play a big pot here if I was going for first, so I made an underbet of 40,000 into the 122,000 pot hoping for a reraise. My opponent fell into the trap and I was all in with a chance to move into second in chips. I yelled at the computer "Don't show me a flush draw!!!!", and felt I was golden when he rolled over two queens. He's drawing to two outs and I'm 95% to win the hand...the turn blanks but he catches a queen on the river to put me out.
Talk about brutal! I really felt like I played the entire tourny with very few mistakes and had played this hand perfectly only to come up short. While I am happy to finish seventh in a 600+ field, it was disappointing to say the least. Opportunities like that are rare, I can only hope that I can get myself in that position many times in the future and sooner or later.......
I cashed $450.00 which was a nice bump in my bankroll and you can be sure to find me playing the multi guarantees many many more times.
See you at the final table,
Phrosty
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