Here's some of the memorable hands I played, I tried to write them down when we would go on breaks so I could remember them.
Level 1: 25/50
1st big hand I played:
UTG & MP limp, I limp from the CO w/ 6c5c, blinds call. Flop comes 8c3s4s, UTG bets 200. I call, everyone else folds. Turn brings the Jd. UTG bets 300, I call again hoping to either hit my straight or get a spade so I can bluff him off his hand. River brings the 2nd best option. . . the 8s. That has to be a very scary card for him since it completes the flush draw & could possibly give me trips. He bets 600 and I now raise to 1800. He thinks for a long time & reraises me to 3800. I instamuck & curse myself for bluffing into a full house.
When we hit the first break I'm down to 7500.
Level 2: 50/100
Guy in the 6th seat who looks a lot like Bill Gates (but he wasn't, he was from Norway & had an accent) raises to 400. He was being pretty active & raising often. I call w/ 99 and the button calls behind while the blinds fold. Flop comes T high, BGL (Bill Gates Lookalike) makes a continuation bet like he has every hand he's raised with. I reraise & win the pot.
That hand kind of sets up this hand: I again call a 300 raise from BGL w/ 44 in the SB. Just us 2 to the flop of Jd2d4c. I check & BGL bets 500, I checkraise him to 1200. He calls quickly & I'm pretty confident that he thinks I'm bluffing. The turn brings the Qs & I check, hoping he bets, but now I'm slightly worried about QQ & I don't really want to call an allin with bottom set. He bets 1500, I think & call. River brings the 8d and we both check. I show my set of fours & he mucks disgustedly. I'm now up to 12500.
This next hand I think I played kind of poorly. I'm in the BB w/ Kh4h. It folds to the button & he raises to 300. I know he doesn't need much of a hand to open raise from the button, so SB folds & I call. Flop is Qh9c8h. I check & call his bet of 500. A lot of times this situation plays out with the button giving up his steal on the turn & folding to a river bet & that's what I was hoping for if I missed my flush. Turn brings the 3d. I check and the button bets 1200. Now this is where I should have just folded. . . he obviously had a hand & was trying to price out the draw (which he did). I call anyways and the river is the Jd. Now I know the only way I win here is to bet and the button is going to have a real hard time calling a big bet without a T. So I think for a bit & bet 2500. Button thinks for a solid 2 minutes & finally folds AQ face up. That brings me to 14500.
Level 3: 100/200
This level wasn't fun for me.
First hand of the level. . . EP player raises to 600, I call from the button w/ KhQh. Everyone else folds. Flop is K62 w/ 1 spade, no hearts. EP bets 1100, I call & hope he doesn't have AK. Turn is Ks and EP checks. . . I check behind hoping to induce a bluff on the river & also potentially avoiding a trap from AK. River is a low spade, puttin 3 spades out there. EP checks & I now feel like I'm good here and EP prolly has QQ or JJ. I make a relatively small value bet of 1200 and EP calls w/ AK. . . blah. At least I didn't lose as much as I could of there.
After that I had a couple of continuation bets raised on flops that I missed w/ AQ & AJ. I went card dead for a while & just gave away blinds the rest of the level. I went into the dinner break with 6800.
Dinner break was kind of tough. . . they let 2000 people out of the tourney area all at once & everyone has to eat & be back in 1 1/2 hours. Well combine that with the fact that it's like 7:00 and every restaurant had a wait. I finally sit down with 40 minutes left on break & woof down some food before hustling back to the tourney area.
Level 4: 100/200 w/ 25 ante
The only meaningful hand I played this level was when I got KK all in against QQ preflop and doubled up. This was also the first and so far, only time that I've had to put my tournament life on the line. That put me at 13500. After paying some antes & blinds I end the level at 10500.
Level 5: 150/300 w/ 25 ante
The blinds and antes are starting to really become something worth stealing. There's 700 in the pot before a card is dealt. The play at the table has changed now too. We're not seeing a lot of flops, and hardly anyone limps in.
I get Ad5d & it's folded to me. I raise to 800 & the BB, who was a pretty good player, calls. Flop is 9TJ w/ 1 diamond. BB checks & I check behind. Turn is the 4d, giving me a flush draw. BB checks again, as do I. I didn't want to bet here because after checking the flop, the 4 doesn't look like a card that would of helped me & I didn't want to get raised off my flush draw. The River is the lovely Qd, giving me the nuts & also giving the BB a straight to the K. He leads out for 1500 and I try to think of how much he'd be willing to call if he has the K. another 2000 sounds about right & I make it 3500. He thinks for a bit and unhappily calls and I win a nice pot.
A couple of orbits later I have Ad5d. It's folded to me in the CO & I raise to 800. The BB was new to the table & he had a big stack of 30k+. He calls & we see a flop of 8dKs4d. He checks, I check. Turn brings a 7d, again giving me the diamond flush. BB leads out for 1200. I thought about raising here, but thought I'd be better off trying to get him to bet at the river too, so I just call. River is an offsuit 8, which I'm not crazy about since it pairs the board & I no longer have the nuts. . . but BB checks. I'm sure my hand is good here & I bet 2000, which BB calls. I show my flush & he mucks.
I go into the break w/ 19450, while the average is 19600. I'm happy to have come back from the 6800 I had a few hours ago. I am really tired though. It's about 1am PST which my body thinks is 4am since I'm still not completely adjusted to the time change. I get a Mountain Dew & a Red Bull and that does the trick. We now have 1 more level to play for the night.
Level 6: 200/400 w/ 50 ante
I get blinded down a bit without any real chances to steal. Finally I get T4o & when it's folded to me in the CO I decide to try to pick up some chips. I raise to 1200 & the same big stack BB from the last hand calls & says to me "do you have Ace-something of diamonds again?" with a smile. I tell him I wish I had cards that good this time and we see a flop of KcTs8s. He checks & I bet 2100. BB calls. . . darn. Turn is the 6s and we both check. The river brings another K. BB checks & I check, hoping that my pair of tens is good. He flips over A8 and I am forced to show my lowly T4o. The table doesn't seem to take much notice though & I happily rake in a nice pot.
With about 20 minutes left for the night, it's folded to a short stack with 10k who opens for 3k. Now that's a heck of a raise when the BB is 400. I'm in the SB & look down at AKo. Now I think about it for a bit. . . I really think he won't call for his stack here with only 20 minutes left unless he has AA or KK. I don't think he would raise to 3k with AA or KK, so at worst I'll be a coinflip if he calls. I make it 10k, BB folds and shortstack talks himself into a fold after some deliberation. As he mucks he says "I know you have either Aces or Kings". I liked the guy, so I flipped over my top card, without looking to see which one it was. It was the K. He says "I knew it".
A few hands later & the Tournament Director announces that we are done for the night & everyone applauds.
We then spend the next 30 minutes bagging our chips & waiting for our new seat assignments. I have 25300 and the average is 25351. We started the day with ~2200 players and are now down to 861. By the time I get back to my room it is almost 4am.I play again on Wednesday. My new table looks like this:
Rasmus Carstensen $50,850
Neil Chapralis $25,300
Aaron Baltzell $20,700
Crew Mittelsteadt $20,300
Michael Lee $16,575
Monty Dwelr $16,225
Ron Ware $8,700
Daniel Schleisner-Meyer $3,650
So I'm 2nd in chips and there are no pros whose names I recognize. That's good news.
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