Tourney post

This will be an uber-post!
Starting 597, 63 paid.

HOUR 1

All start with T3,000 chips.

Fairly uneventful first 20 mins but I'm down to 2,678 when I raise the BB with A10h to 150 from SB, BB calls. Flop 4s5h6h, I bet 200, BB raises to 750, I push and BB folds. The very next hand I steal a small 250 pot with a limped j10o from the button, all check to me on Q hi flop, I pot it and win.

Steal with QKs to put me at T3,900 but drop down 200 when I limp early with A10s and call a 4xbb re-raise, flop double-gutter but don't hit.

Nice move from the button after 35mins which had me chortling. Raise 6xbb with 72o, SB calls, flop KK2, not bad, checked to me bet 500, fold and I show. No-one said anything but it stopped me stealing (so wasn't a good idea to show!). Raised very next hand A9s but had to give up to strong post-flop bet from TM8 (decent-ish player).

45 mins in I get 10s, I pot raise from MP, but get re-reraised by BB, TM8 again. Flop Qd Ac 7h and I have to laydown to strong pot-sized bet. This put me back down to 3,603 when I got moved to another table.

We are five mins before first break and 2nd hand in I get As, blindsd now 50/100. 1 limper who has T5,285 odd, I raise pot to 450, blinds fold and he calls. Flop a beauty 999. He bets out 500, and I waited until my clock almost ran right down before (reluctantly) calling.
Turn 3, he bets 1,100, I consider just calling again but I think the bait is struck and he thinks AK, raise my remaining 2,500 and he calls and turns over 4s.

This put me up to 7,350. I get Ks very next hand, raise, no callers. Then AQs which I limp from 2nd position, three callers, flop AQx, pot it and win. Then win two small pots with 56o and k6s from SB and BB to leave me on T8,156 and in the top 50.

HOUR 2

Did very little for the first half hour, winning one pot with AJo, one caller but an Ace on turn scared him away. Got moved again with T8,456.

For some reason, I've lost some stats for this table (I think because I was downloading a better version of Hud cos of flickering). But when I moved again and I can pick up the story, I had 12,186 and blinds were 120/240 with 25 ante. Three others had equalish stacks, the other five were all under 6,000.

Picked up Js in 1st position, raise to 800, all fold. Fold 4s to an all-in 2,000 bet and one caller before (10s v KQo).

With blinds at 150/300, ante 25, I pick up 9s in MP. 2xbb raise from UTG, one caller, I call, blinds fold. Lovely rainbow 9Q7 flop, UTG bets 300, I raise to 2,400, fold and I pick up 3,000 pot.

Sitting at T13,500 when I get lucky again. Blinds 200/400, ante 50, I raise to T1,000 from button with 10h9c on a steal but SB calls. Flop Tc,2s,Jc. He puts out half-pot bet of 1,200, I think about raising but just call, turn 8c giving me an open-ended Straight flush draw.

SB bets 1,200 again, I call. River Qd giving me str8. He checks, I value bet 2,000 knowing I'm ahead and he shows 8s for trips. Up to over 19,000, in top 25 and chip leader at my table, I think prob still 300 left in it tho.

Last hand before break I decide to limp with AJo in MP two other limpers, BB checks,
flop 3h,5d,Jd, check, check, I bet pot of 2,000, and all fold.

HOUR 3

Sitting on 21,500, I have one more hand at this table before being moved.

Blinds now 250/500, ante 50. 'Steal' blinds with Js, then lose my first biggish pot with As against very shortstacked Ks, and drop back to 20,000.

Get As again a few hands later, but no callers.

'Steal' with Aqo and then Q8o from the button. Lose 2,000 in SB v BB battle, me with 93s, trying to steal.

I now have around 17,000 which is below average and there are, I think, about 120 left.

Blinds are 400/800, ante 100 so short stacks are dropping like flies.
Steal with AJo to get back up to 19,000. Still playing tight though, and I fold AJo and A10o from 1st and 2nd position, am heading for the money and there's no need to start pushing.

Win a nice pot with 10s, calling one pre-flop raiser, and forcing short-stacked BB all in. Hit my set on flop and win 7,200. 80 left just 17 more for money.

With blinds 500/1000, ante 125, I find As (again!) in mid-position. Raise to 3,500, BB re-raises all in with Js and I win a T20,000 pot.

Now 33,564, big stack (who is on my table) has 59,750, and I'm back in top 30. 76 players left.

Steal blinds with 8s from MP.

Then hit trips for the 3rd time. Blinds now 800/1600, ante 200. Call from SB a 2xbb bet with 4s. Four on flop and check raise foe's continuation 2xbb continuation bet to take down a 16,000 pot. Now have 46,500.

Blind down to 42,500 by the end of the hour.

HOUR 4

Now in the money but I want to go further!

Blinds 1000/2000, ante 250 and I 'steal' with AKs.

I then get bad-beat number 2.

Button, who has been pushing all-in often, pushes again against my SB pushes with A10s, I call with AKs and 10 on flop, 10 on turn and he wins 42,000.

Back down to 25,000 and 12xbb. I get blinded down to 19,000 when I make a move on the SB who had raised my BB before. He doubles BB to 4,800, I push with 109o, he folds.

Now down to 40 left and I am in bottom few.

Drop even further, to 15,000, when I call a 7,200 raise from serial raiser with A10o, SB calls, I call, too much of a pussy to push. Flop K hi, check, fold. O dear.

Antes push me down to just 12,659 and 5xbb when I push with 4s from MP (7-man table) and pick up blinds and antes and I'm back to 18,359. Need more stealing, I think to myself, before folding A9s like pussy with the very next hand :)

Again for some reason Pokertracker misses the hand that gets me out of the shit. But I remember it was my dubious push with A6s in MP and an even more dubious call from another shortie with JQs. Ace on flop and I was back in it.

Blinds 1500/3000 Ante 400, 33 left. Final three tables paying $60.

However, the blinds and antes eat me up again, so much stealing going on, every hand raise, re-raise, and I get blinded down to 25,000, back in the shit and facing a new table.

However we are know on the the final 3 tables and if I can hang on in there we get to the real money.
This is the hand that propelled me back to within sniffing distance of the leaders.

Full Tilt Poker Game #2180935514: $14,000 Guarantee (16001934), Table 23 - 2000/4000 Ante 500 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:58:40 ET - 2007/04/10
Seat 1: MusicMan09 (50,973)
Seat 3: indieangler (214,863) - Big stack now but ended up coming 9th
Seat 4: John_Galt65 (52,977)
Seat 5: RaginAZN (67,052) - Cames 6th
Seat 6: The Phenom33 (52,088)
Seat 7: Cashkidz4 (82,763)
Seat 8: SuckTheRedFox (20,021)
Seat 9: QuanticFive (16,815) - Came 5th! :)
All post ante of 500
indieangler posts the big blind of 4,000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to QuanticFive [Qh Qd]
RaginAZN raises to 66,552, and is all in (He'd been doing that A LOT)
SuckTheRedFox calls 19,521, and is all in
QuanticFive calls 16,315, and is all in
RaginAZN shows [Th As]
SuckTheRedFox shows [Jd Ac]
QuanticFive shows [Qh Qd] - Just two outs to dodge.
Uncalled bet of 47,031 returned to RaginAZN
*** FLOP *** [7d 4s Ks]
*** TURN *** [7d 4s Ks] [Kd]
*** RIVER *** [7d 4s Ks Kd] [8s]
SuckTheRedFox wins the side pot (6,412) with a pair of Kings
QuanticFive wins the main pot (56,945) with two pair, Kings and Queens
O yes!

I'm back to 56,000 and in with a shot.

However, I then lost 15,000 from the BB when I rivered a STR8 only to fall to a rivered flush. And I was back against the wall before I knew it.

The blinds were such however that just one steal added 8,000 to your total, so I duly stole with ...errr...Ks again! The did the same with 8s, both pushes and I was back to 53,000.

We got to the final 2 tables right at the end of hour 3.

Seven players on my table, I picked up 10s and grabbed the blinds to propel me to 60k then picked up Ks the very next hand.

This time the shortstack before raised all in in 1st position with A3o, I dodged an A, and was now in the top 9, 13 left, with over 110k. I then got As (how many times is that?) and knocked out the last shortie on our table with his all-in 3s.

Five players on each table now, and I had 165,000 which was 3rd on my table and 5th overall and I knew I would make the final table.

HOUR 5

It slowed right down after the break with no-one wanting to bubble the final table and we were playing hand for hand for quite a while. 10th paid $150 but 9th paid $270.

It took 20 mins to get there (the bubble boy incidently was the player who cracked my AKo with his A10o earlier) but I made it with 123k and in 7th, big stack 400k.

To be honest, I was hanging on in there rather trying to win the thing. I folded AQs the very first hand in late position after big stack pot raised pre-flop. I didn't know this player and with such a big difference between places I didn't want to crash out on a 50/50 the very first hand.

Blinds were huge 5k/10k, ante 1k, that one pre-flop raise and I was almost pot-committed.

Yet I had enough to let the shorties push and test their fate first.

Pay-outs from 1 to 9 were: $3510.36, $2185.02 , $1611.90, $1253.70, $931.32, $680.58, $444.17, $343.87, $272.23

I managed to tread water for 20 mins, raising twice and winning without showing, and 4 players came and went, and I was left as the short stack for fifth.

My next post shows the last two hands, all in with K8o to beat A4o and then all-in with A10o which lost to big stacks A9o.

$931.32 for five hours work and a profit of $925 as I won the token in a satellite.

That post took me TWO HOURS!