geek and proud - Mission Re-Accomplished

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Monday, February 6, 2006

Mission Re-Accomplished

I finally made it back to another final table last night, in the FullTilt $16K guarantee. I was hanging out in IRC during the Super Bowl, and people mentioned that it was a good day for overlay, because of the game. The tournament was starting as the game was ending, so I used an MPS token to enter. Only 556 signed up, so there was indeed overlay, $2656 of it.

I was cruising right along, getting a few good hands here and there when I suddenly donked off most of my chips. I raised with AJs UTG, and got called only by the big blind. The flop was QJx with two diamonds, and he check-called my bet. The turn was a non-diamond, and I figured him for a flush draw and put him all in. He called with top two pair, and after folding my big blind to a lot of action the next hand, I was left with 435 in chips (before posting) with 120/240/25 blinds. Three people limp for 240, and I push in for 170 more with A3o, hoping to get lucky and quadruple up or so. The big blind pushes over the top and everyone else folds. My ace on the flop beat his QQ, and I’m back to an M of 3 instead of 0. The next hand, I push all in with QQ from the button after a middle position raise. He calls, and I flop a set and beat his 88. Just like that, I went from 435 to 4040 in two hands, after saying “well, I’m pretty much done” in IRC.

I continue limping along, stealing when I can, and pushing most of the time I can open the pot. Twice it doubles me up, with T9s vs KQo (I flopped a gutshot and flush draw, and rivered a 9), and K9s vs A-rag (flopped a 9, turned a K). I made one questionable but lucky fold. There was an early position raise, and a shortstack (shorter than me) push. I had AKo in the big blind, and decided to fold it. The initial raiser, who had me covered, called, and they had 55 and JJ. The flop was AJx, and the river was a 5, so I would have been screwed had I played.

I get lucky (er.. don’t get unlucky) a few times when I bust people shorter than me or double up with AJ vs a lower ace. One hand, I had AJ vs AT vs KQ. The KQ pushed and was shorter than me, I pushed over, and AT had us both covered and called. A king flopped, and I lost the main pot, but winning the sidepot left me at about where I started the hand. I would have been in great shape if I had won that, but instead I had 17k instead of 50k. Still, I limped along to the final table, where I doubled up early, with AQ vs A3 who insta-called my all-in. There’s one bust, and then I finally go out when I get QQ UTG and run into AA. I made it 16k (4x bb), and he made it 44k. I had 93k total, so I could have folded and still had a decent stack, but I figured his re-raising range there was more than just KK and AA. It probably included JJ and TT, and even maybe AQ. He had a big stack (223k), and I didn’t. I pushed, he called and flopped a set. I turned my set, but no runner runner quads for me, and I finished in 8th for $384.

I’ll take it.

Thanks to all my railbirds, including wwonka, byron, Scott, Bobby Bracelet, Nickerson, April, Absinthe, and others, probably.