WSOP Satellite 9 handed $167 buy in:  Attempt #2

I always remind myself of this every once in a while.  Tournament poker requires you to get lucky at some point or another, usually more than once.  Whether it be you have AA vs someone's KK (and it holds up)or you flop a set on a non dangerous board against someone's AA, or you just plain suckout on someone.  Skills play an important role also, mainly making correct decisions and maximizing value when you get into those situations when you have the big hands.  But you also have to get lucky in that someone makes a 2nd best hand and willing to play a big pot with you.  Because you have to win 100% of the chips on the table in a tournament, a lot of factors have to come into play for you to win.  Imagine a field of thousands......

On to the game (6 regulars, 3 unknowns)(It took me about 30 mins, 1 level, to figure out the unkowns):  The first hand I played, blinds 25/50, I picked up  in lp behind two limpers and bump it to 350.  One caller to the flop of rags.  He checks, I bet 450 and I take down the pot.  The reason I even mention this pot is because its was prob the only pot I won in the first 1 1/2!  I kept on getting into sitatuions where I would raise with hands like , , , , and I'd get reraised.  Sometimes I'd call and sometimes I'd let it go preflop.  When I did call, I'd completely miss the flop anway.  We were so deep stacked early that I didn't ever put my stack in jeopardy or anything but over the course of a few hours, your stack starts to suffer.  I felt my read and my game was pretty sharp though, even though I wasn't collecting chips early.  Example, blinds 75/150, I call a mp raise to 450 on the button with .  Heads up to the flop .  He bets 800.  More times than not, I do a smallish raise here to find out where I am at against my opponent.  However, I know my opponent isn't the type to lead into me again on the turn without a real hand or missed flop.  Besides, he showed some strength preflop so I elected to just call and play cautiously.  Turn  and he leads out again for 1200.  I felt fairly confident I was beat and he had a hand.  More than likely, he's not going to lay it down, at least not against me.  Instead of getting cute, I laid it down face up and he turned over .  The stack depletion continued. 

It came down to this hand in Level 3, 75/150.  Multiway pot I'm in the BB with .  Flop.  SB checks, I check and mp leads out 400, and sb raises to 800.  Now my brain is churning for sure.  I didn't want to continue this hand 3 way because one of them could be on a draw.  MP could have lead out with anything, pair in the hole, a 9, or even just a 6.  I also thought SB could have a 9.  Obviously I'm beating any 9 besides 96.  After some thought, I elected to raise to 2400 total.  To my surprise, MP reraises to 5K, basically putting me all in.  SB folds after a little bit of thinking.  Now what I have to figure out is what did SB check raise with which then will help me narrow down MP's hand.  I thought SB could have a 9 but not very strong since he was the sb.  I also thought he could have a straight draw or a flush draw or a very strong draw like .  MP was committed to this pot because I think I had an additional 1K on top of his raise.  The only hand that made sense that I was actually losing to was  but would he reraise if he was already filled up and in position???  I elected to stick it in there and he tabled .  SOB!  SB said he mucked 93 and someone else said they mucked an ace.  Sweet, drawing to 2 outs for my tournament life and being the first one out.  Turn brick....River.......wait for it.....BAM!  !    HUGE suckout and I'm right back in the game.  Not too much excitement after that and I went into the break with blind level 200/400 coming up with about 13K in chips and still all 9 players remaining. 

After the break, things finally started going my way.  There were a few spots where I raised and was re-raised and I let the hand go with speculative hands.  However, the majority of the time, I was taking down pots preflop and on the flop without much resistance.  The hand that got me going was at blind level 300/600 when I raised in middle position with  to 2400 and was called by the BB.  Flop brought  and BB checks.  I wasn't in love with this board but still felt like I needed to continuation bet, which I did for 3200.  After much deliberation, BB makes the call.  Turn , not a dangerous card at all and BB checks.  Now heres where I have to think.  Obviously, I'm not beating much here.  I could check behind and give up and still have an ok stack.  But I felt like she was on a draw, just not sure how big.  I think she would have pushed with.  Given my stack size and the pot, I didn't want to concede this pot.  If she is on a draw or maybe AJ, I think I can get the BB to lay down.  I decide to go with my gut and went  for about 9K.  I could tell she didn't want to fold but she would be risking her tournament life on this decision.  She finally mucked and said she had .  Close call...Good news, our stack keep building and I'm either 1st or 2nd in chips at this point.

Heres the sickest play of the day:  Level 400/800.  UTG raises to 2400, LP calls, and I call on the button with .  3 to the flop of .  UTG checks and LP checks.  Hmm...Very curious on the double check.  Either they are slow playing a monster or not in love with that flop.  I proceed with caution and check behind.  Turn .  Again they both check.  I am about 99.9% sure that I don't have the best hand here.  Either one of them has a MONSTER and just suckering the other 2 in or they are afraid of getting eliminated (I'm 1st or 2nd in chips and neither one of them can eliminate me).  I figure the only way I can win this pot is to bet.  By betting, one of them is going to let me know if they have an A or JJ.  I fired 4200 into the pot, leaving me with plenty of chips to get away.  UTG relunctantly mucks.  LP is the same way and doesn't want to fold his hand.  His exact words were "what a terrible flop for my hand".  I made him for QQ KK range.  He finally folds  face up and UTG also had !  I of course turn over my powerful pocket fives and I could tell there was a little gasp in the air. 

At the 500/1000 level, people began dropping left and right.  Being one of the big stacks, I started playing aggressive.  Raising everytime I entered a pot and betting if it was checked to me.  I eliminated one opponent with I held  vs a shortstack holding .  Another elimination holding , flopping a flush draw, turn , got it all in there on the turn vs  shortstacked, and spiking a  on the river. 

At the 600/1200 level 10, it was 3 handed.  I raise to 4500 with  and only the BB calls.  Flop  and BB bets 6000.  I really felt like 50/50 I could still have the best hand here and if not, at least I have outs.  I chose to go call in, which was only another 8K to him.  He called and tabled .  I was actually in better position than I thought!  Turn and river both brick out and I move to heads up play!

Going into heads up, I'm a little behind, roughly 40K to 50K.  The first big pot came on this hand:  I have  on the button.  Flop  and we both check.  Turn  and he checks.  I bet 3K and was raised to 6K.  Obviously I'm behind.  But with such a smallish raise I had to call with the implied odds being so big.  River brought a beautiful  and my opponent lead out for 6K.  The only thing going through my head is how much can I extract?  How strong is his hand.  At the time, I chose to raise to 16K total which was called.  Thinking back, (hindsight is 20/20) I could have gone all in.  My opponent tabled  for a flopped set.  I take the lead, roughly 60K to 30K. 

We exchanged more pots here and there but his stack began to grow and not mine.  Then this hand came up.  I have .  Board:  Flop.   I bet, my opponent calls.  Turn.  I bet again, my opponent calls.  River and we get it all in because he just doesn't have much left.  He tables  .  .  Tides turn and I have about 20K to his 70K.  With blinds at 1500/3000, I had to find a spot to stick it all in there and get lucky.  Fortunate for me, the time came up not too much longer.  Non raised preflop, we see a flop of  and I'm holding .  My opponent bet into me and I of course move in and my opponent called showing .  Turn and river brick out and we are right back to dead even, my opponent having a slight advantage. 

A couple more pots go by and I pick up  when my opponent raised to 9K.  I chose to move all in over the top and my opponent called showing .  Flop .  Turn  and I gasped.  River fell  and bricked out!  I now have a commanding 80K to 10K chip lead and the very next hand we basically move in blind which I have  vs .  Lucky for me, I spike a  to win the tournament! 

The heads up battle lasted over an hour.  At any given moment, it could have gone either way.  I went from nearly being the first one out to winning the tournament!  What a huge turnaround.  I felt I played nearly perfect poker today.  I can only recall making 1 or 2 mistakes (besides the one that should have knocked me out).  I never put my stack in jeopardy unless I needed to.  I now get to enter a 1500  event, retaining 60% of myself and 40% going to my partners.  I also have a 5% stake in one of my partners from the previous satellite.  I'm so excited.  I have a feeling big things are going to happen this year!

Wish me luck!  See you at the felt!

TK