Big Spike, 3rd win in the 4$ 180 man MTT

Yehaw. Today was fun. It started with a rough run on the cash tables where I dropped two buyins. It basically consisted of me making moves with reads that were correct reads, but in 3 cases the aggro-donk had pulled a hand out of their ass. A guy who had been open shoving his 50BB stack with T4, 82, A2, etc made another jam, and I snap called with jacks. He, of course, had red Aces this time and I don't catch up. Similar hands where I ran TPTK into middle set and so on and so forth.

So I decided to go back to my roots and fired up 3 4$ 180-man SNGs. These babies used to be my bread and butter when I had more time to play, and I've won twice, made 2nd twice, and 3rd a few more times for a disgusting lifetime ROI of well over 100%. They've always been the most beatable game I can find.

I started off all three pretty hot. I was above average in chips until about a half hour in when two of the tournaments sucked me out in 60/40's and a 70/30. Oh well. That can be expected in these mine fields. The last tourny was a different story. I started hot and continued to run well for the first two hours.

Early on I coolered KK with my AA. After that QQ won a huge 3-way pot and I was top 10 in chips only 20 minutes in. I stayed there until the final 30 where the game usually gets a little wild. I ran into a bit of a slump getting confused (outplayed) by some guys I shortly found out to be donkeys. I was originally the CL at the table until two players got moved in that both had me covered. One directly on my left, the other directly on my right. I missed a couple spots where I could have won big pots by giving them a little too much credit. The first hand I saw the bigger of the two (on my left) play was KK where he got it in with AQ, A5, and JJ. He held and won a massive pot and I instantly labeled him as a good player.

Wrong. The hand I figured it out on was me holding 77. I forget the details but we ended up in a 3-way pot with a shorty all in. There was 4000 in the pot (2000 main, 2000 side). The flop came something like QJx. I checked, he bet 1000. I was a bit confused, and in a little bit of frustration, folded. He ended up having Ace high and I would have won the side pot (shorty wound up with trip Q's) but it just seemed like a really bad play to me. After that he donked off good chunks of his stack with subpar holdings and more bad plays. He gave me a courtesy double up that put me in the tourny CL just before he busted when my AK cranked his AQ all in preflop.

After that I went a bit cold and lost a few medium sized pots to drop fairly close to the bottom of the pack. Then, with 13 left, I went on a heater.


PokerStars Game #13997455768: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level X (400/800) - 2007/12/21 - 00:48:15 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: bafoon_58 (12039 in chips)
Seat 2: BRICK_ONE (21218 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (10255 in chips)
Seat 6: silent kr (17755 in chips)
Seat 7: jerdood (7495 in chips)
Seat 8: blamallama (35191 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (20740 in chips)
bafoon_58: posts the ante 75
BRICK_ONE: posts the ante 75
ButchBova: posts the ante 75
silent kr: posts the ante 75
jerdood: posts the ante 75
blamallama: posts the ante 75
crushmastac: posts the ante 75
bafoon_58: posts small blind 400
BRICK_ONE: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [As Ad]
ButchBova: folds
silent kr: folds
jerdood: calls 800
blamallama: raises 2700 to 3500
crushmastac: raises 17165 to 20665 and is all-in
bafoon_58: folds
BRICK_ONE: folds
jerdood: folds
blamallama: calls 17165
*** FLOP *** [5d Jh 6h]
*** TURN *** [5d Jh 6h] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [5d Jh 6h 2h] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
blamallama: shows [7d 7h] (a pair of Sevens)
crushmastac: shows [As Ad] (a pair of Aces)
crushmastac collected 43855 from pot
blamallama said, "nh"


At this point I was getting pretty aggressive. I always smell blood at the final tables and love to play medium aces since a lot of people end up jamming K-high or with baby aces or worse...

I got lucky here...

PokerStars Game #13997853258: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XII (600/1200) - 2007/12/21 - 01:17:42 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (32144 in chips)
Seat 2: BRICK_ONE (15336 in chips)
Seat 3: joe sam1 (24121 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (46990 in chips)
Seat 5: imilku (48134 in chips)
Seat 6: gofrank150 (13198 in chips)
Seat 7: jerdood (20702 in chips)
Seat 8: elmago (29440 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (39935 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 125
BRICK_ONE: posts the ante 125
joe sam1: posts the ante 125
ButchBova: posts the ante 125
imilku: posts the ante 125
gofrank150: posts the ante 125
jerdood: posts the ante 125
elmago: posts the ante 125
crushmastac: posts the ante 125
sayahh: posts small blind 600
BRICK_ONE: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [8s Ac]
joe sam1: folds
ButchBova: folds
imilku: folds
gofrank150: folds
jerdood: folds
elmago: folds
crushmastac: raises 2400 to 3600
sayahh: folds
BRICK_ONE: raises 11611 to 15211 and is all-in
crushmastac: calls 11611
*** FLOP *** [7c Tc 5c]
*** TURN *** [7c Tc 5c] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [7c Tc 5c 7s] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BRICK_ONE: shows [9c As] (a flush, King high)
crushmastac: shows [8s Ac] (a flush, Ace high)
gofrank150 said, "nh"
crushmastac collected 32147 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 32147 | Rake 0
Board [7c Tc 5c 7s Kc]


I'm not sure about my call here. For me at these final tables, it would be pretty standard. But villain was tighter than usual and I doubled him up earlier when he woke up in the BB with AA when I had 8's OTB.

A while later a similar hand comes up against an almost identical opponent.

PokerStars Game #13998076913: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XIII (800/1600) - 2007/12/21 - 01:36:08 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (20944 in chips)
Seat 3: joe sam1 (16196 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (78142 in chips)
Seat 5: imilku (39609 in chips)
Seat 6: gofrank150 (52936 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (62173 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 150
joe sam1: posts the ante 150
ButchBova: posts the ante 150
imilku: posts the ante 150
gofrank150: posts the ante 150
crushmastac: posts the ante 150
sayahh: posts small blind 800
joe sam1: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [6c Ad]
ButchBova: folds
imilku: folds
gofrank150: folds
crushmastac: raises 3200 to 4800
sayahh: folds
joe sam1: raises 11246 to 16046 and is all-in
crushmastac: calls 11246
*** FLOP *** [Ks Jd 8s]
*** TURN *** [Ks Jd 8s] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [Ks Jd 8s Kc] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
joe sam1: shows [Tc Th] (two pair, Kings and Tens)
crushmastac: shows [6c Ad] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
crushmastac collected 33792 from pot
gofrank150 said, "nh"


I was calling for the J on the river, but an A works too :) This is another call I'm not sure about in hind-sight.


After that I kept getting nothing but medium-good aces and pocket pairs.

Here's a nice pot...

PokerStars Game #13998104436: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XIII (800/1600) - 2007/12/21 - 01:38:31 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (17794 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (79742 in chips)
Seat 5: imilku (36459 in chips)
Seat 6: gofrank150 (56086 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (79919 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 150
ButchBova: posts the ante 150
imilku: posts the ante 150
gofrank150: posts the ante 150
crushmastac: posts the ante 150
sayahh: posts small blind 800
ButchBova: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [4c 4d]
imilku: raises 1600 to 3200
gofrank150: calls 3200
crushmastac: calls 3200
sayahh: folds
gofrank150 said, "all skate"
ButchBova: calls 1600
*** FLOP *** [9c 4s Qc]
ButchBova: checks
imilku: checks
gofrank150: bets 4800
crushmastac: raises 10200 to 15000
ButchBova: folds
imilku: folds
gofrank150: calls 10200
*** TURN *** [9c 4s Qc] [Th]
gofrank150: checks
crushmastac: bets 37736
gofrank150: folds
gofrank150 said, "nice bet"
crushmastac collected 44350 from pot
crushmastac: doesnt show hand


After this, the rest of the table really rolled over. I stole pots everywhere until this hand came up.


PokerStars Game #13998179951: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XIII (800/1600) - 2007/12/21 - 01:44:58 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (25538 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (65642 in chips)
Seat 5: imilku (35759 in chips)
Seat 6: gofrank150 (25336 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (117725 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 150
ButchBova: posts the ante 150
imilku: posts the ante 150
gofrank150: posts the ante 150
crushmastac: posts the ante 150
crushmastac: posts small blind 800
sayahh: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Qs Ad]
ButchBova: folds
imilku: raises 34009 to 35609 and is all-in
gofrank150: folds
crushmastac: calls 34809
sayahh: folds
*** FLOP *** [Qc 6h 8s]
gofrank150 said, "<---- playing this ft like a donkey"
*** TURN *** [Qc 6h 8s] [3c]
*** RIVER *** [Qc 6h 8s 3c] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Qs Ad] (two pair, Queens and Eights)
imilku: shows [Kd Qd] (two pair, Queens and Eights - lower kicker)
crushmastac collected 73568 from pot


This was an easy call because villain in this hand had open jammed a lot worse than KQ in the last couple orbits.


Then I get lucky again...


PokerStars Game #13998230126: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XIV (1000/2000) - 2007/12/21 - 01:49:19 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (32388 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (79678 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (157934 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 200
ButchBova: posts the ante 200
crushmastac: posts the ante 200
ButchBova: posts small blind 1000
crushmastac: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [9c Ad]
sayahh: raises 30188 to 32188 and is all-in
ButchBova: folds
crushmastac: calls 30188
*** FLOP *** [5c Qd 9h]
crushmastac said, "hah now youre the rack"
*** TURN *** [5c Qd 9h] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [5c Qd 9h 8s] [7d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [9c Ad] (a pair of Nines)
sayahh: shows [Ah Kc] (high card Ace)
crushmastac said, "sry dude"
crushmastac collected 65976 from pot


3 handed and with my monsterous stack, I figured I was ahead of his jamming range. I still make this call every day I think.


So then I was heads up with a 3-1 chip lead over Butch. He had been playing super-tight and hadn't put up a fight once for the dozens of times I targetted his blinds at this FT. I figured it would be a pretty simple match. He raises, I fold anything but top 10. He calls, I raise. I get first action, I raise. If he raises, easy toss.

We bounced around a lot with me holding ~190K to his 70K. I was bullying him pretty good and figured he'd hit his breaking point sooner or later. I had to think about calling this one, but I'd never seen him make a limp/jam kind of play, so I figured it was frustration and he thought he was ahead.


PokerOffice always loses the HH's before a table breaks or a tourny ends, but I had A9, he completed, I made my standard 4x raise (3x when I open, 4x behind a complete) and he jammed pretty quick. It was 60K to call and I decided to look him up, and despite him flopping an OESD + his K and T being live, I hold it off and take the whole thing down.

It always feels good, don't it. Historically when I win these things or come in 2nd / 3rd it's because plays like the ones I made here result in me getting it in ahead, and staying ahead. I don't usually have to suck out that often. Hence my concern with my play. The hands will show up on CardPlayer, so I guess I'll find out what the masses think.

Good night!