That's better...

Playing in bigger buyin tournies is fun...

So a similar go tonight. 1x 8$ tier one, 2x 10$ STT.

The first 10$ SNG saw me get brutally short and fight back to a decent stack. Then I lost my shirt in a BvB encounter. BB was 30/20/5 at this point, so I figured I'd get played back at in which case I was prepared to get it in. (The SNG regs might kill me for this). I have A2 in the SB and it folds to me, I raise to 300 (3x), he makes it 800, right on cue. We're both sitting on ~2800, and I go with my read and shove all 28BB. He calls pretty quick, and I've run myself into AK. I don't suck out and I'm done in 6th.

The 2nd 10$ SNG was better. We got ITM when one person at the table got all in with JJ vs a couple of A-rag hands and held up. I was 3rd by a bit. I made some good steals and resteals and actually had a fair amount of hands to back me up. The FCD (flush chasing donkey) chip leader had been playing all kinds of bad thus far, and I doubled through him when AQ > AJ. Eventually he knocks out the other player, and we fight a bit and get around dead even in chips at ~6500 a piece. The key hand saw him raise, I shove with A6 (overbet because I knew he was an idiot and would call with hands I had an edge on) and he calls with A4 sooted in diamonds. The flop was all rags which was promising, but there were 2 diamonds, and I just knew it was coming, and sure enough the 3rd diamond fell on the turn. The very next hand I shoved TT into his monster A5 and he flops an ace to finish me off. Oh well. Sometimes the donkeys gotta win if people like me are gonna keep turning a profit.

The Tier 1 SNG was pretty quiet. I again got my fair share of cards and hit hands when it mattered and got to the final table 2nd in chips. I was prepared to play pretty slow since there were a lot of short stacks with < 8BB. Unfortunately they kept doubling up, or it would fold around, and so on. Finally I started getting involved and let the SB hang himself when he slowplayed flopped trips.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5221919630: Tier One $8+$0.70 (Turbo) (39692837), Table 2 - 300/600 - No Limit Holdem - 1:00:42 ET - 2008/02/12
Seat 1: ACESKINGER (2,707)
Seat 3: CheckinMyAA (7,267)
Seat 4: ChrisRyon (5,063)
Seat 5: bigsam888 (4,178)
Seat 7: rootless222 (3,092)
Seat 8: knollian (1,585)
Seat 9: Edge21 (3,108)
ACESKINGER posts the small blind of 300
CheckinMyAA posts the big blind of 600
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CheckinMyAA [6c 7s]
ChrisRyon folds
bigsam888 folds
rootless222 folds
knollian folds
Edge21 folds
ACESKINGER calls 300
CheckinMyAA checks
*** FLOP *** [8s 9d 9s]
ACESKINGER checks
CheckinMyAA checks
*** TURN *** [8s 9d 9s] [Jh]
rootless222: dam
ACESKINGER bets 600
CheckinMyAA calls 600
*** RIVER *** [8s 9d 9s Jh] [5c]
ACESKINGER has 15 seconds left to act
ACESKINGER bets 1,507, and is all in
CheckinMyAA calls 1,507
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ACESKINGER shows [Kc 9h] three of a kind, Nines
CheckinMyAA shows [6c 7s] a straight, Nine high
CheckinMyAA wins the pot (5,414) with a straight, Nine high
ACESKINGER stands up


That broke the money bubble, but we were still one away from tokens. One of the other big stacks at the table polished off another shorty when his J8 sucked out on A7, and there ya go! I am now the proud owner of not one, but two tier I tokens! So that buys me into the MATH (if I ever get off work before 8pm MST) and a shot at the 24K some time in the next week or so hopefully.

Roll is sitting at 551$ + 26$x2 = 603$

Thanks for readin'!