“First Hand, I pick up A-K in second position. With blinds at 10-20 and a starting stack of 2,500, I make it 100 to go and get one caller. The flop comes with three rags, I bet out and my opponent passes. Second hand I picked up AK again and I make it 100 to go again and get two callers. This time I hit the flop which comes down K-9-2 rainbow. I bet 220 and get one caller. The turn is a blank and I bet 330 and get raised to 660. Having played the first two pots aggressively, my opponent may be reading me for a weak hand – so I move all-in. He calls with A-9 and my A-K holds up. A few hands later, the player UTG raises up to 120 and, with one other caller, I decide I can afford to see a flop from the button with 9-7s. The flop comes down A-7-7 and the original raiser instantly moves all in. Confident he held A-K, I call. He flips over his A-K. My hand holds up and I am off the dream start with 8,500 chips.
Best Friends
Shortly afterwards, two of my best friends (Brad and Simon aka “Siccy”) popped in to see me and they end up staying with me for the rest of the tournament (which has since become a regular activity).
I play steadily for a couple of hours and with blinds at 150-300 I pick up K-K. The man behind me, a loose player, who we shall call “Player A”, limps in – we both have around 9,000 chips remaining. I raise up to 1,000. The Big Blind calls as does Player A. The flop comes down a beautiful rainbow K-9-3. The Big Blind bets 900, Player A calls and, looking to set a trap, I also just call. The turn comes 7c, bringing a flush and straight draw. The Big Blind checks and Player A bets the minimum 300. Not wishing to let anyone with a drawing hand get in cheap I raise up to 2,600. The Big Blind passes and Player A calls. The river blanks, he checks, I move in, he passes and my chip stack increases to over 16,000 and a top 5 chip position.
A few rounds later with blinds at 200-400 and a running ante of 25 now in play, I make a standard button-raise with Q-8 hoping to steal the blinds and antes but the Big Blind calls. The flop comes Q-4-2 rainbow. After a few seconds hesitation, the Big Blind bets out 2,800 into a 3,600 pot and puts me in a tough spot. Based on previous plays, I knew he was an aggressive player and that he wasnt holding A-A K-K or Q-Q or I would have faced a pre-flop reraise. I had every reason to fear A-Q/K-Q/Q-J but I also knew he could easily be holding a middle pair. He had about 4,500 more in chips and I decided I had to use my stack size to my advantage and put him to a decision – maybe even force him to lay down a stronger Queen, so I moved all in. After much thinking time, he must have put me on a steal as he called with A-4. My Q-8 held up and I was up to a top three chip position with 22k in chips.
Approaching the prize money
I managed to sustain and slowly grow my chips over the next couple of hours but once we got down to the last 70 and were approaching the prize money, the game slowed down terribly as 8 out of the 10 players on my table decided to try to run the clock down on every hand in the hope that players would bust on other tables and their prize money would increase. This slower hand rate reduced my potential to use my big stack and gradually my top 10 position dwindled down to an average stack size.
I stayed patient and continued to maintain my stack but by the time we got down to three tables, I had around 30k in chips. The average stack was around 55k and with blinds at 1.5k-3k and antes at 300 I could not afford to wait long. After a round or two of inactivity I was down to around 27k when the player UTG moved all-in for around 8k. With him facing the 3k BB blind the very next hand, I knew he could make this move with any 2 cards, so when all passed to me on the button I moved all in with K-10 hoping to shut out the blinds. This play worked - the blinds folded, my opponent had A-3, I flopped a King as I was up to 40k.
But the cards weren’t coming and after a button-raise gone wrong, things were getting desperate – down to 24K with the blinds at 4k-8k. Then salvation came in the form of K-K. All-in pre-flop, I doubled up against A-K.
A few rounds later I was up to 70k when I found A-Q in the BB. The button, who had a similar sized stack to me, raised it up to 30k. Whilst I respected this opponent I felt that at this stage I had to take a chance. I moved in and he called with 10-10. No help on the flop but then BOOM an Ace on the turn and finally I was in business with a serious stack.
Dominance and aggression
Down to 12 players and sensing weakness on my table, I now had the stack to take advantage so in I moved, raising every two to three hands. With blinds and antes so large, I never risked my stack but just 10-15 minutes of dominance and aggression ensured that when the final table started I had the third largest stack with 240k. The chip leader had almost 400k and the average stack was c 160k.
Then came the play that nearly broke me…
First hand on the final table, still feeling aggressive and yet to readjust from five-handed play back to 10-handed play, with blinds at 6k-12k I raised it up to 34k with Q-7 (????). The player immediately behind me who I knew to be a fairly loose pre-flop player flat called leaving himself 85k. The flop came down K-Q-8 with two spades. Imagining that he may have played a weak Ace and hoping that he could only risk all his chips with a strong King I moved in. He called with K-9. No help on the turn or river I was back down to 120k. Whilst I hated his loose pre-flop call for over 25% of his chips with a weak King, I was honest enough with myself to realise that I had just jeopardized (and lost) almost half my stack totally unnecessarily. I had got to the final table with enough chips and enough of a read on almost all the players to ensure a top three finish – What had I done?
Encouraged by my friends, I put it behind me and resolved to up my game to a higher level. One mistake in seven hours was not such a bad performance I reasoned, and with 20 more minutes at the 6k-12k blind level I had time to reassert myself.
I maintained my stack for two more rounds and two more players were knocked out. Then, when another player raised it up to 35k, I felt the time was right to move when I found A-Q in late position. I moved all-in for 110k total. The original raiser had me outchipped by just 30k and thought long and hard before calling with 8-8. It was only the second time all evening that my tournament life was at risk, all-in on a 50/50. For the second time I had A-Q and for the second time I had been called by an under-pair. Fortunately the result was the same the second time around with a gorgeous shiny Ace coming on the flop.
High fives
I screamed with joy and relief and the high fives went up around the room. With my stack restored to 250k I would not be taking any further unnecessary risks and I was confident I would continue to progress up the prize ladder. And so it proved. 30 minutes later, I had built my stack above 300K and we were three-handed. From here I moved into “the zone” serenely building my stack with good timing, no show-downs and no risks, leaving the other two players to do battle in the larger riskier pots. Finally after 8 hours play, the third place finisher was eliminated and we were heads up.
I had locked up the £17k second prize. My opponent stated that he was not interested in a deal but even with a short stack (400k v 1.2m) I knew I had a good shot at the £29k first prize. 20 minutes later I made a key call on the river with King high forcing him to expose his Jack-high bluff and I had the marginal chip lead!
With blinds at 15k-30k, I made my now standard raise up to 80k preflop with J-8. He called. The flop came down 9-8-2 rainbow. He checked and I bet 140k. He took his time and called. The turn bought a second 2. He immediately bet the minimum 30k. Now I was suspicious. My immediate thought was that he was trying to buy himself another card with a straight draw but I had also seen him bet the minimum in several parallel situations with very strong cards. I decided to call and see what the river bought. The river bought a King but almost before it had hit the virtual felt he had moved all-in. Unsure as to his holding, losing to anything but a stone-cold bluff and without a strong enough read to call off the rest of my chips, after a good think, I felt I had to fold and try to rebuild my remaining 400k+ back up.
But that was the decisive moment. He had regained the initiative. 10 minutes later, with my stack dwindling below 350k, I re-raised all in with K-Qs. After lengthy deliberation he called with A-10 – the board came down blank – it was all over and my opponent was a deserving winner.
Tired and pleased, yet strangely deflated having gone so far and wrestled the chip lead away in the heads-up confrontation only to be defeated, I went to bed exhausted. As the result settled in over the next few days, my sense of pride increased. But I can not help revisiting that critical heads-up hand over and over again in my mind. One thing is for sure, he did not have an average hand – either he had a monster or he made an awesome move with a total bluff. I guess Ill never know…unless it was you – in which case, please put me out of my misery!”
I hope you enjoyed the read, it certainly still makes me smile!
Til next timethekid08
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