My wife has been playing more tourneys and I’ve been railbirding her and giving bad advice. She sat down at $20 180 person SnG last night, so I decided to play it with her. 4 hours later I won the whole thing for $1,000. It was fun.
I knew it was likely to go well when I called an all-in on the second hand of the tourney with AJ and won. The guy had just donked off half his stack on a foolish multi-street bluff, so I assumed his push didn’t mean a good hand. He had JT and I was off to the races. I played nothing past the flop for a couple of levels, but stayed around 2,000 chips until I found JTs in the SB. MP3 raised and the button called, so I tagged along. The board was 874 rainbow, giving me a gutshot and two overcards. After a continuation bet and a call, I was getting 4:1 with nice implied odds to chase, so I did. The turn was a beautiful 9, giving me the nut straight. I checked, planning to check-raise, but it checked around. The river was a King, changing nothing. The pot was 1,500 and I had 1,600, so I just pushed. My theory was that it would look like a bluff. It worked because the initial raiser called me with 86s (third pair!) This put me at 5k and I scored another 1k with some power poker on the next hand. I tried to bluff someone off a pot in the next level with A9 on a 963-K board when the scary King came on the turn. He was short, so I put him in after he bet the turn. I was sick when he called until he showed AT. OK….
That put me at 8k and among the leaders (I think the actual chip leader at that point). I did nothing for some time (called a short-stack’s push with AT which was no good) and fell back to around 5k. I won a big pot where a slow-played two pair with J8 let me catch up with KJ and I was up to 12k. I turn bully-mode on, find that QQ>AJ and cruise to 20k. I lost a coin flip with a shorty and then had the luckbox hand of the tourney with my stack at 15k. I’ve got AQs in the SB and the LAG UTG raises to 2k with 10k behind. A good player flat calls him and I push (covering both). I figure the LAG has to lay down to the squeeze play and the flat caller can’t have much or he’d isolate the LAG. The LAG insta-calls and I curse the poker gods. He has AKo. The flop is rags, but the turn is a beautiful Queen. So, instead of 4k, I’m at 31k and chip leader again. w00tah!
I’m a PITA with chips, so I start rolling. Catch a guy trying to move me off top pair, top kicker and stack him and now I’m at 50k. I win a nice coin flip near the bubble when TT holds up and I’m up to 80k and chip leader at the final table. I pick off the first shorty with A9 > KJ. I win some and lose some, but stay around 80 until I get in the hand that sealed the deal. The most active guy at the final table has now chipped up to 82k and covers me by a few chips. I’ve got AA on the button. He makes a standard raise from MP3 and I flat call, being happy to play this hand in position against an aggressive player. The flop is all rags and he bets half the pot. I raise the whole pot. He flat calls. The turn is another rag and he pushes. I figure this has to be KK or QQ, so I call. It was QQ and now I’ve got 190k and the rest of the table combined has like 65k.
I double one of the the shorties twice when KJ < A3 and AJ < QT, but once I made him the second stack with those hands, I busted him when AK > JJ. It was then 207k against 25k and 37k, which seems like even a donkey couldn’t lose. I tried to lose anyhow, but failed. I chipped one guy up to 80k against my 160k (in my defense, one of these hands included an all-in pre-flop where his 82s beat my KJs). When he knocked out the shortstack, I actually entered heads-up only up 160 to 90. I immediately went into bully mode once I figured he wasn’t quite as aggro heads-up as I was. I took all the small pots and he won a few big ones, but I don’t think I ever fell below about 180k. I did him in when he tried to slowplay 53o. You can’t beat me with 53o, I own that hand. He slowplayed a flopped two pair and I went runner-runner better two pair with AQ. I called small bets all the way to the river when I pushed top two. He called his last 50k off on the river and went home in second.
