Back to my long abandoned journal.

Played the $120 multi-rebuy deep stack tourney at the Bike last night. I am soooo due for a big tourney win. 268 souls played this one, and since it was deepstack the rebuy madness wasn't that mad. First hand that mattered went about like this, very early in the tourney:

87s in LP, I open-raise. Called twice, once behind me and once in the blinds. Flop is Q87 with two diamonds. Ding! SB bets out about pot size, I min reraise him just to isolate. Except the button then shoves. He doesn't have a ton more than my raise and its rebuy time anyway so it's an auto-call. He's got 88. How'd he do that? REBUY!

Another gem much like the above hand- see a flop with 44, multi-way (of course). Flop comes down 774, two spades. SB leads out, I call. He's either got a 7 or nothing. Turn is a deuce, he leads out again, I call. If he has a 7 all the money will be going in on the river no doubt. If he doesn't have a 7 he folds to my raise, hence the call. So what's the worst card in the deck? Yep, another deuce on the river. He bets out again and I have to fold. He shows me A7. Thanks a pantsful, poker gods.

That was a $200 hand since I wouldn't have had to add-on had I won it. Going into the break with 3800 instead of 15k kinda sucks.

Things got better during the real tourney. Busted the two table donkeys on the same hand, it's a beauty. A8s in LP, I raise to steal. Both the donks are in the blinds. SB, who during the rebuy period was hitting EVERYTHING and built a massive stack, is in the midst of giving it all back. He calls. BB just likes to call anyway and has very few chips, so he shoves for about 1800 (my raise was to 600). I have about 7700 chips, and I know if I flat call the SB will call me. I have him barely covered. So I push. Fairly standard when I know I have fold equity. SB thinks and thinks (as best as he's capable of doing) and calls with K6s. Yes, you read that right. BB has A4o. Flop is ace-high and through the magic of miracles my kicker plays, and I double up. Dumbass's friend who is still at the table gives me shit about playing A8s. I think better of arguing him.

Some other hands of note:

Dealer deals me the first card, then on the second card it knocks the knuckles of my neighbor (say that ten times fast), exposing it. Ace of hearts. My first card...you guessed it, ace of diamonds. Replacement card is a queen so I kinda have to play it. I raise to steal, get called, whiff on the flop and get raised there. Who knows, maybe my AA would have been toast too.

KcQc UTG. I raise and get called by the BB. Flop comes down JT9 with two hearts. Uh, good flop? He checks, I bet, he calls. Turn is a brick, he bets out this time weak. Strongly looks like a blocking bet. I raise him to make sure he's not just chasing hearts, and if he is, PAY UP. He folds and flashes a ten. Looks like I won the max.

Short while later I get KQs again UTG. Decide to limp this time. Get one limper behind me before solid player on the button raises it to 2500 (limp was for 600). BB calls the 2500. Both the button and BB are about equal to me in stack size, and we're in decent shape at around 18k. It's the perfect spot to make a move so I go all in. I know that George on the button has to not only respect my move but also has to worry about the BB who is still in the hand. And I know the BB doesn't have a strong hand (def. not AA, KK or QQ and probably not AK) so he'll likely fold. But having him in the hand gives me the opportunity to push, since it forces George out. They both very reluctantly fold.

I'm hanging in there, and we're down to 10 tables. I've got around 22k while the tourney average is slightly less, so I don't want to get too comfortable but I'm also far from panic mode. But I want to win this fucker. There's been a lot of limping at my table and I've got 98o in LP for this one. Four of us see a flop of T95. With blinds at 400/800/100, there's around 4500 in the pot. George is ahead of me and leads out for 2500. He was the first limper, so it's tough to put him on much of a hand here. There's a strong chance my 9 is good and even if it isn't I could be able to move him off of something. I raise him to 6500 and he quickly calls. Is he drawing? Something like QJ is certainly possible, or maybe just a 9 (but one at least equal to or better than mine). I don't think he has anything better than AT, certainly no overpair or set. Turn is a 6 so that's a good card for me. He checks, and I've got about 14k left so I go all in. He's only got me covered by a couple thousand so I know that I'm forcing him to make a very tough decision. He's a good player so he's certainly capable of folding better hands than mine. Eventually the dope next to me calls the clock on him which of course pisses him off. He uses up the whole clock and calls, with AT. It holds up, I'm out.

I'm quite happy with the way I played the tourney and especially that last hand, despite the loss. I've probably been too passive in my tourney game lately so this one was a big step forward in fixing that.