I posted this on another forum back in Feburary. It's about the $500 Bellagio Tournament I played in. Feel free to critique my play!

The biggest buy in tourney I'd played up until now was $150. I won a seat via a $130 buy in satellite. 10 players final 2 get a seat. I was low stack when it came down to 3 and doubled up 2 hands in a row. The chip leader raised the minimum OTB and I moved in with 22, he called with AT and I held up. Next hand I limp in with 98s OTB and flop 983. I move in again and the same guy calls with 76 and doesn't hit his straight. The other guy wouldn't play anything for at least 20 hands. I was on his right and raising his BB with 64 and 75 and he kept on folding. He finally moved in with KJ, I had AQ and that was that. Onto the tournament.

We started with $2000, 25/50 blinds and 40 minute rounds. That is awesome!! I hate 20 minute rounds in B&M tourneys. I started of hot and played my position. I limped in with hands like KJ, JT, AT and won alot of small pots uncontested when I'd flop TP. I eliminated a guy with KK during he first round also. When the blinds were 75/150 the table tightened up and I started to bully the short stacks. They finally got sick of it and started to play back at me so I tightened up a little . At the first break I had 5800 chips and was happy with how everything was going.

Early in the 100/200 25 ante level a player moved in and I called with 88 only risking a fifth of my stack. She had KT, flop is KJJ, turn is a 3, river an 8. I kept playing strong and aggressive until the final 27 when I had close to 9000 in chips.

After the redraw the blinds were 300/600 50 ante. I started in MP with AK. I had everybody to my left outchiped and moved all in. I did it to establish an image with the new players. The guy who I eliminated 3rd in the satellite called with AQ. Flop is Qxx, turn is J giving me 7 outs. River is a K. So I'm probably not his favorite guy about now. A few hands later I have 88 and call an allin. He has 77 and I win. I have almost 30k in chips and am feeling very good.

My cards went cold at this point so I just sat back as the field thinned down to about 17 when the following hand came up at 400/800 50 ante level. Everybody folded to me, I had AQ in the cutoff, I made it 6000 to go. The BB goes all in with about 12K and I reluctantly call. He has 88 and flopped the set. I wouldn't have called the all in cold since I was pretty sure he had me beat. I was glad he had PP and not AK until he hit the set. I was trying to steal the blinds and got nailed. I had won almost half my chips with two 88 hands and just lost that much against them.

4 hands later I have 43 in the BB and the SB is the only caller. Flop is 522 and the SB checks and I turn the 6 for the str8. He bets 2000 and I move all in. He calls with 75 and 4 outs. River is a K and I'm back to almost 30k again!!

It took over an hour to get down to 10 players and got absolutely no cards to play with. I tried to steal the blinds twice at 600/1200 with AT and K9 only to get reraised and an allin after that! Because the tables are short handed and almost no hands are seeing a flop the blinds ate me alive. I called a 10k all in with 66 against an AJ and he flopped a J.

They paid 9 places and I start the final table with about 6k in chips and start 2 left of the BB. One other player is as low as me and there is a 10-12k stack on my right. I survive the blinds, but so does the other short stack. With about 3K left and the 1600 blind two hands away I go all in 44 everybody folds to the BB who calls with 88, no 4 and I'm the bubble boy 10th out of 115, 88 made me and broke me!!

I'm my harshest critic and I believe this is the best I've ever played. If I had been playing to limp into the money I would have played even tighter down the stretch, but I was feeling good and going after the big dollars, 22k for 1st. Alot of the guys at my tables were talking about playing against each other in WSOP and WPT events and I hung tough with them. I have been working hard to improve my post flop play lately. I love the way Danny, Gus and Ivey play and I've been trying to emulate their style more. It really paid off in this tourney. I wouldn't have made it as far playing my old style.

Bottom line, it was the most fun I've ever had at a poker table. I made a couple of new friends and played strong against some tough opponents.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you liked it.

Erik

I got so sad when you bubbled out.

Thats a tough break. Why did you make it 6000 to go with that AQ hand with 800 bb. That gives you no room to fold if they went all in. If you raised to 2400 or 3200, you could have gotten away from the hand if you decided.

BTW, how much was the payouts? Like what was 9th if you got to it?