Went to AC to watch the final table of the Borgata Summer Open ME yesterday. Called before hand and someone in the poker room told me the final table started at 3pm. Got there around 4pm and found out they played it yesterday. Real geniuses they got working there. My friend had never played a live tournament and wanted to so we played the 7pm $60+15 at the Showboat. 71 people. Top 10 were paid. I had very few hands early on, but during the 200/400 round I used my rock-like image to steal the blinds with [4s] in middle position. The very next hand I picked up [Qd] and took the blinds again. The hand after that I picked up AKo and raised slightly more. The big stack decided it was too much and fought back with a call. Flop came 234 and I pushed. He had to fold. After taking out a short stack with AK again vs AQ I had about 12,000+ in chips by the time the break came.

Now here is the pivotal hand of the tournament for me. Blinds are 300/600 not long after the break. I have K9o in the BB at a full 10 handed table. UTG+2 limps in (an older gentleman, sort of vanilla, not great, not bad, played his strong hands strong, his only perceptable weakness thus far was that he liked to go one card too far with mediocre hands sometimes) and it is folded around to me. I check.

Flop comes AT3 (suits never mattered in this hand so I'm not going to try to remember them). Turn comes another A. I bet 1200 into a 1500 pot and he thinks and calls. Pot is now 3900.

River is another T. Board reads AT3AT. I bet another 1200 and he thinks and pushes for 3600 total. Pot is now 8700 and it costs me 2400 to call. I still have about 7000+ if I lose. What do you do and why?

I fold, tell everyone I folded a ten, and proceed to let the table try to bully me

I just dunno if I wanna call with K high... even though it's not much more to you.

Call. The additional chips would be worth much more to your stack (provided you can play a big stack and use it to your advantage) than the amount the loss would negatively affect you. If you fold you have 9400. If you call and lose you have 7000. If you call and win you have 18000, and a real shot at a tournie win.

Gigabet's hypothetical reasoning for taken possibly negative ev situations if the loss doesn't affect your stack significantly but the win will greatly increase your chances of winning.

Actually, I knew he didn't have the 10 because he didn't bet the flop after I checked to him. I put him on a medium to small pocket pair (77-44) when he just called my turn probe bet. I thought he went all-in on the river partially in frustration that he was just counterfeited and partially to represent an A or T. Remember, with the blinds coming up on him and only 3600 he would have been in bad shape had he folded on the river. He didn't seem the type to play Ax from EP. So if he limped with an Ace the only Aces he would have limped with were AT and A9 off or maybe A8 or A7 suited. Any other Aces he would have raised preflop. AT I discounted because there were 2 Aces and 2 Tens on the flop. If he had a small Ace, like I said, he would have bet the flop. Also, what hand would he play with a 10 in it from that position? Not many, and again, he would have bet the flop once I checked. So middle pocket pair was the most logical solution. Maybe something like KJ which he could have checked and called a turn bet with, which I tie. KJ would make a river push logical too.

The amount of money in the pot was a HUGE consideration, just as important, as well. I called, turned over the K and he mucked. Had to be a medium pair. This was the pivotal hand in the tournament for me. I ended up finishing 7th out of 71 and taking $213 (which after food, gas, and a few drinks actually left me taking about $20 out of my own pocket for the night).

I dealt out a brutal beat to a player with about 15 people left. He was blinded down to almost nothing. The blind were high, I was getting short stacked so I open pushed KJo from 2 off the button at a 7 handed table. He called right behind me with KK. I hit a runner runner heart flush to knock him out (I still would have been alive, barely, had I lost, but it was still ugly). I deserve to be on the other end of those once in a while.

My only other major decision came at the final table with 9 left. Blinds were 2000/4000. I was in the SB with 20000 left after I posted w/ A7o. It was folded to the Button, who had been the big stack for most of the past hour, but had been cut down by calling some all-ins and losing in an effort to knock out other players. He pushed for his last 17000. It cost me 15000 to call. I would only have 5000 left if I lost, but with no antes, I wouldn't have to worry about the blinds for another 7 hands. He could have been pushing with anything there so I had to call. He turned over pocket 10's and held up.

It was definitely the right decision. If I win that hand I'm 2nd in chips. I still outlasted another 2 players before I had to move with J9s UTG and was eliminated by AKo when an A and 9 flopped.