Bit of background - I'm a 25c/50c online cash game player. Do the occasional SnG and very occasionally do the odd MTT. Would like to do more but I just don't have the time in one sitting and I suppose, like a lot of cash players, 3 hours spent in a tournie only to finish out the money is a bigger loss than the BI as that's 3 hours missed grinding at cash. That saying I have won and finished ITM in some MTT's before so not completely new to it.

Last night playing a $50 BI FO, 370 runners, top 36 get paid, top prize $5000. Start off ok then after about 30 mins start getting a lot of marginals that are in my range for level 1/2 - medium PP, KJo, A10 etc. I notice that the table I'm on is very weak passive with lots of limpers so whenever I play a hand I raise 3xBB and find that I'm hitting or a continuation bet takes it down anyway. After the first hour I find myself at 6000 chips (starting 2000) entirely through this kind of play and in the top ten. Next hour I pick up a set of 8's twice that get paid big from TPTK's and then KK. Hour 2 and I'm in the lead with around 15k and around 220 runners left. I get moved to the top table and find it less easy to bully but still managed to keep on top of the flow.

After the 3rd break, things change slightly, with rising blinds and now ante's there aren't many flops being seen. Everyone can do danger to somebodies stack and the first to put in 3-4xBB bet usually takes the pot pre-flop. There are a few limped hands, checked down but not too many.

The hand below is the first point where things start to take a turn for the worse and one I wouldn't mind help with

NL Texas Hold'em $50 Buy-in + $5 Entry Fee, Level:8 Blinds(200/400-25
ante) - Thursday, September 27, 20:56:48 GMT 2007
$20k GTD BF Special $50+$5 #102503
Table 5 9-max (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of active players : 9
Seat 1: DRAKULA72 ( 1,779 )
Seat 2: kenvil ( 5,357 )
Seat 3: ambient11 ( 6,085 )
Seat 4: mrAndreew ( 11,593 )
Seat 5: Mr Rossi ( 16,746 )
Seat 6: pippo45 ( 8,946 )
Seat 7: shrek77 ( 8,918 )
Seat 8: Joop32 ( 10,393 )
Seat 9: westunited ( 2,002 )
Tourney Level:8 Blinds(200/400-25 ante)
pippo45 posts ante [25]
shrek77 posts ante [25]
Joop32 posts ante [25]
westunited posts ante [25]
DRAKULA72 posts ante [25]
kenvil posts ante [25]
ambient11 posts ante [25]
mrAndreew posts ante [25]
Mr Rossi posts ante [25]
mrAndreew posts small blind [200]
Mr Rossi posts big blind [400]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to FTD02 [ Qh, Ah ]
pippo45 calls [400]
shrek77 folds
Joop32 calls [400]
westunited folds
DRAKULA72 folds
kenvil folds
ambient11 folds
mrAndreew calls [200]
Mr Rossi raises to [2,000]
pippo45 calls [1,600]
Joop32 folds
mrAndreew folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5c, 2d, Tc ]
Mr Rossi bets [3,000]
pippo45 calls [3,000]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6s ]
Mr Rossi checks
pippo45 goes all-in
pippo45 bets [3,921]
Mr Rossi folds
Returning uncalled bet [3,921] to pippo45
** Hand Conclusion **
pippo45 wins 11,025 from main pot

Basically I have AQs in the BB, there is a limp from UTG, UTG+2 and the SB seems to come in for value. I raise to 2000 with the intention of clearing them all out there and then. The reason for 2k rather than 1200 is that I don't want UTG calling and the rest calling for value. In cash when you're trying to clear out a load of limpers I usually find that if you can get the first one to fold the rest do, if the first player calls the rest come in for value and/or fancy a gamble at a big pot. I'm not even thinking about the other two at this point, I just want UTG to fold.

He calls and the others fold. I get nothing but fire off a continuation bet of around 3/4 the pot - Mistake? He calls this and I'm finished with the hand. Whether he hit from his UTG limp or outplayed me I dunno but am caught in a limbo of was this the right play or not.

Anyway, this knocks my stack down a bit and I've lost what little bullying power my stack afforded me. From then on in, it just gets tougher and tougher with everyone trying to pick up precious blinds and ante's. Lower stacks are jamming and higher stackes are putting in 5xBB. First to act wins the pot and nobody seems to have any advantage over anyone else.

The death hand: Bit of background to this as well. Bearing in mind the above for the last 3 times prior to this hand the SB has attacked my BB, twice from a walk round to him and once with only a middle position limper in front of him. While my stack hasn't gone down that much since the AQ hand everyone elses is rising and the table evening out, the SB only has about 2.5k less chips than me.

Fourth time he gets a walk to the SB and this happens

NL Texas Hold'em $50 Buy-in + $5 Entry Fee, Level:9 Blinds(300/600-50
ante) - Thursday, September 27, 21:21:35 GMT 2007
$20k GTD BF Special $50+$5 #102503
Table 5 9-max (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of active players : 9
Seat 1: bowburnAT ( 10,965 )
Seat 2: kenvil ( 4,614 )
Seat 3: u01by ( 9,184 )
Seat 4: FullHD ( 7,542 )
Seat 5: Mr Rossi ( 10,171 )
Seat 6: pippo45 ( 9,489 )
Seat 7: shrek77 ( 16,318 )
Seat 8: Joop32 ( 10,895 )
Seat 9: jaelopino1 ( 4,057 )
Tourney Level:9 Blinds(300/600-50 ante)
bowburnAT posts ante [50]
kenvil posts ante [50]
u01by posts ante [50]
FullHD posts ante [50]
Mr Rossi posts ante [50]
pippo45 posts ante [50]
Joop32 posts ante [50]
jaelopino1 posts ante [50]
shrek77 posts ante [50]
FullHD posts small blind [300]
Mr Rossi posts big blind [600]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to FTD02 [ 4s, 3s ]
pippo45 folds
shrek77 folds
Joop32 folds
jaelopino1 folds
bowburnAT folds
kenvil folds
u01by folds
FullHD raises to [2,250]
Mr Rossi goes all-in
Mr Rossi raises to [10,121]
FullHD calls [5,242]
FullHD goes all-in
Returning uncalled bet [2,629] to FTD02
** Showdown **
FullHD shows [ Js, Jc ]
Mr Rossi shows [ 4s, 3s ]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jh, 5h, Ks ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3c ]
** Hand Conclusion **
FullHD wins 15,434 from main pot with three of a kind, Jacks

F*ck knows why I re-raised him with 34s other than I was frustrated at him stealing my BB and I was gettng frustrated that my earlier command of the table was drifting off. Typing this I probably realise for the first time that as cash game player I have trouble adjusting to rising blinds and the chips I've ground hard for, get less and less worthless. What I mean is I've ground hard with a variety of moves to edge myself up gradually while someone sitting very tight has doubled through twice and now in the same position as me. Obviously this is part and parcel of MTT's but a sense of "all this work for nothing" does come over me. However this was the fourth time in a row, was I right to finally make a stand and just unlucky I ran into JJ rather than the A rag off I put him on?

Anyway, the above finished me off apart from a KQ v 88 death or glory attempt that failed and I finished 57th, out of the money. It's not the money but this has totally gutted me, I had my chance and I blew it big. Or did I? Looking at the hands and logic was it "just one of they things" and a reminder why I prefer cash? I do want to better my tournie play so hence the long post, I won't play playing at all for a few days but can guarantee this will be on my mind all weekend.

Thanks Bosox for the advice. On the 2nd I wasn't even thinking about my M. First proper trounie in about 6 weeks and I suppose it's a trait of all cash players that they can do ok in the early stages of tournies, as they are fairly similar, but then fail in the middle later as the game changes dramtically. It's quite hard to adjust your mindset from a stack you've built up well by squirrelling away to looking for spots to risk all your chips.

"The fact that the SB is pushing you around is unfortunately less important at this stage."

Cheers, I was far to caught up by this

"he is almost certianly going to call you with any hand once he puts 1/3 of his stack in like that"

Again, cheers for pointing that out

As for the first hand, he wasn't being overly aggressive like you said a fine line whether the contination bet was valid or not.

Now about to revist Harrington Vol 2 and brush up