Bad play by big stack - no question - what about me?

[starstealer]

This is a hand from the $10 rebuy from tonight. We're in the 3rd hour with blinds at 300/600 with a 50 ante. I've got 21.9k in chips, which is below average for the tournament, but about middle of the pack on my table. The player in 3rd position overall is sitting in the 1 seat - I'm in the 9 seat.

The big stack has shown some horrible play so far - basically playing big-stack poker and has gotten pretty lucky. If he had avoided some of his absolutely horrible ones (calling an all-in for about 20% of his stack with bottom pair and an inside straight draw for instance), he'd be an absolute monster. Anyway - he and I have been in a few pots together and he's been able to take the most of them because I've been completely missing.

In this hand, there's two limpers to me - one is a new player to the table who has 17.7k and is in MP, and then the player on my right, who has an even stack to me with 21k. The second limper has shown to be a calling station in most cases even calling down an AKJ flop with pocket eights. He once had 40k or so before he doubled me and another player up.

It gets to me on the cutoff and I pick up AJo. I put in a raise to 2400. The big stack instantly calls and the player on my right also calls. The flop comes out QJ5 with all diamonds and I hold the ace of diamonds. Player on my right checks, so I put out a feeler/blocking bet of 2400. The big stack calls (his signature - I'll push on the turn play...) and the player on my right folds.

Heads up now - there's 14k in the pot and I've got 17k left in my stack. What to do?

The turn is an offsuit deuce. I push. He thinks about it for a while and calls. What do you put him on?

He had 56s (hearts) for bottom pair. I spiked an unneeded ace on the river - and double up to 48k.

I know his play is horrible - but its more of a question to me on what he has here.

I'm pretty certain he does not have a flush - but even if he does - I have outs to get him. If he does have a naked queen - I still have outs to take him down. So to me - it is mostly a question of whether he has AQ - in which case my only hope is to get the flush. Given his prior play - it is certainly possible for him to call off portions of his stack with a bad queen or jack (or apparently a bad 5...).

[starstealer]

This guy is amazing. That hand brought him down to around 50k I think. By the time I was done writing up the hand, he was back up to 90k. I hit him for another 10k and just now he bluffed another 15k into me on the river when I hit trips. I would've raised him if I thought he would've called it - but it was important to know that he was bluffing. He was - he had 45s without a pair or a flush or a straight on the board...

I'm doing fairly well so far - wish me luck.

[starstealer]

Amazingly, we're down to 71 players and I'm still in it (100k left - average is 128k and blinds are going up to 4k/8k after the break).

One double up or a couple of decent hands I should be back in a good position.

Of note - one of the guys that knocked me out a few days ago is still in it and is in 10th chip position with 211k. I thought he was a decent player before - seeing him this deep 2 tournaments in a row essentially is impressive (if lucky...).

Well - back to the game.

[starstealer]

Finished 47th when, short stacked, I open-pushed with A2s on the button and was called by the big stacked BB, who had A9o. He hit a nine on the flop, I hit a deuce on the turn, but a blank on the river sealed it.

I'm going to try to review the tournament in full and I might get around to a report on it - all 335 hands... Although I could've made a lot more on the tournament, I am certainly happy with getting $111+ from it.

[adiuvat]