Woo, just made my 3rd Final table in a row for $5 tournaments. This is the tournament that the bluff hands below are from. Unfortunately, the payouts here are not impressive, so there is a good incentive to win this and not care about moving up just one more slot. We will see how it goes.

I entered the final table third in chips. We immediately lost one person.

*down to 7 and I haven't really played a hand yet. The distribution of chips is flat right now, ranging between 20k and 40k.

Break.

Get AK, raise to 6k (1k/2k blinds). One caller. Miss the flop but get a flush draw. Check it down for the win. This restablishes my 3rd place and I am behind 2nd by 600 chips.

This hand happens. My steal knocks it down to 6 players and I am in first.


A turned trips knocks a short stack out. Down to 5.

2-1 chip lead over 2nd after this.

*About here I begin to bully the table and grow my stack. I am up to 105k in chips. 2nd has 41k. Let's see if I can blow this.


I crush 5th place and he later gets knocked out with a smaller stack.

4th places loses with AQ to KK.

top 3 left.


This gets us heads up

The guy starts going all in every hand. I call the second hand with AJ, and lose to 33 that gets quads! I am now the short stack by 10k. This gap increases to 50k.


I lose this hand heads up! I hate AP.


I rebound and build my meager 20k into 93k. Phew, I have a chance again.

Yay, the stacks are even.

Then through some bluffing I get into the lead. It's a very fragile lead.


This is probably the longest heads up session I have been in. I can't be too aggressive as he is not afraid to push and I can't call with half of my hands.

I blew it. I ende dup in 2nd place for $140. :(. I need to work on this game.

Final Table

New post for hands at the final table. This is my second one in the last couple of days so woo. I am going to post all of my significant plays.


*Down to 8 players by the 3rd hand. Yay FT tilting.


Betting the ace pays off

I don't know about this handI was tempted to call on the river here with bottom pair. If anything, I should have bet the turn and represented my AQ, but I wanted the free draw. I went into the bank on the river and decided to fold.

*Down to 7.

I get a monster - again people need not to slow play TPMK.

*Down to 6.

A decent bluff to put me back in 3rd.

*Down to 5.

I missed a hand and bet as the sb, get called. Check-bet-fold on the turn puts me in 4th.

*3rd place goes to battle with 2nd place. He gets knocked down to 50k chips which puts me in 3rd for the time being.

*5th places gets kings and doubles up. I am back in 4th.

5 minute break. The chip stacks are 228k, 187k, 90k, 81k, 40k. I am the 81k.

4 left after a set gets runner runner four flushed. I am now in fourth, behind 3rd by 18k.

My play starts falling apart. Two steals are thwarted and I call once with 56s and miss entirely. Down to 40k.


I lose in 4th.


The Hand

Time to start posting the winning hands that are getting me where I am in this tournament. We are down to 36 players (top 36 are paid) and I am sitting in 1st place with 27k chip lead over 2nd. Here are a few hands that got me where I am now:



When you hit hard and bet they often may not believe you. This can be an effective way to get the money in the middle, especially against a middle stack that wants to double up but would otherwise be cautious.

This contains a decent amount of luck boxing, the preflop call was cake - though I might have wanted to pop the all in. I kept getting odds to call my monster draw and I made both of them.



Notable hands after the bubble:

Switched positions with 2nd place on this hand

Against the chipleader - this puts me back in the lead.