Event 10: $1500 NL 6-max

I had high expectations for this tournament but unfortunately I went out before the dinner break. Let's get right to the hands I guess.

Hands 1-3: Raise QTo, flop QQJ. Bet, get raised and call. Turn check/check. River T I bet fairly big but he folds AJ face up :-(. Raise AA no callers. Call a raise with 99 in my BB. flop 954, chk/chk. turn 9, I bet he folds. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh those were the first 3 hands of the day and I didn't make that much.

Hand 4: I have like 5K now after raising and betting the flop some more. Button limps at 25/50, Ted Forrest calls in the SB, and I check 85s in the BB. Flop K88, Ted checks, I bet 100. Button calls, Forrest maks it 300. I call and button folds. Turn 9, Ted bets 300 and I call. River 9, Ted bets 600 and I quickly call expecting to chop, but lose to 89.

Hand 5: I thinkI've somehow chipped back up to like 5K now. I raise QQ in the hijack to 300 at 50/100. I've been raising a lot and this in particular is the 3rd hand in a row I've raised. The SB calls and the BB who is some guy who will apparently be in the next High Stakes Poker calls. He might be a good cash player or something (maybe), but he clearly sucks at playing on shallow stacks. Flop 532. Check to me, I bet 600, the BB calls. Turn J. I get that sinking feeling that I'm being slowplayed but with 2700 effective behind and 2100 in the pot and my over-aggressive image I think not betting would be awful so I fire 1500, he hollywoods for a bit and says something retarded like "I guess I'm all-in then" and raises his last 1200. I sigh and call then instamuck to his 64s.

Hand 6: I have 1050 now. Clown limps UTG and I make it 400 with AQ. Normally I'd just shove here but clown figured to have crap and I don't mind him calling and trying to outdraw me with his obviously worse hand since I need to get some chips. I'm getting it on the flop no matter what of course. Flop 932 two hearts. He checks, I shove, he instacalls with... 87hh. OK, it wouldn't have made a difference since I would have called anyways, but not pushing into me on the flop with his hand is just awful. I'm obviously shoving regardless when checked to and he never has the best hand, but if he pushes into me he might get me to fold A-hi or K-hi or something incorrectly that has him beat instead of having to coinflip against it. Anyways I hold up to get to like 2200.

Hand 7: Folds to the SB who is an aggressive youngish guy from Toronto. Blinds 100/200 he makes it 600, I jam 2200ish with AKo, and he calls with 44. I turn an A and get back in it.

Hand 8: 100/200 a25. Raise KK on the button. BB calls. Flop Jxx, I get chekraised and put the rest in. He has KJ and I'm up to like 11K.

Hand 9: I think this one is pretty debatable. I now have like 13K somehow. I raise AJcc UTG to 600 at 100/200 a25. Button calls. He's too loose preflop and not really good postflop but not crazy or anything. He can have like any suited ace, small-mid pairs, paint cards, and like AT-AJ, maybe AQ, and probably some suited connectors or something. Flop Ad2c3c. I bet 1200 and he makes it 2500. A push would be for 10K more and I'm pretty sure he never calls with a worse hand, and he basically never folds a better one, maybe AQ sometimes. So I didn't see a lot of value in reraising and decided to just call since his turn action should tell me what's going on and he never has a lot of outs when behind (and if he catches a club that makes him two pair or a straight I may get all his chips). Turn 5h. I check and he jams. I tank. and mutter about how sick this is and how I should have just put him in on the flop then eventually fold. He asks if I want to see, I say yes and he shows A4hh. Sigh, excellent flop raise sir. I posted the hand on 2+2. My initial impression is that a small reraise on the flop may have been the best play since it keeps worse flush draws in and maybe gets called by a worse ace somehow or something. I hadn't considered that.

Hand 10: I'm pretty sure I win a coinflip against a shortstack with AK vs 55 or something to get back to 13K. Aggressive Toronto guy raises to 850 at 150/300 a25 with like 4K behind, I make it 3K in the CO with QTs and he instamucks.

Hand 11: Some time has passed now I haven't done anything big, just playing tight. Same guy makes it 850 on the button, he now has like 10K behind though. I make it 2850 with 95o or something really bad like that and he folds quickly again.

Hand 12: 200/400 a25. I raise to 1200 on the button with AKo, the SB jams like 5K total and 55 is good.

Hand 13: Fold to Toronto guy in the CO who makes it 1150, I shove 8K on the button with A6o and he folds quickly.

Hand 14: Despite what it seems from this report, my table image is actually pretty good. I haven't been overly active and I've only ever shown down huge hands. AK several times, the KK, once I showed a set after checkrasing all-in to repay the guy for showing the A4hh, and the table also knows I folded the AJcc in that hand. So I have a pretty tight image actually. Anyways, guy from the AJcc hand raises to 1700 at 200/400 blinds still in the hijack. His raises are always unnecessarily big like that, and he raises a normal widish range. I haven't reraised him yet preflop and I'm pretty sure a pushfrom me will get a lot of respect, especially since I have like 8300 counting my SB. I find KTs in the SB and jam over his raise. The BB wakes up with QQ to cripple me and I'm out a few hands later. I'm happy with my play here still. The raiser said he had AJhh and his friend at the table said oh yeah but you definitely would have folded that anyways. Just unlucky the BB happened to have a monster.

Tomorrow is the $5K PL Holdem, time to get some sleep. It should be a smaller and tougher field, but I'm confident in how I'm playing.

Mike