Game 2 is finished and not to blow my own horn, I think I've been playing pretty darn well the first 2 games: 2 wins. I must say this game was almost completely opposite the 1st one. 1st game I was chip leader going into the final table and I put pressure on my opponents, knocking a lot of them out. Game 2 I was constantly struggling to stay in the game. At one point I was wittled down to 2200 and was able to double up a few times, where I sat at slightly above starting stack until a big hand against one of the larger stacks, where I probably ended up with the 3rd largest stack at that point. The big hand was between me and the player to my left, Steve. He was usually pretty passive, calling a lot, almost never 3-betting and opening very few hands. However, this game he was very active, still mostly calling but betting and raising a lot more frequently than usual, especially against Jaime and myself. I open-raised preflop in the highjack position with Qs-8s, Steve called quickly on the button, the blinds folded. By the quickness of his call I'm immediately put him on a mid-pair all the way up to 9s or possibly 10s or a mid-way to weak suited Ace or maybe 2 paints, probably up to A-8, A-9, KJ, KQ, QJ, etc... Flop was pretty dry for both of our ranges: K, 2, 3 with 2 spades. I liked this flop as I figured his range is pretty capped, not many Ks in his range but my range was more open, and I like my draw so after picking up chips for a c-bet I set them back down anc checked. I figured he'll have almost only 2 options, raise me or fold . I didn't feel my stack was large enough to deal with a raised c-bet(I'd rather shove with the draw than call off my chips). The plan is to check-raise if he bets, if he doesn't bet I get a free card and I might win a small pot if my draw comes in or I can probably call him down if my 8 or Q hit as a bluff-catcher. Steve bets out 2K or slightly over 2K, which I thought was kind of large compared to what I thought his bet-size might be based on previous hands.(wish I could remember my preflop bet size...maybe 1375 at 300-600?) This also strengthened my read on his capped range and I figured he almost certainly couldn't call a check-raise. I only had 8K total left so I shoved. Steve thought for about a minute and called, flipped over wired 7s(pretty sure he didn't have the 7-spade). I was surprised, but I think he figured he was on a rush lately and he was good if I didn't have a K. I don't think it's a bad call, really, it seems like a good call if the pot was something like 14K and he calls 6K . I'll almost never completely bluff in this spot and I think I'm on the low end of my shoving range here. While I may not have the best hand at this point, I have the highest percentage to win the pot. 7s versus me hitting a Q,8 or spade is 54% to his 46%. The turn was brutal to Steve, 4s completed my flush with a Qc on the river. Steve was crippled and ended up going out soon after.
Final Table:
Ashley was the final tabel bubble-girl this time. Like Shae the previous week she was a short-stack early and hung on for a while. I probably made a mistake calling her shove with 8s vs Ks and she was able to double up and I put myself in a bad spot stack-wise but I was able to shove a few times to bring myself back to avg. Jaime was on a rampage taking out her friends, first, after his 7s lost to me, Jaime put Steve out of his misery and to send us to the final table Jaime knocked out Ashley. Jaime would later also knock out her husband, Chris. Jaime has been playing extremely well and much more aggressively than season's past. Her new strategy has boded well for her as she's in *second place*. She would be tied for 3rd except she's gotten 2 bonus points for knocking out the bounty in both weeks, Ashley week 1 and Steve in week 2. She's had large stacks propell her early on deep into the tournaments, and I predict she's only going to get better at playing short-handed with more experience... Somehow I made it to the top 4, Heck and Jaime had monster stacks, at least 40K each. Jake and I had slightly less than 10K each and my strategy was to double up somewhere and hope Jake couldn't. This is close to what happened I got a stroke of luck and my Aces held up to Jaime's flopped top pair that I was able to get 3 streets of value from. Soon after Jake shoved all in and Heck knocked him out.
Top 3 played out for a long time.
I think we have a total of 104K in play, Heck and Jaime had mountains of chips. I checked Heck's stack, I thought he was chip leader but it appeared he had over 40K, I had 14K which would make Jaime have at least 40K as well. It was tough to see across the table at Jaime's stack. I went into Craig-shove-or-fold-mode and raised my stack only slightly over the course of 15-20 orbits of play. My plan was to hopefully chip up slightly with strategic shove-folds and hope Jaime or Heck would make a play at each other. Well, I think neither player wanted to a big chunk of their stack against me and Heck eventually started raising pots that Jaime limped and even 3-bet her a few times until finally I was sitting on 30K, Heck had about 60K and Jaime had near 15K. She went all-in and Heck called to knock her out. Unfortunately, I don't remember Jaime's final hand...
Heads Up with Heck I had a huge uphill battle ahead of me. I even told Heck as a joke "I guess I need to start knocking people out if I plan to win this thing." He was 4 to 1 in chips against me but the large blinds and ante's worked in my favor. I worked up to 3 to 1 in chips but then I played KQ really terribly(limping in, calling a flop bet and forced myself to fold on the river) and gave myself a little under 20K with blinds at 2500-5000 I figured it was a matter of time. I shoved a few more hands and Heck folded, next hand Heck goes all-in with J-7suited vs a lucky draw of KQ again, a Queen hit and I felt a little bit of redemption for playing KQ so horribly prior. I actually had the chip lead with 65K after this hand and a few hands later I had Qd-6d. I completed the SB and Heck checked. Flop was 5s-6s-10d, I bet out 5000, Heck calls. His call seemed weak(based on a prior hand I called him down with an underpair and he won by turning his bottom pair into a bluff) and I really thought he was giving himself the opportunity to shove any spade on the turn representing the flush and possibly winning with a weak holding, of course the turn is 4s. I bet 5000 and Heck shoves. I replayed everything a few more times in my head, double-checked my cards and made the call. He flipped over 4d-7s for the pair of 4s, open ender and flush draw, lots of outs... three 3's, two 4's, three 7's, three 8's and nine spades...I think a King hit the river and I won.
I was pretty satisfied with taking my below-average stack most of the tournament and mostly sub-standard hands all night to play well and survive long enough and finally take advantage and get another win! I really only had 2 hands I would take back, the 8s vs Ks against Ashley and the KQ at heads up I just played aweful...
I'll post the standings as soon as Chris sends them out!
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