I got off to a good start by taking advantage of aggressive players (as usual) and was sailing along in pretty good shape during the first hour. A little while before the break, there was this dude who was a borderline mutt, and he raised the big blind to 1,200. I had 9-9-6-7, and nearly folded, but called. I flopped quads and checked. He checked, too. The turn card was
Right after the break, the same guy is losing his chips and starts to go on tilt. He raises the big blind pre-flop and I had a good enough hand to call along with one other guy. The flop was 7-7-10. I had pocket 10s. The borderline mutt is first to act and immediately bets all but a few of his chips (it was pot limit or he would have bet them all). And right at that point, I F**KING GET DISCONNECTED and that lucky f**ker won the pot.
But he was gone a few hands later and I went about my business of sticking to my fundamentals and playing each hand accordingly. Pot Limit goes pretty fast especially when the blinds get bigger and before I knew it I was down to the last two tables. There was one hand on Table 2, where pre-flop, someone raised and all the small stacks just kind of lined up and went all in against the biggest stack at the table (I sat that one out thank you very much). One of the small stacks who was all in won the pot which was 106K and the big stack after the hand was down to 144K. So the dude with 106K types "Who's the man now? :)". So I typed, from where i'm sitting its still Stephen (the dude with the 144K) and everyone had a good time with that one.
It was looking like I might not make the final table as going into the last two tables I was right about in the middle of the pack so I could go either way. Then there was a hand where a guy raised the big blind pre-flop from 3K to 13K and I had K-K-A-10 with two spades so I called. The flop was Q-6-3 with two spades giving me a flush draw. The pre-flop raiser immediately bet 45K. I had to believe he didn't hit that flop, so I decided this was the time to take a chance. If I lost this hand I would be out. The turn card was a spade and the river was an Ace (he had pocket Aces). But that only gave him a set and I, of course, took the hand with a flush. He did some TOSie-like swearing (XXXXX) but he still had a nice stack and both of us cruised from there to the Final Table (my 18th).
Going in to the FT, I was in 3rd in chips with 170K but the two in front of me were WAY in front of me. Had trouble catching anything early on so I watched a lot of hands in the beginning and sure enough, the wood started being chopped and soon there were only 5 left at the second break at which point I had 172K and the leader had 594K. After the break, the cards were still pretty stinky for me and at one point I actually slipped into last place though I still had well over 100K in chips so not in immediate danger.
Then I got in a hand with a guy (not the chip leader) where the flop was 9-7-5, giving me 9s and 5s. The other guy bet the minimum (wanting to get paid as he had 8-6) and I called. Turn card was a J which gave me some more outs as a river 10 would give me a straight. The guy bet a little bit more, but not enough to run me out and again I called. I caught a 9 on the river giving me a full house. This time the guy decides to push and he bets enough to put me all in. I called and took a huge pot. A few minutes later I got in a hand with the same guy I had flushed on the next to last table (by then there were only 4 left). He picked a bad time to try to push me as I had a strong hand and sent him packing, too.
A few hands later we were down to just me and the guy who was leading going in to the FT. He had kept the chip lead the whole way which is pretty unusual. When we got to heads up, he had about 1.1 million, I had about 540K so about a 2 to 1 disadvantage. The heads up battle lasted 38 hands when he caught me on a bluff and I was toast 2 hands later. There were a couple of times when I got him under a million, but never could sustain anything. He plays tight just like me, so it was not easy going. Oh well 2nd out of 540 not too shabby.
I won 3,550 play chips for an investment of 55. Too bad those weren't dollars!
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