After staying at a friend's place the night before I timed my drive down to Tweed pretty well and arrived just as the tournament was about to start. It turns out tho that since a few ticket winners didn't show up their ticket could be re-sold so I had the option to buy in and play rather than just spectating. Knowing that my game is suited to these large player tournaments, I thought why not and took the opportunity.
I had to wait until after the first set of blinds before I could sit down so entered the tournament with blinds at 25/50 (for some reason they started at 25/25). Second hand I get pocket kings ... nice. I think and then raise to 250 (5 times the blind), quick call next to me, call behind him and two others ... wow 5 times obviously wasn't enough. First card out is of course the ace and I know my kings are no good anymore. Two checks in front of me, I don't both with a continuation and then the guy next to me bets and is called. Player one shows ace -9 off but is beaten by ace-jack suited which had a better two pair.
I win a few hands hitting straights and get a good idea of the style of play from the rest of my table. At the first break, 2 hours in, I'm just under 13K in chips, starting stack was 10K. Most of our region were roughly around the same counts, two were up to around 18K and unfortunately our state champ, Paul McGougan was struggling after a bad beat at just 2K.
Not too much of interest in the next section other than our table getting split and winning a few hands to get to 24K. By this stage we've lost a number of players from our group but a few are still doing well. Knowing the blinds are going up to 1K/2K, its this section of the tournament where you lost most of the players and also where you need to chip up so you don't get blinded out.
Early after the break, under the gun raises to 4K and I've got pocket aces. I think for a little while whether to re-raise or push all-in and decide to just shove. Everyone else folds except the original raiser who is really taking his time. He shows his cards to the player next to him and then shows me ... queen-jack of hearts ... to which I reply "is that all ... can't lay that down??" He eventually chooses to take the race and thankfully loses. A few hands later, I'm up to about 50K in chips and well placed. A small stack pushes all-in for his final 12K, I look and have pocket queens ... do I push all-in over the top or just call? I push but get insta-called by someone next to me with about 30K in chips. Small stack turns over pocket 8's, I turn over the queens, guy behind me turns over pocket kings which take down the lot. I go from 50 back to 20 in one hand and am hurting.
By the next break I've survived a couple of all-ins and am up to 35K with the blinds about to go to 5K/10K and only 4 tables left in play. I fold the first couple of hands and then am big blind and get dealt ace-7 of spades. One of the mega stacks at my table calls as does the small blind ... I think about pushing but don't. The board comes 5 of spades, ten of diamonds, ten of spades ... small blind bets 15K and I groan. I would've pushed if he hadn't bet and if I call or push now its not like he can fold and I'm drawing for my tournament. After a minute or so I fold, gutted and the other pre-flop caller does the same. Small blind shows me 2, 3 of spades and I realise what a terrible mistake I made in that position. Next hand I get dealt pocket 3's ... everyone else folds and its just me and a big stack in big blind. I think about pushing but for some (stupid) reason I just fold and hope for a better moment. Yes ... I'm not sure what I was thinking either.
I end up pushing with ace-8 off for my final 20K, everyone else folds to the big blind who says "it'll be ugly if it wins, but I'll call to try and take out a player" ... thanks for that and he turns over king-7 off and proceeds to hit trip kings. Goooone
I'm very disappointed with the decisions I made after the final break. I needed to chip up and quickly but didn't switch to a more aggressive style of play. That's a big mistake for that stage in the tournament and hopefully I'll learn from that for next time. It was a good day tho and I was glad to make it as far as I did, I just would've liked to of course gone even further. Congratulations to Brendan (one of the good players from our region) who made it to 15th. He was very patient down the stretch but couldn't get a hand and essentially got blinded out.
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