Yesterday I went to the Hard Rock to play a 1k Tournament. It was a two day tournament. I didn’t know it was a two day tournament until about 6 levels in lol. It would of helped me if I had known that but it didn’t matter really. We started with 21k in chips (1k more for $10 addon) and the blinds started at 25/50. It ended up getting around 120 runners and as usual, was an awesome tournament.

I walked up to my table and sat down in the one seat. I just hung back at first watching some of the people play and started picking up on how they were playing. One kid was trying to run over the table. He was raising every limper and just attacking everybody. The first hand I played was against this guy. There was a limper in mid position for 50, he made it 150, and I made it 650 from the small blind with K8o. He called and the flop came A9Tdd. I bet 800, he made it 2500 and I mucked.

I raised KJ utg to 250 at 50/100 and got 4 callers. The flop came J78dd and I bet 525. Two people called and we saw a turn of 8s. I bet 1200 and they both called again. The river came the 4h and I checked and the guy next to act bet 1650. Other guy folded, I called and he had T6dd which bricked and I won the pot.

I was 3betting quite a bit in this tournament because I was using my position and applying pressure to the aggressive players to my right. The kid I was talking about above raised a limper to 250 and I was on the button with QQ and made it 850. He called and the flop came 883r. He check called my 1200 bet. Turn was Jh we both checked and the river came another 8. He bet 2100 I snap called and he mucked. He asked to see my hand which was kinda funny. I was now up to about 31.5k

A different loose player to my right made it 350 pre, another guy called, and I made it 1150 with KK in mid position. The tightest guy at the table called in the small blind as well as the initial raiser. Flop comes A25dd and we all check. Turn is 9s we all check. River is 6h and the tight guy bets 2k. Now let me go a little deeper into this hand. The tight guy in the small blind I literally think his preflop range is AA,AK,KK,QQ. Since I have KK I guess we can exclude that hand so he basically has QQ AK AA. I don’t think he’s ever betting QQ on the river. I tanked it for a minute and mucked.

Aggressive guy makes it 350 on the hijack I call the button with K6cc and this tight lady calls in the small blind as well. The flop comes 234cc and she leads for 1500. I have a pretty sick draw but she had been very tight so I decided to just call. Turn is the 9c giving me the second nuts and she checks to me. I bet 2300 and she min raises me to 4600. I just flat. River is the Ad and she checks to me again. She has about 14k behind. I bet 10k and she calls and mucks. I’m assuming she had like AcJ or something. I thought she might of flopped a set but AcX seems like it fits her better maybe.

I win a couple small pots and I am up to 53k on first break.

Guy limps for 150 I make it 550 in 3rd position with 89cc and the sb and bb call. Limper calls as well. Flop comes 975r and the first limper leads for 2k. I call and the blinds fold. Turn comes 6d putting two diamonds and giving me a straight. He bets 4k with about 8k behind. I put him all in and he tank mucked what he told me later was 9xdd.

I get moved to a new table and use my stack in a couple pots 3betting and what not. I kinda tightened up at this point because I had a loose guy to my left who was drinking wine and I was getting a feel for the table.

Guy limps for 200, I make it 800 with QQ and the bb calls. Flop comes 836dd and I bet 1100 he calls. Turn is 6h pairing the board and I bet 2700. He check raises me 5k more with 14k behind. I thought about it for a little bit what to do here. He called so fast on the flop I really didn’t think he had a set. I thought if anything he had 99 TT or maybe JJ and was raising me for value. I had fired two bullets at him in a pot earlier so that kind of stuck in my mind too. I didn’t think he would flat call with KK or AA, he didn’t seem like that kind of player. I decided the best play was to shove and I did. I moved all in and he snap called and asked if I had a set. Ah crap, did he really just call with AA or KK? I shake my head no and table QQ. He shows JJ and I hold and am now up to 82k.

I played two pots bad that cost me about 15k of my stack 7k in both hands. I was trying to apply too much pressure because I wasn’t aware of it being a two day tournament. I would of definitely relaxed a little more in those kind of situations but that’s my fault for not knowing the structure. I was now down to about 65k with the blinds being 200/400. I pick up AdAc on the button and make it 1100. The guy drinking wine is veryyyy active he calls in the small blind. Flop comes 952dd and I bet 1700. He makes it 5k. I know for sure this guy most likely has a 9 here and I don’t want him to give it up so I just called. The turn is the Qc putting two clubs up and he bets 6k now. I was now fairly sure he had some 9x hand like 9T or something and he was just stabbing again because he wasn’t sure how else to play it. Normally I am raising here but I really thought he was real weak and would fold so I wanted him to fire another bullet on the river. The river comes the Kc completing a flush and he checks to me. I felt like there was no value for me to bet since two scare cards came and I won’t get a bet from his 9. I checked and he tables his hand and says “NINE.” I show my aces and prepare to scoop the pot then he says “Flush!” I look at his hand again and he has 95cc and went runner runner flush. That was kind of a slowroll lol and I don’t know if he realized he hit the flush. Oh well. That was a pretty big pot and hurt my momentum.

Here was another interesting spot. 4 players limp I check my option with A5o in the big blind and the flop comes AT5hh. It checks to this one guy who bets small with nothing every time, he bets 500. My buddy makes it 1200 and I make it 4k. He thinks and flat calls me. The turn is the 2d putting two diamonds and two hearts and now I know when my buddy flat calls me here I’m in horrible shape unless he has like QJhh QKhh. I decided to check to him because I know he is definitely checking behind with a draw and he fired like 8k into the pot. I was pretty sure he had to have 55, TT, AT here so I mucked. He said later he had AT so hopefully I made a good laydown there. Seems like a pretty easy fold when I know that player isn’t really trying to get involved in big pots against me, but who knows.

Blinds are now 300/600 still no antes. Guy makes it 1600, I make it 4700 with QQ and another guy shoves in 10k. I call he has AKo vs my QQs and it comes 445ssAs river bricks. One coin flip lost.

I win a couple pots I’m at about 50k now. Guy raises to 1600 preflop I call with 9T suited. Flop comes 9T8 it’s 4 way pot they check to me I bet 2400. The big blind min raises to 4800. This guy literally never put any chips in the pot with a raise. He either bet or called. But he had also lost a big pot on the river where he lost half his stack so I thought there could be a chance he was tilted. He had about 14k behind. I decided to just call and he moved all in in the dark on the turn. The turn came a 3. I tanked it for a couple minutes and he started talking to me. He gave me a long speech about this and that and I was pretty sure he had flopped a straight. Once he gave his little speech about how he’d show me and this and that I just insta mucked and he showed J7o. I was down to about 45k.

There’s two limpers and the cutoff shoves 12.4k I have JJ in the sb and I call everyone else folds. He turns over AQ and it comes AKKxx and I lose my 2nd coinflip and am down to about ~30k.

I blind down to about 20k at 600/1200/200a and gibler321 just was moved to the table on my right. He raises to 3100 I shove 66 in mid position next to have for 17k more he folds. I chip up a couple other pots and am now up to about 35k in chips. Gibler raises the hijack to 3100 and I look down at AQdd in the cutoff. This is a tricky spot. Sometimes I 3bet call here but sometimes I just call here. With about 30bbs in this tournament I think I could go either way. I know I’m well ahead of giblers opening range so I guess the best play is to 3bet/call all in. So maybe I misplayed this hand. Anyways I call, the button calls, and the big blind (this Asian guy who was super tight for 2 levels then spazzed out shoved 88 on giblers squeeze with JJ) jams all in for 32k. Gibler folds, I snap reshove all in and the button folds. The Asian guy turns over 66 to my AQdd. Gibler tells me he mucked A6. I lost my last two flips so this one has to go my way lol. The flop comes 332dd and I brick the rest for a 70k pot to get me back in action. I guess I played the last hand bad for not 3betting but oh well.

That was my day I busted about an hour before Day 1 was over. Pretty frustrating. Overall I probably played my A- or B+ game. I made a couple mistakes but it’s tough not to. Just have to keep improving and playing good.

Like I was saying before in the last blog I have a new motto. The motto is: “Run Good, Play Better.”

I made this up last Sunday when I was playing online. Basically it’s motivation to run good lol, and it also reminds me that no matter how good or bad you run you control how good or bad you play. As long as I continue trying to play better, the running good part will fall into place. Poker is a very tough game. In MTTs the variance is just ridiculous so you have to stay positive and focused to make sure you aren’t making mistakes. You can control the mistakes you make but you can’t control the cards. Enough preaching about all that.

It’s about 4:30 am and I have another doctors appointment in about 4 hours. I have to get an ultrasound on my liver. Hmmm. I’m not sure what to expect but basically last year I had blood work done and had an elevated bilirubin level of 1.4. The normal is under 1.2. Last week when I got more blood work done my bilirubin level was now 2.0. Since it has elevated that much in a short amount of time they want to do an ultrasound on my liver to make sure nothing is wrong. I’m sure I’ll be alright but hopefully tomorrow I will know what’s up.

I guess that’s all. No good today in Sunday tournaments. I cashed in the FTP $500 NLH and I got 1 outted again for the 2nd week in a row in the 100r. Luckily it wasn’t at the final table this time lol. FTOPS is coming up so that should be exciting as well. Goodnight.