Live Tourney Report - Dec 19

Monthly Live tourney tonight - 33 players witha $50 buy-in. I was defending my title from last month's improbable win.

I think I played nearly perfectly. I had one hand where I raised a limper with KQ early, she called me. The flop came JTx and I debated whether to c-bet when she checked. In the end I figured there was a big chance to take it down so I bet, but she called.

We then got to showdown and she had a pair of sevens, which she didn't hit until the turn (she had A7). A bizarre call by her - she even apologized for it, but whatev. I guess I could have checked the flop and taken a shot at hitting my draw, but I'm not going to fault making a solid c-bet at a pot against a weak-tight limper.

I terrorized the table as usual when I got down to 10 blinds or so. Twice I shoved all-in behind two limpers and won dead money (with 77 and A8s). As usual in this tourney, I was staying alive with aggressive high blind play. One big hand would get me to the final table.

An under the gun player put his last 1200 in with blinds at 200-400. I only had 1700 myself. A fairly large stack said "I'll call you", but he sounded a bit matter-of-fact about it, like maybe he wasn't strong but was just taking a shot. I looked down at king-queen, both hearts. I didn't think I could fold here, so I put my 1700 in too, and the bigger stack made the mandatory call.

A three way showdown - UTG only had jack-ten, and big stack had.... ten-three offsuit. I had the best hand, and one guy is dominated. Nice. Pokerstove says I'm 58% to win vs. two players - a fantastic result.

The flop was clear for me, but the turn brought a somewhat ridiculous three, and the river bricked. Big stack knocked two people out with T-3 off, while being dominated. Lovely.

My exit and Mr. JT left 10 players in the game, so they started moving to the final table as I got my coat. Out in 11th. Not a terrible finish, and I played well.

I would love to actually win some chips in the first two levels of this tourney (or God forbid get an early double up by flopping a set or something), but my usual play is to fold for two hours and then turn up the heat with 8-10 blinds or so. It works, but it's a frustrating, stressful way to play. I'm not as tight as my results suggest, either - I am willing to play quite a few hands during low blinds from the button and try and hit a monster, but there was nothing worth playing tonight. I still avoid Q6/J4 type hands, which can only lead to tough decisions and reverse-implied odds situations unless hitting an absolute crusher flop, but connectors, pairs of course, random broadway - I'm willing to play them in late position and I think I'm good enough to bail on one pair or in the face of trouble. This night, though - there were no situations like this to take advantage of.