Live Tourney Report - Jan 23: Part 3: push/fold

I was confident when I got to the final table that I had a great shot at the money (10 left, paying 5), and a decent shot to win the thing. There were 2 microstacks that weren't going to be along for much longer without getting very lucky. There were two larger stacks that didn't seem to be in the mood to push people around.

First hand after the break, I'm under the gun and get one of my 6 big-slicks of the night, this time both clubs. I raise to 2.5x and am ready to call a shove. Nobody looks me up, and I've bought my blinds for the next 2 hands.

A few hands later, the first microstack, to my immediate right, goes all in and is called by both big stacks. He shows my king-jack. The flop is dealt jack high, and both big stacks check, implicitly colluding their forces to knock out another player. They continue all the way to the river, where they both show an unimproved ace-king. Talk about dodging a bullet! One of the microstacks has tripled up, changing the complexion of the table.

I am one of the more aggressive players left, but I'm also getting the cards to back the play up. I shove over a limper with ace-queen, he folds. I shove over a 2x early raiser with ace-ten - he thinks a long time and then folds. (this one had me scared - small raise, early position, could it be a monster? Then I remembered my rules from earlier in the tourney - they were correct this time and served me well).

I shoved KQ, but got an immediate call from one of the microstacks. He had pocket queens and doubled through me. Big trouble for me now, luckily I got ace-queen again right away. I shoved over a raise, who called me with pocket kings. This time I needed to get lucky and did so, hitting an ace on the turn. Still alive.

I called a shortstack shove with another ace-queen. A good call - the villain had ace-nine, but this time he hit his 3 outer nine and chopped me again. (this was one of the players I would have taken down with quads had I made the bad call earlier, he was really dodging bullets).

We were down to 7 now, and I had seven blinds left. Another ace-queen for me - this time both hearts. Once again I shoved over a limper, but one of the half-asleep big stacks woke up and said "how much?" Uh-oh. I announced the amount and he counted out the chips and casually slid them to the center. I whispered quietly "I think I'm in trouble". It was my last good read of the night - he turned over the bullets, and I was a 4-1 dog to survive. No luck for me this time, and I was out in 7th place - 2 from the money.

Once #6 was knocked out, the remaining players' stacks evened out quite a bit, and they worked out a 5-way even chop for $650 each. Both of the players I would have knocked out with my quads made the money (see how one hand can dramatically alter a tourney?).

I was close and had my chances. I had to get lucky and a three-outer to continue, then that luck evened out when someone hit a three-outer on me. I think I limped twice in the entire tourney (not counting a couple completes from the small blind with fair holdings) - both of these got raised preflop and I folded. Apart from my early, weak play with big slick, I played the rest of the tourney fine, and climbed pretty high again. I'll take it.