Bankroll boost!

I should talk about how nothing is really happening at the tables more often, because yesterday's post was followed by a very nice 2nd place finish in a $5 MTT... 207 runners, made for a profit of ~$165 for me. The re-cap will be relatively short, because basically I got hit by the deck and almost every hand was utterly standard; the only decisions I really had to make before the final table were ones about bet-sizing and whether or not to c-bet some flops.

From the first orbit onwards I was never outside the top 10 in chips - within the first 30-40 minutes I had seen KK twice (once won pot on flop, once doubled up through 99 all-in pre-flop), QQ twice (once won pot on flop, once flopped top set and stacked KK who failed to shove over my 3-bet pre-flop) and JJ once (flopped middle set and was called down to the end for a nice pot). When things are flowing like that, poker is a very easy game, and I really did coast into the final table. I had dropped to something like 6/10, but then KK came back and I doubled through against 1010 all-in pre-flop to begin the final table 3rd in chips.

The final table was a little strange in that everybody was inexplicably showing their hands after people folded. I don't get it, and needless to say I didn't join in. I managed to just pick up chips slowly without any real big hands or big pots. I tried to attack more than I often do, and to take the bull by the horns... when monotone flops appeared I really piled the pressure onto people a couple of times and induced some folds for good pots. I felt totally bad-ass for a change, it was fun! I also had a big let-off here 5-handed when the chip leader somehow failed to knock me out (sorry, the hand replayer website is being stupid on me, my browser is telling me it doesn't exist) -

$5 + $0.50 Tournament (52177821), Table 4 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 4: TheAlbinoKid (56,867)
Seat 5: bluffmaster78 (130,749)
Seat 6: juanjo37 (23,957)
Seat 8: Finney777 (59,553)
Seat 9: thebishop333 (39,374)
TheAlbinoKid antes 250
bluffmaster78 antes 250
juanjo37 antes 250
Finney777 antes 250
thebishop333 antes 250
TheAlbinoKid posts the small blind of 1,000
bluffmaster78 posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Kc Kh]
juanjo37 folds
Finney777 folds
thebishop333 folds
TheAlbinoKid raises to 8,000
FatSquirrel520 (Observer): albino4thewin (this guy was in the middle of venting because he just got knocked out when 88<77, he seemed to think I was the only non-donk left; good eye for talent, obviously!)
bluffmaster78 calls 6,000
*** FLOP *** [Qd Ac Qs]
TheAlbinoKid checks
bluffmaster78 checks
*** TURN *** [Qd Ac Qs] [4h]
TheAlbinoKid checks
bluffmaster78 checks
*** RIVER *** [Qd Ac Qs 4h] [7h]
TheAlbinoKid checks
bluffmaster78 bets 8,000
TheAlbinoKid calls 8,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bluffmaster78 shows [Qc As] a full house, Queens full of Aces
TheAlbinoKid mucks
bluffmaster78 wins the pot (33,250) with a full house, Queens full of Aces

How are we not all-in pre-flop? And once he flops a full house, how does he fail to get any more than 8000 chips out of me? I guess I chose the right time to not c-bet the flop; anybody play this hand differently in my shoes?

I made it to the last 3 but my stack had dwindled... I had about 44,000 at the 1200/2400+300 level, about 1/7th of the chips in play. But the guy in 2nd picked a very bad time to hustle me (1 guess what hand I had when he tried it!), and we swapped stacks pretty much -

$5 + $0.50 Tournament (52177821), Table 4 - 1200/2400 Ante 300 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 4: TheAlbinoKid (45,417)
Seat 5: bluffmaster78 (145,949)
Seat 8: Finney777 (119,134)
TheAlbinoKid antes 300
bluffmaster78 antes 300
Finney777 antes 300
Finney777 posts the small blind of 1,200
TheAlbinoKid posts the big blind of 2,400
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Kd Kc]
bluffmaster78 folds
Finney777 calls 1,200
TheAlbinoKid raises to 8,400
Finney777 raises to 118,834, and is all in (limp re-raise ORLY?)
TheAlbinoKid calls 36,717, and is all in
Finney777 shows [3d Kh]
TheAlbinoKid shows [Kd Kc]
Uncalled bet of 73,717 returned to Finney777
*** FLOP *** [9c 8h Qd]
*** TURN *** [9c 8h Qd] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [9c 8h Qd 2s] [5s]
Finney777 shows King Queen high
TheAlbinoKid shows a pair of Kings
TheAlbinoKid wins the pot (91,134) with a pair of Kings

Finney then got busted, leaving me heads-up with around a 2.5:1 chip disadvantage. Heads-up is probably the biggest leak in my game to be honest, I really struggle to find the right level of aggression and bluff frequency against my opponents, so it is no surprise to me that I couldn't overcome this deficit. In fact, heads-up only lasted 3 hands (two of which I was all-in on - I was taking the hyper-aggressive route!), and ended when I had KQo and we built a decent pot pre-flop, then my opponent shoved a A-K-7 flop and I made a call which may or may not have been bad and couldn't suck out when he showed down A10s. No matter, it was nice to not run badly when the big pay increases are happening for a change :)

I am toying with the idea of playing live tonight at a home-game style donkament that I played in once a week from August to February; would be the first time I played there in a few months. The game structure is bad, which is the chief reason I stopped playing despite having turned a healthy profit there, but fuck it, I think I probably will go just for the social aspect of it. The play is awful, so I could quite possibly make a profit with my eyes closed anyway. Stand by for some HIDEOUS held hands!!!