Tourney: Binions March 11th $55 8 PM nightly recap

This tourney actually did not have a terrible structure for a $55 tourney. It was still pretty awful but they did have a few levels most tourneys for this much $$ do not have. There were 44 entrants which started at 4 tables (with alternates). We started with 3k in chips and I ended up folding for about the first 1 ½ hours of the tournament. I was down to 2200 or so at 200-400 when 3 people limped to my bb and I found AKdd. I made the obvious push and got called by a limper with KQs and held to get to just over 5k.

I maintained this stack until the 500-1000 level when I found KK on the button in an unopened pot. Both the blinds had a similar stack as mine and I thought by pushing or raising I may not get the action I needed so I ended up limping. The SB folded and the BB checked his option and the flop came Q52. The BB immediately moved in and I instantly called and he showed me Q8 and my KK held and I ended up with just under 10k in chips.

Then, the most interesting hand of the trip thus far came up. We were down to about 16 players (2 Tables) at 600-1200. I was in the cutoff +1, a loose/weak older man limped under the gun and a semi-aggro younger guy utg +1 pushed for about 9500. I look down and find a beautiful AA, do a little acting job, and then call. Before I am even done calling, the guy behind me shoves his stack in the pot too. He turns up KK and utg +1 shows 99 and my AA has to dodge a 4-flush by making a full house to hold (its never easy). After this hand, I had a little over 30k in chips (about 23% of the chips in the tournament) with 12 players left and a massive chip lead.

We make it to the final table with 5 places paying and me still having a pretty decent chip lead. However, the increasing blinds dwindle my stack as people get eliminated and I have about 26k when the following hand happens. We are on the bubble (6 players left) and the blinds are 2k-4k. One kid only has about 1500 and is folding to make the money. I find 44 and make it 9500 utg +1 with the thought of folding to a reraise but still probably being able to just take the blinds. It folds to the BB (similar stack) and he thinks about 2 minutes before deciding to just call. He has show an aggressive image and has been willing to take flops even though the average stack is like 7 bbs. The flop comes t67 and he thinks for about 3 minutes and finally decides to check. I move all in for my last 16k pretty quickly and he makes me sweat for another 2 minutes before finally folding.

After this hand, the bubble burst and stacks were so high we got push crazy. Even so, I still was able to get in with the best hand every time. With 5 players left, I took 44 vs 33 aipf. The flop was a nice looking A54 but the turn and river came 32 for a standard chop pot. With 4 players left, I got over half my stack in with jj vs a9 in a ~45k pot vs some guy with a moustache but lost when an A hit the flop. I was down to about 20k at 3-6k and ended up getting all in vs the other short stack in a bb vs sb battle with my k5 vs his 67s. My k5 hit the flop and held and we were down to 3. The 2 big stacks took each other out and it was me vs moustache heads up. I had just under 50k vs his 85k and first hand, he raised the button and I ended up pushing 55. He time bank called with 22 and the board came t662a making him his set and sending me home in 2nd place. Its too bad because if I win that pot, I get 75% of the chips in play and push his weak/tight play out of the tournament but 2nd place was $410 and a decent start to the trip.