My opening table starting in Seat 1 was Papa Zuited, Dana Ewing, Meat, Pyxis, Julie, me and Luckbox Linda. Aside from Meat, who is one of the best players in the CPMG, this was a great table draw. There were 4 tight players and I had position on the super-aggro Julie sitting to my right. The first break was only 1 hr 20 min into the tournament and I had chipped up to 19700 from my 15k starting stack thanks to a big hand against Meat during level 3. He raised from the cutoff and I defended my BB with Ac5c. Flop was 7 4 3, two clubs. With the nut flush and inside straight draw, I led for 700 and Meat raised to 2200. I put him on an overpair to the board and decided to call. Turn [7c 4c 3x] A. Now I think I’m ahead with my pair of Aces, but I check because I don’t want him to think it helped me. Meat checked behind. River [7c 4c 3x Ax] 6, completed my straight. I decided to bet a small 2200 (less than half the pot) to see if he’d call with a pair of 9s or higher. He did call, but I found out later he flopped a set of sevens, which was way stronger than I thought. Kudos to Meat for not going broke on the hand and losing the minimum.
Around 10pm, we combined to a final table of 8, featuring Mick, Pyxis, Chaz, TK, Papa Z, Nikki, me and Tom DV. Right before the final table, I doubled up with pocket Kings vs Tom DV’s pocket Jacks, giving me a healthy 39900 which was among the top 4 stacks at the table. After a bit, Terry and Pyxis bust out of the tournament and there are 6 left. After sitting back and playing straight at the full table, it was time to get more involved as the blinds and big blind ante were getting higher. Unfortunately, my two strongest opponents at the table - Chaz and Tom DV - had mountains of chip and both had position on me. I had to be careful in any pots against them. In one hand against Chaz, she raised to 3k and I was the only caller from the big blind with Tc9c. Flop 8c 6x 2x. Chaz bet 4500 and I called. Turn [8c 6x 2x] Kc, giving me flush draw in addition to the inside straight draw. We both checked. River [8c 6x 2x Kc] T. I check-called Chaz’s 7000 chip bet and she showed Ace-high for a semi-bluff. That pot was extremely important for me as it vaulted me up to 52500 as we approached the money bubble (4th place).
Papa Z busted around 11pm and the 5 remaining players (Mick, Chaz, Nikki, me, Tom DV) battled for over an hour. At one point, I was the short stack at the table with 40800 before I won a big pot off Chaz when she slow played 2-pair and let me hit a straight. After the hand, I had 77400 at 1000/2000 blinds with a 1300 big blind ante. I ran it up to 87000 before falling back down to 57.5k. It got to the point where everyone was just trading chips back and forth without anyone busting. Finally, Nikki and I proposed everyone pay $10 from their wallets for whomever busted on the bubble. This helped force the action as the bubble broke 5 minutes later when Tom DV hit the rail. I was glad to see him out of the tournament, as he had been playing superb. Nikki came in 4th place, falling at the hands of Chaz. With 3 players left, Chaz had a monster stack while Mick and I were within a few thousand of each other. Mick was playing pretty tight, but I wasn’t able to steal many of his blinds because Chaz was (correctly) raising most of her buttons. We actually played 3-handed for a long time before Chaz earned Mick’s bounty necklace. She had collected several bounties while I still had ZERO.
Chaz held a 2:1 chip advantage as we started heads up play. We battled for over an hour as I slowly chipped away and picked my spots, grinding my stack up to about 215k.
Unfortunately, my 2:1 chip advantage quickly disappeared and Chaz doubled up (I can’t remember the hand exactly). We finally got it all in on a T K 4 flop. I had JT and she turned over T4 for a flopped 2-pair that held. Below is a pic (credit: Nikki) with my sad face for coming in 2nd and failing to capture any bounties throughout the tournament. Cashing for $370 was nice though, and I had a lot of fun playing this one. I felt great going into the tournament and thought I played excellent throughout. Chaz complimented me for being a tough player, but she deserves kudos for being pretty damn tough herself!
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