The 1k stimulus special played out simple as expected.  The players were awful and loved to spew.  These tournaments are so lucrative if you just watch your opponents aggressive tendencies and knowing who will go all the way with one pair.   These are the perfect guys to just flat-call with monster pairs knowing they’ll ship it all in for you.  I attempted this 4 times and my JJ found AA TWICE.  My QQ found an A,K,x flop in a multiway pot.  My AA got a board of 5,9,9,5,Q.  Not cool.  Other than that, the tournament played out pretty normal.  Early on I had AK run into KK and JJ run into AA (the first time) and due to my very small ball style of playing these deep tourneys, I had only lost 1150 of my 3k starting stack.  I just play slow and careful and do not like committing chips in big pots until I’ve got a solid read on the situation.  The first real test came in the following hand, in level 2.

Stacks are ~3500
Blinds are 25/50

I’m the Hijack
Villain in Cutoff

Folds to Yappy who raises to 150 with Q8
Villain (CO) calls

Flop (Pot = 375)
8 6 3

Yappy bets 225
Villain calls

Turn (Pot = 825)
10

Yappy checks
Villain bets 600
Yappy calls

River (Pot = 2025)
J

Yappy checks
Villain bets 1000
Yappy calls

Villain shows AKo

As soon as he called the flop bet, my radar went straight into the air.  His range instantly dropped to just pocket pairs that didn’t connect with the flop or a club flush draw.  If he hit two pair or a set, I really doubt he’d just flat call the flop because of the multidraw on the board.  If he had 9s or better, I really think he’d have raised preflop or on the flop.  That takes me down to a pair under my 8s or a club draw.  When the turn comes, it’s scary looking card, but doesn’t change anything.  I figure I must check to induce a bet from a hand that thinks I’ve got AK and he’s ahead.  It works.  The river, once again looks scary, but really isn’t.  When I check, his 1k bet is just weird.  Why?  How can you possibly bet this card?  Only a back door draw got there on the river.  Some visual tells included a very fast call on the flop and fast bet on the turn.  He thought for about 15 seconds on the river.  Fast calls usually indicate draws and fast bets usually indicate bluffs, as the opponent is not considering how the card changed the landscape of the hand.  (See Patrik Antonius’ call on Phil Laak on HSP Season 5 for an example of this.)  I just simply think he has air here and make the hero call for a good portion of my chips.  This pot took me up to over 5k and I used that hand as intimidation against opponents until our table broke.  I chipped up to around 8k by level 3 by continuing to play small ball.

I got moved to a new table and they seemed much more likely to gamble.  Then a new (big stack) sat down and starting a massive card rush that couldn’t be stopped.  He picked up hand after hand and bulldozed everybody.  I truly felt helpless when my hands were just never good enough.  I caught a case of 2nd best and couldn’t get rid of it.  It went all the way through my stack and finished me off when my 77 ran into 99 all in pre flop for my tournament life (first time, and during level 5.)  I got up from my chair, and started walking away to see him fill up by the river.

I headed to TI for their HH tourney.  It was maniacal with players calling with any two cards preflop.  Normally, I’d just play TAG, but this is a bounty tourney, thus one must get into the pots.  I got one bounty before making some pretty loose decisions and busting out to Ozone in level 3.  I got into a cash game and ran $400 into $800 and left.

Yesterday (Monday) was my day off for the week.

Today (Tuesday) is the Binions $200 NL HE starting at 2 PM and tomorrow is WSOP $1.5k 6-Max.