21K!!!!

Decided at the last minute to play the Paradise Poker 150K Guaranteed tournament. I had only played one multi table tourney in the past few months, so I had an itch. Since Sonny was playing, he was able to send me some money to play in it as well. We decided to swap 10% of each other's action. There were 796 players in the tourney.

It sounds a bit cliche and stupid, but I felt like I might be able to do something special before it started. I caught a few hands early on and accumulated some chips. For much of the first hour or two, I was among the chip leaders.

My first hiccup occurred when I saw a flop with A3s from the small blind. I check-raised the BB on a A-7-4 flop, and had to call his all-in. He had A7 and I was drawing nearly dead. Suddenly my nice chip stack became less than average.

I was forced to battle for a while, and made the money in pretty good shape (top 70 got paid, Sonny finished 82nd of so). The whole time I just kept telling myself to stay focused, since losing your edge or focus for one hand can mean the end of your night.

To make a long story short, with about 2 tables left I was able to catch an incredibly lucky break. My chip stack had dwindled down to way below average with about 15 players left. I was in the SB with 87o, and all folded to me. I immediately pushed all-in, and much to my shock and dismay, the BB called me with a dominating K7. By the river I was down to 2 outs, due to a possible flush, but as fate would have it I hit one of the two remaining 8's in the deck. I eliminated him on a coin flip shortly thereafter.

When we got to the final table, I was again the shortest stack. The table was very aggressive, with some well known online players (SamENole for one). They were dominating the play for the most part with their aggressiveness, so I decided to counter the aggressiveness by playing tight and waiting for a big hand to catch somebody with. Within a stretch of a few short hands I was suddenly the chip leader.

There was quite a battle when were down to 6 players, then another real battle at 3 players.

Finally I got to heads-up outchipped by a 3-1 ratio, against WillisNYC. He was playing a good aggressive game, and it became apparent to me that I was going to have to take a stand with a hand early. I did once when he raised preflop, and I pushed all-in with A7, and he folded. 2 hands later he again raised preflop, and I moved in with A9o. He quickly called with AK. Despite me getting a straight draw on the flop, I didn't suck out this time and I was the runner-up, for a total score of 21K. (first got 36K)

It was quite a needed infusion of cash for me. Ever since the Super Bowl I have been doing pretty poorly (the debacle of the Super Bowl probably had something to do with it). That money will go towards paying bills, paying for the WCOFF (World Championship of Fantasy Football), and replenishing the bankroll.