post 50: the 2 month tournament

This was a major tournament. 64 players, winner gets entry into the Lincoln City Super Satellite. I went in with a flexible game plan...if there were players I did not know I would play "proper poker" regardless of what they were doing. If it was people I did know there were 2 ways to play; doker if they were playing that way and I knew I could outplay them or proper if there was raising going on.
Started with 5500 chips.
The first couple hands I folded and people limped. Picked up 9/J off and limped...and one guy raised to 300 (blinds of 25/50). 2 other people called, I called. Flop did not fit my hand, I folded. He ended up having pocket Kings.

Folded a lot of hands, limped in again with J/9. This time nobody raised. Flopped the straight. Bet 200, one fold, everyone else came along. Bet 200 on the turn and 500 on the river. They all folded and I mucked face down. They argued for a bit over what I had. A few hands later I was in the big blind and called a raise of 300 with A/9 suited. Flop gave me 4 to the flush. Checked around. Turn gave me the flush. Bet 200, couple folders, couple callers. On the river I overbet 1000 and everyone folded. That was my first mistake. Should have bet significantly less.

A few hands later I was K/J suited. By now the blinds were 50/100. Flop came J/9/7. I bet 500. Woman to my right called. I had a pretty solid read on her, thought she probably had the 9s. Turn was a blank, another 500. She called hesitantly. I knew she would fold to my river bet as she had both times previously. Ace on the river, another 500...and she called. She had A/7 so her 2 pair beat mine on the river. She was getting the wrong price to call every time so I am okay with that.

Folded my way through the next set of blinds. We almost made it through 3 levels of blinds before the first person (Dawg) went out. I was down to about 4400. Blinds changed to 100/200. Under the gun I picked up A/J. Wanted to go three times the blinds, raised it 450. Oops...should have been 600. Oh, well. 2 callers, Todd and the big blind. Flop came A/9/4. I raised it 600. Todd folded...and the big blind came over the top all in. I had a pretty solid read on him at this point. So I sat back to think. I thought he probably had a pocket pair. I was pretty positive it wasn't Aces. I thought it was fairly low but might be Kings or Queens. The only hands that were ahead of me were A/K, A/Q, pockets 9s and pocket 4s. I actually asked him, "You hit trip 9s?" He was afraid to look at me or answer so I was fairly certain I had him. He had slightly more chips than me. If I called and lost I was out. If I folded I would have about 4000 chips left. Finally I figured I was ahead and called. He flipped up a pocket pair...8s. Cool, I was about to go up to about 10000 chips. He said, "I always hit my 8s". Even better. He made a move on me because of superstition.

Of course, sometimes superstition works...such as when he hit his 8, the river was a nine and I was gone to his boat.

Spent a long time thinking about this. Should I have folded? I keep coming back to this; my read was correct, I was waaaaaaay ahead when I got them all in, I had about a 4-1 advantage. I needed to build chips to have a chance to win the tournament and cannot get them in with much better than that. I would make the same call based on the same read again.

So I was a bit disappointed that I played well and lost to 2 donkeys...but that is how it goes, sometimes. I will do better next time.