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#039 – FTOPS #7 Update B – The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune
We are at the 80-160 level. I have been cruising on some very good cards. I was going to wait until the next break to update you, but it’s hard to imagine the breaks going my way any MORE than they are now. Average chips are 7,000. There are 426 players left.
We are starting the 40-80 level. The average stack is 5,700, more than 70 BBs.
Aaron Bartley busts on the first hand after the break. jpo raises to 240 with J-J. Aaron re-raises to 800. jpo calls. The flop comes J-7-4, 3 suits. Aaron pushes all-in, jpo calls. Not only do the jacks hold up for jpo, but he picks up a fourth jack on the river.
Aaron is replaced by A_Junglen, another very accomplished tournament player. Is every table this tough? On his very first hand, he raises my big blind from late position. I call with 4d-3d. The flop comes 2-3-5 with one diamond. He bets and I call. He has a lot of chips and I really don’t want to put him in a position to move all-in on me with this great draw.
After an eight on the turn, I check again. He bets again, 800 this time. I decide again to call. I don’t have any idea what I’m going to do on the river, unless I make a straight or pick up another 3.
The river is another eight and we both check. He had J-Qo, and my pair of threes wins. I’m over 10,000. I raise the next hand on the button with K-8o and the blinds fold (Paul Sexton, the small blind, is still absent. I wonder what kind of fight there’s going to be over his all-in blind if he never shows, since there is a $200 bounty on him.)
I got to 13,000 a few hands later on my big blind. Tony Pisser raised (with Ks-6s). I called with 8-5o.
The flop, you ask, 8-5-8. We both checked. After a jack on the turn, he bet 240. I raised to 720. He called. After he hit a king on the river for top pair, he bet 720. I raised to 2,100. He thought a long time and called.
Littlecreeck6, another great Full Tilt tourney player, came by the table – if he’s in the event, he’ll probably get moved here – and asked if I was going to win it. I said, “I have a chance if I can keep flopping full houses.”
Several hands later, I raised with A-A and got one caller – Tony. I bet the flop and he folded. A few hands later, on his big blind, I raised with K-Qo and everyone, including him, folded.
In the big blind, I have T-T. A_Jinglen, in late position, raises to 300. I bump it to 800. He calls. The flop is ugly as sin. Ah-Qh-8h. I consider this hopeless and check (I also figure if he completely misses, he has to worry about me slowplaying some kind of monster, but he probably has some kind of piece of this). He bets 1,200 and I fold.
We are just starting level 8, 60-120, almost halfway between breaks. There are 458 players remaining. The chip average is 6,566. I have 13,254. The leader has 32,000. David Chiu and Phil Gordon are on the first page of the leaderboard. I’m 33rd, just above Layne Flack.
Just got walk on my blind, with 5-2o. I guess the table has noticed that I call just about any middle or late position raise from the blind, so there’s no utility in trying to steal with a weak hand. That’s exactly what I want them to think. (Or, I’m reading too much into it and they all just had really lousy hands.)
30 minutes to the next break, I go over 20,000 A_Junglen, second to act, raises. I have K-K. I’m going to take a chance and NOT re-raise him. While I wait for the flop, I chant “Be man enough to fold if there’s an ace.” (In fact, I’m thinking I’ll call one bet if there’s an ace, but not two.)
The flop is 6c-8h-3c. A_J bets 625. Of course, I’m over being happy that there’s no ace and now worried that he raised with 3-3, 6-6, or 8-8 – not that it will change how I play it. I raise to 1,800. He re-raises to 6,500, all-in. I call.
A_Junglen has Q-Q, an impossible hand to play any other way. He doesn’t catch a queen on the last two cards, and I move up to 7th place, with 427 to go.
Just another eight or nine hours ….
