FTOPS XI Events #7 & #10 Recap

I haven't been great about keeping you people updated. Usually that means all bad news, but that's not the case here!

Despite my slow start in Event #7 ($109 NLH with rebuys) I actually made the money! With about 500 players left (we started with more than 2,200) I caught a major break. I got all of my chips in preflop with AQ vs AK, a king came on the flop and I still won! That's not something that happens every day! I made a runner, runner flush, took down a nice pot and didn't look back.

Unlike the first tournament of the FTOPS where I got great cards, and great action making it easy to do well, I got very little in the way of big hands in this one. But, I feel like I played great and made a lot out of not much. This was another case of the tournaments being a big deal to my opponenets and not a big deal to me. Their fear allowed me to take pots away from them even in situations where I felt like I was making obvious bluffs. In these same spots better or more seasoned players would surely have played back at me.

The tournament paid 234 spots and after the one miracle hand I mentioned, I made the money easily. As more and more players faded away I once again started thinking about the final table. With 50 players left I still had more than an average stack. Then I ran into some trouble. I gradually got drained from a high point of around 250,000 chips down to 125,000 when the following hand came up.

The blinds were 6,000/12,000 and a player in early position made the minimum raise to 24,000. I decided to gamble a little and called out of the big blind with Q3 suited. The flop came down 7 5 3 with two of my suit. This was a great flop for me. Unless my opponent had a pocket pair I'd be almost certainly be able to take it away from him on the flop, and even if he did I still had a flush draw that I'd make about 1/3 of the time.

I considered betting out, but decided to go for the check raise. I checked, my opponent bet 24,000, I moved all in for about 100,000, he called me with A7, I missed and that was it.

I finished 37th which paid $1,583. Another strong result, but not quite major glory.

In event #10 I got off to a great start. After starting with 5,000 chips I was up to about 17,000 just after the first break. Even though it was just yesterday for once I can't remember quite how I got elminated. Hmmmmmmm. Well I should probably get to work anyway. I know I finished about 1,000th of over 5,000 and it paid 738 spots so it was close to another cash, but I just can't quite recall the last hand!

Today I have $216 half PLO, half hold'em and maybe the $1,060 no limit later. I'll have to see how I feel when 6 p.m. rolls around.