A week in the sun, a 9th place, and $22,300 as a goodbye gift. On many aspects, this trip was an objective success. Still though it is not often you go deep in a tournament, and with first place paying 10 times as much, I have a big feeling of unaccomplishement.

I started day 2 with a big stack of 80k, twice the average. I immediately flopped two sets in a row and won medium pots to get myself to a pretty huge 115k. After that I moved to a new table and won my first big coin flip deep in a tournament since... well I don't remember the last time ;) My AK was good enough against my all in opponent holing QQ, and I found myself sitting with a huge 200k stack. The tournament structure was 6-handed once in the money and my table was a little weak and I set the motion rolling, raising almost every pot and bring myself to 300k without a showdown with a couple hours.

In one pot I raised with some average hand, and 4 people saw the flop of 636. Both blinds checked to me, and I made a continuation bet of 4k into a 6k pot. The SB, the player I thought was most likely to play back at me, made it 16k to go, and I called with no pair no draw. On the turn he checked, and I bet out 21k. He folded quickly.

Unfortunately as I was quickly closing in on the chip leader my beautiful table broke and the next one was very different. I had two strong Scandinavians on my right, and a couple of players on my left had short-ish stacks and were waiting to go all in if someone raised too much. I had to tighten up, and I took a couple of hits, getting down to 160k. The player on my right was uber aggressive postflop. In one hand I 3bet him with AQ from the button, and he moved all in. I doubled checked everything was right before making the call, pretty confident I was in good shape against his range. He showed me a medium pocket pair, and the coin flip was massively important as a loss would leave me crippled!

I hit an Ace on the flop to win a huge pot, and get back close to 300k. The table was about to break, and I made the first of two plays I now regret:

With Q3 in the CO, and probably frustrated that I couldn't play my usually loose game; I decided I was deep enough to raise. Unfortunately it was without counting on excellent player Joakim Garp in the blind that called.

Flop J6J, he checked, I bet, he check raised me, and I called planning to make a move on the turn.

Turn (90k) J, he leads out for 45k. I re-evaluated, realised he could well play a Jack this way, and decided my read was at best shaky and gave up. After the tournament he told me he had JT, put me on a pocket pair and thought his line would have a good chance to get paid off. I believe him, I would have been hard press to call with 99+

The table broke, and the new one was interesting. Two loose players that were very difficult to bluff on my right, both with big stacks, and two tight players on my left, with 25bb roughly and waiting for a loose player to raise so they could go all in. After the player on my left shoved a few time to my raises I decided to stop the bleeding and played really tight for two hours, hoping my loose image would remain until I picked up a real hand, that never came!

Unfortunately I went card dead for a long time. With the blinds rising to 3k/6k/800, I decided to limp in with a few hands, since raising yield too big a chance to get pushed into, and since I felt I had a big edge postflop.

With 76s, I ended up HU against the Romanian tricky player in the BB. The flop came a delightful 653 rainbow. He checked, I bet 7k, he made it 1k to go. At this point I was pretty sure I had the best hand but didn't want to build a huge pot with no idea what his outs were, so I called. An ace on the turn froze the action, and when a 2 came on the river, he bet 15k, which seemed like a small value/blocking bet. I decided that the odds were good enough to call and the amount was nearly worth the information alone. He showed me 52 for 2 pairs, and I was a little frustrated since I had a better pair and a better draw when most of the money went in.

I went slowly down to 150k, but then managed to see a couple of flops and owned in both. In the first one the player in the SB raised to 15k and I called from the BB.

Flop: AKA, he checked, and I checked behind

Turn: 8, he checked, and I bet 7.5k hoping he had given up on the pot. He called, and I put him on a very weak made hand, like 44

River: (35k) is 9. He checked and I immediately value bet 20k. He called and I showed my 9 triumphal. He showed QJ in disgust.

The next hand I open with Q3o in the SB by making an almost min raise. That way the pot was a little too small for my opponent to risk is entire stack by pushing. He realised that and decided to call. The flop came Qd8s6s giving me top pair, and we both checked. I potted the turn (3) and he called. I potted the river (9) and he called again. I told him J8 was no good, and by the look on his face I guess I was at least very close to his actual hand!
280k, one of the top stacks again with 11 players left... Ship it!

Unfortunately my good run was to stop there. Back to 230k after folding for a while, I limped with J9 on the Romanian's BB. He checked and checked the flop dark, which came K32. Expecting a check raise I checked behind. The turn was a 4 and he checked again. I bet 13k, and he min raised me. This is where I made a clear mistake. It is pretty obvious he has nothing, so I raised to 71k total. He quickly made it 140k total. With not enough chips to take him off anything anymore, even just Ace high, I had to give up the pot even though I was sure he had the same sort of hand I had. He showed 67 for pure air.

The right move was simple enough, call the turn. Since he has nothing he will bet again the river and I can push, this time representing a very strong hand and stopping him from making any more moves. Lesson hard learned...
Down to 150k, I still had a fighting chance. Unfortunately the very next hand in the BB was my last. The SB opened for 25k and with 40k in the pot I moved all in with A9o. He immediately called, and his TT held up and I finished 9th.

I should be frustrated, but really this tournament showed me once again that I am very good at accumulating chips and putting pressure on medium skills players. I also realized a few things on how to play tough players or bluffy type. If you remember my hand against Kenny Tran, it suffered from the same flaw: trying to out bluff a tricky opponent without putting my whole stack at risk.

So in a nutshell I think I can plug these leaks and if I keep playing my A game I'm getting closer and closer to the top!
See you all in Prague in a week, for more adventures!