Full Tilt 10k guaranteed (10pm)

I played this tournement last night. I placed in the money and I believe I made many good plays. I was card dead most of the tournement, but I managed to make good plays at the right times with some value hands, and my tight image helped me steal a few pots down the stretch. I have to express I am little disappointed with the Full-Tilt tournement software. At the end players got moved out and into my table in random. Most importantly players with bigger stacks were brought in while others with smaller stacks got moved out. I say this because at one point I was the third biggest stack in the table with 13k in chips and the other bigs stacks were to my right 3 positions. This is great because if they are not that close to me, I can certainly steal some blinds since the smaller stacks are playing so tight. On the other hand, 2 short stacks to my right got moved to another table and 2 big stacks (2x my stack) were moved to my right. So when hands were folded around one of the two would put in a raise and I couldn't steal the blinds. Very annoying!

I believe I played a solid tournement. I made 2 mistakes, one great read, and there were 2 interesting hands. I will start with my mistakes. I doubled up a few times and i was seating aroudn 9k in chips. I had just been moved to this new table and I had seen this player move all in. I pick up 99 in the seat before the cut-off and it gets folded to me. I raise 4xbb to about 1300. Gets folded to the player who had just made the all in move and he pushes all in. At that time, I stopped and thought about what hands I thought he had. I could easily put him on AK or AQ which I would be a favorite, but I could also think that he had a slower pair and didn't want to play me, and was trying to scare me off the pot. In any case, I called. He showed AA and I lost the hand getting me to 2.8k in chips.

I waited around for some cards and a position where I could move all my chips in and hopefully double up. The two interesting hands were that I moved all in 2x with AQ, to get called by people with AQ and split the pot. I hated it, but I guess it is better than losing to a worst hand. The great read came early in the tournement. I think the blinds were 30-60 and I had 66 in the button. Someone in MP raises to $180 standard raise. I call hoping for a 6. The flop comes rainbow T 5 2. I really didn't think this was a scary flop. In any case if my oponent hit his hand he would make some sort of bet. He checked. I put him on AK immediately. So I wanted to buy this pot right there. I bet about $600 which is $120 more than the pot size. He and I have the same stack sizes about 1600. He actually had $60 more chips than me. He thinks and pushes all in. I called. He showed AK and I manage to dodge aces or kings in the turn and river.

My bad play came as we got into the money. I was seating on a decent stack of $13k and the blinds were 500/$1000 with $75 antes. I was really looking to make a move and double up soon so I can either contest for the final table or go to bed and sleep. It was about 12:40am. This player with about 20k had been a bully in the table. If people limped in from the small blind when he was the bb, he would shove all his chips in. He did that in several occasions. Everyone folds around to him, and from the cutoff seat he pushes all in. I have KsQs and I am in the big blind. I think about it and this is the situation: 54 players get paid and we are at 55. Someone in another table is the bb with all their chips and I am about to make the money (I am watching the other table and I see that this person loses). Since I have more chips than the person who got blind out, if push all in and lose, I will still be in the money. I decided to make a stand and I called. He showed AKo and my hand didn't improve. I came in the money at 54th place. Not bad, but I was hoping for more.

I can't say it was a big mistake, normally I like going with my reads and I constantly do that. My reads were good, but these players just don't fit correctly in my profiles hehe.

Good tourney though