I visited my local casino the other night for their "almost free" buy-in MTT. The entry fee is $15 with one re-buy allowed for $20 with $1K in starting chips. I was rushing to get there on time, tourney was scheduled for 6:30 and that's about when I walked in the door. I wasn't worried as they always start late. I go to purchase my entry and get the last seat!!!! Whew!!!!!!!
Anyway, there's 80 peeps in it and I'm holding my own, as the tables get condensed I get moved and my luck gets better. Now I've got some chips. I make it to the final table medium stacked with about $10-$12K in chips. A couple people get knocked out and here I get an AQ hearts, my favorite hand to hate. BTW by now the antes are $400, blinds are $1K and $2K and I raise to $4K in middle position, after the big stack had folded. Three players in front of me are short stacked so I wasn't worried about them but the next guy has me covered by a few thousand chips. The three short stacks fold, big stack flat calls and another short stack puts all his chips in for less than my original bet.
Flop comes K97 rainbow, I check and he bets frikkin $10K which would've almost put me all-in. I put him on AK so I folded knowing what trouble AQ has gotten me in before. Since the other short stack is all-in we get to see the rest of the hand..turn K, river Ace giving me A's and K's if I was in. Dude turns over pocket 4's!!!!!!! I about shat. GREAT bet but very risky, I guess he read me well knowing I had no King.
I try not to tilt but when you lay down a winner like that it's hard to keep cool lol. Very next hand I get AK clubs so now I go all-in for my last $9600. It folds all around to the chip-leader who folded last hand. He has a dominating lead. I really wasn't hoping for a call but he callls me and turns over AJ hearts. YES!!! I've got him dominated. Flop is a blank, turn ---blank, river------JACK!!!!!! ARGHHHHH I go out in 7th out of 80 and even forgot I could've still re-bought LOL. That would have REALLY been gambling though as my $20 would have got me $1K in chips, enough for ....2 1/2 antes lol. Had a great time though and was my best live MTT finish as of yet.
I went to the ring games and won back my $15 entry fee and $10 to boot. And whistled all the way home lol.
Got me thinking about my all-in against the chip-leader though. I'm thinking a better play would have been a smaller raise knowing that whatever flopped I was going all-in. The fact that he had a dominating chip lead may have made him lay down after the flop if he didn't hit (which he didn't) if I go all-in after the flop. A lesson to remember for me when facing a dominating chip lead and having the best starting hand.
