Normally I don't don't like to chop, but down to 4 players last night in the Big Game it seemed like a good idea. Against three solid players (bayne, MiamiDon, and Chad) and everyone about even in chips and having an M of < 10, it seemed like too much of a luckfest to risk losing out on a cash after playing for 4 hours. A $450 payday is much better than a $0 payday.
About 2 hours earlier I busted out of the Sunday One Million and was pretty pissed at myself. I had to lay down an overpair and lose a big pot that put me in a struggling position for the rest of the tourney with maniac big stacks on my left. Now, I'm glad I can lay down an overpair, many players can't, but it seems to put me in such bad spot in online games, I'm starting to question how smart of a play it is.
In a live game I can get a better read on a player, but online, when a maniac hold any two cards pushes on the turn or river every other hand, it hard to know what to do with an overpair. Risking my tourney life just doesn't seem smart, but in the big MTTs it seems like this situation comes up at least a few times per tourney, especially when committing large amounts pre-flop and on the flop. Maybe I fold too much, maybe I'm more tight weak than I thought. I ended up going at around 1500 out of 2300. Suckage.
After busting in the Million, I jumped into a 24+2 turbo 18 player for a $75 token to use for the Big Game. I love the two table satellites, where 6 places pay. It is so easy to beat these things. Won my token 4 min before the Big Game started and signed up.
Twenty min in, I picked up KK and won a $2400 pot against LJ. Two hands later my Aces up calls lifesagrind's river bluff on a busted inside draw for a $9000 pot. At 11K in chips, twice the table average, I decided to see lots of cheap flops and pressure the table to grow my stack. Normally, my $VPIP is around 12%, but it was up close to 25% for a while while I pressured the table.
When wonka and Hoy arrived at my table, things got interesting. The both of them are re-stealing maniacs. I the table was constantly being pushed of hands by the two of them. I laid down AJ to an all in bet by wonka on a board of A24. Hoy started his all in fest, and post flop would push and then beg players to fold. I'm not sure if he was trying to induce calls or folds, but I laid down A7 on a 572 board to Hoys all-in after be begged me too. I was getting sick of this shit.
And then it got even worse. With wonka and Hoy on my left now with bigish stacks, they began abusing the table even more. Nobody, was getting free/cheap looks from these two, so I had to plan carefully and put them to decision, instead of the other way around. I got my chance against wonka. With 200/400 blinds, he pops it to 1600. Like he did third hand for the past 1.2 hour. I call from the BB with AQ. Flop of T46, I check-raise all-in on his 2800 bet. He mucks and starts swearing.
Three hands later I get the perfect situation. Wonka and Hoy are in the blinds and I pick up AA. Time to let one of them do the work for me. I normally do not want to limp with AA, it is almost never a good idea, but in this spot, I was pretty sure one of these two would come in for a raise. I call, Don calls, Wonka calls, and I start to worry. Hoy pops it to $2300. Thank you. I re-pop to 6000 figuring he will either fold, giving me credit, or go all-in, figuring me for a frustration steal attempt. He pushes, I insta-call and AA holds up against AQ, a better hand than I gave him credit for.
Now at 28K, I essentially rode this stack to the 4 way chop. I put the pressure on and got my stack up to 46K at the final table and then made a really bad mistake at one point calling off 20% of my stack with A7. It was the final table, down to 7 players and Chad was pushing every other hand with a shortish stack of 10K. I raised 3x to 2400 and he pushes. I think about it and call into his AK. It was kinda stupid, but he had been raise-stealing sooooo much I figured about 50% chance I had one over and was ahead by 10%, a 25% chance he had me dominated, and a 25% chance I had him dominated. So, overall I guessed I was ahead by 10% on average. Add to this fact that Chad is a really good player, and I had a big stack, I wanted to eliminate him if I could. The more I think about it, I'm not so sure it was a stupid move to make. I was left with 35K, still almost double any other stack. Any thoughts on this hand would be appreciated.
I didn't let this deter me, and I kept the pressure on, remembering the week before how effectively Surf used his stack in the Math. A flopped straight got me up to around 50K.
Bayne caught a two outer to double up though me with boat over boat, and then hits a river ten to knock out swimmom95. Down to 4, we traded chips back and forth for a while, and when we all had about even stacks it was chop time. A fun game, and my second cash in the Big Game out of three attempts. Guess I should play this thing regularly.
