Alright. I just woke up, strangely (well, I went downstairs to eat breakfast) but I figured I'd get my thoughts out. I probably will leave Mohegan Sun shortly, but I don't want to get caught in traffic, which I imagine will be bad for another hour or so. For those who just want cliffs notes: I busted at the end of day 1. And, "Better" was stuck in my head for the entire day. I literally hummed it to myself 40 times. Maybe 40.

*So, I actually didn't type this up until tonight. (now) I intended on leaving to go home, but got sidetracked in Mohegan Sun stuff. Will likely head home soon tho...

I recorded pertinent hands on my bberry - I hadn't been compulsive about live hands in a while, so this is a nice change. Pretty much any relevant (and some not so relevant hands) I wrote down, so here's hoping less than 24 hours removed I can remember the action, too.

I woke up Tuesday, April 6th, sometime in the early afternoon. I know I had some things to do (various errands) and I think I got them done. I think. I was planning on leaving for MS that night, so I could sleep before the tournament, but I think I got trapped watching the Bos/Nyk and then Uta/Okc (great game) tivos, then ended up finishing S3 of Mad Men (I had a few episodes) and before I knew it, it was morning. So, par the course, I drove exhausted to MS, and played the event on no sleep. Sadly, this is probably why I can't play tournaments: I never sleep for them.

In any event, the big problem is they separated cash buyin players from satellite players. Generally cash players are much stronger (for obvious reasons) so the fact they split them up, (when table draw is so important) was really ridiculous. For nearly the entire day, we basically played a mini tournament on our side. That said, I thought my starting table was pretty good. I didn't recognize anyone aside from 1 player*, and there was some fishy play. (Although nothing compared to some of the hands ppl from the other room told me about...)

*2p2er Martine, Mike, was sitting at my table. Funny enough, I actually met Martine many years ago, when I first went to Turningstone. Martine is a super nice kid, very laid back, obviously very good at poker - anyway, have remained connected by means of 2p2, I suppose, but hasn't been an active friendship, so it was nice to be at the same table. Onto the hands...

Blinds started at 50-100 w. 30k stacks. I got to the tournament about 20 minutes late, but had only missed 1 orbit (150 chips, heh).
-A4cc co, I open to 350, btn makes it 850, I make it 2850 he calls. The guy seemed like the type to 1. think he should 3bet a fair amount 2. didn't want to go broke early on in the tourney 3. i didnt think he had AA, combination of card removal and some body language. 30k effective, perhaps I had a little less, but Flop came k54r, 1c, I bet 2800. He tanked for a long time before finally throwing his hand away. He kept saying he had QQ later, and I 95% believe him.

-Mp opens to 300, fish sb calls, - I call w a5dd in the bb. Flop q97 w 2h, chk through. Turn jc, chk I bet 725, fish calls. Riv 8c, chk, bet 1625, he folds showing AcX. Kinda confusing, but the pfr seemed solid, so when he checked that board with a fish, he literally is giving up, isn't just checking a marginal. (Up to this point, to explain the level of fishiness of the guy on my right - well, I was in the 1 seat, he was in the 10 seat, so he wasn't on my direct right, the dealer was, but yeah... He was cold calling 3bets, donk bet/folding, etc. Up to this point, perhaps 25 hands I witnessed, it was pretty clear to label him as awful) Against this type of person, clearly I don't want to have a bluff here, but I just think the board ran out such that even this player would be able to fold a 9.

40 mins in, made 0 hands, but was up to about 34k by virtue of those 2 bluffs.

75-150
-Utg raises to 425, I smooth QJhh in MP. Flop 886r 1h, he bet 625 call. Turn kh, bet 1125, I make it 4400, he folds kqcc faceup after tanking for a while. Conversation ensued amongst the table about whether it was the right fold, and everyone was unanimous it was a great fold and I obviously had 66. (haha, 2 people then criticized the guy who folded face up for "taking so long")

-Mp raises to 425, 2 callers, I call 23ss out of the bb ending the action. Flop q54 all spades - first legit hand! - I lead 1125 pfr calls, other 2 fold. Turn 7 I bet 3300/call. River 8o I bet 8850 he folds showing the ace of spades, and saying he had a gutshot too. I thought it was more likely he had a Q then the As, but I'm not sure how bluff happy this guy would have been had I checked. Regardless, nice to scoop it in.

-Same villain as the hand above, but this time he's in EP. He raised utg 425, so I call kqo in position. Flop akq w 2c, he cc 700. Turn blank, he cc 2100. River jc, he checks I check he has ajo. Ugh.

-Last hand before break, the fishy sb open limps, I raise 75ss to 450 he calls. Flop kj4 w 2 clubs, he bet folds 700->2150. Not a good flop air bluff spot, but I had seem him donk/fold, so I decided to pull the trigger with zero equity.

So, ~37.5k entering break.

100-200
-In the hijack or CO, one of the first hands back from break, I get the splasher (J4ss). So I opened to 525. Guy on my left called (dude who 3bet QQ/flatted the 4bet/folded Khigh board) as did the BB. Flop came 4-4-4. Yahtzeeeeeeeeeeee! Check, I bet 750, guy on my left called, other guy folded. Turn was a 5, I bet 1725, he called again. River was a 7, I bet 5100, and he called. He showed QQ (wtf, but I figured he had 88/99 which isn't too far off anyway) and pretty much bemoaned the fact I played J4ss for the duration of his tournament.

-Aqo, open from EP, same guy (on my left) reraises from 525 to 1600 even. Normally I'd throw my hand away in a 10h game/against most opponents (like a middle aged dude) but in this spot after he had just lost the pot to me, was visibly tilted/upset, and only had about 15k, I figured if he actually picked up a legit hand in this spot, good for him and he was going to get paid off. Luckily for me, flop came q74 w 2hh! I checked, he bet 3k, and I just smoothed. Turn was an offsuit J, I checked, and he bet 3.5, leaving himself about 8.5k more. I fiddled with chips for a little while and then shoved it in, I'm not really thrilled about my play here but I'm not sure what my other options are. Basically, I'm not folding, so it's a question of whether shutting him off the pot/protecting my equity is more important then giving him a chance to bluff/value shove worse. In THIS case, I wasn't sure if he would bluff off his tournament life he + there were enough semibluffs (even something like AK) that in a huge pot with only about half pot bet behind, I don't really want to shed off 7 outs or so. After he played QQ in that fashion, too, it's not like he has KQ in this spot and after I check call the turn, he'll shove the river. Anywayyy, he complained for a minute (probably posturing) and folded, so I guess he had air. Again, depending on what air he had, calling and check calling the river may be better.

-Dude opens, says 450 but it's actually 550 chips, fish on my right calls, I make it 1850 w qq. Thought it was 450 obv, otherwise I would have reraised larger. Inital raiser calls, but floor has to be called over about the ruling on 450 vs 550 and how many chips the fish owes to the pot. In hindsight, this probably was an intentional minor angle shot from this villain, and I'll explain why in a second. In any event, flop was987 2 diamonds, I had red queens. He lead 3k, I called. Turn was a small club, he cc 9.6k. River kd, cc I won. Didn't want to show his hand, and that's fine.

6At this point, I had reached my high water mark; just under 70k, about 69.7k.

-The following orbit, I picked up Qq again (otb), and the same guy opened to 525, I made it 1600 and he called. Flop 642r, he checked. He had led the last flop w/ obviously a piece, and it seemed like he had showdown value in the other one (not a draw). I thought he didn't even have a pair a lot, so I checked it back. Turn j, he bet 2k, I called. Maybe I can raise there, but my plan was to get a bit bet in on the river. That said, the river was a 3, so there is now a 4 straight. He bet 3k... I wanted to raise pretty badly, but I just called and he showed 56ss.lol :/ So here's where it gets weird: He demands to see my hand!

Apparently, (perhaps just in tournaments) there is actually a rule that a person who gets called and wins can still demand to see the caller's hand! However, ONLY that person can do that. And, apparently, it's to prevent collusion. This is ridiculous, since if the two people that are colluding are the only ones who can invoke the rule on one another, nothing gets done. In fact, it's only really used to serve an advantage by demanding to see hand after hand. What's worse is this guy rode the issue for a while, very high and mighty, (I had tossed my hand into the muck anyway) when he himself didn't show or say what he had when he called (and lost) vs my 1st QQ. It's a good thing, I suppose, I was so tired, because I just tried to stay out of the argument/conversation. In fact, Martine was the most vocal advocate on "my side of the issue," since the rule is ridiculous. Moving on!

150-300
-Guy mp makes it 750, 2 calls, I make it 3.2k w 88, he shoves for 22k total. I fold. I didn't realize he was "that" short (70bbs). This was the same guy who folded KQ to me. Later he said he had KK, which I sorta believe, he did snap shove on me.

Somehow, as I browse my notes, I didn't play (or win) any other hands that hour, and as a result by 200-400 50a I was down to just over 50k. Ouch!

200-400 (50)
-Raised Q8hh from MP to 1025, Martine and the BB called. Flop came JJ4hh, I bet 2100 into ~3700, they folded

-The NEXT hand, well, I played a goofy one. Probably the turning point (negatively) for me: I opened 67o to 1025 (something about "playing the rush"...) and the guy on my left called (new guy, the guy who I 4bet/quads hand/aq had busted) as did Martine on the button and the BB. oops. The new guy had about 15000, so I was cognizant of that. Flop came T54 w. 2ds. Hmm, ok. Checked to me, I checked. I didn't want to bet.call vs the ~shortie, and a free card is nice. Shortie checks, but Martine bets 3k into ~4.6k. BB folds, I call; I have Martine covered, he has about 40k. Shortie folds. Turn pairs the 5, I check with the intention of folding, he checks it back. River is an offsuit J, I bluff 6,625 into ~10.6. Reason I bluff is although he could have bluffcatchers in his range, I think my line could emulate a T PCing on the flop and getting value or Jxdd. It's not inconceivable I have a 5, too, I think. I'm betting into some air, since Martine was OTB and didn't bet the turn, and only bet when checked to on the flop; some draws are in his range too, obviously, which still beat my 7high. Anyway, Mike deliberated for a while and called with KThh. Obviously, I don't think he is or should ever folding that!

-Raised J2o OTB to 1025, SB called. Flop was JJ4r (must be nice) - this was the ~shortie with at this point only 13k or so. He was calling moderately loosely, not like a standard short stacker, so I thought he had air rather then pairs. (If he had a stronger range, obv I bet to stack him, but I opted to play for him bluffing) Turn came a J, LOL, 2nd time in the tourney I make quads. Sweet, He led 3k, which was perfect. Just called, river came a 5, and unfortunately he check folded.

300-600 (75)
Finally moved to a new table, in the actual tournament area. Woohoo! Brand new table, although we were told it was breaking first, so I figured I had about an orbit to play there. So, I made the most of it:
-First hand of the level, folded to Bill Chen who raised to 1600 otb. SB called, so I called T9o in the BB. Flop came QQ2, SB checked, and I donk led 3600. It worked, they folded. "Your deuce is good" I was told. Nice.

-The next hand, in the SB, I get A3ss; EP raised to 1600, got a caller, so I squeezed to 5800. They folded.

-OTB, folded to Bill Chen in the hijack, and he raised to 1600. I made it 4400, everyone folded.

-In the CO, BC raised again to 1400, I made it 4200, and the BB, a guy with only about 20k, cold raised to 10k straight. Damn! I had to fold (I had T4o)

Table broke the next hand.

I ended up getting placed at "table 1", which looked like a good table. Unfortunately, I lost a ton of chips the first hand I played. (I was around 58k at the start of the table!...)
-In the CO (I got placed between the blinds, so I had to wait a few hands, which was fine with me) I raised 97o to 1625, and the SB called. He was an older dude wearing a baseball hat. I couldn't see him well because he was in seat 2, and I was stuck in seat 9. Flop came A94 w/ 2 hearts, I had the 9h. He checked, and well, I did something stupid. Compounded. I bet 2800. He checkraised 5k more. 2 things about this: (Yes, tiredness was setting in) 1. This is a good spot to check behind for a lot of reasons. 2. When a player of this description checkraises in this spot, it's an ace almost always. I peeled though, and the turn was a blank 6. He bet 11k, which actually wasn't very large (just over half pot) and he had me covered. Ugh, I called again. Just burning chips, I need to remember those chips are too important to make -ev calls. Heh. River was a low heart, he bet 19k, and I folded. (And he showed AQ, which is both not surprising but also wtf river bet... Ppl not thinking, just flinging chips in. However, when you join that mentality, good things do not result!)

-At this point, I was knocked to about 38k, which was still average, but I felt sorta mentally deflated. It didn't help that I didn't win a single pot at this table that entire break, and yet I continued trying hard to steal. I made it to the final break at 25k in chips.

400-800 (100)
-I was the button coming back from break, and I stole the blinds with K2cc. I remember this, because it was the only hand I won at table 1.

-An exact orbit later, I was down to 25k. Actually, I think I had exactly 24,000, or 31bbs. Villain of this hand was an older man, and I had one read on him only: He had just sat down (replaced someone else who had busted) with about 14k chips. It was folded to the SB, who had about 8k chips, (ended up being just over 8k) who open shoved SB v BB. Without thinking, this man snap called with 97o. He ended up beating A9o, and voila, had just about the same stack as me. Someone asked him if he looked at his hand or if he just called with anything, and he affirmed he had looked.

It was folded to him in the hijack, and he raised to 2500. I had AJo OTB, and it's kinda a tough spot. I don't think I should 3bet/call, I dont want to 3bet/fold, I have absolute position with antes and an easy spr to just get it in on a J high board, and this guy was kinda crazy (the 97o ingrained in my head). Against others maybe it's a fold? Not sure, again why I maybe struggle with 30bbs! (I don't think I struggle, but I def don't excel)

Flop came J9x w/ 2 hearts, and he bet 5k instantly. I called. Turn was an offsuit 10, he shoved, I snapped, and he rolled over QQ. I did not get there, he barely covered me, and that was my tournament.

C'est la vie!