Day 2 - Full Tilt Style

I entered day 2 in 22nd of 78. I had an above average chip count (56K), and blinds were only starting at 400/800 100 ante. There was plenty of room to play.

400/800

AJh SB, haralabob raise in mid pos to 2100, I reraise to 6600 he folds (55K).

JTs MP, I call dmikkel's UTG raise to 2250, haralabob also comes in from the SB. (Q4d)2 flop
check check I bet 5K, they fold (59K). The previous day I had set in dmikkels mind that I was a complete nit. 1) by never challenging him, and 2) by mentioning we sat together at the end of day 1 of the main event, where he had a monster stack on my left and I had a big stack. I had him there for the last 2 hours and played very tight knowing a redraw was coming for day 2. He remembered me, and I wanted to let him pigeon hole my style to very tight.

KJs MP, 5 way limped pre, (98s)4h all check, 7h 1st 3 check to me, so i try to represent JT w/ a 3K bet into the 4800 pot knowing I have alot of outs, they all fold (63k)

Bought some blinds (once w/ AA)

500/1000 w/ 125 ante

J9d CO, I raise to 2500, BB goes allin for just over 10k, I decide to gamble getting 2 to 1 for 7500 more. I know he has a good hand here b/c we are close to the bubble, but it is not a large portion of my stack. He shows AK and the board comes 2AJ4J for rivered trips (74K)

33 HJ, I call a UTG raise to 2500 and fold his flop bet on an A high board (69k)
In the meantime I keep folding to people reraising me pre (I hope to exploit this later on)

KK SB, MP raise to 3k, haralabob calls, I raise to 12K all fold (76K)

600/1200 150 ante (72,666)

A3c SB, folds @ I complete. agriffrod raises to 3600, i call. Q52 (1 club), check he raises to 5200 i call (i intend to take this away from him on turn or river, and if a 4 hits i may win a monster). A on turn, we both check (I am content w/ letting him try to bluff me b/c I think i am best, but I dont want a huge pot w/ this hand). river 6, we both check again and he had 93 (80k)

33 BB, call haralabob raise to 3500 and check fold J76 flop (74K)

AK UTG, I raise to 3K, BB calls. QJ3 flop check, I bet 5K and he folds (78K)

QQ MP, I raise to 3K, BB (dmikkel) calls. 952 flop, check, I bet 5K and he calls. turn 8 check, check. river 3 he checks, I bet 10k and he calls after some thought. he had T9 (95K)

AK BUT, MP haralabob raises to 3500, dmikkel calls, I RR to 14K, all fold (103K)

A2 CO, (next hand) raise to 3k and buy (106K)

J9c MP, I raise to 3K, button (tight player) RR to 7200, I call getting good odds but knowing I will have to hit this well. I think I can stack him though if I do hit. T96 diamond flop and I check fold (98K)

98s BB, SB completes, I check (I should raise here). AQ6 check check. 8, he bets 1200, I call. river 5, he bets 2K, i call and he shows 54 (103K)

800/1600 200 ante (102K)

AK SB, folds @ and I push in on a 15K BB stack, he folds (103K)

98h HJ, MP raises to 4K, BB and me call. (KJd)Qh flop, we all check. 5 check check, I bet 8500 and they fold (108k)

QQ MP, (next hand) raise to 4K and win (112K)

98d UTG, raise to 4K all fold (112K)

95c CO, I raise to 4K, BB calls. flop (QTc)7 check check (i checked here for 2 reasons: i thought he was going to CR, and it would disguise my hand well if the flush hit). turn 2, check I bet 6K, he calls (this may be a bad bet b/c what am I representing, when he called I put him on a draw or a mid to small pair). river 5 and he leads for 8K I called (his play seemed to me like a missed draw type bet so I made a "brave" call w/ 4th pair) he shows 55 (91K) this was a very weird hand for me

QJd HJ, I raise to 4K, BUT RR to 12500, i opt to fold although i considered calling and RR (78K)

1000/2000 250 ante (78K)

**Strangest hand of my life**
66 HJ, I call a MP raise to 5K, flop 6(J3h), at this point the guy gets disconnected and runs out of time. Now I can bet here and take down the pot, but do I really want to? Of course not, so I tank for a while and check. He still is not back so it autochecks to me. I tank again and finally bet 10K (I am not giving 2 free cards), fortunately he is back by the time I bet. Now I think it is obvious to everyone I have a monster b/c I didn't "steal the pot." However, he CR me to 25K. I push allin, and he folds (109K)

I get moved to a new table with 6 guys all over 100K and in the top 14 of 31 left
KJs EP, I raise to 5K, all fold (112K)

QT CO, ditto (112K)

97h BB, BUT raises to 5200, I call. (K2h)7 flop, I lead for 8K (this gives me the allin option if he raises me, if I CR he has the allin move), he folds (118K)

JT CO, I raise to 5k, BB RR to 13500, I fold (112K)

A3 BB, SB raises to 6K, I call. 843 flop check check. 5 check, I bet 7K and he folds (119K)

T9c CO, EP raises to 5200, I call. K76 flop I fold to his 8200 bet (112K)

33 BUT, UTG raises to 5500, me and BB call, J63 all club flop BB pushes for 21K I call. He has AcJ. 8 and T turn/river. (142K)

1200/2400 300 ante (142K)

AK BB, SB raises to 6200, I RR to 18K he folds (149K)

AQs 2nd, I raise to 6K, next guy calls (soggydog), Q98 flop, I bet 11k he raises to 28600 (i have a real bad feeling here) I push for 136K total and he calls w/ 99. turn and river irrelevant. This hand really pissed me off b/c I didn't go with my gut. Two other times during the tournament I had real bad feeings about other guys hands. One time I folded top two pair to an allin bet, and the other time I played AQ very slowly on a A72 flop Q turn. I boated on river and busted a guy who flopped a set of 2s. I could have laid this down even though it would have been a very tough fold. If I call it is going to be real hard for me to fold the turn which I believe was a 4.

I would rate my overall tournament performance as a 9 of 10. If you take away the last hand I may have given it a 10. The reason for this is that I went in with a game plan, and I stuck to it perfectly. I chipped up all tournament long w/ marginal hands and got my money in very good on the big pots. There were definitely spots where I could have been more aggressive, but in this structure, i did not think it was the right strategy for me. I knew guys would give me there chips if I just waited for the right opportunities. The only hand I wandered from this strategy was on the last one (that is what makes it such a bad play in my mind).

Congratulations to both Moon and MasterJ! Master made an unbelievable comeback from dead last to start the day, to chip leader w/ a few tables left, to out 16th. Moon played a very similar style to me, but he had to do it on a short stack. This made his run even more impressive than mine. He picked his spots wisely and was so close to some truly big money finishing on the final table bubble in 10th.