Out of Bellagio 2500

Early on I nitted it up. I picked up QQ once and raised to 150 and got called in 4 spots. Flop AT4. Checked around. Turn 2. I bet 475 into 775 and a gentleman raised me to 1100. I folded and he showed me AT. I got some chips back when Clonie raised up front to 150, a guy called, and I called with 76hh. I'm not playing a hand like this for a raise too often in shallow tournaments, but the table was splashing around a ton, so I figured I'd have some nice implied odds. The flop came 773r. Clonie bet 650, and I decided to go ahead and raise it to 1700 with two guys left to act. The others folded and so did Clonie after a long tank. As Clonie was reaching for chips, I was really wrestling with whether I wanted to just call or raise her. I wanted to do the opposite of what I thought she'd think I'd do with a 7, but I'm still not sure what the right decision is, as this is a very player dependant decision in a poker tournament.

I was at around 5500 when I got moved to a new table with SlippyJacks, Danny Wong, Robert Cheung, TheWacoKidd and Clayton27. I bled a little there then I started to get really lucky. I raised to 550 with AQ and a guy called. Clayton moved in for 3500 from the BB. Good players will show up with just about any two cards here, and Clayton is a good player, so I pressed call. He showed up with AK, and I got lucky on a board of 5454J to chop and still have 4500 instead of 1000. Clayton got his revenege though when a dude raised from up front. Clay called, so did SlippyJacks and Danny Wong. I found AKo in the SB and had a trivial shove even though I felt Clayton had a huge hand. First guy folded, and Clayton quickly called all-in. The others folded, and Clay showed me two Aces. The flop came A88, and I had 989:1 to chop, but missed :( I was crippled to 600. A few hands later Slippy raised to 525, Danny called, and I had an easy all in for my last 3 bets with JTo. I decided to call and save 75 chips that would obv go in on any flop, because people will sometimes isolate behind me in a spot like this. Two others called and we saw AT9. Slippy bet, and I knew I was in trouble. He showed AK, but I got lucky again and ran off 8-7 for a straight.

I was all the way back up to around 3700 when I got lucky yet again for all my chips. With SlippyJacks out of his seat in the BB, I raised KQo up front. Barry Shulman called in the SB. The flop came QJ9, and Barry checkraised my 900 bet all-in. I called, and he showed me a set of Jacks. The dealer, Eric, wasted no time putting a Ten right on the turn though, and Barry missed on the end.

I got moved again to a new table that had Believer82, Robert Cheung, Brandon Cantu, my roommate Mike Katz, Amnon Filippi and Clonie Gowen. I lost a little bit and was at 4700 when the bust hand came up. Brandon Cantu raised from the SB unopened to 600 at 1/200 (25). I found the Ac and 4d. I maybe should just shove in here for my 23.5BB. I'm not sure though. That's a lotta chips to slam in the middle esp. with a hand like Ax. I settled on call. The flop came J93ccc. Cantu checked for a club before checking. I had another tough decision in this hand. I can take one off or I can bet and then call all-in since the odds will be correct. I felt that BC was weak though and giving up. I was wrong though, and he CRAI my 1200 chip bet. I double checked to make sure I had the Ac before calling AI. He showed me J8 with the 8 of clubs. I missed the 11 outs.

I'm back at the house now playing the 1000 dollar tournament on FTP, some HU cash and watching the Nat'l Championship game. Memphis to cover 2 as a lock plz? Cash is going extremely well for me the past few days. I am quickly starting to think of myself as more of a cash game player than a tournament player. We might go to dinner and/or go to Jet at Mirage later tonight. There's a 3000 dollar tournament tomorrow.

SS