Caesar's $220 Buy-In Part II

The first part of the tournament went fairly well for me, I didn't lose many pots I entered, and I won a decent sized pot immediately after I moved to the table. The 40 minute blind levels really served as a benefit at the beginning of the tournament, but this table I had been moved too forced me to play much tigther. There were a lot of players from all over the world at this table, and they play a bit different style than I am used too. Plus Chris still had a large number of chips, and he didn't fold his hand to raises most of the time. This is where the tourmanent started to go a little bad for me.

I am sitting on the button with about $13000, the player UTG goes all-in blind for his last $2800, everyone folds the player in the cutoff thinks for a while and he just calls. I put him on a somewhat marginal hand, something that he wasn't too sure he wanted to put all his chips in with 3 people left to act behind him, I believe he would have raised with a hand like AA, KK, QQ, or JJ, so I am thinking I am in not that bad of shape when I look down and see I decide I want to isolate myself against the all-in player and push my opponent out he had about $6200 chips left I decided to go all-in for $13000. My thought on this was there was a lot of opportunity to get away from a marginal hand and I would win a huge pot if I could beat the all-in player. Plus if he called I didn't feel I would be that bad of a dog. He thinks long and hard then he calls with I was hoping for AJ or AQ, but I was still happy to be in a race. The flop comes great I flop two pair, but my oppnent in the hand hits a set and I don't improve on the turn or the river and he takes the side pot and the money from the all-in player.

That hand put me down to about $4500 chips, so one hand before the break I re-raise over the top of an early position raiser with he calls with , I spike a on the turn to double up to $9000 before the break.

Later in the tournament I double up with Pocket Queens vs K4, to sit with a stack at about $25,000. But then I make a mistake a player goes all-in blind once again, and a player who is to the right of the cutoff seat thinks for a long time, the amount of the all in was only about $2000. The player raises the bet to $7000, from where I am sitting in the big blind I already have $800 invested, and the small blind and antes along with the other bets leave about $12,200 in the pot, I look down and see , I am looking at the over bet by the player and thinking he is attempting to protect something I am thinking that if I re-raise all in he will fold and even if I lost to the all-in player I would still make a profit, the raiser was a big stack, so he should be able to get away from that bet in th face of strength. So I start to count my chips to see how much I have and I take out the extra money for the call, and place it in front of my cards while I count the rest, I then say all-in, and the player freaks out saying I only called (he was foreign so it was mostly hand signals and raised eyebrows). They called over the tournament director and he ruled that since I placed my chips in front of my cards that it was just a call, so I couldn't go all-in at that point. The reaction from the foreign player just validated my thoughts he was so worried he would have to call and all-in from me that it revealed he probably had a middle pocket pair, I don't think he could have called my all-in. As a result of the ruling the flop comes blanks and he bets $10,000,and I fold, then of course he turns over the other player hit a straight on the turn, but that gave the foreign player a set, then the board paired on the river for the full house.

After that hand the tournament became a crap shoot, people moving all-in just about every hand in order to get chips. So I steal the blinds a few times to try and keep my stack at a decent size, but at the $1000/$2000 w/ $100 ante things were tough. A raiser in late position raises to $10000 on my big blind, I look down to see I think through everything, and I figure my Ace isn't good and fold. He shows his hand and says "See no Steal".

The very next hand the same player raises my small blind all-in for the rest of his chips he has me covered, I look down to see I think for a long time, and I feel that I am ahead in the hand, but probably up against two high cards. At this point I am 4 from the money, but my mind is focused on putting myself in a position to win the tournament, so I call he shows it's a race! The flop comes my hand doesn't improve and I am eliminated in 24th place.

I think my call was ok, I could have waited for a better spot to get all my chips in, but if that hand goes my way I am sure to make it to the money at that point. Sometimes you have take risks in tournaments to put yourself in a position to make the final table, and not just making the money. I made several unforced mistakes that cost me valuable chips, hopefully I can eliminate those mistakes from my play in the future.