I made it to 5th out of 17th, and here's the key hands that took me up and down.
* 3rd level (25/50), 8 players, I'm 3rd to act with AA. Everybody's still got similar stack sizes.
p2 - raise 150 (3BB)
hero - call (yes, I know it's not textbook....)
p4 - raise to 450
folds all the way back to me.
hero - re-raise to 80% of my stack (1400 ish)
p4 - all in
hero - calls
p4 shows JJ
And the board doesn't really help either of us, aces hold.
* 4th level, I'm early to act out of 7 players
hero - limps (TJ)
fold around to SB and BB, who both call
flop 7h,8c,9h
SB bets 1/3 of pot
BB bets pot
Hero calls
Turn - x (no heart, no straight, no pair)
Big Betting again, this time I re-raise and get one caller
River - x again
I make a moderate sized (1/4 of this huge pot) bet and get one last call
Turns out both my opponents had flopped trips, thus the huge betting
*Final Table, Five Players remaining. I'm #2 in stack size
UTG, small stack of 5M goes all in for 1000-ish
Hero Raises to 3000 with AQos
p3 folds
p4 goes all in for 75 chips more
p5 folds
Hero calls, with a sinking feeling
UTG = 77
p4 = QQ
and suddenly I've got 3 outs :- (
I fail to catch my ace, and now I'm a moderate to small stack (3000), which I squander over the next 10 hands or so to bust out at 5th. Payout structure was top three.
For the hand that killed me, I suppose I could have just called, and still kept a decent stack if I had lost....
