$235 Freezeout Caesars Palace ....
mega deepstack festival ......
 
I turn up knowing nothing about the comp - just knowing they got a load of runners and it was over a $25k 1st prize for the $200 comps ....

I sit down to find you get 7500 chips and the tourney is a 50 minute clock all the way through ... zzzzzzzzzzz ...... please god help me out - as some of you might know - i am a cash player and online especially i am used to playing 7 - 10 tables at once so to sit there and grind this out was going to be hard work ...

So i plug in my ipod and prepare for the mission ahead ....

The first (and only) table i sit down at is a nice one - 2 rocks either side of me and the rest a bunch of fruitcakes, I quickly establish... within 10 minutes of the 1st level one of the rocks gets knocked out by a fruitcake who can't wait to put his tourney on the line with a 6 high flush draw against the rock's top 2-pair.
 
Anyway, my strategy is to see as many flops as possible in the early stages, seeing that this is a deepstack and there is enough room for manouvere. I win and lose pots throughout the 1st level and finally wake-up with Croydon suited ... ( AK Spades ) blinds being 50/100 - so i open-up 3rd to act, making it 400 to play ... get one caller ....

Flop ... Qs Js Jd .... Oh dear, can see myself getting it in here. i decide to check-raise with this hand ... I check, he bets 600 - i make it 1300 ... Call ..... Turn BLANK .... mmm .... What now? i fire 1900 .... Call .... river - BLANK again .... i feel now that as this player hasn't passed to a check-raise on flop or chunky bets on the turn, he aint going to pass his hand to a shove on the river - so i check, he quickly checks behind showing A Q  ... fair enough i suppose ?  So i lose a nice chunk, 2 mins into the 2nd level ... Marvellous!

Couple of hands later, i'm in the BB to find a raise to 350 and 2 callers. i look down at Q 10 ... Nice ... I can see a flop ... Flop 10 6 2 ... i check, original raiser checks, last-to-act fires 600 ... i feel i'm winning and seeing that last-to-act is a clueless Gus Hanson wanabe, i decide to flat call - kind of slowplay and just hope my read is correct and hope also that the original raiser will pass - which indeed he does ... Turn comes 3 ... i check the Fruit now fires again 1200 ... Now i have 2900 left ... I decide to flat call and check-call a possible river bet ... River 2 .... I check, a quick check behind me is followed by 'any pair wins ' ... as i thought, he was on the steal ...
 
I make the break with no more real action on around 8k.

1st hand back i'm on the cut-off... all passing round to me, as i look at 10-9 diamonds. i make it 1600 to play, blinds being 200/400... the BB pushes all-in for 4k total ... 2600 more to win a possible 8600 pot ... leaving me with 4k left if i lose - i call, hoping to have live cards, which i do, as the BB flips K Q ... A 9 high flop gives my stack a nice boost upto over 12k.

The next hr and a half, i raise a few pots uncontested... and one race with AK vs 88 when i ping the Ace on the turn in 300/600 level to get me upto 20k in chips. i'm now starting to get in the mood for playing, as i am staying above average chips with no real effort... Also noticing that when the blinds get to 400/800 there are only 170 runners of the 460+ runners remaining.

Blinds get to 600/1200 and 135 people remain - I am on 28k in chips and playing well, then I find A J diamonds on the button - there's a raise from middle position to 3600 which i call ... Sb/BB both pass....

Flop Kc Jh 6h .... The raiser bets 10k, which is just over the pot ... I sit for ages trying to think what he can have, but just can't make sense of it ... I think maybe he has Q 10 - just because the bet is so big - just doesn't make sense for him to bet so much with a made hand ( AK, KK, AA for example ) so I decide to shove for 13k+ on top of his bet, with middle pair - after a small dwell he eventually calls with something every body hates to see.... A flush Draw ! Ah 10h, also a Q making him a straight ... Turn 10 .... River 4h :o(

Out i go ..... Gutted, but kind of happy in someways that i made a good read for a really promising position in the tournament and just got unlucky. After all it was only a £100 FO ! lol .... Still $27k 1st prize would be very nice .... Oh well .... There's always another game ! ! ! !

Be lucky ...
 
Asbo.