Day 2 was a bit of blur since we ended up playing for 18 hours+/- straight. But here is the rundown as best I could recall.
Found my seat and we were to be one of the first tables broken so really wouldn't be there very long. Really didn't play an pots and drifted down to ~80k when I got it all in for the first time in the tournament. I opened QQ in EP at 3/6k/500a to 16k. Button shoves and I call to see AK. Flop comes all rag clubs and he has A clubs. OH boy here we go again...But I somehow fade an AK or club and double up to ~170k. Went pretty much sideways for the next hour or so until our table was broken. At the new table I was able to chip up rather easily until I was over 200k when we were broken again. THis time I drew Table 1 which meant I would be there basically all day as Table 1 was to be the final table. SO basically as long as I was in the tournament I would be there.
Two hands in at Table 1 I have ~260k and raise AQ in EP (I believe blinds were 5/10k/1ka) to 22k. Button flat calls and BB shoves about 130k. I reshove to fold out the button and get heads up and low and behold I win a flip when a Q flops. That gets me up to over 300k and in really good shape. I stuck at ~300k for a long long time finally beginning to chip up to nearly 450k between the 12k/24k/3ka level and the 15/30k/3ka level. Then a fun one came up at this level.
Me-Button ~450k
Cutoff-Young aggressive Internet player (YIP) ~750k Opens to 80k
I wake up with AA and reraise to 210k. What makes this interesting is that abt 5 or 6 hands earlier he had opened and I raised the same amount with a trashy hand like J9suited or something (he was opening a lot of pots). In that hand we had a pretty good dialogue that went something like this:
YIP: "How big are you here?"
Me: "I'm a 40 year old guy what do you think?" (Most kids think we all play like overly tight nits and can't play as well or as aggressively as they do)
Table laughs
YIP (laughing): "But you don't play like a 40 year old"
Me: "Well I did JUST turn 40 so maybe I play more like a 39 year old..."
Finally he folds. So back to the AA hand. THis is perfect as he probably thinks I am picking on him and BAM I wake up with the motherload. HE tanks for a while...cuts out his chips and looks like he is going to ship but folds. Says he folded TT but not sure I believe it given the table dynamics. (Stack up over 550k). I chipped up to around 900k without any real showdowns or anything when we redraw tables with 27 left. I am below average in chips but not yet on life support shape with 13BB left. But then a good one happens at 30/60k/5ka. Player just moved to our table opens for 210k. I shove AKs from the button having roughly the same stack as him. He asks if I would jam AK here and I say "yes my range here is QQ-AA and AK" kinda figuring at this point based on the chatter that he has JJ or TT. He tanks for quite some time then asks if I would jam AQ and I say "probably not since I don't know how you play sir". ANyway I am totally comfortable here at this point I know he has TT-QQ. Finally he folds JJ face up and gets up to clear his head. Tough fold for sure. But that gets me up over $1.2M which was just about average.
I stayed at this approx. chip count until we were 12 handed when the big fella finally had a littel suckout deep in tournament. I was at 1.2M with blinds of 60k/120k/10ka when I shoved the button with K8cc. This is fairly standard with 10BB on the button. SB tanks and finally calls with K9hh...yuck. Well flop comes 864, turn 8 and my man is drawing dead though he did spike a 9 on the turn. Now all of the sudden I am up over 2.5M and can play some poker. 6 hands later short stack shoves for +/- 1M and I wake up with KK and hold against his JJ getting me up around 4.0M. I raise a few hands and am up to 4.8M when a bust out occurs and we are at the final table. Now this is getting FUN!
Here are the seat assignments and my reads of the players at the final table:
Seat 1-Brian Lemke 5M Well known internet player who won a WSOP bracelet this summer. Overly aggresive at this table in my opinion but obv a good player.
Seat 2-YIP described earlier with 1.5M Good player but short obviously
Seat 3-Short stack older dude. I busted him in one of the first few hands when he shoved like 900k into my BB and I called with A9. Him KQ. He flops a Q but I turn an A.
Seat 4-Older guy who called my K8 shove Stack=3.4M. Likes marginal hands like KJ, etc. Suspect he will spew if the cards are not in his favor.
Seat 5-Another old dude 2.5M No reads yet though he had 2 massive suckouts with 2 tables left just to make it.
Seat 6-Young kid 4.7M Doesn't play like most of the young internet kids but more like live players. Flat calls out of position with shitty hands like KT or AT and overvalues top pair.
Seat 7-Older Asian dude with 1.7M. Had played with him a bunch on day 1 and not impressed. Told me how he folds AK a lot and would rather play 44 all in preflop. Makes a lot of weird raise folds. Unless he gets smacked with cards he is no factor.
Seat 8-Probably the most accomplished player at the FT. Over 600k in career cashes and many, many deep runs and final tables. Very well known internet player as well. HAs 7.5M or so.
Seat 9-Good middle aged player. Had been at his table for quite some time. Probably about same stack as me ~4.5-5M.
Seat 10-Yours truly hoping to avoid another deep run flameout.
So as I mentioned I busted Seat 3 to get us 9 handed. Very next hand, seat 2 shoves and I reshove the SB with AA. Seat 2 shows J4cc and gayness ensues. Board runs out 782T9 and he rivers the str8. Oh this is pretty standard now. Drops me back around 4.5M.
At this point the only active players are ME and Seat 1 as we are both opening some pots and taking down the blinds an antes. Then at 150/300k/25ka seat 1 open shoves 6M or so and BB wakes up with AA. Oops. SO seat 1 is crippled. Few hands later he shoves his remaining 1.2M and I call in BB with A7cc and actually make a flush to beat his 33. Stack up over 6M again.
Then play gets excruciatingly slow and tight as there is a super short stack that is close to busting. As each pay jump is worth $5k no one wants to make a retarded play and bust out before this shorty. Finally he literally blinds down and is felted. This must have been the signal to start firing because it got ridiculous right away. 2nd hand after the bustout Seat 7 open shoves 7M at 300/600k/75k. Seat 8 snap calls. I fold. Seat 2 then tanks with what I assume is TT or JJ. He shows me JJ and folds. BB wakes up with AA and calls obv. Hands:
Seat 4 AA
Seat 7 A3suited
Seat 8 KK
AA holds and Seats 7 and 8 are eliminated. Seat 4 all of the sudden has like 21M in chips. I have abt 7.5M and the other 3 guys all have between 3 and 4M. But blinds are 300/600k/75ka so not much room for play. We start talking deal. Basically they are offering me between 2nd and 3rd place money to take the deal. The swing between 1st and 5th is like 70k so it is a very real difference. I end up negotiating abt 10k more then the other 3 shorties if I sign for first place. I run the numbers on my phone app and realize that I am getting about 7.5k more than my chip equity and big stack is getting about 7k less than his chip equity. So I agree to sign for first since I know how to handle the taxes and minimize the effect of this "phantom" income. We "play" one more hand and I actually make a flush with 29offsuit...lol. They all muck and I am declared the "winner".
I would have loved to have played it out because I really felt I had an edge over the whole table. But with the stacks being so shallow it just didn't make any sense. Couple that with the extra equity I was getting and I was cool with how it all played out.
So that is the story. Was a fun ride but exhausting. We played nearly 33 hours of poker over a 42 hour period and didn't finish until nearly 6 a.m. Friday morning after starting at Noon on Thursday.
Now I am back in Baltimore living the dream as a tax guy waiting for the inevitable onslaught of paper, forms, etc. Oh well...as luck would have it Borgata Spring Series starts on April 15th this year. What timing!
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