Millionaire Maker
So I came into the day with about 24bb, and grinded like crazy to stay alive. I found a couple resteal spots, a couple shove spots, and got it in with 99 vs. 88 and held. I was card dead nearing the bubble, and into the money, then got it in with 55 vs. T8s and held. I then stole the blinds a couple times and got my stack up to 35K at 1K/2K with a 300 ante...
I'm in MP and make it 4.4K with 8
8
. The BB tanks. I have a sick read on him and I'm 100% sure he's strong, and if he jams on me I'm giving him pairs bigger than mine, AK and maybe AQ, and I'm folding. He calls. At this point, he's got like 99-QQ, AJ+, KQ. If I flop an overpair, I'm either checking back or x/f.
Flop (12,500): 8
6
5
He checks, I bet 4,500, and he jams. I snap call and he has 9
9
.
Turn (73,700): 6
River (73,700): 9
And that's my Millionaire Maker. I cashed for about $3K, and I'd give myself an A+ on the tournament. It's definitely the best poker I've ever played in a live tournament, and I ran really, really bad and still finished in the top ~650 out of 7,275 people. I don't think I made any mistakes for more than like 3-4bb, and only a couple of those. The part that sickens me about the last hand is that if he jams pre, I soul read him and raise/fold 17bb with 88, and if he x/r like a 7 high flop, I do the same thing. I had so much control over that hand, but, that's poker.
In two days of play, I got AA twice, got cracked once and doubled the other. I flopped two sets, one I got a bad runout and no action, the other I got cracked. I ran really bad hitting flops with my big cards. I never got my money in worse than 80%, except the one flip today, and I didn't put any beats on anyone... Yet, I ran into the top 9% of the field and had 80% equity in a pot for about 37bb and a very nice stack.
I took my tournament game to new levels, so I'm happy with that. At the end of the day, I ran horrendously bad, but I've been running good at cash for a pretty extended amount of time, so nobody should feel bad for me or anything. I withstood about 500 hours of running bad at cash games, and came through it stronger than ever. I took a terrible beat in a big tournament, and it's going to make me that much stronger in MTTs.
Tournament poker is what it is, and the bad beats tend to be brutal when they're deep in the tournament... All you can do is keep putting yourself in those spots and sooner or later, hopefully, you hold up or put the beat on someone else when you're coolered.
So, I whined about it for about a minute in my study groups, and that's about it. I know how good I've been running overall in 2015, so I have zero right whatsoever to bitch about this for more than a quick minute.
Back to the cash grind!