I ended up with 60600 chips, which is nearly triple an average stack, there are 124 players left. 63 make the money. I am actually the second big stack there, as Dominik Kulicki has 61100. It was just one of those days where I gained chips on every round at a ridiculous rate. BTW congrats to Matt Hawrilenko, who finished 8th in the 3K HORSE tourney. I played that one too but busted early in the second day. So during the second day I was seated between Daniel N and Barry G, we were all chatting about something, and then one player says “I have a question, a hand question.” Daniel chirps up “A strategy question”? Anyway he has T877 on O8 two diamonds, there is a field raiser, he askes what he should do (they are playing 800-1600). He decides to reraise and on a flop of AJ3, one diamonds someone bets into him, he asks what to now…? Daniel quietly turns to me when he is away and says “see you get a lot of information just sitting down.” We never get to the O8 round, as he gets (J2)2 in the stud 8 round, decides to call a completion and a raise when I have (QQ)5 and wins with 2′s full.

So, about the limit holdem here are my chip counts for each round:

0-4500 to start
1-5600 (50-100)
2-8600 (75-150)
3-9025 (100-200)
4-10200 (150-300)
5-18600 (200-400)
6-22900 (300-600)
7-37000 (400-800)
8-48600 (500-1000)
9-52500 (600-1200)
10-60600 (800-1600)

So on average I probably over 10 bets/hr for the whole day. This *looks* like pretty steady growth, plotted on a log-graph anyone would be pleased but this is the tail end of the distribution, ridiculously running well

It’s really hard to recall all of the hands that happened as you do get to play a lot of hands during a limit holdem tourney. I saw Daniel N in the noon tourney, it’s a rare noon appearance for him, but he said he really couldn’t pass up a limit holdem tourney. I was very lucky to get a good table draw that didn’t break until round 9. There were several limped pots and really poor postflop play, basically players missing bets.

Here’s the hand of the day. After dinner there is a player on the button who limps. He is one of the originals at our table and says “Well, I would raise but I know you are going to call anyway.” SB calls. Flop is T74, check to him, he bets, SB folds, I call. Turn is a T. Check-check, River is a J. Check-check, he turns over QQ. I had A4 which to me is an auto check-call on the river, but I am not really sure I pay off in this case.

But anyway it’s nice to be able to take the blinds when I make a field raise. Because of this, I lowered my raising requirements in late position against certain blinds. This gets to be a problem as aware players behind me will lower their three-betting standards. I certainly fell into this problem when Rep Porter and Mimi Tran moved to my table in round 8. I have played a bit of short handed holded with both of them and they certainly ruined the party on a couple of hands. But before that, the problem with many players is that you can’t just tell them to play tighter, looser, more aggressive, etc. It’s like they can’t really balance their distributions postflop, they decide to ram A-high as a bluff, etc.

It is fairly tough to play after getting 3-bet. I raise with 98s two from the button. Reraise 1-off by one of the better players at the table. All fold, and I call. Flop is K97. Ok, i check-call. Turn is a J. Check-bet, your move? I reallly hate these situations here I decided to call down. Fortunately the river was a Q, he checks QQ behind and takes the pot, of course he should bet, but I would have folded (I think).

So even at 60K I still only have 30 bets for the next round (1k-2k) this shows how precarious these tournies are. I really don’t know anyone at my table but I will probably recognize a few faces from yesterday. Well today is another day, I probably won’t run as good, but I probably don’t have to run as good to make the final table.