Good Game, I Go Home Now

I played in an MTT on PokerStars and finally broke my PokerStars jinx. Over 1400+ players entered and I managed to get down to 3-handed where I had the 2nd stack. We discussed and agreed on a chip count deal and I got slightly more than $2200 for my share.

The whole tournament was incredibly straightforward and I got lucky in the sense that I won ALL my races. And all my races were for pretty significant pots. Also, everyone seemed to be playing really tight so I chipped up a lot by stealing preflop. Here's 2 hands that are semi-interesting.

In this hand, I got super lucky. I read Villain on a resteal and didn't give him credit for a good hand in that spot. He had been really aggressive in the past few orbits, hence my shove. This is the only time in the tournament where I got lucky...a pretty good suckout :)

PokerStars 1000/2000 NL Hold'em Tournament (8 handed)

Starting Stacks
Seat 1: UTG+1 (T27011)
Seat 2: MP (T17503)
Seat 3: LP (T43360)
Seat 5: CO (T32985)
Seat 6: Button (Hero) (T91303)
Seat 7: Small blind (T103200)
Seat 8: Big blind (T80984)
Seat 9: UTG (T41905)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 6h, 7h.
5 folds, Hero raises (6000), Small blind raises (20000), 1 fold, Hero all-in (91203), Small blind calls (71203)

Flop: (T99203) 5h 9d 3h (0 players)

Turn: (T99203) Jd (0 players)

River: (T99203) Qh (0 players)

Final Pot: T185206

Results below:
Small blind has Kc Ks (a pair of Kings)
Button has 6h 7h (a flush, Queen high)
Outcome: Hero wins T185206



PokerStars 2000/4000 NL Hold'em Tournament (7 handed)

Starting Stacks
Seat 1: Small blind (T108166)
Seat 2: Big blind (T92892)
Seat 3: UTG (T27390)
Seat 4: MP (T35892)
Seat 7: LP (T208556)
Seat 8: CO (T190626)
Seat 9: Button (Hero) (T176360)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Qd, Jh.
4 folds, Hero raises (12000), Small blind calls (10000), Big blind folds

Flop: (T26000) 4s Ad Ah (2 players)
Small blind bets (12000), Hero calls (12000)

Turn: (T50000) 4h (2 players)
Small blind checks, Hero bets (24000), Small blind folds

Final Pot: T53400

Here, I had a read on Villain. In the past 2 orbits, I've seen him lead out on the flop in unraised pots when the flop seems to have missed. So I figured he is most likely to be doing the same thing. I didn't want to raise the flop since he could very well be leading into me with A-x and repop me. Also, I figured that I have a better chance of representing an Ace by smoothcalling on the flop. Once he checked on the turn, I knew that he'd given up on this hand and I duly obliged by betting 1/2 pot.

Thanks to the FCPers who stayed up till late to rail me. Appreciate the support. Honestly, I think that knowing that FCPers were watching helped me stay focused. If I was playing unobserved, I'd probably have made a aggro-donk move somewhere along the line.