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My goal of the week was to win a ticket and play in the Grand Prix. I tried once this morning and again this afternoon and the cards wouldn’t fall. I’d been playing the cash game so hard this weekend that I had won enough money for the WSOP satellite freeroll and since I was already going to play that I talked myself into into this $5 rebuy tourney. I generally don’t like tourneys that cost less than $20, because the payoffs after 4 hours are still paltry. Here they were guaranteeing $5000 so I figured that was a pretty good figure for $5.

Had I known I was going to win I would have logged more hands as I went. I decided that I was only going to play the chips in front of me and not rebuy. I had around 5000 chips at the first break during the add-on period, but I skipped the add-on as well. The two hallmarks of winning a tourney were on display. I won three races as the underdog where losing would have knocked me completely out. I also made some really good laydowns. For instance, at a time that I needed to double up, I made myself laydown AQs when the action in front of me spelled danger. The ace did flop and the guy with AK would have been spending my money too.

When we got to the payout structure I was something like 25 of 70 and I ran into a pretty dangerous hand against the table chip leader that I may have played wrong. I had 44 in late position and I limped in and stood a raise from the small blind chip leader. The flop came KT4 all hearts. Maybe the smart play would have been to push in here, but I figured that he would only call with a flush or flush draw and I wasn’t anxious to gamble. We both checked. The turn came a 4th heart and he bet $5000 in to $3500 pot. I knew he had the flush, but I called the 5000 hoping for the boat that didn’t arrive. We both checked the river and he won with his 9h.

I didn’t want to go up against the one guy at the table that could have busted me out. I could have simply bet the flop, but I feared he that he would come over the top and force me to pay money to see if the boat materialized. I would have pushed had it been anyone else. It too may have been a mistake to call the 5000, and maybe I should have pushed when he checked the river, but I was happy to fight another day. The confrontation cost me a pretty good amount of my stack and put me squarely in the middle of the pack and the chips started dwindling, although I kept hanging on.

At one point I was 21 of 22 and later I was 11 of 13. A couple of good plays later and I was 4 of 10 at the final table and I realized that I could win a decent amount of money if I could show some patience. I got there by winning my last underdog race. I pushed all in with KQ on the button and was called by AJ, but I hit the K on the flop and never looked back.

With 6 people left, I picked up TT under the gun. That's a strong hand short handed, but still one that can get into a lot of trouble. I had the urge to raise and even considered going all-in. But I wasn't desperate for chips and I didn't need to create a race. I decided to cold call. The button moved all-in and it was troubling because he would cripple me if I lost to him. Luckily, the small blind called and it allowed me to fold. The button turned over AA, and I dodged not one but two bullets (pun intended).

I was 3 of 5 when the 6th man was knocked out, but I knocked out number 5 and that put me squarely in the lead. I used the advantage to fire at the blinds and the guys were folding and folding knowing that 4th, 3rd and 2nd were separated by $200 and $400. I whittled and whittled until I had more chips than the other three players combined. I had 14x the chips as the 4th man when he pushed all-in and I decided to call with 56s, hit a 5 despite his over cards.

I knocked out the 3rd man out when he raised preflop and I hit second pair and called his all-in bluff post flop.

Heads up, I had about 1,600,000 to his 600,000. I decided that I would just push as much as I could get away with. The end came when I cold called the big blind with KQo, he pushed all in and I called to see his undercards. $5 becomes $1795.

It looks like Trish gets a new TV.