I finished 8th of 22, which means I played a while and didn't get any money.
Why I lost:
- I played only B+/A- poker and could have played better.
- I got unlucky. And this was the primary reason.
I believe I pushed all-in and risked my tournament life twice the entire tournament. Once in the middle stages I re-raised pre-flop with AA and my opponent folded and even if called I would have been all-in with the nuts. The other time was my last hand.
And the former hand is a good example of how I got unlucky. In the first round of the tournament I flopped the nut flush draw, turned the flush and got paid off by a player who flopped a straight. And that's the only time by big hands really got paid off. I won a ton of pots, but most were raising pre-flop and taking blinds or taking it down with a continuation bet, often when I had nothing.
I had a stretch of hands where I had KK, QQ, and KQ and couldn't even get any action on my pre-flop raises. With QQ I raised just more than 2 BB in EP. With KQ I raised less than 4 BB from the small blind after 2 limpers.
3 key hands that made or broke the tournament for me:
1) The aforementioned AA hand. I think I played this pretty poorly. I had about 53000 in chips. With blinds 1500 and 3000, MP raises to 10K, I have AA in SB and after thinking a bit decide to shove since any re-raise commits me. I also though the oversized raise might look weak. This was bad for two reasons. First, he still has to call off most of his stack here. And unless he has a top 5 hand it's not likely. Second, with AA I'm so far ahead I can afford to slow play. In retrospect I should have smooth called and check-raised all in on the flop. Might have busted, but likely could have won 15K or maybe 40K more. (Note that something seems off here but perhaps this was the start of the level. The next hand seems to have happened way later.)
2) Last hand before the second break. Blinds are 1500/3000 about to go to 2000/4000. UTG shoves for 30K and it folds to me in BB. I know UTG understands short stack play and that he doesn't have time to wait. I have 66 and it's going to cost me 1/3 of my stack, which is borderline for calling. I decide that so much of his range is two-big cards that I should call. He says "nice call" and rolls over A2s. He catches an ace on the river and instead of being up to 123K and first or second in chips, I have 62K and an average stack. This is killer. I realize I'm going to lose 30% of the time and that's poker. But I KNOW to win I need to win pots like this.
3) I had raised and won the pot uncontested pre-flop about 4 of the last seven hands (I had K8, KK, QQ, KQ so it wasn't just moves). I showed KK once. Action folds to me on the button with KJs. This is a raising hand but I'm concerned someone will play back at me. My error is that they two player in the blinds are so tight that they aren't going to play back with less than a premium hand. SB and BB calls. Flop is JT6 all clubs, it checks to me and I bet 12000 into 18000. SB raises to 25000 and I call. Turn is a 2 and she shoves for the pot. I think a long time and decide I don't want to go broke here. Should have raised PF, should have shoved the flop, should have called her shove knowing her game.
Lost too many chips on that last hand and put me in bad shape the rest of the way.
Meier got 4th place, which was nice for him. Will definitely play this again.
