shagztoriches

I played a $3.00 rebuy/add-on tournament on pokerstars last week and placed 246 out of around 1500 people. The rebuy period obviously was all donkey poker, I think this structure would be extremely profitable for a good tournament player who had the patience to get through the first level. I bought in three times and ended up with about 13,500 in chips, with the blinds at 100/200. There was a guy at our table with about 50,000, and the rest of the table averaged around 5,000 to 6,000. This other guy at our table was all in every single hand, was up to about 30,000, doubled up our eventual chip leader about 3 times, went broke, bought in about 20 times, and made a run with about 4 minutes left in the rebuy to finish up with 17,000. After the break, the real poker began and I came out of my shell and started playing aggressively. I was raising about 1 out of every three hands, but was only picking up blinds. I got picked off a couple times, leaving me with about 12,000 left. I pick up pocket kings 2 from the blind, and make a standard reraise. The button raises all in, and I have him covered by about 3,000. I didn’t have a great read on him, but he hadn’t played a lot of hands. I figured he put me on AJ or something, and made a play with a smaller pocket pair. I call and he turns over queens. I essentially double up, knock him out, and I am sitting with about 22,000 in chips. The chip leader was tight/ aggressive, but easy to read. The maniac actually did a good job switching gears, which made me real uncomfortable playing pots with him. He was not playing many hands, but the hands he did play he would play very aggressively, bordering sometimes on reckless. He was either outdrawing or way ahead small stacks he was putting into showdown, and at this point he was around 32,000 in chips. The chip leader had an amazing run of cards, and it seemed like he had a caller along for the ride every time during his streak. He was up to about 90,000. After going card dead I was down to about 16,000 in chips coming out of the third break, with the blinds at 1,000/2,000. The maniacs play finally caught up to him. He called a $6000 bet pre-flop bet from the chip leader in position. The flop comes 8x-5x-2x. The chip leader was first to act and bets 8,000, and the maniac calls. A jack hits the turn, and he bets out 10,000. The maniac calls for time. He is sitting at about 20,000 in chips, and a pot around 32,000. He types “it’s all in or nothing, gla” and moves all in. The chip leader calls. The maniac shows Kx8x, and the chip leader shows Queens, and knocks him out. At this point I was still hovering around 15,000 in chips. I was looking for a spot to double up and give me some breathing room. I thought I found the opportunity to do so. I was in early position, about 2 from the blind when I am dealt 88. The short stack goes all in for 8,000. He had gone all in about 4 out of the last 5 hands, so I figured he was in desperation mode. Worst case scenario, I was up against 2 over cards. However, I wanted this to be head to head. I moved all-in, hoping to accomplish just that. Everyone folds over to the blind, who is sitting at about 25,000 chips. I was praying for a fold but he calls and turns over 99. The short stack show KJos. The poker gods rub in my annihilation by tripping up the nines, and rivering the short stack a straight. With hindsight being 20/20, I think I made a mistake by making that play with so many people left to act. I had enough chips to withstand 2 more orbits, and I’m sure a better situation would have presented itself. I need to be more cognizant of my chip situation and position if I am ever going to be successful at tournament poker. I made some strides and played well, but I am still making mistakes that I really should not be making.