$340 NLHE Deepstack Tournament

I decided to do another running log for this tournament. But instead of doing an entry every Level, I did one every Break, which was every three Levels.

Shuffle Up & Deal 20000 - The room is buzzing. There are 59 tables in the ballroom, and they're all in use. Currently, the computer screen says there are 532 players. Our table is starting out with 8/10 players. There are three other CPMGers in this tournament: Colin, Chan, and Meat. Levels are 30 minutes long.

Break 1 - End of Level 3 (75/150) 41075 - Currently 644 entries, and still a few more alternates to be seated. I doubled up with a Set of Tens (future H.O.T.D.)  Table is fairly passive. One Action Guy two seat to my Right. He seems to be a Card Rack right now. A Cash "Pro" got an empty seat on my direct Left.

Break 2 - End of Level 6 (150/300/25) 61025 - Officially 647 players. I'm in annoying spot with an Aggressive Card Rack on my Right, and a Cash "Pro" on my Left. Since I've got chips, I'm being very patient, but slowly bleeding chips.

I got into a couple of big pots with Aggro guy. First, I raised him with just Top Pair on Flop. I fired on Turn, but we checked River. He missed his Flush, but hit a Straight on the River.
Second hand, I 3-bet him preflop with AJ. He called, and an A hit the Flop. He bets 15k, which puts me All-In. I snap call. He shows 98o, and I double up.
Shortly after this hand, we got into a rare Blind vs Blind hand. Naturally, he raised the Small Blind, and I just called with 66. The Board was A53 4 K. He fired all three streets, including 16k on the River. I called him down, and he said, "I got nothing." I showed my 66, and he was not amused. I believed the word "Unbluffable" was used.

Break 3 - End of Level 9 (400/800/75) 157200 - 442 players left. I won a monster double up with KK against Aggro guy, and another short stack jumped in the middle. (Another future H.O.T.D.) Later, I knocked out AK with KK for 21k. Otherwise I played very tight. Both Aggro guy and Cash "Pro" were active, so I'm just staying out of their way. There's no reason to risk my chips right now. I've gotta be in the Top 5 if they tracked chip stacks. Aggro guy was eliminated on last hand before Break.

Colin and Chan are gone. Meat is still grinding with around 40k chips.

Dinner Break - End of Level 12 (800/1600/200) 153800 - 287 players left. Early after break, I eliminated 55 with AQ (Q on Flop) for 6500. After that, I was very card dead. I tried an occasional move, just to maintain my stack against the Antes. Not all of them worked.

Just before the Break, an passive old guy in the Hyjack raised to 4400, and had 12200 behind. I was the BB with KQc, and decided he had a small enough stack for me to gamble. I raised to 30k in order to isolate against him, and hopefully I'm not crushed. He thought for about 90 seconds, said "I hope you've got a Monster," and folded. I can't believe he folded.

Break 5 - End of Level 15 (2k/4k/400) 158k - 165 players left. Right after the Break, I knocked out two players with KQ. However, the largest of the two was only 5100.  In Level 14, our table broke. The guy who in now on my direct Right has as many chips as I do. He said he got them in an AA vs KK vs 22 hand. Guess which one he had?

I ended up getting into a big pot with him. He limped UTG. I get KK, and pop it up to 15k. Only he called. Flop was Ts 8s 5c. He leads out of 20k. I think for a moment, and then grab a stack of Gray 5k chips, and move it foward for 100k. He goes into the tank, and reluctantly folds.  Later, I tried to steal with A3c. The SB woke up with AQ, and I was pot committed. I whiffed my 3-outer.

The blinds are really getting high. Even though I'm on one the larger stack at the table, I've only got 26 BB going into the next level. The Average Stack is around 80k.

End of Day 1 - Level 18(5k/10k/1k) 157k - I knocked out a few players with AQ and AK. I got my stack up to the 230k-250k range for most Level 17. But I lost an AQ vs A8d (River Flush). Later, I was the solo BB. It folded to the Button, and he raised to 30k. It smelled like a steal. I had A6o, and put him All-In for 67500. He thought for a bit, and called with KQo. He spiked the K on the Turn.

The rest of the day was me being patient. Surprisingly, I only had one pocket pair for the last 4-5 levels. It was QQ, but nobody called. Of course, the very next hand, I raise with J9o. An old geezer two seats down shoved All-In, and I insta-mucked.

Officially 90 players left, as they broke a table when the Level ended, but there are a few tables with 9 players. Meat busted out in Level 17.

As for my table, I'm around 4th or 5th in chips. The chip leader at our table might be the overall chip leader with 544k. He's seems to be fairly solid, and no-nonsense. He's also on the other end of the table. There are a couple of local "Pros" who recently got moved to our table. One is on my direct Right, and the other is a few seats to my Left.

We are roughly 25 players away from the Money. I'm not sure exactly how many get paid, how much the Min Cash is, or how much 1st place is for one simple reason... I don't care right now. I will worry about that stuff when we get down to seven tables, or even the Final Table. It will be interesting to see how everyone plays when we get to the Bubble. I've never been involved in a multi-table Bubble.

I would say my chances of cashing are 60%. I've got enough experience with shortstack play to hopefully not do anything stupid. But with the starting Level of 6k/12k/1500, I've only got 13BB. As we all know, anything can happen with Push & Pray Poker. If I can pick up a few pots, or get someone's shortstack, then I will be in better shape.

Either way, it will be posted here tomorrow. We start back up at 2pm.