Out in 1202th

So the Party Poker Sunday Million ended up having a total of 5084 entrants, and a first prize of $157,604.

We had starting stacks of 5000 chips, and blinds at 20/40. I had an early double-up when my AA beat AKc... it may have looked like I was stealing when I opened from the button, so he re-raised, and I re-raised him back. Now at this point he might want to start worrying, but instead he pushed and of course I called. This was all pre-flop. He turned a flush draw and I was ready to break something, but luckily my hand did hold. But after that I couldn't make much happen for a while. For about the next hour, I kept hovering around 10k in chips as I'd steal some pots, get caught in some steals, lose some blinds, win some real hands, etc. Once the blinds got really big though, then the steals really started to matter, and I got myself up to about 20,000 chips. At this point though this was merely just above average at the time.

Here's a couple of hands that sucked:

Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t150/t300
10 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: t4075
UTG+1: t5929
UTG+2: t2136
Hero: t10642
MP2: t3998
MP3: t7369
CO: t4611
Button: t5763
SB: t7943
BB: t17558

Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is MP1 with 2c 2s
3 folds, Hero raises to t800, 2 folds, CO calls t800 (pot was t1250), 3 folds.

Flop: 2d 4h Tc (t2050, 2 players)
Hero bets t600, CO raises to t1448, Hero calls t848 (pot was t4098).

Turn: Th (t4946, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks. (I was going for a check-raise here, of course)

River: Ts (t4946, 2 players) (FUCK!!)
Hero checks, CO bets t954, Hero calls t954 (pot was t5900).

Results:
Final pot: t6854
CO shows Qs Qh
Hero doesn't show 2c 2s
CO wins 6854 chips from the main pot with a full house, Tens full of queens.
---------------------------


Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t300/t600
10 players

Stack sizes:
Hero: t11280
UTG+1: t10053
UTG+2: t18420
MP1: t22100
MP2: t12373
MP3: t39642
CO: t8169
Button: t17559
SB: t28691
BB: t16968

Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is UTG with Th Tc
Hero raises to t1800, 2 folds, MP1 calls t1800 (pot was t2700), 6 folds.

Flop: 7s 3c 5c (t4500, 2 players)
Hero bets t2000, MP1 raises all-in t20300, Hero calls all-in t7480.
Uncalled bets: t10820 returned to MP1.

Turn: 4c (t23460, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t23460)


River: 6h (t23460, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t23460)


Results:
Final pot: t23460
Hero shows Th Tc
MP1 shows 4d 4h
Hero wins 11730 chips from the main pot with a straight, three to seven.
MP1 wins 11730 chips from the main pot with a straight, three to seven.
------------------------------


And to be fair, here's a hand where I sucked out. although, he really didn't have to put a move on me on the river:

Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t200/t400
10 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: t8719
UTG+1: t8510
UTG+2: t2544
MP1: t10773
MP2: t17737
MP3: t14782
CO: t19459
Button: t30491
SB: t20268
Hero: t5940

Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is BB with 4c qh
UTG calls t400 (pot was t600), 5 folds, CO calls t400 (pot was t1000), 2 folds, 2 folds, Hero checks.

Flop: 2d 4h As (t1400, 3 players)
Hero bets t625, UTG calls t625 (pot was t2025), CO folds.

Turn: 4s (t2650, 2 players)
Hero bets t1000, UTG calls t1000 (pot was t3650).

River: 7s (t4650, 2 players)
Hero bets t1000, UTG raises all-in t6694, Hero calls all-in t2915.
Uncalled bets: t2779 returned to UTG.

Results:
Final pot: t12480
Hero shows 4c Qh
UTG shows 6s 6d
UTG wins 2779 chips from side pot #1 with two pairs, sixes and fours.
Hero wins 12480 chips from the main pot with three of a kind, fours.
-----------------------------

Anyways, around level 9 or so, I got moved to a new table where just about everyone had a bigger stack than me. Not cool. The first hand I played, I raised to steal the blinds as normal, and the big blind moved in on me. Not cool.

I think I actually busted out on the very next hand. I was on the button with pocket 4s. It folded to the cutoff who made a standard raise. He had me covered by a lot. Now here's the thing... even if it looks like a steal, that doesn't mean you have to move in with pocket 4s. Especially when your stack isn't much of a threat to his. He had like 70k or so. But apparently, I decided not to consider this at the time and said "ZOMG THAT'S A STEAL, POCKET PAIR IS THE NUTZ I GOT YOU NOW!!" So yeah I pushed all-in for 18k, he called instantly with pocket kings and I did not improve.

These big field, medium buy-in tournaments are such a rush to play. And it really takes a lot out of you, especially when it comes to the time where almost every decision is for your whole stack. But this is definitely much more enjoyable than grinding 6 tables of 5/10 limit hold'em. I just hope I can turn some of this into some meaningful results. I've also been playing a bunch of 1, 2, and 3 table tournaments and those have been going okay.

Anyways, right now I'm playing in a satellite for the Weekday Super, so I'd better go and pay attention to that.