The Rush Continues

I lost my first Act III last Saturday. Came in 51st out of 152. But I decided to play another Act II, and did quite well in that game to earn yet another entry in an Act III.

I played my second Act III almost flawlessly. There were 164 entrants. I made one big all-in move against another player that joined our table about half-way through the tournament. I had a stack of about $25K chips, and he had me covered. Blinds were 1000/2000 with an 200 ante. I limped in UTG with AsKs, another guy limped too, and he raised to $8000. Action folded around to me, so I smooth called, and the other guy folded.

The flop came Qs7d3s. He looked worried, so I decided to check, with the intent that I would come over the top of him if he showed weakness. He laid out another $8,000, so I thought he might have had a small pair (below a Queen), or he was trying to milk me with an overpair. In any event, I proceeded with my plan, and shoved all-in. He insta-called me and flipped over aces.

The turn came spade, making me a chip monster, and virtually wiping the poor guy out.

I won a few hands along the way, and had a $60K stack when we got down to two tables. Then I started to bleed chips, as others were going all-in almost every hand, and the blinds and antes went up fast. I had about $32K in chips, when we approached the bubble. 18 players left, 16 places win the $10,000 seats, and two of them had much smaller stacks that I did. I did not get any cards up until that point, and made one steal with garbage. I needed to pick a spot to steal again, but couldn't with all the action on the table -- I just never got the opportunity.

The two other shorter stacks went all-in on the next two hands. One busted, but the other quadrupled up. Now, I'm the short stack with $29K, the blinds of $6000/12,000 with $1000 ante were approaching, and I still wasn't getting cards. Plus, savvy players were limping in, hoping to catch me and knock me out.

The blinds passed through my stack, and I would have had to call PF raises all-in with crappy cards, so I folded. My stack was now devastated, down to a big blind or less. I anted off two more hands, and had $9K in chips, then realized I was going out on the bubble, and there was nothing I could do about it. The others behind me would just limp in to call. I couldn't beat that many hands unless I got lucky. I looked at my cards, AsTc. Then someone tried to broker a deal. I could accept $100 from each of the remaining players, and give up.

But I didn't do it. I announced to the 16 other remaining players that I came to play for a seat, not for their charity, and tossed my $9K in chips into the pot.

Needless to say, everyone behind me called. The board came out J8J28. I had hope, but one of the players had a jack.

However, I did win a $1100 ticket to play in the Act III yet again. But I couldn't do it, because I had to work. So I called the Tournament Director the next day to ask for a check instead, and he said no. But he did say that they would credit my winning toward an entry in the Final Act, which was played yesterday, and today at 6 p.m.

I'm taking the Port Jeff Ferry across the sound at 1:30. Wish me luck....

G-Man