50/50 regrets?

(Read previous post) When we were at the final two tables, I made two big laydowns that I believe were correct. 2009 was pretty bad for me and I think a lot of it had to do with my inability to make a big laydown late in a tournament. I'm curious as to what others would have done in these situations.

Two tables left and I have about 25 big blinds. Active player opens utg+1 for 2.5xbb. I call in middle position with ATd. Big stack on the button calls very fast. Flop comes 5s6sTc. Opener cbets small and I reraise 3x his bet. Big stack button insta pushes all in. I didn't have much history at all on him. However, I knew from checking his stats that he wasn't a very profitable player. I don't see him making this play with JTo, KTo, or QTo. If he had a set, I would think that he would try to get more value but with two other players in and two spades on board he may be trying to chase away any draws. He also could've had top pair with flush draw. JJ and QQ are posibilities but I doubt it. I feel there are just too many hands that are ahead of me or that have a big draw so I puke in my mouth, fold, and am left with around 18bbs.

My next big lay down was against utg min raiser. He had just came to our table and did not see my previous lay down. I was in the BB and had AKo. I recognized this player and he was a very solid profitable player. Sometimes I just call in this spot being out of position. However, I didn't want to play a pot with this particular player oop. I had around 20 BBs and decided to reraise his 10k bet to 24,500. He tanked and used up 45 of his 60 second time bank and pushed all in. I barely had him covered. Him using the time bank appeared to me him trying to act weak, or he could've been checking my stats. Here again, I usually can't fold in this spot but I just had feeling he had AA, KK, or at best AK.

I see other players make these calls all the time and get lucky, but if I had called I probably would've been dominated. Does anyone else make these laydowns or am I just a nit?

Final table bubble

Kicking myself! Had a tough decision with 10 left for most of my chips with 3 smaller stacks than mine. I had about 10 bbs and utg pushed all in for 7bbs. The other table had a 4bb stack and an 8bb stack. Utg has been playing tight on the bubble but was somewhat loose earlier. He pushes all in and I have AQ on the button. His range here I believe was pairs 77+, AT-AK, KQ and possibly KJ. I think for a while and call. He tables AK and I'm basically out. The last few days I have lost some big hands with AQ and have been thinking I should fold AQ in that situation but couldn't do it there.

Any opinions on this hand are welcome.

Amazing Horse

I found this video and now can't get the damn song out of my head. All day long "sweet lemonade mmmm sweet lemonade". Just thought I'd share this beautiful song with everyone. "Get on my horse I'll take you......." damn can't get rid of it!

So close again

It would've been a good day if I hadn't tilted trying to satellite into FTOPS. They wanted to make a deal with 3 of us left. I had around 600k to their 1.5m each and I would've only gotten $200 more so I declined the deal. A few hands later I was up to 1.8mil but lost a big pot when my JJ lost to 44 and then lost a couple of races. Anyone think it was bad idea to turn down deal? Just wondering what others would've done.

10$ KO Tournament Recap

This was one of the few tournaments where I got a big stack early and was able stay near the top of the leaderboard the whole tournament. Once we got to the money, the table tightened up and seemed as if they were trying to move up in pay. I started playing very aggressive and moved to the top 3 of the leaderboard. I sensed that a couple of the players were getting frustrated with my aggressiveness and was waiting for them to play back at me. Then my best played hand of the tourney came. I raised with 8h9h from cutoff and the button reraised my bet 2.5x. He had his bet in about 3 seconds after my bet. I almost folded, but how quick he reraised made me think twice. I shipped my stack and he folded. Phew. I don't do that very often but I was pretty sure of my read.

I lost a couple of races and was the short stack entering the final table. I picked a few good spots and made it HU. The donkey had me by 4:1 chip ratio. I chipped away at his stack and then was able to double up, but went out when my 89 on a 89k flop was up against TT. Obviously a ten came on the river and I was out.

This was somewhat of a weird tourney for me. I didn't have very many big hands or suckouts. I took a lot of pots down pre flop or on the flop by reraising and isolating.

I feel like I am playing really good right now but haven't had the results. This will definitely help my confidence.

Good luck!

Nice Score

I signed up for this tourney with about 5 seconds left in the late registration period. I'll try to post a recap tomorrow.

WBCOOP

I played a lot of poker on Sunday, but only made it past level 5 in one tourney - the WBCOOP Main Event. This was only the 2nd event that I was able to play and I made the most of it, almost.

I played some of my best poker in this tournament, taking down alot of pots down post flop by going with my reads. I didn't have any big suckouts and was able to get paid off when I had big hands.

We got down to 40 players or so when I raised with TT in middle position. At this point I had 65k chips with blinds at 1400/2800. My table had several big stacks and had recently been bullying the shorter stacks, knowing the 55 to 215 SCOOP ticket bubble was close. The BB reraised me 3x my raise. My time bank only had 12 seconds left and I had to make a quick decision. I was thinking fold the whole time then for some stupid ass reason, I push. He insta calls with QQ and I'm out. I saw the time bank down to 5 seconds and I think I paniced. I thought about this all day and really believe if I had 20 more seconds or so to think about it, I would have folded. Pocket pairs 99 and below were probably not in his range for a reraise here, so at best I would have been racing and should't have taken the risk there. I could've folded and still had about 20 big blinds and an M of 10.

Anyone have any opinions on this hand?

As for the rest of the day, some of the hands I remember going out on were my AA losing to AK when he went runner runner for broadway, AA < KK on the river, AA < 66 on the river, KK < 22 on the flop and my flopped set of tens lost to a rivered royal flush.

Congrats to CK and lightning on their deep runs in the WBCOOP.