w00t! I got first place in that FCP Protege tournament! I just had to finish in the top 40 to qualify for the next tournament, but only first place had an actual cash prize of $200. I wanted it bad. I had been working on a strategy for that structure and it was nice to see it all come together.
It was great, I didn't feel like I made more than one or two mistakes the whole tournament. The last tournament I was in was pretty tough, I was short stacked most of the time. I went into the final table with just a fraction of what the other players had, but managed to get into third. I felt like I really had my short stack strategy down.
This time, I got really lucky early. I had AA and made a small raise. Two people called the raise, then the third guy made a huge raise. I pushed all-in. I figured they would probably all fold, which was fine with me because there was so much money already in the pot. But the guy who raised me called it with AK. My hand held up and I took a huge lead. Throughout the rest of the tournament, I was ranging from 1st to 7th for the biggest chip stack. I got to play a large stack strategy, which is a lot different. I feel pretty confident about my play now.
Heh, at the first table, one of the guys recognized me from the last tournament. I had bounced him out of that one when he held JJ against my QQ. It was a tough break for him, so we chatted a bit after he went out. Anyway, he was asking me what place I eventually got in that tourney and I told him 3rd place. Once I said that, I think it might have intimidated the other players at my table. I took down a bunch of pots pre-flop, without resistance, once I realized no one wanted to get involved in a hand with me. They gave me way more respect than I deserved.
I also came up with a couple of plays out of the blue. One guy, who had a short stack, made a smallish raise before the flop. I had QQ. Normally, I would just push all-in with it, or make a large raise, so I could get the hand heads up with the raiser. But I had more chips than anyone else at the table, so thought I could get away with trying something tricky. I started to see a pattern with the other players, so decided to try to exploit it. I just called the raise. Whenever anyone just called a small raise, someone else would push all-in. First of all, they'd want to get it heads up with the short stack. Second, I knew they'd figure I didn't have a monster hand since I didn't push all-in myself. Sure enough, an aggressive guy pushed all-in, the small stack called, and then I called. The short stack had AT, the other guy had AJ. I took both guys out of the tournament and took another big lead.
Only the top 40 places would advance to the next tournament, so when it was down to about 55 players, nearly everyone started to really tighten up. They kept waiting for someone else to go out before they did. But by then, the blinds were pretty large. It was only a matter of time before the short stacks were worn down. That's when I started to steal the blinds much more frequently. I kept doing big raises, mainly because I had enough chips to be able to fold if I didn't hit my cards. But hardly anyone was willing to risk going out by playing with me, so my stack kept growing.
I was trying to steal the blinds at least once a round, mainly to pay for my own blinds so my stack wouldn't shrink. Occasionally, I'd steal two blinds in a round, which would let me go 20 hands without playing anything if I didn't get good cards. That's one of the great benefits of a large stack... the escalating blinds aren't putting much pressure on me and I can get away with waiting for a good hand. But whenever I'm short-stacked, I have to keep making big moves to keep from getting blinded down to nothing.
By the time we got to the final table I felt really confident that I was a better player than, or at least equal to, my opponents. Some of the guys didn't even know the prize structure, let alone make adjustments for it. Heh, but then when it was 4 handed, disaster struck. My wife was cooking downstairs and was heating up some olive oil. It started unleashing huge plumes of smoke. First I was like, “Honey, do you smell gas?” She told me she was just cooking. I looked around and saw that my entire office was filling with smoke. “Turn it off!”, I yelled, while trying to maintain my concentration. I threw up all the windows upstairs, but it didn't help much.
She told me to just come downstairs while she vented the smoke. But I didn't want to disrupt my mojo at such a critical time, so tried to tough it out. When my eyes started watering and I was choking, I knew I couldn't keep it up, grabbed my laptop, and rushed downstairs to sit by the open door. It was 3 handed now and the pressure was on. The open door was freezing, so my wife wrapped a blanket around me while I chittered incoherently.
Then came a big hand. I called a small raise with 22. I hit a third 2 on the flop. My opponent made a small raise, I pushed all-in, and he called. He had flopped a strait, I was tricked! I wasn't too worried, since I had at least double his chips, but it would still be a serious blow. But then I got lucky when the board paired, giving me a full house. Once he was eliminated, I had a massive lead over the only guy left. It was just a matter of time before I wore him down and won the whole thing.
My body was full of adrenaline for the rest of the night. I only got about 4 hours of sleep, as I laid in bed running each hand over & over in my head. And man, my ego is huge right now. My poor wife's going to have to deal with me strutting around the house for at least another week. And I've finally got enough in my bankroll to move up to $2/$4! I am now officially a Level 5 Poker Player (according the chart I made up). My next goal is $1800 and $3/$6, but I've got a ways to go.