He who makes the least mistakes...(or how to win a NL Hold 'Em tournament)

I apologize for stealing your format of title Ditty, but you stole it from Dr. Strangelove anyway.

Poker @ Ditty's last night...good times. 3 handed I had more than 1/2 the chips in play. Did I win? No. How did I lose all my chips? Well, like a good episode of Alias, let's flashback to the beginning and go over some key hands of how I amassed my chips before getting to the terrible end.

At the first table, blinds 25/50, Hall raised from MP to 175. Rich calls, and I find AQh in the BB and call as well. Flop comes Kh9h3s. I bet out 350 to take it right there and/or find out if Rich has AK. Hall just calls (a weak play imo) and Rich raises it up to 700. I decide to call because with Hall's money I've got some good odds here. Hall ended up folding. The turn is the 4h and I lead out with a weak 600 into a 2300 pot. Rich didn't bite though, and just called. I wouldn't have minded another heart on the river but the Kc came for a final board of Kh9h3s4hKc. With not much else to do I went all in with the hope that he didn't have a boat, and he had AK.

I had a side bet with Dycka that for every pot Hall and Maltese were in, if they were heads up by the turn, I would lay 2-1 that Maltese would win the pot. Unfortunatly, they only got into one pot and Hall won. I slid $2 under the table to Dycka.

Another pot, Dycka raised UTG while I was in the BB. Blinds were 50/75 and he went up to 275. I found AK in the BB and just called. I didn't want to be on the losing side of a race, out of position, and especially with the comfy stack I had. We took a flop of 10 rag rag. I checked and Dycka bet 300. I called with the hopes of pushing him off the hand on the turn. Another 10 came to pair the board, and it was decision time. Would he fold to a bet here? Would he believe that I check called top pair? I decided that this was the worst card for my previous action and decided to check again, bascially giving up on the hand. Dycka bet 300 again, a smallish bet, which I commented on, but folded. He flashed 2 rockets at me, and I felt better. That one's filed away in the mental filing cabinet.

Artem and I got involved in a hand soon after. He raised from LP and I got AJ in the BB. I wasn't re-raising alot in this game for some reason, prolly cause I didn't think I could get Artem to fold preflop. I'm not saying anything about his game, but last night he seemed to want to play alot of pots and I figured if I could get in cheaper and hit it hard, I could make more money. Anyway, the flop comes A34. I check hoping for a bet, and Artem fires out 300. I go all in for about 1275 more, and he calls instantly.....with 34o!! What a steal gone good! Well, I spiked a J on the turn, and then an A on the river.

Later on, I got pocket 10's in UTG +1 and raised it up to 4x the BB. Jack had limped in before me and called the bet. Flop came 8h9s3c. Jack checked, and I bet 800, about the size of the pot. Jack thought about it and I told him to roll the die and see what happens. He did roll and got a 20! I don't know much about it, but that's the best possible roll I believe. So he decided to call. Turn came the 7h. Even better for my hand, Jack checked again and I decided to go all in for another 2250, now that I picked up a redraw in case my hand went bad. Jack decided to call because the die had rolled a 20 previously and flipped over A6h! Now if I hit my set, I lose to a straight, and any heart beats me too. The 4s came on the river and I won a huge pot as Jack was 2nd in chips next to me at this point.

Now I sat well at about 7800 chips. Artem went on a little bit of a tear before we broke for the final table and he was sitting well also. Final table was a little tough, I enjoyed Tieds' sarcasm about the situation. I had CK and Ike to my left, Ike I've never played with. He took the place of DGlove with his methodical calls and deliberate actions. To my right, I had Artem and Bob with Tieds and Long in the middle.

No real craziness here. I ran well and got some big pots here and there. There was one hand where I may have had a winner, but I folded preflop. UTG CK raises to 925 with blinds 150/300. Long asks how much to re-raise and makes it 2K to go. I look down in the BB to find AJ. I would've played against CK, but the re-raise here makes me hate my hand. I force it into the muck. Flop comes KJ7. They both check the flop and and after a deuce hits the turn, CK checks and Long puts CK all in. CK mucks Q 9 and the more I think about it, it's very possible for Long to have QQ there.

Artem goes all in on the button and I find 88 in the SB and re-raise all in to push CK out. He folds and Artem tables A6o. No help for him and we are down another player. CK and Ike got involved in a hand as well where the action folded to them and CK went all in. Ike thought about it and decided to take a stand and call. CK has 23h and Ike has 103d. Flop comes 102x I believe. Turn is another 2. River? Case deuce. CK doubles up with 23h!!

Ike was down to about 4x the BB and I picked up ATd in the SB and planned to get him all in but Bob raises in front of me. Hmm I wanted this pot, so I call and not play back at him, but I put him on a weak ace. Flop comes JTx. With a sidepot of 400, I checked hoping that Bob wouldn't bet me out of a sidepot when a player elimination is one the line. He checked as well. I spiked an A on the river and thought about betting because I figured I'd get some action. But I did not, and I took the pot down with 2 pair, and eliminating Ike.

Eventually we are 3 handed with Long and Bob. We were really trading blinds back and forth with no real action. I got K9c on the button and decided to raise 1/2 of Long's 6K chips to see if he wanted in. I figured he's not going to call, he'll go all in or fold, and for some reason, I had a good feeling about the hand, call it intuition if you will. Long decides to go all in and Bob folds and I call. Long has 5h5s and it's race time. Flop comes Kh9hx. 2 more hearts come on the next 2 streets, and Long's flush beats my hand. 3 hands later, on the button again, I got A3o, and I went all in for 8K, a GROSS overbet on my part, but I was rattled for the first time in weeks and decided to push it in. Long didn't want to right away, but he did call with 77, and eliminated me when the flop came 232 and no more help.

About 5 hands later, Long won the whole thing. I wasn't watching the final hand because Ditty put in an awesome Ali G DVD with Borat in the Hamptons. I can't really complain except that I wish I had played the hand slower to get away from it at the end. But I hate taking stands now with 4x or 5x the BB. I wanna double up big or just stop. I think that was my problem before, I would just whittle away and not be afraid to gamble. As much skill as there is in this game, it's still gambling and you must treat it as such in certain situations. Another cash and more points to move me up the leaderboard as well. I'm very happy with the way I've been playing lately and that A3 is the real only big mistake that I've made in the last 3 weeks. Tonight, is a 2/4 game at Hall's. I'll prolly go to work on my limit game as the aquarium is fresh to be tapped.