Final Tabling the BBT, and Almost the 2+ rebuy

Got another rare night of poker in last night. As usual I fired up the 50/50, the 2+ rebuy, and a blonkament (BBT Freeroll this time). That is a pretty good mix. Play ubertight in the 50/50, uberloose in the 2+, and in between for the blonkament. My MTT success continues, though I still need some work on my end game a bit.

In the BBT, I was playing a very aggressive style for me early, and was accumulating chips w/o showdowns. I won two huge coin flips, but I take exception to calling them that. In both cases I was the one who pushed preflop with a semi-big pair (QQ and TT). In both cases I was called and was "coinflipping" against overs. First off, the guy with the pair is a favorite (though not huge) when it gets in like this. Secondly, I get some folding equity here by being the one who pushed. If you add the folding equity to the equity from being ahead and the favorite in the "coinflip", as well as the dead money, this is really not a coinflip and has tons of positive expectation value. After the two flips, I was over 10k in chips and in great position (for me) to go very deep at the FT. I think I got up as high as third semi-late. I then went very cold with two tables left. The biggest problem with my MTT strategy, is that it can't stand lengthy cold streaks (especially late), and when this happens I find myself in a bit of trouble while trying to maintain the discipline to play the way I do. I would arrive at the final table as the short stack, and like the the 50/50 a few nights ago, I would get it in pretty good as at least a 60/40 favorite, and lose to Astin's 96s. So I can't really knock my strategy. I just need a 60/40 to hold up at the FT and I am fine. I felt like I had a huge chance last night, so I am a bit disappointed this morning. I played well though, and that's all that really matters.

In the 50/50, I got an early double up and was cruising. After the break, I was sitting on about 4000 in chips, and got KK. I raised to around 400 to take away the rule of 10 (reverse rule of 10), and got called by a big stack and a shorty. Flop was all low, and I c-bet and was called by the big stack. Turn appeared harmless, so I pushed, and got called by a flopped set (55). I am not overly concerned about how this hand played out. In an MTT if somebody wants to take a flyer on set-mining me when I take away their implied odds, I will go ahead and pay them off if they hit. 1/8 times I am on the rail, and 7/8 times I add to my stack a nice amount of chips. ended up on the 1/8 side last night. With over 1/2 of the field out, I think I could have easily cruised to the money if I win that hand. Oh well. I still love the 50/50 structure.

In the 2+ rebuys I was slow to take the double buy in, and got shut out after I won the first hand. I would double up later (on a donk play), and then start building my stack with more donkey goodness. BTW it is so much fun to act like your donk plays were planned and that you are better than everyone at the table because you know how to suck-out. So easy to tilt these guys in the 2+R it is funny. I would find myself on the FT bubble out of 191 runners. Then I kind of broke down, and lost my discipline a bit. We had a big stack who was doing a ton of limping, and then taking pots away post flop. His limp range was ATC as far as I could tell. Bigstack limps UTG, and it folds to me in the cutoff. There is about 15k in the pot already, and I am sitting on about 55k in chips. Button is short, and the blinds are about my size stack. I have 77. These types of hands become difficult to play in MTTs very early on. If you can't get set-mining odds for these hands, you need to play them as "push or fold" IMO. No reason to limp without set-mining odds and get yourself in trouble post flop. So in this situation, I read the bigstack as weak (he limps with anything). The shorty does not bother me. The two blinds will need a huge hand to call if I push, as it will be for their entire stack or close. I decide to go ahead and push preflop. It folds to the bigstack who insta-calls with QQ. IGHN in 10/191. I pretty much hated the play afterwords, though a bunch of you MTT guys I am sure would back it up. I do best when I avoid these types of moves until absolutely necessary. I don't think I was at the necessary point yet, so I guess I could have folded, or limped (limping probably the best choice as implied odds were kinda there). The elimination cost me my third final table in my last 4 MTTs, so that sucks a bit. Oh well.