Took down fourth place tonight after several near misses in my nightly $4.40 (180) tourney. I got off to a good start and doubled up in the second level. Once I picked up those chips I pretty much kept building my stack until after the first break. At that point I had around 10k and was getting cold decked. I managed to pick up a couple of hands when I got down to 5k to double up again.

After the second break we were down to 16 players and I was down to $3500 in chips. After a few pushes which, to my delight, were not called by the big stacks I built back up to $10+. I went to the “promised land” with 12k in chips and hung in there while picking up blinds from people folding to me.

Finally, I picked up AK and hit a HUGE three way pot for 47k to put me back in action. From there I tightened up and let the smaller stacks get knocked out. Unfortunately, after a really nice re-raise the big stack called me and got lucky on me. Here is the hand below:

PokerStars Game #15775351185: Tournament #79836716, $4.00+$0.40 Hold’em No Limit - Level XV (1500/3000) - 2008/03/06 - 03:19:32 (ET)
Table ‘79836716 19′ 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: benero (46398 in chips)
Seat 2: cbowen (122260 in chips)
Seat 3: Curtom (31515 in chips)
Seat 5: turdtamper (69827 in chips)
benero: posts the ante 300
cbowen: posts the ante 300
Curtom: posts the ante 300
turdtamper: posts the ante 300
turdtamper: posts small blind 1500
benero: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Curtom [Ac Kh]
cbowen: raises 6000 to 9000
Curtom: raises 22215 to 31215 and is all-in
turdtamper: folds
benero: folds
cbowen: calls 22215
*** FLOP *** [6s 7c 9c]
*** TURN *** [6s 7c 9c] [Tc]
*** RIVER *** [6s 7c 9c Tc] [Jh]<===tough card
*** SHOW DOWN ***
cbowen: shows [As Jd] (a pair of Jacks)
Curtom: shows [Ac Kh] (high card Ace)
cbowen collected 68130 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 68130 | Rake 0
Board [6s 7c 9c Tc Jh]
Seat 1: benero (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: cbowen showed [As Jd] and won (68130) with a pair of Jacks
Seat 3: Curtom (button) showed [Ac Kh] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 5: turdtamper (small blind) folded before Flop

Had my hand held up I am in prime position to take down this tournament. Very pleased with my play though overall. I am running good and plan to step up to a $22 (180) tomorrow. We will see how it goes.

Take care!

CIII