Day 1 of the Saturday $1500, I started off making a big fold in a multiway pot. 180bb deep, I opened 55 in the lojack and got 4 callers.

Flop: Kh Jh 5h

Checked to me, I bet 70% of pot, decent reg to my immediate left 3x's, everyone folds back to me. I tank and fold. I really thought he had a hand like 9h8h, was rarely (but occasionally) value-raising worse, and would've likely flatted the Ah. Furthermore when I am ahead I thought I often wouldn't win much more, but if I called the flop and was behind it'd be real tough to get away on the later streets unless a 4th heart fell. While I didn't love folding, it was a good table with plenty of recreational players so rather than play on in a large pot out of position against one of the few decent regs in a spot I didn't particularly like, I just tossed the hand.

A bit later I got moved to a new table that was really soft. Victor Ramdin was a few to my left, and other than that it was entirely recreational players. Like I've said before, in tables like that I like to mainly play solid/TAG to steadily chip up (which I was doing nicely at this table), and then take advantage of having a not-crazy image to make looser plays in the right spots. E.g. 3 limpers and I 4.5x Q9s in the hijack, everyone folds. And then came my big play, a situation that was so perfect I planned to ship the average stack in the room pre with just about anything. Here's how it went down.

Blinds: $500-$1k-$100

Ramden raises to $2400 MP1, gets 4 (!) callers, I look down at J7s in the big blind and ship my $26k stack.

Ramden was opening a ton (and playing well), I thought he was probably on a range of at least top 33% even from MP1. Meanwhile all of the flatters were loose players who I didn't think would casually call off 26bb (which would've crippled or busted all but one of the flatters) close to the money with 66/KJs or whatever they were initially flatting with. So everyone folds a ton and I pick up about 14k without a fight, a really sweet boost of > 50% to my stack, and the worst case is I get it in as a pretty decent underdog but still with a ton of overlay.

Ramden folded quickly, then everyone else stared at me for a while before folding.

I continued to chip up steadily at the table and finished the night with just under $60k, about 1.5x average. We finished just past 2am, about 15 from the money. That night Katie gave me my scouting report for day 2, mainly unknown short stacks besides John Dolan to my immediate right with a big stack and a short-stacked internet reg a few to my left.

I went in feeling good, first 6 hands or so Dolan opened and everyone folded. Next hand everyone folds to me in hijack, I make it $2700 with ATo at 600-1200-200, and the internet reg shoves $20k from the blinds. I was probably opening about 75% there so I didn't wanna fold AT to a 16.5bb shove. With that said I still would've done it (and quickly) versus a recreational player who just wanted to money and could be on a range as tight as QQ+ or something, but I thought this internet reg would be wide enough that I could profitably call. He had AJ and I didn't improve.

Then I got mega card-dead as Dolan continued to open super-wide, and open-shoved AJs on the button once the blinds increased. The big blind called with ATs; we both flopped top trips but he turned a full house and I was out with a mincash. I kinda felt like I'm supposed to win either AT vs AJ or AJ vs AT but oh well, next time!

The other aspect of the day that wasn't ideal was that there was a 3bb stack who stalled literally every hand, usually until the clock was called on him, even once we were in the money. I called the clock on him the 2nd or third time he did it, and he got really confrontational saying things like "I can't believe this, I'm playing for six hundred thousand dollars here and you're not letting me have a little time to decide...". I finally gave up and let others at the table continue if they wanted since the floor wasn't doing much about it and I really don't like to let myself get emotionally involved with situations at the table. It did limit us to about 12 hands/hour though.

After I busted and took a couple minutes to regroup, it was past 3 so I decided not to play the noon $1k that was on the package I sold on 2+2. By the time I regged and got my seat, I'd be starting with just a 3000 stack at 75-150, and I didn't think it was fair to investors to have them pay 1.28 markup for me to try to make something happen with a 20bb stack.

A few then tweeted at me that I should've played, with one even saying he was "pissed" I didn't. I think/hope he was at least partially kidding, but I really feel like it was the right decision. I take the commitment to play all the tournies in my package seriously, but if I were investing in a player I'd want the full refund rather than pay markup for a tourney they're late-regging 3 hours in with a 20bb stack. And so I made that decision for my investors.

So, that Sunday wasn't the best day overall, but I'm still feeling really good and looking forward to the events this upcoming weekend. Mark my words, 2012 will be the year of the over-30 SNG nits!

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