Journey through a Freeroll, Part II

Quick recap: I've entered into a $1000 freeroll with only 59 people playing. I was extremely short around the bubble (525 chips with the blinds at 100/200), but have since come back to take the chip lead at the final table with 7 people remaining.

The play is tight - amazingly tight considering that 7th place pays $65 and winning it all only pays $100. There's really not much difference in payout for anyone else. Weird payout structure, but oh well. I take advantage of this tightness and use my new-found chip lead to steal a bit more than my fair share of blinds.

Then the following gift from the heavens occurs with the blinds at 500/1000:

Stack sizes:
Button: $10970.00
Hero: $23680.00

Hero is BB with 5s Jc

Pre-flop: (7 players)

4 folds, Button raises to $2000, SB folds, Hero calls $2000.

Flop: 7c 5d 5c ($4500, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button is all-in $8970, Hero calls $8970.

Button shows 4d 4c

Turn: Qc ($22440, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $22440)

River: 7d ($22440, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $22440)

Results: Hero wins $22440 with fives full of sevens.

He raises more preflop and I lay that hand down. I was planning on check-raising the flop, but didn't expect him to push. I'll take it, though. I bust out a player and now we're 6-handed. I have twice the number of chips of second place, and over 40% of the chips in play. Very next hand I bust out the short stack to my left who can't even complete their BB. 5 handed now. A few hands later:

Stack sizes:
Hero: $37720.00
BB: $8690.00

Hero is SB with 8c 5s

Pre-flop: (5 players)
3 folds, Hero raises to $4800, BB calls $4200.

Flop: 7d 6s Ad ($9000, 2 players)
Hero bets $3600, BB raises all-in $5690, Hero calls $5690.

BB shows 7h Ac

Turn: 5h ($20380, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $20380)

River: 9c ($20380, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $20380)

Results: Hero wins $20380 with a nine high straight

Redemption - the exact same situation I got sucked out on before: top two pair vs open ended straight draw. This time I did the sucking out, but I figure this is karma working to balance out the other one. The only disappointment is that it wasn't the against the same guy that sucked out on me. This busts out another player, and we're down to 4 handed. I have a 3-1 chip lead on second place, and over half the chips in play.

I keep using my chip advantage to put the pressure on the small stacks. I get rockets in the BB for the second time in the tournament, but it is folded around to me. Damn. A few hands later, I take a chunk out of the second place player's stack:

Stack sizes:
UTG: $10400.00
Button: $14975.00
SB: $41905.00
BB: $19420.00

Hero is SB with Th 9h

Pre-flop: (4 players)
2 folds, SB calls $1200, BB checks.

Flop: 9d Kd 8c ($2400, 2 players)
SB bets $1855, BB calls $1855.

Turn: 2c ($6110, 2 players)
SB bets $3155, BB folds.

Results: Hero wins $9265 without a showdown

The stack is growing bigger. Someone else busts out, and we're three handed. I catch a few hands where I come over the top of an initial raiser (including a QQ that I was begging for a call), but all fold to me. I am stealing with abondon now, and my stack is over 60K. Then:

Stack sizes:
Button: $10565.00
SB: $17775.00
Hero: $57760.00

Hero is BB with Js Kd

Pre-flop: (3 players)
Button raises all-in $10565, SB folds, Hero calls $10565.

Button shows 6h As

Flop: 6c 6d Kh ($21930, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $21930)

Turn: 7d ($21930, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $21930)

River: 10s ($21930, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $21930)

Results: Button wins $21930 with trip sixes.

Oh well - thought it was a good opportunity to get rid of someone. On the very next hand, the guy that won that pot eliminates the other player, and we're heads up. I have a slight chip lead (48K to 40K), but not the dominating lead that I seem to have gotten used to. :-)

We trade some blind steals and re-steals back and forth, and every once in a while play a small pot on the flop. Then:

Stack sizes:
SB: $49595.00
BB: $36505.00

Hero is SB with Tc Td

Pre-flop: (2 players)
SB raises to $6400, BB raises all-in $36505, SB calls $38105.

BB shows Ac 3c

Flop: 9s 4h 2s ($74610, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $73010, Sidepot 1: $1600)

Turn: 2h ($74610, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $73010, Sidepot 1: $1600)

River: 5d ($74610, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $73010, Sidepot 1: $1600)

Results: BB wins $74610 with the wheel

Ouch. OUCH. OUCH! 70% preflop to end the tournament right there. Even after the flop, he had 7 outs twice, and managed to hit one of them on the river. This quite obviously cripples me. I am down to 12290 with the blinds at 1000/2000. and outchipped 7-1. I actually get as far down as 7290 (less than 4 BB, and outchipped 11-1).

Time to grind and hope to get lucky. My blind steals start working. As my stack starts getting a bit higher, I open up the luxury of a limp in the SB, but most of these are punished by a raise from my opponent - far more often than he can have a hand with. Remember this - it will come in handy later.

Then, another gift from the heavens:

Stack sizes:
Hero: $13290.00
BB: $72210.00

Hero is SB with Kc Kh

Pre-flop: (2 players)
Hero calls $2000, BB checks.

Flop: Jc 10c 9c ($4000, 2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $22000, Hero calls all-in $12290.

BB shows 2h Jh

Turn: 4c ($28580, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $28580)

River: Js ($28580, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $28580)

Results: Hero wins $28580 with a King high flush.

I'm coming back. I have a nice pot when I hit an Ace on the flop to match my one in the hole and then this very fun hand went down:

Stack sizes:
SB: $55920.00
Hero: $29580.00

Hero is BB with 4s 2h

Pre-flop: (2 players)
SB calls $2000, Hero checks.

Flop: 2c 8d 7h ($4000, 2 players)
SB bets $2000, Hero raises to $6000, SB calls $6000.

Turn: 7d ($16000, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $7555, SB folds.

Results: Hero wins $16000 without a showdown.

Now we're getting somewhere. Two more blind steals and a small pot and I regain the chip lead!
We trade another bunch of blind steals, and raises of completed SBs. We trade the chip lead around for a bit, but never get that far from each other. Just jabbing at each other, pretty much, even post flop. Kind of like this:

Stack sizes:
SB: $45365.00
BB: $40135.00

Hero is BB with Td Js

Pre-flop: (2 players)
SB raises to $5000, BB calls $4000.

Flop: 8s 7d 3d ($9000, 2 players)
SB bets $2000, BB raises to $6000, SB folds.

Results: Hero wins $13000 without a showdown.

Cool - the chip lead again. Next hand:

Stack sizes:
Hero: $47135.00
BB: $38365.00

Hero is the SB with Kd Ks

Pre-flop: (2 players)
Hero calls $2000, BB raises to $18000, Hero raises all-in $46135, BB calls all-in $24365.

BB shows 9h Kh

Flop: Qs 9c Ah ($84730, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $84730)

Turn: 4c ($84730, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $84730)

River: 6h ($84730, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $84730)

Results: Hero wins the tournament with a pair of Kings.

As I had mentioned, the SB complete was nearly guaranteed to get raised by him, so I decided to trap him. I'm shocked he called my all-in with K9s, especially given this was the first time I'd come back over the top of one of his BB raises. You can argue I should have either flat called his raise or perhaps raising him less than all-in, but I guess all the chips wound up in the center anyways.

Well, that was a blast, and reminds me why I love the MTT format. I honestly think this is the best tournament I have ever played in terms of moving chips with a variety of hands, based on what I thought my opponents would do in response. As anyone who plays with me knows, I'm not used to playing the big stack, especially not a dominating big stack, and I think I did pretty well with it. I am also proud of the determination I had to come back from the two big setbacks. It was obviously a lot of luck as well, but it would have been easy to "give up" and just go all-in every hand when heads-up and outchipped by 11-1. As I've said before: it is cliche, but true - all it takes is a chip and a (virtual) chair.

Perhaps I will seek out more opportunities to play MTTs again in the future - I truly enjoy the format but don't usually have a 3+ hour whack of time I can devote to playing. But givien my results in both the free ESPN MTTs and the freerolls I've played for money, I may make it a goal to play in a few of them per month, either true freerolls or small-buyin MTTs. After all, if I'm going to make it to the Main Event, I better get some MTT practice in, no? :-)