Journey through a Freeroll

For a little variety, I decided to do a freeroll MTT this afternoon. My brother (QuadMan) seems to be able to find these short-field freerolls that seem to almost be guaranteed money. Today's event was a $1,000 freeroll with only 59 entrants, paying the top 25. Nice, eh? As he likes to point out, that's the equivalent of a $16.95 entrance fee MTT, based on the amount of prize money. Sign me up.

Everyone started with 1500 chips so there was 88500 chips in play. Blinds started at 10/20, so everyone started out with 75 Big Blinds. A tad bit shorter than I like to start, but the blinds rose reasonably slowly after that, leaving some play in the tournament.

I picked up a few medium sized pots early on with some top pair /decent kicker hands, and one with a straight with a possible flush out, so I couldn't push it too hard. Up to a bit over $2000, then the following nice hand:

Stack sizes:
Hero: $2050.00
MP3: $2142.50
Button: $1135.00

Hero is UTG with Qd Td

Pre-flop: (9 players)
Hero calls $50, 3 folds, MP3 calls $50, CO folds, Button calls $50, SB folds, 2 folds.

Flop: 6c 8s Ts ($225, 3 players)
UTG bets $105, MP3 folds, Button calls $105.

Turn: 2d ($435, 2 players)
UTG bets $175, Button calls $175.

River: 3c ($785, 2 players)
UTG checks, Button checks.

Results: Hero wins $785 with top pair.

Nice - increased my stack by almost 40%. That'll do. The tables are quite tight, and I'm taking some small pots and even blind stealing every once in a while, which balances the small losses. Then this went down:

Stack sizes:
UTG+2: $1505.00
Hero (BB): $2155.00

Hero is BB with Kc 10d

Pre-flop: (10 players)
2 folds, UTG+2 calls $150, 6 folds, 6 folds, Hero checks.

Flop: Kd 3c 10c($375, 2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+2 bets $300, Hero raises to $955, UTG+2 raises all-in $1055, Hero calls $1355.

Hero shows top two pair. UTG+2 shows Qs Js for open-ended straight draw.

Turn: 7s ($2785, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2485, Sidepot 1: $300)

River: 9d ($2785, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2485, Sidepot 1: $300)

Results: UTG+2 wins $2785 with king-high straight.

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. That knocks me down to 800 chips, with the blinds at 75/150, and I have to post 75 as SB. I fold it, and am down to 725 chips. At least that makes my strategy easy - with less than 5 BB, I'm all-in or fold. If I recall correctly, we are just outside the money at this point (30 or less people left).

The big blind comes around, and....

Stack sizes:
MP1: $2935.00
SB: $4065.00
Hero: $525.00

Hero is BB with Qc 9c

Pre-flop: (8 players)
2 folds, MP1 calls $200, 3 folds, SB calls $200, Hero checks.

Flop: 2s Qd Qs ($600, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, MP1 checks.

Turn:10h ($600, 3 players)
SB bets $200, Hero raises all-in $525, MP1 folds, SB calls $525.

River: 2c ($1650, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1650)

SB shows Qh 8s

Results: Split pot ($825 apiece) with Queens full of Twos.

OUCH. Friggin board pair on the end. Had his trip queens out-kicked and everything. Oh well, at least got some dead money out of the whole thing. I pass through the next blinds with nothing.

Stack sizes:
Button: $4625.00
Hero: $425.00

Hero is SB with AhAs

Pre-flop: (10 players)
7 folds, Button raises to $400, Hero raises all-in $425, BB folds, Button calls $525.

Button shows Ad 7h.

Flop: 7c 4d 10d ($1150, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1050, Sidepot 1: $100)

Turn: 6h ($1150, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1050, Sidepot 1: $100)

River: 6c ($1150, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1050, Sidepot 1: $100)

Results: Hero wins $1250 with Aces and sixes.

My first rockets in the tourney, and they couldn't have come at a better time. But I'm still short stacked - still about 6 BB. Back to work. My BB is folded to me (would have been all-in push anyways with KQ). In my SB, I steal a small pot from QuadMan who happens to be in the BB. Very next hand:

Stack sizes:
MP2: $6242.50
Hero: $1715.00

Hero is Button with Jc Jd

Pre-flop: (8 players)
3 folds, MP2 calls $300, CO folds, Hero raises all-in $1715, 2 folds, MP2 calls $1715.

MP2 shows 3d 3s

Flop: Kc 6h Qd ($3880, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $3880)

Turn: 6d ($3880, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $3880)

River: 8h ($3880, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $3880)

Results: Hero wins $3880 with Jacks and sixes

Whew. Little bit of breathing room now - about 12 BB. Don't pick up anything for abit to be able to call the onslaught of all-ins before I act. Howeverm for whatever reason both of my BBs in this time were folded around to me. Thanks! Picked up a significant chunk of change (about 50% of my stack) on this one with the blinds at 200/400:

Stack sizes:
Hero: $3730.00
BB: $3630.00

Hero is Button with As 6d

Pre-flop: (6 players)
3 folds, Hero raises to $855, SB folds, BB calls $855.

Flop: 6c Ks Kc ($1910, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $855, BB folds.

Results: Hero wins $1910 with no showdown

I do a blind steal or two and bust a small stack all-in with my TT, which puts me up to around 6300 - about 10 BB at 300/600. Amazing to me, as I was down to 525 not that terribly long ago. Somewhere in here, we get down to 10 people. Woooo hooo - final table time! I do an appropriate amount of blind stealing. Then comes the hand that was (essentially) the Hand of the Tournament for me:

Stack sizes:
UTG+1: $2850.00
Hero: $4670.00
BB: $10555.00

Hero is MP1 with Tc Th

Pre-flop: (9 players)
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises all-in $2850, Hero raises all-in $4670, 5 folds, BB calls $4670.

BB shows 9c 9d
UTG+1 shows 6s 6h

Flop: Qd 4s Kc ($12590, 1 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $8950, Sidepot 1: $3640)

Turn: 7h ($12590, 1 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $8950, Sidepot 1: $3640)

River: 7c ($12590, 1 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $8950, Sidepot 1: $3640)

Results: Hero wins $12590 with tens and sevens

Wow - way to dodge the two underpairs. This puts me in 4th chip position out of the 8 people left, although the leader only has about 17500, so he's by no means a dominant leader. Few hands later:

Stack sizes:
Hero: $11090.00
BB: $19912.50

Hero is SB with Th Tc

Pre-flop: (7 players)
5 folds, SB raises to $5000, BB raises all-in $19912.5, SB calls all-in $7090.

BB shows Ks Qd

Flop: 4c 2h Ah ($24180, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $24180)

Turn: 3c ($24180, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $24180)

River: 7h ($24180, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $24180)

Results: Hero wins $24180 with a pair of tens

Welcome to the chip lead! I have about a quarter of the chips in play with 7 players left.

Well, this seems like as good a place as any to end this tale for the night. The post is long enough, and I will finish the rest of it soon. Cliffhanger? Likely not, as the only two people who read this blog already knows what happened in the end.....