Mansion no chokage!

Finally cashed in on a mansion $100k after going 0 fo 5 previously. Just scored my biggest tourney cashing to date



I started off with a different gameplan heading in. Wanted to go back to small ball poker as I felt I was playing too big too often. Well it worked for a while as I got up to 3500 pretty early. But then I got into trouble with a smaller stack when AK (trips) ran into a set->fullhouse. At that point I pretty much played for all my chips. Did a lot of allin stealing, and finally doubled up on Q9 vs Ax. From then on I played solid, but not too overly aggressive poker. I guess Harrington style.

Once I caught up to MathP, we swapped 10% of each other. Didn't know he was playing, and when I did see him earlier right when I was going to ask him to swap, I lost my chips. But when I caught up again, it worked out fine. Railing each other I think was essential. We pretty much kept leapfrogging each other until the end. I honestly don't think we might have made it that far without each other giving notes on each player, play analysis, and just making sure we didn't do anything stupid. We ended up never playing on the same table as eachother, and he finished a very good 10th place, just shy of the final table. He made a self admitted mistake in raising allin with a decent stack with AT against the chip leader, who just happened to have AQ. Though based on chip sizes, I think that AQ is the absolute lowest ranking holding that he should have called with, if he didn't put him on an outright steal.

The final table was pretty much a crapshoot. Only 3/9 had an M above 5. The payouts were nice but I played for at least 7 as the payout jumped from 1600->2400->3400 from 9th to 7th. Several allins from players, no big suckouts. Had AK one time where I only won blinds. Was pretty much no flops, all action preflop. I got outed when short stack went allin in EQ. I had him covered by 20k (blinds were 6000/12000 600ante I think) with 80k+ holding 99 so I pushed. Chip leader thinks and then calls with JT. EP flips over QQ. Flop is J78. No 10 on river or turn so i'm out.

I'm happy with my play, though I played a lot more patient game. I still need to add some aggression IMO. One play that stood out, I think 2 tables left, aggressive cutoff raises, and I'm holding 66. He has me barely covered. I couldn't bring myself to pushing back, though even now I think I should have. Another play was I raised with AQ in EP. Big stack SB calls. Flop is 777. He leads out with a 3/4 bet. I think I could have portrayed a big pair there, but I chickened out. This was again with 2 tables left. The thrill of making the final table turned me into a chicken. Not enough practice during late tournies and the excitement of making a bit more money, though nice, is keeping me from winning a big one!

Play Mansion, it is good for you!

Forgot to mention, I dropped almost $800 earlier in one session 1/2 on Inter. Made $200 back later, but this helps!!!