Caesar's Classic - $560

Sigh - busted 12th in this from the 115 runner field. 9 spots played, so ten hours play for nothing. There were so many hands I can't remember them all, but I've put below the interesting/key/amusing ones.

The tournament has a 30 minute clock and a ludicrous 30k starting stack.

Hand1
4 limpers for 100, so I make up the small blind without looking as it doesn't really matter with so many chips and the BB makes in 800. All fold so I have a look and have AK. This is an awkward spot as me raising now makes no sense and we are 300 BBs deep in any case and I am out of position. I check call him all the way on an Ace flop and pick up about 6k in chips against AJ.

I play tons of hands in the first 2 hours and by the end of the 200-400 level my stack has moved between a high of 40k to a low of 18k and it finishes on 29k at the break.

New level 300-600.

Hand2
2 limpers, I make is 2800 with 4h6h in the cutoff. 1 caller.
Flop is AK3
Limper bets 5k, I make is 14k and he grumbles and passes.
This gets me to about 40kish.

Hand3
UTG limper playing 8k stack, I make is 2100 with 99. Loose guy calls out of BB. UTG limper now shoves, so I assume that can only be AA/KK then.
I use this read to reshove to isolate and flop a 9 to win against AA.

This got me to 50k, but I was soon down to 27k after flopping 2 pair with AT and losing quite a few chips to a set. Should have folded river on that one.

Blinds 400-800

Hand4
Loose guy makes it 2500 and gets 3 callers. I squeeze shove from button for 27k with 7d8c and get snap called by both KK and QQ. However, my powerful hand flops a straight and I get to 70kish with my patented Royal Mult-i Crack.

Blinds 600-1200 with a 100 ante

Hand5
I raise cutoff with KQ to 3100. Button, SB, BB and a limper all call. Marvellous.
Flop is Ks7d4s
I bet 9k, small stack SB shoves for 12k and just as I am preparing to race against his flush draw, the BB decides to check raise shove for 45k. FFS. I can't see how I am good here so I fold.
SB has flush draw and BB has KJ. :( :( :( KJ holds.

Hand6
I raise mid position with AhJh to 3100. Button calls (very loose player but plays really well post flop).
Flop is 35K with no hearts.
I bet 5k and he calls.
Turn is 2. Check Check.
River is Ace. I bet 9k. He thinks and makes it 18k. We have quite a bit of history from previous hands and have a bit of a Jimbo/Nemo/Baron dynamic going on so I go ahead and call and he has 46 so the river stuffed me a bit there as he had turned straight.

Hand7
A couple of limpers and I make it 3900 with 7d8d from cutoff. 2 limpers including guy from hand 6 call. Flop is 89J with one diamond. I bet 8k and both call.
Turn is Td so I have low straight plus diamond draw.
Checked around
River is a black deuce.
The check to me, so I assume my straight is good and bet 12k. Guy from hand 6 min-raises me again and other guy calls! I must be losing so fold and they both had Queens and were trapping me. Again.

Down to 18k now.

Blinds 800-1600 with a 200 ante

Hand8
I raise AT to 4k and a short stack shove for 9k :( :( :(
I have to call and he has AQ and I am down to 9k.

Blinds 1k-2k with a 300 ante.

Hand9
My BB and I have 7k remaining and 2k of that is posted in blind.
Folded round to SB. I inform him that I will be calling blind if he puts me in.
He nods to himself inwardly and shoves. I call blind and my Q3 holds against his T8 (?)

I get a run of AQ/AK type hands and soon get back to 40k by shoving over raisers and getting no callers.

Hand10
Loose raiser to 5k and I call 33 out of BB.
Flop is 6h7c2h
I check, he bets 5k again and I call.
Turn is Jh, I check and he checks unhappily.
River is 7s
I rep flush by betting 10k and he quickly folds.
Up to 60k now and move tables as we have 50 runners left.

Blinds 1500-3000 with a 300 ante.

Hand11
Raiser to 9k, and button calls.
I shove SB with Jh9h for 60k - probably reckless as I have no player reads.
Raiser folds quick, but button moans for ages and then folds AT.
Up to 80k

I now have some raises shoved on to drop to 60k again.

Hand12
Small stack shoves 10k, I reshove with AsKs and hold against J3.
Back to 70k

Nothing much happens, blinds now 2k-4k with a 400 ante. I have 60k.

Hand13
All decorum is lost in this hand.
Folded round to me on button and I have 55. Pot is 10k so I go ahead and shove.
BB asks for a count - this takes dealer a couple of minutes as I have loads of ante chips in my stack.
BB thinks for about 2 mins as I watch the baseball.
BB calmly calls with............POCKET ACES!!???????
At this point I lose it completely as do a couple of the other players.
As the flop is being dealt I am shouting profanities, waving my arms around like a Cairo traffic policeman and randomly jabbing my figure at seat 1.
I then notice that flop is 4,7,8, T
River is..........6.
I shout "COME ON!", veins bulging out of my forehead like a deranged Leyton Hewitt and am warned to calm down by tournament director.
Up to 120k now.
Never seen a slowroll like that before.
In the words of Lt Jonathan Kendrick : "Private Santiago is dead, and that is a tragedy. But he is dead because he had no code. He is dead because he had no honor, and God was watching."
Or something like that anyway.

Blinds 4k, 8k with a 500 ante

Hand14
Button raises to 22k. I call BB with JhTh with no real plan of how to proceed.
Flop is A,5,5
I check, button checks
Turn is 8
I bet 30k and button folds.
Up to 150k after this hand.

Pretty much the next hour of play is raising and getting antes, shoving on raisers with strong hands and me raising and getting shoved on myself. It's a really boring hour but by the end I have 160k.

There are 12 runners left, and 9 pay as we go on a break.

Blinds now 8k-16k with a 2k ante. I have 160k left and there is 36k in each pot preflop as we are 6 handed.

This happens in 3 consecutive hands.

Hand15
My buddy from Hand6 is back on the table, so I welcome him by shoving AdQd over his 40k open and he folds. Up to 200k. Still one of the short stacks though.

Hand16
I open A7 to 35k UTG+1 and have to pass when BB moves in covering me. I shouldn't be raising hands I am not going to go all the way with at this stage I think, although picking up a pot preflop is massive now.

Hand17
I shove 165k UTG with A3 and the SB reshoves with AK.
There are 3 hearts on the flop to go with my Ace but I can't find a final suck out which would have given me a 300k+ stack.

Game over. 10 hours for zip :(