Last night's Charity Poker action - more detailed

Won't get into the introductions here, since my last post pretty much took care of the setup for last night. Safe to say that the structure will still allow the donks to play like donks, while allowing those of us who are more TAG some time to actually play some poker.

Not much happened the first couple of levels, but mainly concentrated on getting my reads, obtaining information, and letting action come to me. Picked up a solid pot to boost my stack 50% with the ol' 8-2 BB special to crack an unraised Q-Q, and took down some blinds to boost my stack to over 8K.

A-K raise to 600 (100/200 level) with 4 callers, took down the pot post-flop with a 2K bet after A hits on the flop - young punk Hollywoods for a couple of minutes, then tries to act like he's making a great laydown of bottom pair...why do people insist on doing this? Frustrating to play players who are the last at the table to figure out that they're folding - just sayin'.

At 150/300, I get my first knockout of the night in a pretty big hand. Raise UTG with 6-6 to 1000, get 1 caller. Flop hits 8-7-3 - C-bet of 2K gets young punk talking...too much for his own good, actually. "I know that flop didn't help you at all - but I got outs" - and pushes his last 6K into the middle. I look at the punk for a couple of seconds, say "A-J? You really put your tournament at risk for 2 overs?" After watching him fidget in this chair for a couple of seconds, I confidently called...waited for him to flip his A-Q over, and elicited a coupled of "WOW!" comments after I flipped over the 6-6 (which also got a couple of "great call - no matter what happens" from the guys to my left and right of me). 5 on turn seems like no help, but it takes 2 outs away from opponent as I pick up a flush draw - but an 8 on the river seals the knockout.

At the end of this level is our break, and the very last hand of this level provides us with another monster hand. Limped in UTG with 3-3, which got 2 callers...til cutoff raised to 1200 - this player had only raised twice before, and with big hands, so the thought of folding this crossed the mind...but with my stack where it was at, and figuring out that my implied odds were good here, I called. Another dude checked, and before flop I checked in the dark. Nothing special - just something to change the play up a bit.

Hit the 3 on the flop for trips, cutoff put in his last 5K...took my time to count my chips out and make the call, in case the other player wanted to along here. When other player folded, I told the cutoff that I think I outflopped him...and when he showed his K-K to my set of 3's, I was proven correct. 3 on the turn gives me quads, and we're down to 6 going into the break.

Tourney host informs us that they are paying only 2 people - worked to 200 for first, 130 for second. I added at the break to give me 4K more chips - 29K total. Only because the player now on my right bought more did I feel compelled to do it, but 10 more BBs won't hurt me here - and I'll take an advantage over the other 4 players who didn't add-on, anytime.

We lose on the 2nd hand after the break, then lose another the hand afterwards. After stealing the blinds 2 hands in a row, I get K-K on the button, and raise my normal 3xBB. Sometimes I'll raise 2.5xBB, sometimes 4xBB - depends on what the table is like. SB re-raises me to 4K, which is about a third of his stack...I figure he's pot-committed, and where I want him. I raise enough to put him all-in, and while he says he's sure he's beat, that he can't fold this hand...and calls while flipping over 7-7(?). In general, no issue with the call...but with 20 BB left if you fold, and almost positive you're beat, let it go. I'm glad he didn't, and even happier when my K-K holds up (full house on river was just overkill), and I'm in great shape now.

The 3 of us left at the table agree to take 20 and 10 off the prize amounts, so that way 3rd place gets their original buy-in back + $5 - still not making money, but a little scratch ain't bad. 2 of us grind down one of the players for a few orbits, then my opponent takes him out with 4-4 versus K-10 - and we're off to heads-up.

A few hands of little note were played, and when both of us realized that we were both getting kind of tired (only 10 at night...but still), were going to be there for a while, with blinds at 700/1400, and stacks of 50K/40K, we agreed to chop the $300 total prize $155/$145, with me getting the higher amount. Based on the stack sizes that worked out to be a +EV move, since I should have gotten only $153 out of it - but fair chop, all-around. I'm not a big fan of chops, but if done fairly like this one was, and if the circumstances warrant it, I'm down with it.