Stars Rebuy Tournament

Played Full Ring Limit HE all day yesterday on River Stars. Couldn’t get anything going, was down the whole day. Made a decent comeback to finish down 17BBs. Did have a small cash in the Stars $3.30 rebuy tournament. We had over 4300 maniacs in this fun tournament. Was my first time playing it, will be playing it as often I can. It was such a great value, the prize pool ended up over 53K! At the end of the rebuy period we were left with 3100, so everyone that was out was dead money in the pool. The average stack was 8K, I ended up with 18K. A few minutes before the rebuy period was over I got moved to a table with a maniac that would just push all in every hand, when he lost would do a double rebuy. The first 2 times I called him I had him crushed, 8-2 off against K-Q and 9-4 off against A-K. He sucked out on me both times. After this I doubled through him three times, his luck couldn’t last forever. This is how I acquired my stack. He spent $120 before the rebuy period was over, for a stack of 5K! What a complete donkey, busted 15 minutes after rebuy period ended. This wasn’t an isolated case either, at my other table there were many crazy plays made. That’s how the prize pool got so big from a $3 tournament. So I felt I played great, maintained my above average stack until we were down to 1000 players.(With 738 being paid.) At this point I dipped below average stack and kept dipping. When we were down to 50 from the money I had a critical decision to make. I brought it in for 3x the big blind with pocket Queens. A tight solid player right after me flat called, danger. We took a flop of 9-8-2 rainbow heads up. I bet 75% of the pot and he insta min-raised me. This was really bad I was left with 8K behind, enough to make the money.(Not enough to push him off his hand.) Did he flat me with Jacks or Kings? It was possible but didn’t think so. Felt more like he flopped a set of eights or nines. Either that or 8-9 suited or 10-J suited. I was only ahead of Jacks, 10-J, or a stone cold bluff. I went into the tank and eventually folded my hand. If I won I would have doubled up and had a nice stack. Instead I lived to fight another day and I cashed. Thing is I may have been able to go deep if I called and won. This hand will haunt me being I will never know if I made the right lay down. Think I did being after playing with this player for 30 more minutes I noticed he was totally solid. He always had the hand he was representing. I will never know if it was the right play. BTW I owe my deep run to my Cousin Ant for sweating my play Friday night and pointing out that I was playing too tight early in the tournament. I have adjusted my play and cashed in 2 out of 3 Mtts since he has told me this. Still chasing my big score. Ant hang in there you and I are both due a big score. I can feel it coming for the both of us! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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