Another 5am rise and it wasn’t any easier. Once again I had 36 tournaments on my schedule and was shelling out over $6k. I haven’t run very well in the majors over the last year, so I was really due a good one. (cough cough).

The highlights of the day were the Tilt Brawl and the UB $200k. Having said that, I also won two small tournies and came 2nd in two others. I’ve stumbled upon Full Tilt $69+5 45 man SNGs and they’re a great addition to a lagging late morning schedule. I played two of them and won one for $1.2k, my other win came in a party turbo for marginally more and the seconds came in another turbo on Party and a 50 euro one on Dise.

I eventually came 43rd in the Brawl. I was going along nicely, but had a very good aggro player on my left. I opened the c/o with A9s to 10k with 70k back and he shoved the button for 100k total. If I’m folding this to a shove I should never be opening with it, I’m never getting flatted, so I may as well have 72o. I called he had Ats, and as I yelled for diamonds, hearts flopped, ah that’s the nuts, gg sir.

The UB major last a little longer. With 37 left I was sat at an interesting table. Myself, Rizen, rdcrsn and ender555 and a few inexperienced players. I’m including myself in that group wrongly, because I’m fairly sure none of them will know who I am, which changes the dynamics a fair amount.

I raised AJ in the c/o at Rizen’s bb and duly snap called his shove, he held KQ and got there. Shortly after I doubled shoving Q9 and getting called by AQ, flop the 9, I was due that luck, honest!

I was now only one tabling, and was feeling really confident. The stack sizes were pretty shallow, and I was confident that I wasn’t going to make any errors. I just had to look for spots to open, reshove and open shove, and asign ranges to the other players when they shoved. These are things I consider myself pretty good at and only playing one table would make a big difference to how well I could put the other player’s on ranges.

With 22 players left and 1st paying $45k I was sitting about 10th on 85k @ 2.5k/5k 500 ante.

UTG chip leader on 300k makes it 12k, we’re 7 handed, I have AQ on the button, no brainer, all in. He snaps, and I means snaps, and flips 55. First reaction was “WTF?!”. Then I remembered I run better than anyone in sunday tournies and that i’d obviously win the race. The board bricked and it was gg me.

I do find on the American friendly sites that players value small pairs hugely. There’s a lot more restealing, and bull shit 3 or 4 bets that go on that players tend to call a hell of a lot lighter, and in a lot of spots with small pairs. He was getting about 1.5/1 on the call, but my range there absolutely crushes him. Sure he had the chips, but I think it’s a pretty bad call. Maybe he thought my range was wider, maybe it should have been.

Oh well, I can’t final table two majors every sunday!