Great Level 1, Short Level 2

I made a big comeback during Level 1 today going from 13,900 to start the day to 84,500 by the end of the level. I doubled up on the 4th or 5th hand with KQs against 22 all-in preflop (I thought this was a pretty terrible call btw as he is dominated a lot in this spot and I shoved with almost 15 big blinds). I spiked a king on the river, which made it that much sweeter. I then made a big fold with A10 in a 4-handed raised pot when the flop came down 10, 4, 2 rainbow. The preflop raiser checked, the first limp-caller led for 5k and the next limper made it 14k to go. I thought about shoving but mucked instead. The hand got showed down and 22 scooped the pot against J10. After blinding down to about 22k, I raised to 2,400 (400/800 blinds, 100 ante) from mid position with 1010 and got reraised from the small blind to 8k. I took my time as I was essentially making a decision for my tournament life. I decided my opponent was pretty weak and was likely on a resteal so I reraised all-in. He reluctantly called with 33 and my tens held up and I was up to 45k and feeling good. I made two resteals from the blinds during the next two orbits and broke the 50k starting mark for the first time. A few hands later an agressive player open raised to 2k from under the gun. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier smooth called and I reraised to 10,500 with AK. The under the gun raiser folded and ElkY surprisingly shoved all-in for another 25k. ElkY had a very unusual line in this pot and could have easily been trapping the first agressive raiser with AA or KK. At a minimum, he had to have a big hand here. I considered folding, but was getting too good a price considering my hand. I called and he flipped up QQ. I continued to run well as I won the flip, spiking an ace on the turn. I was up to ~85k and a few hands later the level ended and I was at 84,500. After level 1, the field was down to 360 players (from a starting field of 545), so I was about 10k above the average stack of 75k. Not a bad place to be considering where I started the day.

I came back from the break feeling good, ready to grind and hopefully make a deep run. The very first hand in level 2 (500/1000, 100 ante), I woke up to KK under the gun. I had been raising to 3 times the big blind during level 1, so I made it 3,000 to go. It folded around to the small blind (a tough solid pro with about 100k in chips), who reraised me to 13k. He has to give me credit for a real hand here since I raised from under the gun, and I know that he is only reraising me here with a big hand from the small blind. The large reraise, however, immediately led me to think he had either AK, 1010, JJ or QQ (Real, reraising hands, but hands that you want to take down preflop, especially out of position). I considered coming over the top, but decided that smooth calling and trying to win a big pot made more sense since I was in position and he would likely cb on almost any flop. I was taking a substantial risk, because he could easily have AK or AQ in this spot and could outflop me, but I thought it was worth the upside of potentially doubling up against a hand like 1010 or JJ if the flop came rags. The flop was perfect, 742 rainbow. My opponent led for 25k (which I read as a I want to take this pot down now type of bet) and I was pretty confident that he had 1010-QQ. I took my time, hollywooding a bit, because I wanted to get called by QQ or JJ. I shoved all-in for another 45k or so and my opponent insta-called with AA. The board bricked out and I was out that quickly. I'm not unhappy with the way I played the hand, and I just have to give my opponent credit here for outplaying me. I'm not sure if he was intentionally trapping me with his large reraise preflop and bet on the flop, but he played the hand well and sold me on a smaller pair.

The rollercoaster ride this morning made it that much tougher to swallow, because I let my hopes get up just a little after rebuilding my stack. Tournament poker is really really tough. You have to focus every hand, look hard for weakness and opportunities, and care a lot to be a top player and you will still lose your buy-in at least 80-85% of the time. I firmly believe that at the highest levels, the right mental approach to the game is as important as talent in deteriming long term success.

Anyways, the timing worked out well as I was able to catch an afternoon flight back to Cleveland. I just finished watching the Cavs game on DVR, and was pleasantly surprised all around. LeBron and Z carried us to victory in Game 1, but the whole team played ridiculously well (especially on D) today. It will definitely be tougher in Washington, but it seems like we are in Washington's head at the moment. Going to try and make it to Game 4 on Sunday if I can get a ticket.