Out on Bubble

I finished in 89th, just outside the money, and it was a pretty miserable day for me from the start. Definitely not my best poker as everything I tried to do seemed to backfire. Just one of those days I guess.

During the first orbit of the day, I open raised to 4,800 (blinds at 800/1,600, 200 ante) with 88 from early position. The button, a European player with a healthy stack, smooth called and we took the flop heads up. The flop came down Kd,9h,5s. I probably should have continuation bet here, but decided to check instead, hoping to get a read from my opponent's action. He delayed and then checked behind, and I immediately thought to myself, he has AQ. Sure enough, the turn was a Q. Rather than check and go with my read, however, I led for 6k (hoping instead that it was AJ), but my fears were comfirmed when my opponent smooth called. The brick river went check check and my opponent tabled AQ and shipped the pot. I misplayed this hand pretty badly (first by not leading on the flop and second by betting the turn) and it cost me as I was down to 41k after the first orbit...The next hand I played, still in the same level, I had AdQd in middle position and open raised again to 4,800. This time, the cutoff smooth called, and then the small blind made it 14,000 to go. I really thought about reraising all-in here as I have played with the small blind before and he is a tough/aggressive pro whose range in this spot definitely includes air (as well as KQ and any pair). I decided to muck instead as he could also easily have AK (or AA-QQ) here and I would be drawing thin with my tournament life on the line (really not sure if this was the right decision). After a few more orbits, the blinds and antes had widdled my stack down to 32k, and I again tried raising to 4,800 from middle position, this time with KcQc. It folded around to the big blind, a super tight player who I played with for much of the day yesterday, and continuing the trend of the day, he reraised me, and I had an easy fold. And just like that, after the first level, my stack was cut in half down to 27k.

With the blinds and antes going up (1,000/2,000, 300), it was time for me to shift into all-in preflop mode. Early in level 2, I won just my second pot of the day (the first was a blind battle) when an aggressive player made it 5,000 to go in middle position and I reraised all-in from the button with AK. The original raiser mucked and I was back up to 38k. I couldn't find a good spot during the next orbit to do anything besides fold, and when I found myself back on the button I was down to 33k. The action folded around to me and I looked down at KQ. The small blind had ~35k and the big blind had ~150k. Given that I was making a button raise, I thought that if I raised small (to 5k or so), a resteal was likely with a wide range of hands from either player (in which case the pressure would be on me to make a big call for my tournament life). Not particularly liking this contingency, I decided instead to put the pressure on my opponents, and I shoved all-in despite the fact that I was 17bb's deep (and I definitely did not care that we were down to 89 players). The small blind folded, and the big blind tanked and called with A10s. I saw an ace in the window, and I didn't get any help. I was drawing dead by the turn, and like that, I was gone.

Another disappointing Day 2, especially considering how good I felt about the way I played yesterday. Really felt like this was going to be the one. I guess I'm just saving up for the Main Event.

There is not a lot left on the schedule that excites me (except for the Main Event of course), and with my brother coming in town this weekend, I might skip a few of the smaller buy-in remaining events. I will most likely play one more preliminary event before the main event, which starts next Thursday.