We hit a gross hand early. He raised the button and I defended with 3h 3c. Flop comes 8A3 rainbow, just about perfect. This was early in the match and I hadn't really set up anything, but he had already shown he wasn't robotic in his cbetting so I decided to donk out, betting 50 into 60.
He calls. Turn is the 8d, boating me up. I continue, betting 120 into 160, and he calls again. Now I'm putting him on a hand around AT, maybe as low as A2ish, or something 99-KK.
River is the Js, which seems like a brick. I bet 290 into 400 and he snap raises to 775.
Oh, holy crap. I mean, I have a boat, but that river raise is so goddamn strong. I tank, trying to figure out what he could have if he's telling the truth, and I focus right to JJ, a slow-played AA, possibly a slow-played A8, 8J, and maybe AJ. Of those I only beat AJ, and it's very possible he can let that go. He could also be bluffing, of course, or making a huge mistake with a hand like AK, so I can't bring myself to fold, but I had dismissed shoving early. I called, and he showed 8J for the better boat. Sick. I was 98% on the flop.
At the other table, a smallish pot developed that set up a very interesting dynamic.
He raises his button to 30, I defend with 5h 7h. Flop comes Kh Ks Qh. I check he checks. Turn is the Th, giving me a flush. I bet 40 into 60, he calls. River bricks (2c), I bet 120 into 140, he calls. He shows As Kd for flopped trips, my flush takes down a 380 pot
That pot caught my eye because he didn't bet the flop, where most people would, which was actually a very nice spot to do it. Then a groan-inducing flush card comes for him, which he respects, and quickly snaps off two bets with trips top kicker. Very nicely played on his part imo, even though I won a medium-sized pot.
A bit later, on that same table.
I raise JJ from the button, he defends. Flop is Ac Ks 7h. He checks I check. Turn is 9c, he bets 35 into 60 (he favored that sort of small bet), I called. River is 2c. He bets 55 into 130, I call. He shows Js Kh. Analysis: he pwned me hard. Very nice thin value.
Then a bizarre hand happened.
Same table. I raise my btn with 6s 9s, he defends. Flop is Ts Kh 4h. He checks, I bet 40 into 60, and he raises to 115. His flop CR rate was something like 60% at this point so I decided to make a stand, got fancy and called. Turn was 7d, a brick, and he bet out 165 into 290. I raised to 430, he thought for a few seconds and called. River is the Qd. He checks, and I pussy out and check behind with 9 high. He shows Jh 8h for Jack high, with the missed flush draw. FUUUUUCCCCKKKKKK!!!!!! I could have bet 100 into that pot and blown him off of that hand. But it felt like he just had something like KQ and was giving me enough rope to hang myself. I had a decent enough idea, and then lost my nerve. Awful.
Luckily at that same table I caught back up. He had a 2500/1500 lead at both tables going into this hand and I evened one of the tables out. Basically I raised K5s, flop came K53, and I got 3 streets of value against KT. Pretty standard hand, put us back to even on that table.
I felt good about the next one.
I raise my button with 5s 9s (feeling a bit frisky, he'd been folding a lot preflop). He defends, flop comes 8s 7d Jd, giving me an almost-impossible-to-read double gutshot. He checks, I bet 20 into 60 (hoping to throw him off his usual CR pattern). He raises to 44, barely more than a minraise, and I call (metagame psychology I presume). Turn is Ks, giving me spades in addition to my FD. He bets 125 into 148, I tank and call. River pairs the J, and he bets 175 into 398. His hand felt a lot more like diamonds or like A8, 99, TT, or a complete airball than anything, which led to me raising to 480. He snap folded. I felt like I had a hand like JQ repped quite nicely and could have easily pushed him off a weak K, if he had something like K9 of diamonds.
At the other table, the one where I ran 33388 into 888JJ, we got all in preflop with my QQ against his JJ and I held, doubling up to 1434, making that a more competitive match. 50 hands later we saw our next flop (not really, but there was a LOT of preflop sparring going on in very small pots).
He raised his button and I defended with As 8d. Flop came Td 4d 5c. I check, he checks back. Turn is 7c. I check, he bets 35 into 60. I call. River is the 2s, I check, he bets 85 into 130, and I called him with Ace high. Once again he pwned me for great thin value with Kh 7h. Wow. I felt like he'd picked up clubs on the turn and that I had a lot of equity.
Still, in a HU match it can be nice to establish that you're willing to call down a couple streets with Ace high on the right board, and I felt pretty good about that hand.
At the table where I was ahead, he raised his button and I defended with Th Qs. The flop came 3h 4c Qd, giving me top pair with an OK kicker. I check/called 35, the turn came the Kh. I check/called 85 as I felt like he would recognize that as a superb barreling card. River came As and I check/called 125, as it was once again a superb barreling card and he offered me very attractive odds. He showed Jd 8h for the pure bluff start to finish, and I raked in a nice pot.
We chatted about that pot in AIM for a bit, and I was able to play a nice little metagame head game by pointing out that I knew that he knew that those were good barreling cards, at which point he confessed that he wouldn't know if those were good barreling cards in the future.
In the next 75 or so hands the preflop dynamics seemed to adjust significantly. He started 3betting more, and it felt like he was injecting a little amperage into his game overall. This led to the following hand.
He's down to 1400 chips (starting stack 2000). I raise 7d 8d from the button and he 3bets to 105. With a nice spec hand I can always flop something, but my primary plan is to find a likely flop to take down a big pot without a showdown. I call.
Flop comes 6c Th Jc. This strikes me as a somewhat marginal flop, as most of his range hit something, but I do have a gutshot and I don't think he's going to be in a mood to commit the majority of his stack on an unimproved turn with his AK-AQ strength hands that have gutshots+overpairs on the turn. My plan was to float steal, and indeed he cbet out 125 into 210. In that spot I actually have decent implied odds to chase my gutshot by itself, but mostly I was looking to take the pot away. I call.
The turn changes my plan by spanking me with the 9d. He tanks for 10s or so and checks, I bet 280, and he shoves. I instacall and he shows QQ, a hand he was never letting go of, and against which I got insanely lucky. River misses his 7 out sweat by giving me an ace, and I win match 1.
We start up a third table and continue dual-tabling our match.
On the other table, the one where I was still behind, I defended w/A9o and check/called turn and river bets on a JA768 board, taking a decent pot from QQ, and establishing that I was balancing my check/call range from OOP with weak bluffcatchers and hands that were taking advantage of his propensity for taking thin value.
He raised the button on our new table and I defended w/Ad Jh. I checked, he bet 35 on a K32r board. I called. Turn is a J, I check he checks. River pairs the 3, I try my own hand at thin value betting 60 into 130 and promptly get spanked when he raises to 199, repping a pretty thin range of strong kings, random 3's, and bluffs. I tank and fold.
Weird hand. At our new table again, he raises his button and I defend with Kc Jh. Flop comes 4c 5h 8c, we check check. Turn is the Tc, giving me the backdoor 2nd nut FD, I bet 40 he calls. River bricks with the Qh, I check, he bets 45 into 140, and I decide to make a random river CR, making it 260. He folds, and we laugh about how neither one of us had crap, and that he really should have 3bet bluffed me.
We hit a very long stretch of hands - about 100 or so - where nothing happens, and our biggest pot is 65 chips. 1st place in the tournament is $1500 and 2nd is $900, so we're both willing to be patient.
At our new table, where I've crawled back into the lead with several small pots, I raise my button with 77 and he 3bets to 105. I call. Flop comes 4c 5d Qd and he CBets out 125. I call. River bricks, the 2c, he bets 275 into 460 and I call again. River is the 5c, he checks, I check, he shows 8d Kd for the missed diamonds. I take down a nice big 1000 chip pot (I put him on exactly what he had, missed diamonds).
Finally, at the new table again, I'd ground him down to 1360 in chips, and raised my button with QKo. He 3bet, I called, and the flop came 36K with diamonds. He bet 115 and I called, the turn came the Jd. He checked, I bet 280, and he CR'd me all-in, which made me want to puke, but had TP2K with nearly 2:1 outs against an aggressive opponent that could have just picked up a ton of draws, so I called. He had Ad Ts for 32% equity, a ton of outs, and the river bricked off the Jh for my win.
So, that's $1500, and a substantial amount of pride for having bested a field of 32 very strong regulars in a format intended to maximize the skill factor moreso than almost any other tournament you'll find (with no blind increases, playing 200bb deep against a good player HU is EXHAUSTING).
Although I joke about my Jamie-Gold-esque heater on the forums, I'm proud of how I played and feel that I was a substantial favorite in most of my matches (probably 3/5 I felt very good about). This one I felt was just about even, and perhaps even weighted against me skill-wise. It's impossible to navigate this field without some luck bouncing your way, and I was very fortunate, but also very happy with my game. HU NL is a sick game, very tough, where adjustments are everything and the psychology factor is massive. GG to all that were involved.
I think I'll go buy a new computer.
