A quick post. Last night Bodog had a $7,500 guaranteed for $10+1, so I signed up. There were only 571 playing, so nearly $2,000 was added to the prize pool. I was short stacked most of the tournament, but as we approached the money (top 54) I finally went above average with a nice rush. From there I went up and down.

With the blinds at $1,000-$2,000 I had about 7 big bets and found 99 in the big blind. 4 other players limped in. I figured I had the best hand but decided to check and see what the flop brought. If I had pushed there was one small stack that would have to call and I thought at least one other player would call. I didn’t want to take my 9s against 2 players. The flop came 2-4-2 and I was happy. I pushed out a bet of about half the pot. The small stack called and the button raised. I pushed the rest of my chips in. I was up against A9 and 55. The turn brought a 5 and the river a 3, so I lost to a full house and a straight. I went in with the best hand and that’s all I can ask for.

Looking back, I wish I had either pushed as the first to act after the flop. I still think I would have ended up against the same two players because A9 didn’t have a choice with barely over $2,000 left and 55 had a large stack where he could take the risk. Pushing would have been my best chance at getting one of them to fold. Betting half the pot could have looked like a steal. If only the small stack would have called I would still have been in the tournament with about 5 BB and on the small blind for the next hand.

That was the end of my tournament though. 17th out of 517. Not a bad showing. I think I’m going to concentrate on some tournaments a little more until I can get through this cold streak trying to beat the 6-max games.