BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Just won a tourney for about $7k. Played 6 tournaments on Merge today with VIP points that I had saved up. Made two final tables, finishing 9th in the first and winning the second. The second tournament was a pretty tough final table with only a couple of players that weren't really solid. And those guys were simply playing very very tight and winning all of their shoves. So stacks got shallow pretty quick and the big stacks were definitely picking on people. Eventually though a good player busted, and then the nit. At that point I was 3rd in chips and relatively low. I had been stealing and restealing some, but I couldn't go crazy because I knew the nit would bust and waiting him out was worth about $700. So when he busted I was able to reship a Q8s from the SB and the BTN called with K9o and I won the race. After that I was successfully stealing and then busted him when he shipped into my BB and my A9o held over his K8o.

The HU match was pretty tough as this guy clearly knew what he was doing and was stealing and restealing and fighting for pots. I was borrowing from a HU strategy Dr Giggy wrote in his blog last year that he and Jon Duhamel settled on before last year's WSOP Main Event final table. It included limping a range of hands, and minraising a range of hands as long as we had over 30bb. When we got under 30bb I shifted to a minraise or shove strategy, although throughout I was restealing with both shoves and small 3bets. I was a little surprised that none of my 3bets got called or reshipped on, since this player had been very aggressive in restealing earlier in the tournament. I'm pretty sure I shipped over his first 3bet, and after that he made most of his 3bets a shove.

Anyway both of us are shipping chips back and forth but I finally get a little of a lead on him and then I run 99 into JJ and he's got the chiplead. A few hands after that I reship J8s for a little over 20bb and he snaps with A8o, but I bink a J on the turn to suckout and retake the chiplead. After that I was fairly successful in chipping away at him even though he was shipping enough to stay afloat. I did end up running one ill timed bluff when I floped the nut flush draw in an 8high flop, turned a gutter, and barreled a 9 river before getting c/shoved on. That briefly gave him back the chip lead, but again I was able to steal and resteal back into the chip lead. Eventually he shipped his BTN with T7o for about 13bb when I had 30bb and I called with 33, floped a set, and won the tournament.

that was that. A nice score that gives my bankroll a much needed boost. This will allow me to comfortably mix in more 2/4 and 3/6 games along with the 1/2 that I'm regularly grinding.

hope everyone had a nice weekend.

later

jim