The Grand

I finished in 203rd of 705. I got aces twice in the first half hour - after that my only pair over tens was QQ. I played for about 5 and a half hours. That's not a lot of service.

Despite this, I was able to last a while. I was finding spots to pick up pots, changing up how I would do it. I started gettnig reraised preflop - at one point I got reraised five times in six, and that other time the player called, then pushed the flop. All this, no hands - and I still survived. I'm immensely pleased.

I crippled myself on the following hand. I had about 18500 in MP, and I raised to 2600 (500/1000, no ante) with KJ of spades. It was folded to the BB who had about the same amount, having recently doubled up. He just called. The flop came down 622, rainbow (one spade). BB checked, I bet 3300, and he raised to 8000, leaving just under 8000 behind. Normally, I'd have interpreted this as a sign of great strength, but I thought about this some more. If he had a hand like 99-JJ, wouldn't he raise more (or all in) to ensure that he didn't give me odds with AK and have a turn card that he really didn't want to see? And wouldn't he have reraised with QQ-AA as he had when he doubled up with KK (granting, he was a smaller stack then, so circumstances were different). The more I looked at this, the more it seemed as if he was trying to buy the pot while leaving himself an out.

I pushed. He had JJ. I turned the Queen of spades, but couldn't get lucky on the river. That left me with 24 chips, and I went out the next hand with ace high. As it turns out, had I waited one more card, I would have probably been able to buy the pot, although I had used that move very recently.

I'm thinking it over and while my timing was off, I think the move was great. I think his range of doing this move is huge, particularly since he just doubled up and may have been flush with confidence.