The dream lives on...

I had the opportunity to play in FTOPS event #1 a $200+16 NL tournament with a $750,000 guarantee tonight. The tournament brought a huge field of 5,319 entrants, paying 738 places. With a double stack and longer levels, I liked my chances. Here are some of my hands throughout.

Seat 1: Kin Corn Karn (3,000)
Seat 2: pokealong (2,380)
Seat 3: O0Brian0O (3,045)
Seat 4: 101011002 (2,215)
Seat 5: Black_BartA8 (2,235)
Seat 6: donpeters (2,970)
Seat 7: pigarco (4,310)
Seat 8: Belladdie (3,925)
Seat 9: c1 future pro (2,920)
101011002 posts the small blind of 15
Black_BartA8 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to donpeters [As Ad]
donpeters raises to 90
pigarco calls 90
Belladdie calls 90
c1 future pro folds
Kin Corn Karn folds
pokealong folds
O0Brian0O calls 90
101011002 calls 75
Black_BartA8 calls 60
*** FLOP *** [9d 6d Jh]
101011002 checks
Black_BartA8 checks
donpeters bets 375
pigarco folds
Belladdie folds
O0Brian0O folds
101011002 folds
Black_BartA8 folds
Uncalled bet of 375 returned to donpeters
donpeters mucks
donpeters wins the pot (540)

Wasn't really digging the 5 callers I had. I'd rather play my AA against 1-2 opponents. Still was able to scoop a decent pot early.

Seat 1: Kin Corn Karn (3,080)
Seat 2: pokealong (2,700)
Seat 3: O0Brian0O (2,340)
Seat 4: 101011002 (1,780)
Seat 5: Black_BartA8 (4,135)
Seat 6: donpeters (3,315)
Seat 7: pigarco (4,725)
Seat 8: Belladdie (2,245)
Seat 9: c1 future pro (2,680)
c1 future pro posts the small blind of 20
Kin Corn Karn posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to donpeters [Jc Jh]
pokealong raises to 80 {Min-raise UTG, but he has been playing fairly loose and kind of all over the place with limps and min-raises.}
O0Brian0O has 15 seconds left to act
O0Brian0O folds
101011002 folds
Black_BartA8 has 15 seconds left to act
Black_BartA8 folds
donpeters raises to 240
pigarco folds
Belladdie folds
c1 future pro folds
Kin Corn Karn folds
pokealong has 15 seconds left to act
pokealong calls 160
*** FLOP *** [Kh Td 8h]
pokealong has 15 seconds left to act
pokealong checks
donpeters checks {Could have bet here. Wanted to keep the pot small and I had position, so I opted to check behind. Opinions?}
*** TURN *** [Kh Td 8h] [Ah]
pokealong has 15 seconds left to act
pokealong bets 200
donpeters has 15 seconds left to act
donpeters calls 200 {Wasn't a fan of the A, but with the Jh and a straight draw, also a pair that I thought had a decent chance of being good, I could call this. Thought about raising, but this early I decided not to get myself into unwanted trouble.}
*** RIVER *** [Kh Td 8h Ah] [Qc]
pokealong has 15 seconds left to act
pokealong checks
donpeters bets 400
pokealong has 15 seconds left to act
pokealong is sitting out
pokealong has timed out
pokealong folds
Uncalled bet of 400 returned to donpeters
pokealong has returned
donpeters mucks
donpeters wins the pot (940)

Another decent pot to add to my stack. Early on in tournaments, I'm looking for sure ways to increase my stack. I'm not here to donk it up and go balls to the wall when the blinds are low. I'll pick and choose my spots to slowly work my way up the ranks. When the blinds and antes get bigger, I'll be more willing to make some moves.

Seat 1: Kin Corn Karn (5,400)
Seat 2: Pwnataur (2,720)
Seat 3: O0Brian0O (2,180)
Seat 4: 101011002 (2,850)
Seat 5: Black_BartA8 (3,230)
Seat 6: donpeters (3,550)
Seat 7: pigarco (4,685)
Seat 8: Belladdie (3,352)
Seat 9: c1 future pro (1,913)
Pwnataur posts the small blind of 30
O0Brian0O posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to donpeters [Qd Qh]
101011002 folds
Black_BartA8 folds
donpeters has 15 seconds left to act
donpeters raises to 180
pigarco folds
Belladdie folds
c1 future pro calls 180
Kin Corn Karn has 15 seconds left to act
Kin Corn Karn calls 180
Pwnataur has 15 seconds left to act
Pwnataur is sitting out
Pwnataur has timed out
Pwnataur folds
O0Brian0O calls 120
*** FLOP *** [4c Ts Tc]
O0Brian0O checks
donpeters checks {This is where I went wrong. I didn't want to commit to a hand I wasn't sure on although in hindsight I should have bet the flop here I think.}
c1 future pro checks
Kin Corn Karn bets 350
O0Brian0O folds
Pwnataur has been disconnected
donpeters calls 350
c1 future pro folds
*** TURN *** [4c Ts Tc] [Kc]
donpeters checks
Kin Corn Karn bets 700
donpeters has 15 seconds left to act
donpeters has requested TIME
donpeters folds
Uncalled bet of 700 returned to Kin Corn Karn
Kin Corn Karn mucks
Kin Corn Karn wins the pot (1,450)

The QQ hand is my biggest concern looking back on things. Kin Corn Karn showed me soon after that maybe I should have played this hand against him instead of conceding. He was shoving, raising, and calling with some crazy hands soon after which leads me to believe I was good.

Seat 1: Kin Corn Karn (4,652)
Seat 2: taylortreble (6,623)
Seat 3: O0Brian0O (1,300)
Seat 4: 101011002 (4,320)
Seat 5: kops123 (4,650)
Seat 6: donpeters (2,980)
Seat 7: pigarco (4,225)
Seat 8: Belladdie (5,312)
Seat 9: c1 future pro (7,391)
kops123 posts the small blind of 60
donpeters posts the big blind of 120
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to donpeters [Ad 6h]
pigarco folds
Belladdie folds
c1 future pro folds
Kin Corn Karn calls 120
taylortreble folds
O0Brian0O folds
101011002 folds
kops123 calls 60
donpeters checks
*** FLOP *** [4c 7h Ah]
kops123 has 15 seconds left to act
kops123 bets 240
donpeters calls 240
Kin Corn Karn folds
*** TURN *** [4c 7h Ah] [4d]
kops123 bets 560
donpeters has 15 seconds left to act
donpeters calls 560
*** RIVER *** [4c 7h Ah 4d] [4h]
kops123 checks
donpeters has 15 seconds left to act
donpeters bets 1,000
kops123 calls 1,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
donpeters shows [Ad 6h] a full house, Fours full of Aces
kops123 mucks
donpeters wins the pot (3,960) with a full house, Fours full of Aces

Another good pot, this one really helped to boost me up there. When he checked the river, I was pretty positive I was good and decided on a value bet to get some extra chips out of him.

Seat 1: Kin Corn Karn (4,532)
Seat 2: taylortreble (6,623)
Seat 3: O0Brian0O (1,300)
Seat 4: 101011002 (4,320)
Seat 5: kops123 (2,730)
Seat 6: donpeters (5,020)
Seat 7: pigarco (4,225)
Seat 8: Belladdie (5,312)
Seat 9: c1 future pro (7,391)
donpeters posts the small blind of 60
pigarco posts the big blind of 120
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to donpeters [Jh Jc]
Belladdie folds
c1 future pro has 15 seconds left to act
c1 future pro raises to 350
Kin Corn Karn folds
taylortreble folds
O0Brian0O folds
101011002 folds
kops123 folds
donpeters has 15 seconds left to act
donpeters raises to 850
pigarco folds
c1 future pro has 15 seconds left to act
c1 future pro calls 500
*** FLOP *** [8s 4s Kh]
donpeters has 15 seconds left to act
donpeters checks
c1 future pro has 15 seconds left to act
c1 future pro checks
*** TURN *** [8s 4s Kh] [8c]
donpeters bets 900
c1 future pro has 15 seconds left to act
c1 future pro has requested TIME
c1 future pro folds
Uncalled bet of 900 returned to donpeters
donpeters mucks
donpeters wins the pot (1,820)

I made it through the second break and was doing all right. Looking back on things, maybe I could have gotten a little bit more aggressive. I was very card dead going into the second break and coming out of it. The blinds got up to 250/500 with an ante a 50. After going through the blinds, I had just over 3100 in chips left and shoved on the button when it folded around to me with A7. The SB went into the tank and called, so did the BB. The flop blanked me, I picked up a spade draw on the turn, but blanked the river, too. I did beat out the SB's hand of QJ with my ace-high, but was outkicked by the BB's AJ. I was out in 1170th place, just over 400 out of the money. Solid run I suppose, just couldn't get my bigger hands to give me a ton of action. I held AA a few times, QQ a few times, JJ and AK a few times as well but couldn't get the table to give me the bigger action I wanted. The table I was at for most of these hands was pretty loose and aggressive with a lot of raising and reraising going on preflop. Too bad none of this happened when I picked up my top hands.

I was able to profit off the tournament though. I was able to originally invest $3 to win into this tournament and a friend of mine and myself swapped 10% of each other. KakaFC22 is his name and he has been doing very, very well online lately in the tournaments he plays. He came in 522nd for just under $330 and shipped me my 10%. He also won in via satellite for $24+2, so it was a good showing for him. Congrats Kaka and keep it up!

Until my next big chance... the dream lives on.