6th place

I finished to me a disappointing 6th place. I came into the day with 90k and 5th in chips with a pretty good feeling. I really can't say much about this tournament in terms of hands because I didn't have very many. I made some savvy steals and a couple squeezes in day 1 when I was short to keep me alive until my big hands. I only had 3 big hands all day after hour 1. Today, it was more of the same and a tough decision on hand 1. Hand 1 the chip leader Roy Winston raises UTG to 12k with 2/4k blinds 500 ante. I have 90k and look at AQ on the button. It was to me a decision that is really the toughest in poker when a solid player like Roy raises UTG on the very first hand of a major final table and I have 22 big blinds. What to do? My options are 3. Flat calling and playing post flop is an option, but I figure the chip leader is going to fire at every pot. Move all in. I won't get called by any hands I'm beating. At best I can be racing against the pairs he's raising with. I figure Roy to be a solid player and have seen him play solid almost every moment. He doesn't do too much out of line especially under the gun. I just decided to fold and he showed 88 and I have been thinking through the hand for a while now. If I shove, I'm not sure if he folds. He has 250k prior to the hand and raising to 12k would put 12+4.5+6 into the pot at 32k When I shove to 90k total he's going to have 122k with 78k to call. It's a tough decision for him even with 88, but I consider that hand to really be at the bottom half of his range here. I decided to fold. After that I couldn't pick up a hand the rest of the tournament. I watched a few players go out and made one steal. Then with 6 players I picked up Q10 off on the cut off and raised it to 16k with 3k/6k blinds 1000 ante. I have 77k in my stack at this point. I'm pretty sure no one will play back at me unless I'm destroyed and I can have 60k an easy 10 BB shoving stack if someone does that. The only kicker is that a real tight player has 32k behind, but I'm not that worried about that as he is on the button. He flat calls the 16k! Flop comes K J 2. I put the 16k to set him in. He calls with KJ and I miss my straight. Now I'm down to 45k. I should really be looking to push anything, but I wasn't able to open a pot at all and a few rounds around I shoved a 3 7 suited and everyone folded. I was looking for anything really but the same thing Q5, 2 5, 6 8, 2 7, Q3, and then I finally shoved with 5 8 off suit on the button with 32k total and was called by KQ. I lost that even though I'm owed one of those from 3 years back where on Paradise I lost a big hand in the same manner with the KQ. Either way, I'm pretty disappointed as I really wasn't given a shot to even play or use any of the abilities I have. I was short stacked the entire tournament and so card dead except for 3 pairs that I got paid on 99, QQ, AA. I don't think I had AK once outside the first level. I know that cards don't determine a champion, but short stacked and up against good players, you just need something to have a shot. Either way 18k isn't too bad at all and brings me into the black for the year in live tournaments. Not sure what I'm doing next in poker.