2nd Place Finish in a $10+1 SNG

Had a little time to kill this afternoon, before I needed to start setting up for our monthly homegame tourneyment kickoff (BBQ @ 5:00, cards fly @ 6:00). Picked a $10+1 one-table Sit-n-Go. Played very solidly, finished second ($30 prize). Quick recap:

Caught pocket aces twice, both times when I really needed them. Second hand I'm dealt my first pair of rockets, and I managed to pull a very nice pot with them, putting me in a solid second place (first hand someone lost a large pot with top pair against a set). This immediately put me in a good frame of mind and allowed me to play tight.

About a third of the way in, I was still holding tight. Tried to limp on a handful of hands in middle position and got raised out almost every time preflop or right on the flop when my drawing hands didn't come through. Was sitting about 900 in chips, solidly in 4th or 5th place.

About halfway through the tourney, six players left and i'm sitting 4th in chips. ATo pulls a small pot with a semi-bluff with a board of 3,4,Q,10.

The sixth place finisher goes out, and its down to five - i'm still sitting 4th. The pocket aces show up again and pull a very small pot (hand history posted as Comment #1). I'm still in 4th.

5th place gets knocked out going all-in with trash and gets picked off by a pocket pair. Now i'm small stack. We make a couple circuits and I've blinded off half my stack down to 650 chips. I catch As8h, one of those hands I like to play agressively to mix up my game. I move all in, pulling down the blinds (300 chips). I fold the next hand, but then I start a nice three-hand run to move up in the world.

The run starts when i'm in the big blind and the pot is folded to me holding A9o. This simple +100 chips takes me to 1050 and puts me 3rd in chips. Next hand from the small blind: AQo. Folded around, I push all-in, and pull down +200 chips to raise my total to 1250. Next hand, on the button: AKo. Small stack (710) has posted the big blind of 200 chips, so on the button I raise it to 700 to force him all in, assuming he'll call with any sort of marginal hand. Small blind actually comes over the top all-in, the small-stacked big blind folds, and I quickly call. Small blind turns over AJo and my AK holds up unimproved. +1450 chips to 2700 and solidly second place. The run of hands posted as Comment #2.

Fourth-in-chips gets blinded out and has to go all-in with 47o - no miracles and he's out. Third place busts him so the table looks like this:

Seat 3: d_brown41 (3485)
Seat 4: Performify (2100)
Seat 7: JAUINE (2415)

Then in the space of three hands, d_brown41 takes down a +1800 pot with a full house to move in to a clear chip lead, then takes JAUINE down with a queen-high flush. So i'm heads up with 1350 chips versus d_brown41's 6650.

Second hand heads-up I move all-in with Q9s and am called - he turns over pocket 7s. Classic coinflip with a slight bonus thanks to the fact that mine are suited and loosely connected. Nine comes on the flop and I double through. Hand history posted as Comment #3. He's still sitting with a 3-1 chip lead though, i'm going to need to double through again and the blinds are moving to 200-400 next hand.

We pass the blinds back and forth, with the occasional steal, for about ten hands. I move all-in with J9o and turns out I'm dominated by QJo when he calls. The queen-high holds up and the tourney is over: second place finish, $30 prize. Not a bad way to kill an hour of the afternoon.