Sitting... waiting... wishing...

Entered the Friday Special $9+1 Qualifier tonight after watching 24 with the roommate. I really like playing in these tourneyments where they're paying an entry per x number of entries - in this case, with 170 entrants the top seven finishers get an entry in to Friday's $200+15 tourney. Thus strategy changes a little towards the end - no need to finish as the chip leader, just need to make the top seven. Should be an interesting exercise in implementing the Gap Concept.

Just hit the first break, and I've been chipleader at my table most of the way with the exception of the last few hands when I moved in to second. I've just been steamrolling people - people are calling decent-sized bets with terrible hands. Five or six people are seeing the flop even with a big blind of T50 then folding to a pot-sized bet when I hit top pair. I've also had top pair called down three times as the winning hand even with a scary board - was sure I was beaten when the calls came, and was just floored to see someone calling down with VERY weak hands.

77 people left out of 170, average stack is T2207 and I'm at T3055. Looking over the eight remaining tables during the break, it looks like I'm in 16th place. Several people right above me around the 3100 mark. Going is going to get a lot tougher after the break though...

1:17 mark. 60 people on 7 tables. Table got broken up finally, and moved to what looks like a tougher table. Floating just below the average stack of T2786 with my T2355

1:30 mark. 49 players on 5 tables. Doubled up by cracking aces with KJ, hand history posted as comment #1. I raised pre-flop, he made what appeared to be a weak re-raise and I pushed expecting the fold. Always hate sucking out like that when the money goes in pre-flop, because I know how much I hate it hapening to me. Average is 3500, i'm floating just below that now.

Twelve hands later, cracked the same player's aces. Hand history posted as Comment #2. He was extremly gracious, a true good sport. 1:40 in, 38 players on 4 tables now. Average stack is 4473 and I'm sitting just over 5100.

Doubled up again at the 1:45 mark with AQc against A9o with an ace on the flop. Hand history posted as Comment #3. Sitting sixth in chips across the remaining tables. Double the average stack with 33 players on 4 tables.

At the second break, 2:00 in. Sitting 8th out of 25 remaining players with T8000, thanks to winning T5000 pot on a coinflip with A-10 offsut versus pocket nines. Hand history posted in Comment #4. Table tightening up appropriatly, but i've got the two big stacks at my table sitting to my immediate left (who humorously lives about 15 minutes from me it seems) and #3 in chips overall sitting three positions to the left, so agression must be tempered. Plenty of time to wait for the premium hands at this point while still exercising the Gap Concept as appropriate.

2:30 in, down to 19 players. Consolodated down to two tables and started going hand-for-hand. Lost a big hand at the previous table before consolodation, posted in comments. At the new table, folded the first hand then went all-in three hands in a row with very good hands (KTo, AKh, AJo), winning the blinds the first time and losing both of the others. Finished 18th overall, final hands posted in the comments. Damn it. Played very well over all, I definitely feel at the top of my tourneyment game, but nothing to show for the last two and half hours stings a little. I'll look over my hand history in the light of the morning and see what I should have done differently in the end...