DUBLIN BELLYBUSTERS

My worst ever downswing was followed by two days of illness which sidelined me from poker since last Thursday. This morning, however, I woke up feeling somewhat recovered, somewhat meaning the hallucinations I had experienced had passed but I was still enduring a slight temperature and headache. There was a freeroll to be played so I logged in to Full Tilt and took my seat in the 600-player Ironman Tourney at 16.45ET.

I took my usual approach to these freerolls - Play insanely LAG from ball one and take advantage of players looking to squeak into the money (the Ironman pays out 30% of the field). My plan worked and by the time we were down to 18 players remaining, I was 2nd in chips. I was still 2nd once it went Final Table but with myself and WPTFuji enjoying almost 500K in chips each and the next nearest holding 140K, it looked to be a two horse-race.

From the back of the pack, a third horse - smr - entered the fray but he never really got on level terms. 3-handed, I had 700k, fuji had 800k and smr had 300k. Blinds were exchanged for a dozen on so orbits before smr chopped his remaining 200k preflop. I had 88 so put him all-in. he flipped up KK but I flopped and turned an 8 to send him packing (pure skill!). Heads-up, my plan was to small-ball Fuji as he is a mega-multitabling small stakes super turbo expert. I got the better of the early exchanges, twice slowplaying 2nd pair, letting him catch up and getting value on the river. Then I made a successful semi-bluff with a flush draw (probably getting him off 2nd or bottom pair). After 13 hands, I had 1.35 million to his 450,000. The next hand, I had K10 on 10 high board with 2 spades. Fuji had the AQ of spades. Naturally all the money got in and we were off to the races. The turn came the Jack of Hearts, giving him an additional 3 outs (a whopping 18 in total!) and making it a real sweat. Thankfully the Jack of Clubs came on the river and that was that.

$4500 and a place in tomorrow's 4-man heads-up SNG for another 5K. GL ME!

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