surviving a tough beat, eliminating opponents, and staying ahead

Last night's Monday tournament was a good one for me. I haven't won it in a few weeks, and I was more than glad to do so, collecting a first place prize payout padded by my must-win bet against Dale.

I was playing really well overall, and got my money in good in a lot of spots. The addition of the ante into the game at the fourth level created some great opportunities for chipping up via well timed preflop aggression combined with continuation-type bets on the flops. However, one pot developed early on in the tournament in which I went broke when all my chips went into the pot on the flop in the following hand:

Marc: KK
Me: TT

Flop: Q 6 T
Turn: 9
River: J

Marc caught runners to the straight! Even worse, Chip folded two jacks on the flop when Marc shoved all-in and I insta-called, making his hit on the river even more painful. I rebought, and began aggressing more than usual preflop, as it was more important to steal the blinds given my short stack. After taking down four pots in a row, I three-bet Chris all-in and doubled up when my tens held up against his eights. I now had about what I'd had before Marc took me out earlier.

Marc had huge chips at this point, and was playing his usual any-two-are-good-to-see-a-flop-with-even-if-it's-raised strategy. Unfortunately for him, the escalating blinds meant that he was calling off 2 or 3 bucks each hand, which was eroding his stack. A little while into the fourth or fifth level of blinds, I limped one off the button with the 8 5 of hearts, and Chris called in the small blind. The big blind checked. The flop was gin for me - 5 8 5. He bet $1 on the flop, which I flat-called. The turn brought a 6, and he made the same bet, which I again elected to just call. The river came off an offsuit 9, and he now bet $5. I raised all-in, having him covered. He called, showed ace-5, and was out of the tournament.

A while later, I picked off an all-in play that Marc made with second pair on a board of T 8 5 when I held the 10 3. The turn brought a 3, the river a ten, and we were heads-up. The heads-up match between Eric and I lasted a little less than an hour, and finally the following hand came up:

I had $80.25 in chips, Eric had $84. Blinds were $1/$2 with a 25 cent ante, and I was on the big blind. Eric called, and I looked down at ace-deuce. I had been playing fast in heads-up, raising nearly every hand from the button, and I decided to step out and raise $4 more from the big blind, which he called. The flop brought A 2 K with two clubs. Normally, I'd try to trap here, but (A) I got the sense that Eric was sick of my constant betting/raising, and (B) I wanted to shut out the possible draws. I led for $8.50, and Eric thought for a while before calling. The turn brought a ten of spades, which wasn't that threatening since I didn't think Eric would make the call there with a queen-jack. Ideally, he'd have king-ten and I could stack him. I made another bet, this time of $40. Eric tanked for a long time before raising all-in. I instantaneously called for my last $25.50 , and he showed K 8. The river brought another ace, and having only $3.75 left in his stack, Eric conceded the match.