Despite playing lots of  ring, I still make time for some tournament poker every month.  Thus I play at least one major Sunday event on most weeks.   The Bodog 100 and the UB 200 are the ones I play most often.   The UB major is my favorite since it has the most ‘blind friendly' structure of any the major tournaments out there online.   The 2500 starting chips with slowly escalating blinds provides the most opportunitiy for skill and patience to win out in this ‘monster' tourney.   In 2004 I played this tourney quite often for a while and managed a 5th and a 7th place finish.   During the summer of 2004 the money in this tournament was not nearly as much as it is now since it regularly drew less than 200 participants.  My 7th for instance only paid $1050 in May 2004 with 175 participants.   Last night had 678 starters!

I am a big fan of Harrington and use his strategy in most my major tournaments.  Tight and aggressive with a little looser play when in position.   I am always amazed by people who get big stacks early in a tournament since I rarely get that fortunate.   Early at about the 30 minute mark of the tournament I got an inkling of how that happens.   I had gotten my stack up to 2755 when KJ in the BB hit a JJx flop that I didn't have to pay for.  I smooth called a continuation bet hoping for another raise on 4th where I would check raise.  A  King hits the turn and the button opponent folds to my ¾ pot size bet.    A9s steal from mid position takes down a small pot with a continuation bet. 2845 chips.  KQo from mid position I reraise 5x and UTG caller and get the BB and UTG as callers.  Flop has Qxx, UTG checks, I bet ¾ pot and they both fold.  3050 chips.

I describe this early action since I think it sets up the first decisive play of the tourney.  I had been fairly active and taken down several small pots without a showdown when I was dealt AA in mid position.   Blinds are now at 20/40 and the active player to my right calls.  I raise 5x to 200.  The big blind reraises me to 660 and I push all in figuring I would be happy to steal his big raise.   To my surprise, he calls with AKs!  Nothing flops and I nearly double up to 5800 chips.  Why he calls with AKs there I have no idea since the BEST he can hope for is a race.  I had not played that many hands to make him think I was playing with nothing….oh well thank god for donkeys. 

A few hands later I have QJo on the button.  Action folded to me I raise 3.5x to 210.  BB calls.  Flop is Q82 with 3 hearts.  My J is a heart and I bet ¾ pot.  BB calls leaving him with 1885 chips.  Turn is a 4d and he bets 600!!  I can't imagine the 4 helped him and he either has the flush or is bluffing.  I figure I can afford the loss if he is not bluffing and RR him all in.  I also have top pair and a flush draw still if he decides to call. He folds showing nothing.  Wow 6860 chips. 

4 hands later I have TT in mid position.    Early postion player that I read as a very cautious player raises 2x.    I Reraise to 7.5x or 450 chips.  He calls. Flop A66 and he bets 60 chips.  I raise to 600 and he folds showing JJ!  I show and say nothing.  7450 chips.
KQc in the BB I get raised to 2x by the SB and I call.   Flop is K85 with 2 hearts.  155 bet by the SB is raised to 500 by me.  SB calls.   2c on the turn and SB checks.  I bet just over half pot and take it down!  8250 chips.   99 on the next orbit in early position.  I get the cautious player in the BB calling and the flop is K98 rainbow.  I probably should have checked my set but I bet it and he folds.  I hate slow playing sets though because I like to bet my hands the same way whether I hit the flop or not.  So ¾ pot bet takes down another pot to 8500 chips about 90 minutes into the tourney.   I happen to check my stats somewhere around this time and I have seen 20 flops and won 18 times when I did.  That is smoking hot 90 minutes into the tourney. 

Next orbit I get KK in mid position and bet 3.5x again.  SB and BB calls.  464 flop.  They check,  I bet out and they fold.  9050 chips.   An orbit later and another big stack comes on the table, two to my left. The stack directly to my left has also built a stack and I barely have them both outchipped.     UTG big stack raises to 525.  I have QQ in the SB and raise to 1725.  UTG calls.  Flop is T34 and I bet out 2500 chips into the 3600 chip pot.  UTG folds showing AK and asks if I had QQ.  Nice read I think and reply by saying ‘Lucky a K didn't flop, would have been ugly.'  I hope I confused the issue.  

In the same orbit I get TT UTG and raise to 600 (3x)  A small stack goes all in with 1400 chips and I call.  He has AK and hits the KQJ flop.  I get no help and back down to 9100 chips.  Gee this is the first hand I have lost of any consequence and its 2 hours into the tourney.  I am still CL on my table.

One orbit later I have 98s in the BB.  SB  with 6000 chips who has been quite aggressive just calls.  I check and see a 68T flop.    SB bets half pot of 200 and I raise to 600.  He calls.  9 on the T brings a 4 straight to the board and makes my 2 pair really nervous!  SB once again bets 200 chips into what is now a 1600 pot.  I think such a sucker bet if he has the goods and I want to play as small a pot as possible here and just call.   The river brings a five and now the SB bets 2000 into the 2000 chip pot.  I hold my nose and call with my two pr which take down his 85  two pr!  11800 chips.   Soon thereafter the same SB who is now quite crippled, gets into another blind dick fight with me when it is folded to him and he calls.   I have AK and raise to 800 total.  SB has 1800 chips left and thinks a long time.  I put him on probably a weak ace or small pr as he reraises all in.  I call and he turns A7o.  I win the 4k pot and chip up to 14,300 chips just over 2 hours in. 

I have spent the first two hours on the same table when ours breaks and I get sent to a table with Kate Starbird on my left.  ThemrX who has been on my left for the first two hours lands on Kate's left.  I am the big stack on this table but Kate and mrX both have over 8K chips as do rats00 and two others.   I know rats from ecrew very well and tease him since he does not know me under the DeuxExMachina name I am playing under tonight. 

This table has a friendly, fun dynamic with a  ton of ecrew railbirds egging on rats.   Kate drifted down as low as 5000 chips before starting to build.  An all in to steal 2000 chips in preflop calls starts Kate's rebuild.   I play several insignifigant hands to remain around 15000 chips.   ThemrX hits a huge hand with QQ that pushes him to 30K chips.  Kate come over the top all in over one of my steals with TJd that I fold.  Then Kate does the same to the opponent to my right and has now stolen her way up to 14K chips without a showdown.    My steals get a lot of respect and I mostly hold even for the hour by just stealing the occasional blind.   This allows several at the table to catch up to me including rats, Kate and ThemrX is double all of us approximately 15K stacks.

Soon thereafter I was involved in one of my luckiest tournament hands ever.  Blinds are 400/800 and I have AQ on the button with 16K chips.  The cutoff has 6K and raises it to 900.  I reraise to 4100 thinking the cutoff will fold.  He calls leaving him with only about 1500 chips.  Flop is A54.  The cutoff checks and I go all in with my top pr.  The cutoff shows 55 for a set!  Damn!  The turn is a lovely Q followed by a devastating A on the river to complete a bigger FH for me!  I cannot EVER remember hitting a runner, runner on an important hand in a big tournament.  ( I probably have but it has been a while.)  This improbable hand gets me to 24K chips and sends poor Randers to the rail muttering about how he is never returning to UB.  

I am back to table CL as X is back down to 26K with me and Kate has 20K with the bubble fast approaching.  I hope to steal a few blinds here and build up further.  Kate hits a set to get to 33K shortly after this at the expense of a fairly large stack on my right who is now short stacked.  A new guy Razzamataz shows up on the table with 30K chips with another 30K stack.  Thus there are 5 of us on the table with roughly 30K.

The antes are folded around to me in the SB with T9o.  I like to raise with a good heads ups hand  when in the SB, but T9 is a calling hand for me.   I call and Kate raises me to 2x or 2500 total each.  The flop is A95 with two diamonds.  I figure I will take a crack at the pot and represent the Ace by betting 3K or a little over half the pot.  A 5d hits the turn and now the flush is on the board and I have 2nd pr.  I decide to check and wont call a bet here thinking if I wasn't beat before the turn I am now.  Also I still have 24K chips which is plenty of ammo at this point.  Kate checks also.  A Js hits the river and I check again.  Kate bets 5K into the 11K pot and I am tempted to call.  I think a while and fold it sticking to my read that Kate represented an Ace preflop with her raise from the BB and the bet could easily be a value bet for top pair or the flush.  A mistake by me? Maybe, only Kate knows and she ain't talking.

The bubble passes, and to my dismay I am no longer CL AND have the aggressive Kate on my left making it difficult for me to steal with any ease.     AT in the BB, the big stack Razz calls and I raise to 6K.  He folds and I am back to 22K.    A8o in the SB and I raise to 6K or 3.5 x.   Kate folds.  How about that and I am back to 25K.   Kate gets RR by the BB while stealing with 66.  They both get all in with the BB having ATo.  Kate wins a 50K pot to chip up to 60K but I am surprised that she gambled for most of her chips this way. 

Blinds are now 800/1600 and we are down to 5 tables.   I get PT up and running on the other tables so I have information for later on in the tourney. It is also the start of a very card dead period for me. I steal with AJo from the cutoff to tread water at 25k.   Couple orbits later its TT from UTG. Same result, but I am losing ground.   I have 21K chips and am 31/36.   Kate is moved from my table.  Yes!!    Razz has 60K two spots to my right and has been actively stealing.  The blinds have crept up to 1500/3000 and I need to make a move.  Haligon has also been moved into Kate's position with 65K chips. I am card dead for several orbits.   Razz makes another of his steals and I decide to move in on him with my QJo and 15K remaining chips.  The BB goes all in for 60K and I moan knowing I am in big trouble.   Razz smartly folds and I am facing KK.  Terrible timing on my part. 
Flop comes QJ3 and holds up for me!  Holy cow, 50K chips and huge miracle for me.   I slowly get blinded down to 35K over the next few orbits with the blinds climbing to 2000/4000.  Haligon is UTG and raises to 15K to steal. It folds around to me in the BB and I have AJ.  Haligon has been very active so I reraise him all in.   He calls with A4c and my AJ holds up to boost me to 73K.

 I have stayed nearly even and got moved to a new table when I look down to see KK.  The first nice hand I have had in what seems like a couple hours.   A 55K stack raises to 22K from UTG.  The blinds are 2500/5000 at this point and I push all in with KK.  It holds up over QQ and I chip up to 132K.    Haligon is still on my left with 230k and bdluss has 112K on my right.  GEE thanks UB for putting me in another nice spot. 

A little later in the orbit I get KJo in the cutoff.  I raise to 15K or 3x. The BB pushes all in for 59k total and I am forced to fold after a long think.  As we get down near 15 remaining people I am moved to a new table with only 6 people.   I have been card dead again and blinded down to 80K chips.   A9o I steal from UTG.  I have observed that he SB has folded to our old buddy Razz on two occasions when Razz pushed all in over the SB steals.  He showed AQ in the first instance and AJ in the second.  With 6 people on the table and having about 150k chips to Razz' 90k I am surprised he folded both times.  The SB is marked as a weak player in my book now.   He has 127k chips when I pick up QJc in the BB with 83k left after paying the 6K BB.  The SB raises to 22K and I call.  The flop comes 78T and the SB checks.  Not surprising although I would have bet if I were him.  So I figure he has missed entirely and bet 20k into the 46k pot figuring that he will fold since he has folded all those strong hands to Razz earlier.   He calls.  Damn, he must have caught a piece of the flop!   A meaningless 2 hits the turn.  SB checks and so do I wondering how I am going to win this hand.  A lovely Q hits the river and my joy is tempered by a quick all in by the SB.   I figure he has AQ or is bluffing.  It was a fast all in  move so bluff is my read.  I review it all and I think well this is it.  If you want to make the final you NEED this pot and you have top pair.  I call and am thrilled to see him turn over A8o.   Wowser.  182k pot is all mine. 

My old nemesis Kate has 270k chips and is the Cl here.  She raises 4x preflop from UTG and I look down at QQ.  I raise to 65k and all fold.  198k chips.  Soon thereafter I have JQd and raise to 3x.  I get two callers and then Kate in the BB raises to 91K.  Uh oh, I fold   SDFish is all in with A7 to Kates QQ.  An Ace hits on the river and fish gets up to 72K chips from 15K.

 I am still in 3rd place in the tournament overall and it looks bright as we get down to the final table.    I have 166K chips when we hit the FT and I am in 4th place.  Below me are three stacks with 100K or so, one with 48K and another with 162K.   Kate has 320K.  SeattleSlut has 342K and Haligon has 280K.  Hand one sees Haligon's TT take out one of the 100k stacks with 99 who had gone all in preflop on his first move.  388k Haligon. 
Hand four sees  SDfish double up with JJ to 110K chips gotten from Haligon who's AJ was in bad shape.    I am seeing no cards worth playing.   Blinds are 4k/8k.   bdluss who is on my right with 100K chips tries to steal with A4o.   He gets picked off by AJ and goes out in 9th.  Poor guy knows me well but had no idea while he sat next to me on the final two tables on my right.  I delicious irony for me. 

I am being steadily blinded down to 117K and am looking for a good chance to steal.  Fish puts out a small stack to leave 7 of us.  I am thrilled  to see AKd in mid position.  Fish calls UTG and I raise to 42K.  All fold and I chip up to 140K.   I reluctantly fold A7c in the BB to a 4x raise from Kate from UTG.   I don't normally call here, but in hindsight an all in reraise may not have been a bad idea..  I considered it and decided against figuring that Kate had a better ace at best and a strong pp at worst.  Plus she had over 3 times my chips and would probably have called even with a weak ace. 

I need another real hand!  The blinds raise to 5k/10k and my stack is blinded down to 102k.   A5h comes in mid position and I raise to 3x for the steal.  All fold.  Razz the short stack doubles up and I am now in last even after my steal.  I fold 22 and 66 to steals ahead of me each time.  C'mon poker gods this is the FT and 22 doesn't cut it!   All in steals for the three short stacks (150K) are the norm now.    Fish and Razz get it all in with 99 for Fish and A9 for Razz who goes out in 7th.  Everyone on table now has over 200k except me with 87k.   Looks grim for me.  I pick up KTo on the button.  Haligon raisese to 3.5x from UTG.  I hope he remembers when I nailed him with the AJ earlier and will fold anything weaker.  (I hope)  Also I realize that pot odds and chip stack sizes almost demand that he call my all in of just over 80K.   I figure best case I have a coin flip and worst case I am way behind.  However, if I wait then I have no chance to have my steals respected because my stack has grown too short.  I push and pray.  Haligon thinks a LONNNNNNGGGGG time.  This makes me sure I have a coin flip or close to it unless he has my K dominated.  He finally calls and flips up A9o.   Alas the 9 on the board only helps Haligon and I finally flame out in 6th.

Payday was $6750.   Not bad but still frustrating after coming to the FT in 4th place.  One very lucky QJ v KK hand that got me here notwithstanding I thought I played solid but not spectacularly.  A couple better plays could have improved my finish, but very hard to say since no one can play one of these things perfectly.   Kate Starbird went on to take this down to win two weeks in a row.  Once she got a stack she played very strongly and my hat is off to her on these amazing performances.  Haligon was very strong too.  He finished 3rd after losing a race to Kate.  That surprised me that these two would race like that.  However Kate had proven a willingness to do that earlier and shouldn't have surprised me I guess.  I am going to study the other tables play on PT to see what else I can learn about these two as well as my old buddy bdluss who also had a strong placing.   I hope you all have enjoyed this and feel free to comment on our bulletin board.