3rd in UB $10k

I finished 3rd tonight in the $50 $10k guaranteed on Ultimate Bet. The day started off with me 2-tabling some $1-$2 in which I managed to drop $300 in less than an hour. So I started to feel pretty miserable before I left home and came up to Bellingham.

I got up here around 8 and decided to sign up for the 9pm on UB and the 9pm on FTP. I whiffed the FTP and managed to eek my way into the UB money. With 30 left, I had around 8k at the recently added 500/1k level. I chipped up and then re-shipped on back-to-back hands with no callers which sent my stack up to 24k. I had two fairly aggressive players to my direct left that sort of handcuffed me while we were on the FT bubble. I decided to knit it up a little bit and actually managed to get up to 50k. With 11 left, I called a SB shove from the BB with AJ. He showed 10-8o on a board of 9 7 X 8 X. That got me down to 30k, but a player was knocked out of the other table simultaneously.

The first hand of the FT, I raised KQhh from MP to 6200 at 1200/2400. It mucked around to the big stack in the BB, and he flat called with AK even though I had like 12 bb's behind! Anyways, flop came 10xx, and he checked and I fired, and he mucked, lol.

Another hand came up when I found AA in 2nd position at 1200/2400. I raised to 6200 with about 50ish behind, and the same chipleader called from the BB; flop came Ax5h4h. He checked, and I considered betting, but with 40k behind and around 18k in the pot, I felt a check was safe. The turn was the 10s, and he led for 8k. I tank/called. River Qx, and he led 15k even though I had 30k behind. I shipped it in, and he tanked for a while before folding. The fact that he had to posture led me to believe that he didn't know what he was doing. A sure sign of a bad player is betting on the river in a hand like that and then having no plan at all if the opponent moves in or something.

Anyways, that got me up to about 80k when another interesting spot came up. I had 85ss on the button at 2500/5k when it mucked around to the c/o who limped in with just 30k behind. This player had been very aggressive but not very good, and so I didn't read that as strength whatsoever. The blinds had only 25k and 30k behind. I pondered it over and decided that, with around 15k in the pot, it would be a decent opportunity to move in and attempt to take that money. I felt that as long as I could avoid the blinds picking up a hand, I would be able to take the pot. The BB snap called and showed AK. I was fortunate when the board rolled out xxxx5 to give me the pot and move me over 100k with 5 left.

From there, the other big stacks knocked out the two shorties, and we were 3-handed. at 3k/6k I decided to play some small-ball with caution and do a lot of button/sb limping type things. I was grinded down to about 80k when the button (the player I played the other two big pots with) opened for 18k. I decided to ship in the A8hh, and he mucked. The very next round in the same spot, he bet pot at 22k, and I found AJo. I told Grant on IM that I was moving and I expected he was getting frustrated and would call me light. I did just that, and he called with QJo LMAO. I kinda had a sick feeling though, and it came Qxx10x to send me to the rail.

I took home $1100ish for my efforts. Although I was not extremely pleased with the way things ended, I was happy to fight the short stack and make a decent run. I feel very very comfortable right now with my MTT game and hope that this is a sign of a big run for me in the coming weeks/months.

God Bless,

JG