Small Mtt Success

I checked last night and found I had 2000 player points at Laddies which needed to be used by the end of the month.I fired up Laddies $3k 1000pp freeroll,and sat down to play with 278 of my closest poker buddies.Actually make that 277 as the guy next to me at the the tables profile said he was a celt*c fan.( just kidding, I even said gg when he was knocked out!)

I missed the first few minutes, as I was still messing about after a late dinner.When I did start playing, I got a bit lucky when I called an all in on the turn with Jd10d.I had the flush draw plus top pair, but the villain had J9 for 2 pair, and he hit the rail when a lovely 10 came on the river.

I doubled through with KK ( yes it actually held up!) and won a race in the very next hand with 55 to double again.After that I sat back,played solid poker and the next time I checked the lobby there were only 84 left.I was 45th and the top 45 paid.( 45th paid $13)

I managed to get my stack up to 20k and was one of the biggest stacks at my table, before I ran 1010 into JJ and was slapped back into the main pack.I laid down AQ to a raise and folded A10s when it was folded to me in the cut-off because the big blind was the chip leader.

I'm a big fan of the gap concept and although I folded AQ to a raise ,I made a few reraises all in ( squeeze bets) with hands like AJ to boost my stack.
I also made a couple of blatant steals with A4d and K10off ,both from fairly early position which I felt looked less dodgy - not from UTG though, as it's the new button for steals and many players are aware of that.

The bubble eventually burst and winning a race with 99 and having Kings hold up ( again!) v a big stacks AK gave me a decent sized stack and a top 15 position.
I still had to deal with a couple of big stacks on my left, which did't make it easy to steal blinds and chip up further.

I did make a couple of resteal moves against the players I felt were raising preflop too often, and won a battle v one in a big hand, where I hit 2nd top pair on the turn and pushed representing the made straight.The turn had also put a flush draw out there and I reckoned that made my story more believable.The villain called with his open ended straight draw and thankfully a blank river card saw the pot come my way.

I made the final table in 2nd last position, sat back and mostly let the rest of them do battle until it was down to five of us.I was the shortstack and the remaining players all seemed quite solid and happy to fold until the blinds got me.On that basis I decided I had to move and pushed my 30k stack in the middle with K9c when it was folded to me in the small blind.

The villain and eventual tourney winner called with A7c and I went out after neither of us hit.I don't blame him for calling as although he would have been shortstack if he lost ,he wouldn't have been crippled and winning that hand probably helped give him the momentum to go on and win.The blinds were also massive and although I felt I had a tight image ( so did he,hence the steal) my raise probably looked like the steal it was.

Not exactly zillions or anything but I was pleased with the $165 prize especially as I consider mtt's to be the weakest part of my game and play in very few.

Righty just time before I go to mention organising a charity tourney for a very good cause.Head over to Kennys blog for more details and to add any ideas to make it more money.

I've was also delighted accepted Burnley Miks invitation to be moderator of the poker blog forum on Burnley Mik and co's Raisetheriver site and I look forward to seeing the whole site grow into something special.

Before I go I had to mention a player called Silverfox's Laddies profile in which he said he was so unlucky that if he was one of Jordans triplets ,he would be the one on the bottle....