Heads Down

When I told friends I was going to play the $5k Heads Up tournament down here, the usual response was one of surprise. They didn't expect me to play this tournament, which was filled with sharks, high rollers, internet legends, and heads up specialists. I felt I had very good EV in this tournament, with superior range calculating ability and endgame strategy in consideration of the fast structure. It was a best of 3 format and my first opponent was a 20 year old Californian named Xuan Nguyen, who I later found out is "x2then" online.

The big hands:

We traded small pots for a while before this one: He raised the button as he usually did and I called with T8o, the worst hand I ever defended with. Flop came 933 rainbow, I checked, he bet, and I called. Not a good flop to float out of position but based on the precedent of me check-folding to his continuation bet (which was 100% after a preflop raise) I felt I could represent a hand here. However the turn was an ace and my plan was shot. I checked, he bet 60% pot and I folded.

I limped the button with K7 and he checked the BB. Flop Kh7h7! He bet and I called. Turn 9 he bet and I called. River 9 he bet 700 I shoved for 1125, he called with a seven and I doubled up.

I ground him down from there and took a solid lead. Then he raised the button and I defended with K9. Flop came K42 with a flush draw and I check-raised him all in. He called with 44 and doubled up. Soon I was down to 1600 with the blinds at 75-150 and he limped, which almost certainly meant a weak hand since he raised most buttons. I had AA in the BB and went for the trap and checked. Flop QT7 with a flush draw, I bet 200 he made it 700 I pushed he called with Q7 and he went up 1-0.

Round two I crushed him early with a nice variety of aggressive plays and a few hands and was quickly up by a 3:1 ratio. He raised the button and I called with 54 of hearts. Flop K83 with two hearts I checked he bet 200 I made it 700 he pushed for 1200 I called he had K9 and I couldn't hit a heart.

Then later he raised the button and I called with KJ. Flop QJ7 with two diamonds I checked he bet and I called. Turn offsuit 6 I checked he bet 500 and I called; I still thought I had him. River 6d I checked he bet 1k and I just "knew" he had me I folded. After the match I asked him and he said he had a queen on that one.

A few hands later I raised the button he reraised and I pushed with 99, he called with AQs and I lost. He won his next two matches and continues on tomorrow in the final eight.
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I felt just awful when MasterJ busted just short of the money in the main event, victim to Ramzi Jelassi's donk aggression. It's so sick to see someone pour their heart and soul into a tournament like J did in this one and get screwed in the end.
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I am on a bitter cold streak in poker right now but I still believe I am going to win the shorthanded tournament tomorrow - if I didn't believe I was going to win the tournament I wouldn't play it.