Jyrki was the second qualifier for the Midnight Sun in Finland, also he had to leave the tournament on the first day, and here is how it happened:

The starting table was really bad, it had at least one professiona and one known tournament winner. Later on the table got a couple of more professional players so there were no easy chips. I raise from 20k chips to 30k chips pretty fast. On the next level I open from starting position with KK and the small blind calls. Flop KQ4 with 2 hearts, turn 9 of hearts and river is a blank, I bet 3 streets and the sb check calls with AK and I get a good pot.

I play a few hands and my stack rises to 40k, I drop one short stack with AJ vs. KJ and get up to 45k when the average is 30k. In the next hand utg open 1100 with blinds 400/200 and ante 25. One player calls and so do I with Q9s. Flop is JJ2 with a flush draw for me, I check and the utg makes a continuous bet, the caller reraises, both are small blinds so I sacrifice 1/4 of my stack and the pot has a lot of dead money, utg folds and I put the caller on a pair, maybe 66 - TT. He thinks a while and calls with AA. I dont get the flush.

I drop a little when I go into a coin flip 44 vs AK against a short stack to 30k. After a few hands, I call from middle position with 66 to a bet of 1600 when the level is 600/300, also the button calls and the flop is T62 with 2 diamonds. The original raiser checks and I bet 2700 because the button is passive, the button folds and the other calls. Turn is a K and opponent bets little less than the 5500 pot, I think a moment and I dont think he has a strong hand and I believe I will get value by just calling. River is blank and the opponent bets 9500, I think a bit and go all-in and the opponent folds. I take the chiplead.

Next hand I get QQ, utg opens with 1600 and one fold. I decide to call to keep my range as wide as possible. Button calls and then the sb, the second largest stack reraises to 8000. I think for a moment and decide to call, everyone else folds. Flo is T8x rainbow and the sb checks. I bet about half a pot and the sb check raises. I make my biggest mistake bu going all in, sb calls and the KK helds. SB was a really good players, I should have been able to fold or check the flop. I end up with a very small amount of chips and I drop a few hands after that.

Now I will prepare for the WSOP side tournament fairly confident. Helsinki Freezeout is a very good level tournament and I think I managed to play well. Just a little bit better and I will get a better result from Las Vegas.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Midnight Sun. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.