If you're not first, you're last

Any fan of Will Ferrell knows these famous words from Ricky Bobby- "If you're not first, you're last." Though I don't believe this to be entirely true, I do understand where Mr. Bobby is coming from. In tournament poker, so much of the thrill of playing comes from actually WINNING the occasional tournament. For me, these wins drive me to continue playing even moreso than the money. There's something about that 1 next to your name that really seals the deal on a well played tournament.

Yesterday was a really good poker day for me. I played insanely well, made some sick reads, and seemed to be making all the right 3bets. Simply put, I was in the zone. I started the day by placing 2nd in the cake $30 rebuy for around $1700. The player I went against HU was very aggressive, and I tried to counter by jacking up my aggression. This cost me dearly as I tried to play too many big pots. Still, the tournament ended when I 3 bet shoved with 66's and villain called with KQo blinds 6000/12000 when we were both 500k deep. I'm not sure that I really like that call, but what can you do.

During the night session, I once again crushed the rebuys on both Cake and AP. Lately I have been playing crazy during the rebuy period shoving any two cards and showing them to advertise that I am a donkey, then capitalizing when I actually wake up with a hand later in the tournament. It worked for me, as last night I went into both final tables (20k on cake and 15k on AP) as the chip leader. The cake table was really weak and the blinds were high relative to everyone's stack. I busted out in 7th after losing a small coinflip to drop from 200k to 150k, but the ugly hand took place when a donkey who had sucked out about 14 times at the final table just to stay alive min raised 16000 UTG blinds 4000/8000, I shoved AK for 150k, he SNAP called A3 offsuit. The flop was 2 4 J turn 7, river of course was the 5 to give the donkey the straight and 2x as many chips as the 2nd place player. I bowed out in 7th for $700

At the final table of the AP 15k, the players were a bit better. I lost a huge pot within the first 2 hands when I raised AQ from the button to 10k blinds 2/4. The BB (DAMORTICIAN) reshoved all in for 75k. I called and lost the flip to JJ for 150k, leaving me with 150k behind. After that, players basically just traded blinds until the blinds got too big to standard raise, then it became a shove fest. I won a few flips to stay alive as a short stack but lost AK vs A8 3 handed to drop me down. The next hand I shoved j10 and was called by a4. Luckily I made a straight and knocked out the guy who had just beaten my AK. I came into the HU match with 225k in chips compared to the 650k for my opponent. I battled back to about 350k when I picked up KK on the button. With blinds at 8k/16k, I raised to 40k. Villain reraised to 120k. I jammed it in and he snap called, turning over A10. The flop came QJ blank, turn blank, river... you guessed it... ace. 2nd place for $2700

So when the dust settled, I cleared almost $5k on the day, but it was still SUPER frustrating. I lost at the very least 6 crucial 70/30 hands on the final tables of these 3 tournaments (plus losing a huge pot AK vs KJ all in pre in the 80k deep to bust money bubble). Without those ugly hands, I feel like I would have won each tournament, and that is no exaggeration. My opponents didn't impress me at all. I guess thats what I get for winning coinflips early. However, I am consistently getting my chips in ahead, and thats all I can hope for.