Deep runs are fun

Feels great to break through and win one of these. Been playing well but getting no luck from the cards. Got my money in good when I bused all but one time when I had 10BB left and decided to shove 7♦️6♦️ one off the button only to get called by 9♣️5♣️ by the BB which held up unimproved. Joke.

Anyway here's how I got to the result depicted in the pic above. This was actually a satellite tourney to a step 2 $6+$.60 tournament and had 608 entries originally and 12 getting tickets. I registered late with ~350 left I believe about an hour into the tournament (just before entries were closed). 

Start with 4k in chips in this one and did not go well at the beginning. Was down to 2500 when I picked up Q♣️J♥️ UTG (we were 7 handed) and shoved in EP with 200/400 blinds (and an ante of 50). Player to my immediate left shoves himself for 28k total and everyone else folds. He has A♦️7♦️ and we both whiff the flop but I hit running queens on the turn and river and take it down. Had been playing tight the whole way so he deserved to lose for not giving me credit for a better ace or something else that had him crushed. Literally QJ and KQ are the only 2 hands in my range he's ahead of there. 

Next hand I get a BB special in a limped pot that I take down with a flop bet to give me a few more chips, then the hand after that in the SB I pick up 7♠️7♥️. Button open limps and I just shove. Figure if I raise 4 or 5x I'm getting called anyway, at least put him to a decision and I'm ahead of a lot of hands he'd call with anyhow. He does hero call with A♣️3♠️ and he flops a 3 but whiffs the rest of the board and now for the first time in the tourney I am above the average stack.
  
Manage to win some small pots after that with some blind steals and c-bets when I did get called which keeps me at 13k. Blinds go up to 300/600 with a 75 ante blinds and I get 8♣️8♥️ on the button. EP limper and I raise 3k more to 3600 total. Villain calls and flop comes 9♦️4♠️6♦️ and he goes all-in (he has me covered by close to double). That's a good flop for eights so of course I call. He had a monster: 4♦️2♥️. A♣️ followed by K♦️ on the river now puts me in a great position with over 27k. I believe at that point I was in the top 20 in chip count and I think we were approaching ~100 left.

Got moved to a new table, nothing really exciting happened except 1 hand where I raised with QJo and got donked into on all 3 streets but managed to make a hero call on a A K J 9 5 board (no flush possibility) to beat TT. Easy to do though when he bets 1k on the flop, 3k on the turn, and 4k on the river when blinds were 500/1000 with a 100 ante. So pot odds call and nothing more. Was surprised I won that hand. 

Got moved again and with blinds at 1200/2400-250 and sitting with 50k in chips I pick up QQ with 5 players behind me. SB decides to shove for 150k which of course puts me all-in so after the BB folds I call. He had A♣️7♣️. I really thought the ace was going to come or the flush but the board ran out and my queens held up. Love how everyone seems to like playing ace rag against me after I've raised.

I believe there were about 35 players left at this point so I was hoping to be able to fold my way into the money but my 109k dropped to 89k with the blinds and antes and players weren't dropping as fast as I was hoping. Blinds up to 2k/4k-400 when I pick up A♦️K♥️ in the SB. CO opens for 16800 and I shove for my final 87104 behind. Hoping he will fold. He does have me covered by about 20k but hoping it was enough of his stack to get him to fold a lot of hands. 

That turned out not to be the case as he did not hesitate to call with 6♥6♠️. However, I manage to flop good with 4♠️8♣️A♠️ and after the a 9♣️ turn and Q♠️ river I get a huge double up that puts me 3rd in chips with around 20 players left.

Down to 3 tables at that point and now I am nursing my stack and looking to fold my way into the money. We got down to 2 tables and by that point the shorter stacks were at the other table. One of them was actually inactive and so was blinding off money. My table was playing pretty carefully, only minraising and only making minimum bets on subsequent streets. Once we got down to 15 it was hand for hand so I opened up the other table and started watching. One time everyone folded to the inactive player in the BB, grrrrrrr. I was getting a little nervous about my dwindling stack, but picked up a key pot with K2 in the BB and a limped 3-way pot where it checked around 3 times and a 2 that I spiked on the river was good enough. 

Finally the inactive player went out as the bubble boy. He was all-in on the button after posting the ante (and the blinds the 2 hands before that) and a few people limped. The idiot in the BB shoves and blows the other players off their hands with only A6 which gave the inactive player a shot with 2 live cards but fortunately the A6 held up and the tournament ended. On the 5Dimes site the inactive players hands were automatically mucked even if they were all-in but on this site it allows them to play out the hand and collect the pot if they win. 

It worked out though and I collected a tournament ticket worth $6.60. I tried to see if it would let me take tournament dollars and was going to play either a $6.60 or two $3.30 SnGs but I have to use it in a step 2. Not sure I will get to play it before I leave for Vegas on Sunday so I hope it doesn't expire. But either way it was a lot of fun making this deep run.