2007 Meadows Del Mar Tourney - Chez Kral

Thanks John for being such a gracious host for a nicely run tournament. Too bad you got knocked out so early!

With 4 levels of re-buys, the action wasn't as fast and furious as I had expected. I played a fairly straightforward game, which is probably better suited for freeze out tournaments. I might have thought to step up the aggression during the re-buy period, but I didn't pick up that many hands.

I did the add-on and was slightly above the average at my table with about 10,000 chips to start the freezeout portion of the tournament. I picked up a couple of nice pocket pairs early (JJ and QQ), but broke about even as an Ace and a King came on the flop when I had JJ.

Then I found KK on the button after a middle position raise by Dustin. I re-popped it. He thought for a second and went all in. He barely had me covered. I insta-called. I could have folded but I had about 40% of my chips in the pot already and was behind exactly 1 hand. I have laid down KK pre-flop before when I was sure I was beat (and I was right), but in a relatively turbo tournament as this was, I had to take the chance to double up and get some chips. I wrote it off as a cooler -- especially cuz I was the person who dealt the cards!

I should have thought through the hand a bit more before I called, but I believe I would have come to the same conclusion. Versus his potential range of hands, I was a favorite. He could have had QQ, JJ, or AK, or even KK. All of which I'm happy to be in against.

In a big buy in, slow structured tourney, it is possible to fold that hand after collecting information with raises and re-raises, but I think I did the right thing at John's house by calling all in.

Looking forward to the next installment of the Meadows Del Mar Invitational!