Yesterday afternoon I sat down to a live tournament which was the culmination of several months of tournaments and the league points that came with it.

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In the first hour of the tournament I didn’t see many hands to work with, one (A,K) which picked up the blinds was the only one that springs to mind. After the break I decided to move up a gear, and began to force my way to a few small pots. I picked up another pot with (J,J), and was soon involved in another pot which I won with (10s,9s). This pot was around 4,000 and helped my stack a great deal, but I could have got at least 6,000 from the hand had I played it better.

Regardless of this, I had still taken a stack which was 8,500 at the first break, and built it into 16,000. My position remained steady for the next couple of hours, but as the blinds moved up to 600/1,200 I felt it was important I got busy in trying to push on past the 20,000 mark.

From the big blind I picked up (Q,2) and found myself in a three way pot. There had been no preflop raise, and so I remained in the hand, and saw the flop fall (Q,2,K). Being first to act, I felt it might be better to check in the hope of inducing a bet. Unfortunately both players checked behind me and a (3) fell on the turn. I decided to fire out a 2,000 bet, not expecting a call, but knowing the fact that the bet was quite large would make it appear as a possible bluff. I was obviously surprised to then see the next player move all in for around 5,000 total, and the second player calling. It was only 3,000 more for me, but I knew it would cost more on the river, and aside from anything else, I felt it impossible that I was beating both players.
If my Two Pair was the top two, I would have felt compelled to stay in the hand, but folding was the correct choice, as the second player had (2,2) for a flopped set.

Soon after this pot I had a run of three unfortunate hands, and I was eliminated in 12th place.

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