So I’m playing 1/2 and 2/4 on Paradise and generally having a rough time of it. Paradise flashes me the announcement that their $35,000 guaranteed multi-table tournament is just about to start, and I remember what some poker bloggers have said about overlays in some of these guaranteed tourneys. I look at the registration page and notice that there aren’t that many people registered, so I figure, “What the hell? I’ll get more than my $30 worth” and throw my entry fee into the pool. Registration closes a few seconds later and I realize that this is a re-buy and add-on tournament. Uh oh. This is going to be a lot more than $30. Then I notice that they allow late registrations. Uh oh again. There goes the overlay.

Yup. When the second hour started, there were 581 entries, 783 re-buys, 330 add-ons, and a total buy-in pool of $50,820. Top 60 finishes paid. My contribution to this pool was $90. My fee + 1 re-buy when I thought AQ could beat AA + 1 add-on because that’s what all the cool kids were doing.

After busting out with the AQ vs. AA confrontation (board was AKTT8), I went into Pauly mode and folded nearly everything. Then I got the assrapers in MP and watched as it was raised and reraised to two-thirds of my stack. I pushed. Someone in LP pushed. The first raiser pushed. The second raiser called. Four of us all-in in an AA vs. JJ vs. 88 vs. 66 race. The board paired, none of us got a boat, and I quadrupled up. Sweet Mary Mother of God!

As the big stack at my table, I felt obliged to raise ATs to 4x the blind and was surprised to see two callers. Three diamonds hit the board, with the ten high. The second caller put out a bet of about one-third the pot and I called. The turn was a non-diamond and he put nearly all his chips in the pot, I raised him all-in and he called. He had paired the 6 on the flop and had the nut flush draw, but the river gave no help and I won.

After a lot of dedicated folding, I became tied for second with the big stack outchipping the two of us together. I did notice, however, that he was playing some terrible cards; I guess his stack size gave him a sense of security. I got the Hiltons in middle position and raised it to 4x the blind. Big stack raised another grand. I called. The flop came up 882 and I pushed. He called and showed me his Jacks. Turn gave me the boat and I doubled up.

Some time into the second hour I was sitting on AK in the BB when a short stack in EP pushed. Another short stack pushed. It was now about 25% of the pot to call, which also corresponded with 25% of my stack. At this point I felt I could fold my way into the money, but it was only 25% of my stack for the chance to double-up, so I figured it might be worth it. Both short stacks had A8s, and I was feeling pretty good. Paradise thought it would be nice to screw around with me and decided to give the second A8s a runner-runner flush. Ouch.

After that I waited a bit until I had about 6x the BB left. I was close to the money, but I needed to steal some blinds and antes to make it. I passed on ATo (I know, I should have) and pushed instead with AKs and AJs. The blinds and antes at those levels are crazy. Those alone propelled me from 70-something to 30-something. After that I folded into the money. Getting marginal hands helped with that decision making process, too.

With about 57 people left I found myself in LP with AQ. I pushed. KK called. Yikes. Flop came TXA. Yay! Turn was a K. Boo! River was a J. Yay! Phew.

Plenty of hands went by, and I think I pushed with AKs UTG when there were fewer than 50 left and took the blinds. By this point, the blinds were crazy. 2-3 orbits and I was done. Then I got a bunch of crap and folded (including my blinds) until there were 34 people left.

AJ in LP with one limper in front? Call all-in for two-thirds the bet. Flop is JX6QQ. I don’t know what the big stacked big blind had, but the MP limper let him bet into him while he was holding 66. Damn. And here I thought I was safe.

But what’s this? I netted $70 in a big multi-table tournament? Wow. I rock! Well, maybe not. I got lucky. Thanks go out to Maudie and HDouble for their support. I may not have been able to do it without ya. And after all that, I’m still down for the day. Ah… poker.