Deepstack Tournament

I was so prepared to sit down and play in the deepstack this week. Mentally I was ready to do battle and use my chips as soldiers and have them go too battle for me. Physically I was ready as I have been working out and being able to stand the amount of hours it would take to reach my goal of the final table and cash again. Once you get a taste of being there you want to get back again. I sat down with T$20,000 in chips and I always start tournaments playing tight. No sense getting involved too early for the very little in chips you can win. In the first hour I played one big hand when I had pocket jacks. When the flop came out it was xJx. The player in seat nine started betting and I would re-raise. I didn’t want to see anything that would beat me like a flush or straight. On the turn came another blank card and he bet T$6,000 and I re-raised the pot to T$12,000. Basically I was willing to put my tournament life on the line for the set of jacks I was holding. The player in seat 9 did fold his hand and we didn’t have to see the river card. My set of jacks were beating his pocket Aces. That was why he was pushing so much. I am not sure what I would have done if the jack didn’t show up on the flop. After that I was patient and would remain around the T$35,000 chip area. During the second hour it would remain the same. We were still at four tables and the blinds were moving up every twenty minutes. It was during the third hour that I must have lost focus or I had a mental lapse. There was one player at the table I was trying not to play against since he is a friend of the person I had words with last week. I was not going to back down from him and this one cost me dearly. I had QJ and the flop came out xJx. The turn was a K. This is where I should have laid my hand down. I was being stubborn and felt I was still ahead of him. He bet and I completed the bet. I think he was being stubborn as well and didn’t want to give up on his hand. The river came off and he bet and I called. He told me good call and I thought I might be good and then I show the QJ and he shows the KQ. That hurt my stack and soon after I put my last T$6,000 on K10 and lost to a flush. I didn’t make it as far as I wanted but I do need to stop playing against those I want to get even with. I need to let the cards do the talking for me. I felt my bet sizing was good and I did play appropriately until I got caught up in the mental game with the other player. Have a fun day……