[chumdawg]

Thanks for posting. I very much enjoyed that. You did won a couple close calls, and got a couple dream flops, but it sounds as though you picked your spots wisely and played fearlessly when you did. Great work. Reading through it all, I think folding the eights was probably the most impressive play. Seems that you were really playing the tournament as a whole as opposed to playing that one specific hand. Very impressive laydown.

It sure took some stones to push the AQ on the bubble. I don't know what the blinds or stack sizes were there, but I'm guessing that being left with 8K wouldn't have been comfortable. Were you praying he didn't have AK, or were you pretty sure you were ahead based on his weak lead? Was the board coordinated, and you were trying to take it down right there? Or did you kinda expect a call from a hand you likely beat, trying to represent a bluff?

I would have been tempted to go on FULL tilt when my flopped straight got counterfeited like that. I would have been mad enough just to split the pot, but to lose it would have been infuriating. Weird hand, though. When he smoothcalls your preflop raise and then calls your flop check-minraise, what do you put him on? What do you think he puts you on? He played the hand really weird. He pretty much had to call the small turn bet with his double-gutter, I would think (though a push would have been more in line with the way he was playing his hand so far). But why in the world would he check behind on the river? If he thought you were that likely to have QK, then he damn sure should have set you in on the turn. Just a weird, weird play. I don't know what the stack sizes were at that point, but I'm sure you would have had to call a bet on the river--and I'm equally sure that he wouldn't have minded a raise.

Anyway, great read. And congrats again!