Careful what you wish for

[LeeG]

I played a small MTT at a local casino yesterday and today ($50 buy in).

Yesterday, I played the whole day with my high pocket pair being 99 and I never once had AK, and I took 4th. Twice the 9's flopped sets for huge pots, but other than that I was card dead the whole tourney. I ended up cashing up about $600. I was thinking I could have done better had I caught some better cards.

Today, I sit down first hand I am BB and muck it to a raise. 2nd hand I look down to A A . 5 limpers around to me and I raise to 5x BB. BB calls and limper in MP raises all in (he has me covered by 1 BB). I call and everyone else folds. He flips over pocket 4's. Flop was K Q 4 and I didn't catch another ace and was first man out.

[UrAteUp]

Congrades on the first tourney. Better luck next time on the second one. He will only be successful pulling that move like 1 out of 4 tries. The odds are still in your favor.

[BeerWench13]

Honestly, I have a love/hate relationship with big hands in the early stages of MTT's. I either get nothing from them, lose a good portion of my stack or double/triple up and end up having a monster stack. It seems the latter is the less frequent happening when you would think it would be otherwise.

I played an MTT similar to the first you described and ended up winning the thing. I never had a higer PP than TT (and was elated to see that!) and I think I got AK once and AQ twice. The rest of the time I was folding away or playing mediocre hands aggressively from late position. A few desperation pushes hit and kept me alive, but basically I was folding while most of the other players were playing and dropping like flies. Being patient got me to the position to win the thing.