Final Table $17,000 Guarantee

I made the final table of the $17,000 Guarantee tonight. From the start of the tourney, I was playing my typical small ball style. I didn't want to get into too many difficult situations early, so I tried to keep pots small and control the action when I was in the hand. My philosophy is that when the blinds are small, you should play pretty tight. I'm usually waiting for a big hand, and looking to build a stack over the first few levels. I'll take some drawing hands to the turn with the right odds, and hopefully hit my draws. If I have more than 15 outs I will usually play my hand very aggressively and try to win it on the flop and not wait for the draw.
So back to tonight. It was early in the tourney and I pick up AA. I hate getting aces in the early stages of a tournament. Don't get me wrong, I'm not folding, but I know that most of the players early in a tournament are playing really loose and are usually very weak if they are calling big bets and raises. So I raise to 120 with the blinds at 15/30. I get three callers, which I was expecting. The flop came K-10-6 with two diamonds. Both blinds check to me, so I fire 320. I want to find out who is drawing, and who has a real hand. The button calls and the big blind calls, the small blind folds. So I have a little more information on the hand. I put the big blind on a decent king, like KJ, KQ, maybe K9, or a marginal 10. I put the small blind on the very typical flush draw or straight draw. So I figure as long as another paint card, heart, ace, or nine hits the board, I figure I'm probably in good shape. Just my luck, the 4 of diamonds peels off on the turn. The blind checks, so I check behind. Suddenly the button checks as well. So now I knew the button probably did not have the flush. He was the kind of player that would bet when he hit his hand. So unless he is slow playing the nut flush on the turn, again, I figure I'm probably good. The river brings a 3 of clubs. Now the big blind bets about 1/2 the pot. I have a quandry now. I know the rags didn't help his hand, so he probably has a naked king. But what about the button? If I call and he raises, I'm done with the hand, but at the same time, I can't get any equity from my read. So I decide to take the gamblers route. I flat call, and decide that if the button makes a move I'm going to fold. The button folds, and the big blind shows KQ of hearts. Top pair with no draw and a decent kicker.
From there, I slowly built my stack to about 5,000. I was rolling along and playing position and my opponents' well. Just to put the tourney in perspective. I played a total of 447 hands and had AA once, KK once, AK 3 times, and AQ 4 times. I had a few suited connectors and some small pairs, but for the most part, it was a hot and cold run. I would hit a hand then go card dead. Another key hand was much later in the tourney. We were down to about 60 players. I'm in the big blind with K10 off. The player UTG min raises, mistake number 1. He gets 5 callers, so it comes around to me. The blinds were 500/1000 and I'm sitting on about 27,000. There is 11,000 plus the antes, and it's costing me 1,000 to call. There is not one single hand that I could fold for the price I'm getting. So I flat call. The flop hits me hard. It comes K-10-7 with two clubs. The small blind bets 1/2 the pot, and with that many players left behind I only have one choice. I shove for the rest of my chips and the player UTG re-raises all-in. I know what he has, I'm sure you can figure out what he has too. Of course he has AA, mistake number 2. He gives me protection, the small blind folds and I win with two pair on an unimproved board. That jumps me up to the ranks of the chip leaders and I have a healthy stack I can play with. The reason why I consider these mistakes are very simple. For one, to min raise under the gun, you are just begging for a waterfall of calls, which is what happened. As soon as the first person calls, everybody else thinks they are priced in. So AA has to dodge all kinds of hands. In a 5 or 6 way pot, you can go ahead and toss your AA out the window. For the other reason, when the action after the flop goes bet, raise, you have to ask yourself what possible hands could have called. When the board is coordinated like it was, you need to re-evaluate what kinds of hands could have called. If the board was 10-6-2, that would be a different story. But with a board of K-10-7, or the dreaded 9-10-J, you have to proceed cautiously with one pair.
So anywho. We get down to 10 handed and on the final table bubble. I haven't seen two cards that are even in the same area code, much less even playable. I like to play aggressively and play small ball. But when my raises are getting shoved, I'm getting short and can't pick up a hand there's nothing I can do. So we get to the final table and I'm sitting 6th in chips. I'm prepared for a battle and looking to play some flops. All was going well. We lost a couple of players pretty early on and I'm in the big blind. For some reason, I played this hand horribly and ended up finishing 7th.
The hand came down like this. I have 85 off and the small blind limps. I was talking to my friend on the phone and even said outloud to him, "I should raise him to find out how much he likes his hand." He was playing really tight passive, so I knew his limp was weak. He wasn't limping a monster to try and trap. He was a pretty straightforward player. He would raise with a decent hand and limp trash and marginal hands. So I made a mistake and checked it down. The flop came Q-8-2 with two hearts. He bet the minimum on the flop. I thought he might have had a queen, but thought if a scare card came on the turn I could get him to fold. A 5 hit the turn. He bet half the pot now. Again, I thought he might have a naked queen or maybe a draw, but I thought my two pair would be good. I pushed on him and he quickly called my all-in. I knew I was in trouble. Of course, thanks to my good luck lately, he turns over Q2 for a flopped two pair. I'm out in 7th for a decent, but not good score.
I played in the 50-50 the other night and made a good run as well. I ended up finishing 51st out of 981. I've only played a handful of multi-tables this week, so not bad for the week I've had so far. Hopefully tomorrow will go much better and I'll final table another one. I just have to keep playing small ball and let the LAG's hang themselves.