Decisions....Decisions....Decisions

The Friday night American Legion tournament put me to some tough decisions.  As I am now fond of quoting, it is all about making good decisions, both in poker and in life.  The clear winner is the person who consistently makes good decisions, irregardless of the outcome.

My tough decision (usually I am more impulsive) came when the good but bluffy player immediately to my right raised big preflop 2 under the gun.  I have seen him shove with Q/8, 8/9, and other stuff, so when I looked at AQ suited my first instinct was to shove.  But wait, he has bet a little less than 1/2 his stack.  I have him covered, but barely.  If I call and lose, I will be in dire straits with around 18 players remaining.  I uncharacteristically tank for a moment, even standing up.  The dealer is short stacked and the whole table is behind me.  Finally, I sigh and reluctantly muck.  My only choices were to shove or fold in my opinion.  The dealer shoves for less, and another player calls.  This is the biggest pot of the tournament.  Unbelievably the flop is A/Q/x, and when the other live player shoves, the original raiser folds....kings.  The dealer turns over A/K, the other player 10/10 and the dealer triples up, with the other player taking a small side pot.  Oops. My bad not shoving.  But wait, I had the worst hand of the group.  Good decision, ignore the outcome.

I now regretfully watch the dealer begin accumulating chips.  He was the player who knocked me out last Friday, and he is an excellent player, so I am thinking paybacks are a bitch, but one I unfortunately missed out on.  Also, had I shoved, I would have been the chip leader heading into the final table with probably around 1/3 of all chips in play.  Move on, Phil.

Making the final table with a workable but not big stack I watched player after player donk off their big stacks.  I doubled up with J/J vs. Q/5 calling a shove.  Had the distinct pleasure of knocking off another player who has stacked me a couple of times.  The dealer from table 2 did not make the final table.  Finally, playing patiently with several players self destructing, and getting some monster hands, including KK, QQ, JJ twice, I call a min-raise from a short stack with .....Q/5 (donK!!!).  On a queen high flop, and a short stack all-in, I put the original raiser all-in, and he turns over....aces!  Nice trap.  The same player (turns out he is an Arizona cash player visiting) begins running over the table, taking most of the dealer's chips with aggressive play.  I trap him back with K/K in the big blind vs. his small blind completion, and shove with a queen high flop, but he doesn't fall for it.  We are down to 3 players, I am 2nd in chips, and offer to give the lead player the 1st money and chop 2/3 money, which is $40 more than 3rd, $183 each.  I do so not because I am afraid of playing him heads up, but want to cut a break for the other guy, a friend who does not have a big poker bankroll.  Probably a poor decision from a financial standpoint (but in all fairness, huge blinds and anything can happen), also reduced variance and increased good karma.