Rebuys & Dog the bounty hunter

Dog the bounty hunter is the mindless back drop to my writing this and playing in the Pstars 3 dollar rebuy.

Im currently sat with 105k with blinds at 1500/3000 and 298 of 2780 remain so I'm quite happy. I have got really lucky once when I was short stacked 14k and in the bb w A10 hearts. Its all folded to the button who min raises so its 1600 (800) to call. The only thing i see here is - button + tiny raise = my hand better. I figure that a decent reraise is gonna be 3.5 - 4k so thinking that and looking at my stack i move all in. He actually pauses (hilarious, probably can't believe it) and then calls with KK. The flop is 9Q8 and the turn brings the J to make my cruel but very beautiful straight.

Another point of note here is apart from my initial buy in and insta rebuy to 3k as well as the add on i have not rebought so good value for me.

Also in this tourney something happened which i have never experienced before. I was sat watching the table during the rebuy period and there is this nutter moving all in every hand. He is getting grief off peeps for rebuying so much. My thoughts here are "Love This". You need a loose table in a rebuy period. Anyway then i noticed his screen name is "apestyles" i know that name, i thought, so i googled it- got to pocket 5's and as i suspected he is a big tourney player. he won something like 25k cashing in 4 tourneys yesterday alone and here he is sat opposite me. So i observed. Indeed he was all in nearly every hand. Clearly though he didnt care about the meagre 3 dollars and in the face of some crit stated - that he didnt care about the tourney/money/ and was doing it for TLB points. So the way it played out was that a few times he moved all in, i had a decent hand and being aware of his non existant starting requirements I would call. I won about 4 out of 6 (roughly) all in pots against him and so built quite a nice stack. He assured some haters that the chips always come back as he loaded up again and again.

Rebuy period over i catch some good cards and build slowly but nicely until the following hand occurred.

Im in the sb w Q10 spades - "apestyles" in early/mid raises 3xbb - 1 caller in late and i call - flop is all low 267 with 2 spades - i decide to check and asses the action - he bets strong and the other guy folds. I call - turn 10. I check he bets strong again i call now with top pair and 4 flush - river J he bets big again. Now really all i have is pr of 10's but i think i may be good especially given his very aggressive play. I make the call and he has a flopped set of 7's. Honestly didnt see that raise in early position as been a mid pair. However i should have read it perhaps as an over pr and folded on the river. His aggression was against me, correctly putting me on a draw and punishing me accordingly. So he did indeed win his chips back and put himself in a good position in the tourney.

Observing him further I witnessed tight aggressive play where he was always ahead in the hands he chose to continue with. He was also gracious as a player, congratulating players on having good hands (even when beating him) and rising to any criticism he faced. Respect.

A nice hand occurred to resurrect my chip stack where i had 56spades in the sb. There was a minimum raise from late, i called so did the BB. The flop was A42 (2 hearts) i checked so did the others. Turn the beautiful 3 giving me the straight. I knew there was a draw out there but was looking to make a lot of chips. I currently had the nuts so I check called a bet from the original raiser. The river was great. A blank 9 and I led out 1800 into a 3600 approx pot. Opponent chat boxed "5??" (I didnt chat box "tee hee") especially when he raised - i moved the rest of my chips in, he called - he had A4 - flopped 2 pr. Wooot. He then said nothing to me but to his large stacked lover at the table he said "i'll let him have that one". Hmmmm

Just looking back at my hand history now in this tourney so far, i see that my winning hands have been mainly from really good pre flop starting hands. Now you may laugh at this but i am a sicko for the pretty hands. The hands that you can get caught out with when they connect just enough to keep you interested. I am trying to be much strickter with myself pre flop regarding starting requirements and position. I made the money in this rebuy 2 nights ago (only small cash) and am there again so hopefully Im improving.

129 players remain

A controversial hand involved me and "apestyles". He had me covered by about 7k chips and it went like this. I had A8 diamonds in mid/late pos and raise 2x bb - he calls on the button. The flop comes 8 10 7 rainbow. I lead out 6500 into a 9k (ish) pot. He instantly moves all in. Hmmm. My thought process goes like this. A made straight would mean he called with J9 (I doubted this given his tight play) and he doesnt need to put me all in as he could scare me off. And to be honest - and i may be wrong here - i didnt put him on a set for the same reason. When he flopped the set before he was increasingly aggressive street by street - he could have called pre flop with 10 10 but i doubt he'd put me near that straight so why move all in? The thing that seemed most reasonable was a draw himself or an over pr. The over pr was again doubtful as his all in would be as protection against the straight draw which i didnt think he put me on. Clock is ticking and i call. he shows A9 for 7 8 "9" 10 on the flop. the turn and river blank and i double up, leaving him with 7k in chips. Very nice. There is talk on the table of a tough call etc. "apestyles" says that most times i'm behind there and later said he would also make that play with an over pr. I acknowledge that (genuinely) im sure he is right and maybe i made a bad play. I spoke a little on why i made the call because this is someone i can learn from. I checked the odds on "pokerplayer" magazine (best odds calculator IMO) and it put me at 53%. Honestly i was just happy that despite what anyone said (and even if i'd have lost) i made a read and put the chips in with the best of it. All too often i am reraised and make decisions far too quickly costing me severely in these tournaments. As far as playing with apestyles is concerned, i can't comment on what level of his game he brought to the table but i really enjoyed playing with him and it just inspired me to work harder to be better. (check his stats by the way at : http://www.pocketfives.com/0BD2CF4E-F8C1-4166-A74E-3FDF29266732.aspx )

Progress - lets just hope it lasts

81 players left
238,232 in chips
average 221,975
Pos - 32nd