The tournament started out with 201 players.
In the beginning I didn’t get a lot of face cards, so played very little hands.
After the first break my stack was average, had only doubled up once with JJ.
No I started to get nice hands, my patience payed off fortunately.

I built my stack up to 15000 chips and was the chipleader at this point.
I get QQ, as I in my previous article called “the set-up hand”( Every time I get this I’ve got AA or KK against me).
I raise very big, because I didn’t want to see a flop with my QQ(pure bad luck hand for me LOL).
one guy just calls, after the flop(with only low cards) I raise to 7000(his All-In) and he calls instantly with….KK !!!!

So from 15000 to 8000 Chips…..now there are 35 players left, the bubble(pay-out) is at 20 so I start playing ULTRA-Tight again.
With 6000 At the button I go All-in with 33(players before me only limped and folded).
A player next to me calls with 56 suited(?????) and I double up to 15000 again.

Now a new player enters the table and he raises EVERY hand.
This player constantly wins on the river so we luckily get to see his whole-cards….never a hand to raise with..
clearly a maniac so I have to be careful and only play really good hands.

When there are 13 players left I have 9000 chips and get AJ(the rookie hand).
The blinds are high so I go All-In to get the blinds and the Maniac instantly calls with….A10.
I hit my J and double up again.

Now just before the final-table everybody starts to play really tight, they want to make the final table, so I start playing aggressively,
very often stealing the pot. I steal my stack up to 33000 and I’m in the Final Table.
Now I get really bad cards again… so I don’t play any hands, don’t even try to protect my blinds so my opponents think that I am an honest
player and only play real good cards. Now I get KJ suited and hit my flush draw on the flop, the Maniac instantly goes All-in.
I cannot fold my second-nut-flush draw and call. The Maniac had 1010 and was ahead but on the river I hit my K( so may outs for me to win,
almost couldn’t lose this hand ). The Maniac’s out of the game and I doubled up.

5 players left (including me) and I flop a straight, the only player who’s in the hand calls my raise.
Now I want to scare him away because I have the sucker-straight(the lowest possible straight) and he re-raises me All-In.
With so many hips in the pot I can’t fold anymore and call…..and he hits his Higher straight on the river…too bad but I won 150 $.
So, again I made the Final-table and instead of third I became fifth, SO I STILL HAVEN’T WON A TOURNAMENT AT TONY G!!!

I’ll keep playing until this happens,
Greetz Mario
PS see ya at the tables