Back to the $5 stt

I played another 8 handed super deep stack $5 stt today and came 2nd. The usual patient approach was needed as the dealer was being unkind with the hole cards as usual! It was not until late in L2 that I had a hand in a position that was worth playing. I had QQ and raised 240. I got 2 callers but the AJJ flop was not what was wanted and I folded to a pot size bet from the chip leader. A couple of hands later I had KK and my raise to 180 was enough to take the blinds only grrrr.

I won a few small pots pre flop with AQ, AJ, 77 but was then card dead for what seemed forever and was always one of the short stacks. We were on the bubble now and there was another player with a couple of hundred more than me. I looked down at AA and raised to 1.2k. I thought about going all in for my remaining 2.5k but didn't want to scare everyone out of the pot. The other short stacked asked if I had 77 or QQ and he then went all in. I insta-called and he turned over 44 which begs the question why? if he thought I had a bigger pair. Anyway the flop was A67 to give me a set but the 5 on the turn gave him an open-ended straight draw and I feared the worst! However the river J doubled me up to 5.2k and left him with about 100. I knocked him out the next hand when his all in was called by one other player and we sensibly checked it down

In the last 3 I was the chip dog with 5k to 28K and 6K. I sneaked into 2nd when the chip leader rivered his 3 outer to knock out the other shorty. Heads up and I'm 35-5k chip dog. I needed to double up and a few hands later pushed with AT, he called with 96 and hit 4 diamonds for a flush and that was that. Still pleased given that I was card dead for long periods or got no action at all with my couple of decent starting hands.

Challenge bankroll is now $259.25