Frustrated at our second consecutive ninth place finish, Rick and I looked to continue our momentum Saturday night with another $30+$3 multitable tournament. This time the field consisted of 209 players, a bit up from Thursday night but not very intimidating when compared to the tourney Wednesday night. Starting with T1000 in chips, playing eight-handed and with levels moving up every 15 minutes, Rick and I were primed for another good night at the tables. Since we started playing the multitables together we have learned that the 10-minute levels and T800 in chips to start (with a ten-handed table) are simply not conducive to our, or any really, style of play. The latter format places an unnatural emphasis on luck as opposed to actual skill. Surviving the opening salvos of all-ins and massive preflop raises is paramount to survival in such a format. Anyway, our tournament got off to a good start, as we doubled through in the first level. After that, things get hazy, as I was not making any real point to keep track of hands, but what I do remember is Rick and I never actually risking our tournament until very late. We were in control of what we were doing, and we were getting away with a lot of blind steals and big raises despite missed flops. Accumulating chips this way served us well, as we steadily slid our way into the top echelon of players. Eventually, we were down to about 8K in chips, but won a massive pot that had us all-in and were back in somewhat good shape. Then, with about ten or fifteen players left, we won another monster, this one giving us 35K in chips, good enough for second in the tournament. Rick and I could not believe our good fortune, but it was not meant to last long. Within five minutes we got creamed on two occasions, one being a massive hand with the tournament chip leader, who had about 59K in chips. The hand went like this: we had K-Q offsuit and raised the 1K-2K blind to 5K. Only chip leader called. The flop came down K-Q-x, all hearts. We bet 2K, chip leader raises to 4K, we call, putting him on the flush draw. Flop is nothing, we bet 2K, he raises to 4K. We call, figuring him to still be chasing the flush. The river is another non-heart, we check, he bets 2K, we call, he turns over 3-9 of hearts, and we have just lost 15K, bringing us down to 8K. Sickened, Rick and I realize that we have basically just thrown away our tournament, and with that our chances at winning the $1700+ first-place prize. Now turning our attention to the money, we decide to sit still and let others get knocked out, as each spot is worth a pretty penny. At the final table we outlast one more player, and then get knocked out on a feeble forced all-in, finishing seventh in the tournament. The payout is $250, significantly more than the others, so we are pleased that we have actually gotten something serious for our nice finish. However, we are dissapointed that we blew our enormous chip stack, and realize that we still have a lot of work to do.

Source: Poker World