Heads up against v@no66

So I played in an 18 player $1 S'n'G (Sit and Go) and started off with my usual style and picked up a few hands early and became the chip leader... When I get the chip lead early I never take risks with it or try to push people around early because the blinds are so small that it isn't worth the risk... when the blinds go up and there are less people, that's when I open up and start stealing blinds...

So it comes down to the final four and out of the remaining players I have pegged two of them as absolute muppets... it's rare to see two muppets at the final four but I have seen it before... by this time the blinds are too big for them to get away with their terrible limp/folds from UTG so after a while they get knocked out...

That leaves me and v@no66, when somebody has a number behind their name it usually represents their age, v@no would be 43 this year if he was born in 1966... I believe age should have a lot to do with the quality of the player, I am only getting better at the game with age and I'm only 21 so therefore older people should be way better than me... sadly this isn't the case... especially on the $1 tables were a lot of people learn how to play properly... so due to his age I had given v@no a level of respect...

Then heads up play began... my heads up style is different based on the appropriate Ms of the players... my M was 46.89 and my opponents 43.11... so we each had a lot of room to move for the moment... at this point I believed I could beat v@no unless he showed some radical change in style during heads up... I started off testing the waters, raising on the button different amounts to see how high I had to raise for him to fold mediocre hands... this is were the first problem with v@no came up... he WOULD NOT fold pre flop... I believe that there is no reason for me to go all in preflop with Ms this large unless I'm holding a high pair or my opponent is being stupidly aggressive... this means that I like to raise between 2 to 5 times the BB with a strong hand... the reason I was testing when he would fold were for the later stages when the Ms would be down to 13 or 14 and the blinds really mattered... at this point I didn't really care that v@no wasn't folding preflop, I assumed that it would change once the blinds went up...

So due to v@nos inability to fold it meant we saw a lot of flops... which was fine by me, I knew I could outplay v@no after the flop... so the game continued on at a steady pace neither one of us taking stupid risks or anything but my chip stack was steadily increasing... as the blinds went up I continued to attempt my pre flop raises with higher and higher frequencies to see if v@no would fold... it was apparent v@no would never fold pre flop... I even raised 6x the BB with AJc one time for him to call and then fold to my continuation bet on the flop...

Due to v@nos style of play (which I had never encountered before) I was thrown off guard... I was used to dominating the heads up play and winning without too much hassle... I had to change my style, I no longer raised pre flop unless I had an exceptionally strong hand, but I always called the small blind (an interesting point is that v@no never raised preflop unless he had a monster)... so we saw a lot of flops, v@no was calling most of my continuation bets after a while so I had to cut that out, I wouldn't be so critical of v@nos plays if he was raising more and trying to steal pots... but the fact is he would flop middle pair and check to me, I would then make a continuation bet and he would call, I would realize that he wont go away and after he checks again I would also check, v@no would then check the river and after I check show down a hand... this progression started happening more and more often, and no matter how I bet he just kept on calling... of course this meant that every time I had top pair he would call me down and pay me off, that happened a few times as well but not enough for me to dominate...

Then the game went crazy... I was playing the game I had developed to beet v@no and I was winning when he got smacked over the top of the head with the deck repeatedly... and whats worse is he tried to slow play his monsters... on three separate occasions within the space of 8 hands he flopped a set and each time I made a bet on the flop that he called and then bet the turn and I folded... and each time he showed me trips... he then flopped two pair 4 times and made pretty much the same play...

Now v@no was showing me every time he made a monster and I folded which really wasn't working in his favor because he was rarely bluffing, if he had nothing he just checked it down or check folded to my bets... so in my eyes it looked as if I was versing this superhuman player who was flopping the nuts every second hand and outdrawing me when he didn't... I just didn't know what to do so I went into super tight mode...

Even tho I was barely playing a hand when I did raise v@no decided that I must be bluffing and would call me down... this is the only reason that I had a chip lead when this hand came toddling along...

PokerStars Game #34934015283: Tournament #209668651, $1.00+$0.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2009/11/04 21:36:10 ET
Table '209668651 2' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 4: v@no66 (10716 in chips)
Seat 5: ShaneWard88 (16284 in chips)
v@no66: posts the ante 50
ShaneWard88: posts the ante 50
ShaneWard88: posts small blind 300
v@no66: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ShaneWard88 [Qs Qh]
ShaneWard88: raises 1000 to 1600
v@no66: calls 1000
*** FLOP *** [5h 6s 6c]
v@no66: checks
ShaneWard88: bets 1500
v@no66: calls 1500
*** TURN *** [5h 6s 6c] [4d]
v@no66: checks
ShaneWard88: bets 2500
v@no66: calls 2500
*** RIVER *** [5h 6s 6c 4d] [3h]
v@no66: bets 5066 and is all-in
ShaneWard88: calls 5066
*** SHOW DOWN ***
v@no66: shows [2s 2c] (a straight, Deuce to Six)
ShaneWard88: shows [Qs Qh] (two pair, Queens and Sixes)
v@no66 collected 21432 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 21432 | Rake 0
Board [5h 6s 6c 4d 3h]
Seat 4: v@no66 (big blind) showed [2s 2c] and won (21432) with a straight, Deuce to Six
Seat 5: ShaneWard88 (button) (small blind) showed [Qs Qh] and lost with two pair, Queens and Sixes

This hand really sent me on tilt and destroyed my game... QQ was the best hand I had seen all tournament so I raised knowing that despite the fact I hadn't raised for about 15 mins v@no would decide his two cards are good enough to see a flop... now from my previous play it would be obvious to any one who isn't a muppet that any raise I make would depict strength and that you should be careful with 22... of course a call here isn't necessarily terrible its the play after that is crap... first off the check on the flop is terrible unless he has a read on me that I have two over cards and is trying a funky slow play... then after I bet 1/2 the pot attempting to get information and value v@no flat calls and I start wondering if he really did flop a set again... so when the turn comes down and he checks again... I make another bet knowing that if he had flopped a set he would definitely be raising here... after he flat calls again I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a set but I think he might have some piece of it so I put him on a 5... after the river brings a 3 I am doubtful that he has a 2 or a 7 unless its 57 or 25 and then the pre flop call is just horrendous... so when he goes all in I stop and look back at the hand and I decide that he would have raised me on the turn with the set and the straight is unlikely... the only hands that really match the play is 55 or an over pair like JJ or KK... I decide that the risk is worth it to try and win the tournament and I call...

He shows the 22 and my brain nearly explodes... it would be forgivable if he thought I was bluffing the whole way but I hadn't bluffed past the flop since the blinds were 100 and 200... I just couldn't understand where the calls had come from... I asked him what he was thinking when he called bets on the flop and turn and he said "22"... I'm like I know what your cards were muppet, did you?... but what I said was "nh" and moved on...

I actually fought my way back to about level chip stacks after this but then this hand happened...

PokerStars Game #34934219278: Tournament #209668651, $1.00+$0.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2009/11/04 21:42:40 ET
Table '209668651 2' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 4: v@no66 (14482 in chips)
Seat 5: ShaneWard88 (12518 in chips)
v@no66: posts the ante 50
ShaneWard88: posts the ante 50
ShaneWard88: posts small blind 300
v@no66: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ShaneWard88 [2s 2h]
ShaneWard88: raises 1200 to 1800
v@no66: calls 1200
*** FLOP *** [4h 7c 6s]
v@no66: checks
ShaneWard88: bets 1800
v@no66: calls 1800
*** TURN *** [4h 7c 6s] [8h]
v@no66: checks
ShaneWard88: checks
*** RIVER *** [4h 7c 6s 8h] [3s]
v@no66: bets 3000
ShaneWard88: calls 3000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
v@no66: shows [5c Kd] (a straight, Four to Eight)
ShaneWard88: mucks hand
v@no66 collected 13300 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 13300 | Rake 0
Board [4h 7c 6s 8h 3s]
Seat 4: v@no66 (big blind) showed [5c Kd] and won (13300) with a straight, Four to Eight
Seat 5: ShaneWard88 (button) (small blind) mucked [2s 2h]

Now I know that the call on the end looks real shifty but there had been a couple of hands from a while ago that had happened nearly exactly like this one and v@no bluffed the river with nothing... this is the hand that I specifically recall...

PokerStars Game #34933794580: Tournament #209668651, $1.00+$0.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (200/400) - 2009/11/04 21:29:19 ET
Table '209668651 2' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 4: v@no66 (14366 in chips)
Seat 5: ShaneWard88 (12634 in chips)
v@no66: posts the ante 25
ShaneWard88: posts the ante 25
ShaneWard88: posts small blind 200
v@no66: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ShaneWard88 [Ah Qd]
ShaneWard88: raises 800 to 1200
v@no66: calls 800
*** FLOP *** [5d 5c 8d]
v@no66: checks
ShaneWard88: checks
*** TURN *** [5d 5c 8d] [Jh]
v@no66: bets 1200
ShaneWard88: calls 1200
*** RIVER *** [5d 5c 8d Jh] [Ks]
v@no66: bets 2400
ShaneWard88: calls 2400
*** SHOW DOWN ***
v@no66: shows [2h 7h] (a pair of Fives)
ShaneWard88: shows [Ah Qd] (a pair of Fives - Ace kicker)
ShaneWard88 collected 9650 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9650 | Rake 0
Board [5d 5c 8d Jh Ks]
Seat 4: v@no66 (big blind) showed [2h 7h] and lost with a pair of Fives
Seat 5: ShaneWard88 (button) (small blind) showed [Ah Qd] and won (9650) with a pair of Fives

This hand happened when I was still trying to work out if he would fold, I believe I picked up a read on v@no in this hand and I went with my gut, I thought about it long and hard and I could have easily been wrong... but I had folded to most of his river bets up until now with middle pairs and such and I wanted to see if he was just bluffing them... it turns out he was and I started playing more aggressive later in the hands which did work for a while until the deck decided to slap him in the face as I mentioned before...

so after the hand where I lost with my 22 (ironically the hand that crushed my QQ, which was part of the reason I called on the end, if he can do it why cant I?) I was tilting like crazy and fuming at the fact that I was going to lose... I couldn't believe this muppet could beat me I was so annoyed... I took all that energy and attempted to squeeze every inch of advantage I had out of every hand... I wanted to win so badly but I knew it was unlikely... then this hand appeared...

PokerStars Game #34934298268: Tournament #209668651, $1.00+$0.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2009/11/04 21:45:13 ET
Table '209668651 2' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 4: v@no66 (24232 in chips)
Seat 5: ShaneWard88 (2768 in chips)
v@no66: posts the ante 50
ShaneWard88: posts the ante 50
v@no66: posts small blind 300
ShaneWard88: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ShaneWard88 [9s Tc]
v@no66: calls 300
ShaneWard88: checks
*** FLOP *** [Jh 9d Kc]
ShaneWard88: bets 2118 and is all-in
v@no66: calls 2118
ShaneWard88 said, "gg"
*** TURN *** [Jh 9d Kc] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 9d Kc Jc] [As]
v@no66 said, "u2"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ShaneWard88: shows [9s Tc] (two pair, Jacks and Nines)
v@no66: shows [Ks 5d] (two pair, Kings and Jacks)
v@no66 collected 5536 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5536 | Rake 0
Board [Jh 9d Kc Jc As]
Seat 4: v@no66 (button) (small blind) showed [Ks 5d] and won (5536) with two pair, Kings and Jacks
Seat 5: ShaneWard88 (big blind) showed [9s Tc] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Nines

Of course he has K5 when I have 910 and he out flops me... its me and I never win when I'm a slight underdog... oh well I really shouldn't complain because second still wins some money, but I play to win, nobody who will ever be really good at this game plays for second...

Signing off

Shane