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No-limit tourney- 1183 players we are down to the final 5

I don't remember the exact stack sizes, but appx they were 700K 500K 325K 297K (me) 112K

With the blinds at 8-16K, and going up to 10-20K in appx 5 minutes payout structure was fairly flat, but now goes up quite a bit between the last 5 spots (so big enough difference between 4-5, something like $1380, $740, $480, $365, $220 on a $5 buy-in)

I have pocket AAs in middle position, table has been fairly tight with a lot of limping, with large raises being folded to. I decided to raise to only 2 times the blind, as this seemed like the right amount to get me heads up with someone based on the current situation. It gets folded to the big blind (325K in chips), who calls.

Flop come 10-10-9, rainbow

Not exactly a dream flop for AAs. but with 72K in the pot, I bet 40K (enough to make a straight draw pay - 2.8/1) , and my opponent quickly re-raises me to 80K. while not a large re-raise, I do not want to build a large pot with a hand that I don't have much chance of improving on, while my opponent could have any of the following hands: A10 (unlikely), K10, Q10, J10, 10-9,10-8,10-7, 10-6-granted there are only-half the 10s left in the deck to make these combos, 8-7, Q-J is also possible for a straight draw, 99 a long shot for a full house, another pair higher than 99 possible, but highly unlikely as he didn't reraise preflop- that makes for 60 combos of hands containing a 10, 32 for the straight draws, and 6 for the full house- so appx: 65% of hands I'm a serious dog (90-10ish), while 35% I'm a 70-30% favorite (of course bluffing has to be considered as well)I should mention that this opponent has not been that active, however the final table had not been going long enough for me to have any type of read on him. - I call

Turn card- a blank

Opponent bets 45K into a pot of 232K, I realize I'm getting phenominal odds at 6/1, however with my stack at 185K, and a very larger river bet a distinct possibility, I folded -my opponent shows me the J-9 offsuit and I haven't slept well every since (hahaha)

Seriously, I know I misplayed the hand, and here are my takeaways:

1) raising with AA is always a balance between narrowing the field down to preferably a heads up situation, and defining what type of range of hands you are up against. In this instance, I did not do the latter, in giving him 3.5/1 to call (16 into a pot of 56), he was compelled to call with any two cards.

2) I probably should have bet more on the flop to better define the situation at that point -40k into a 72k pot doesn't really do that-even a straight draw might play for the implied odds of hitting, and in doing so, I left myself open to a reraise from my opponent who in this case tried to define the situation, at which point I would basically be pot-comitted if I come back over the top-next time a pot sized bet might have done the trick

3) should have called the turn, even if it was a value bet, 6-1 odds is too good to turn down in that situation, regardless of what stage of the tourney and difference in payout structures (this one I am less sure of), of course if it was a river bet instead- it would have been a no brainer

I finished in 3rd so I moved up a spot, but aaahh what could have been!

All the best in 2007. cheers,Scott

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