AZ State Poker Championship Quest

So my quest to play in the AZ State Poker Championship began yesterday at Casino AZ. I took part of my 4-8kill winnings from Friday and played in 2 $110 satellites. Winner gets a seat. First satellite was full of donkey's and a complete maniac. This guy kept raising big or coming over the top all in. He re-raised all in once, a short stack decided to go all in and the original raiser folds. Maniac turns over 34, short stack J10 and he hits a 3 on the river.

We started with 1500 in chips and I didn't have much through the first level. Raised once with AQ and maniac moved all in and I folded. I then proceeded to pick up QQ KK, AQ and AK twice over the next 2 levels busting 2 people and becoming 2nd in chips with 5 people left. That is when it went downhill. I got pushed off a hand by the maniac and then made a button move with 98 and the table short stack goes all in and I'm pot committed. She had KK and even though I flopped top pair, I couldn't catch up. That knocked me back down to 2050. A few hands later, I thought I was first to act and went to put all my chips in when the dealer tells me to wait. I was actually second to act. The maniac was first and he asks me how much I have. I tell him 2050 and he bets that much. I call all-in with QQ and everyone folds. Maniac turns over 88 and grimaces. He yells out 8 ball and the door card is an 8. I'm out and headed to the board to sign up for another satellite. If I won that pot, I would have been 2nd again in chips.

2nd satellite I was completely card dead. I literally played 2 pots (That's how card dead I was) and the 2nd was my all in blind vs blind. I was blinded down to 775 and in SB for 150. Folds to me and I have A2 (4th best hand I saw the whole satellite) and the BB calls me with K7 and of course flops top pair. So $220 pissed away. I might play one more satellite but no more than that. It is 1k buy-in with a cap of 450 players and a $500k prize pool. Winner gets $250k, 2nd $100k and top 45 paid.

After seeing the quality of play in the few tourneys I have played there, I so want to play but can't drop $1k so one last satellite is my only chance.

The 4-8kill game is so juicy there. I sat down for about 45 minutes before the sat's and was up about $80 at my peak and left up $24. One guy at my table played every single hand, called 2 or 3 bets pre flop and always called a flop bet. One hand was ridonkulous. He of course calls and flop comes J42 with 2 spades. Guy bets and he calls with a few others. Turn comes another spade and SB leads out representing flush. Guy calls, everyone folds. River an 8 and the SB bets again and the guy calls again and the SB says good call flipping over Ace high. The guy who played every hand tables Q8 and his pair of 8's is good. He had the Q of spades. The table is amazed and he says I had the Q of spades and I said yeah but you had nothing on the on flop. He says "well I'm playing kamikaze poker. You have a flopped set of aces rivered by a flush and see how you play." I kept my mouth shut just wanting this guy to keep buying in. In the 45 minutes I was there he had dropped $150.

Might go back Thursday to play one more satellite.