Tournament Update

Over the past few days, I've played in several tournaments on Full Tilt poker. I played in 7 tournaments, and cashed in 2 of them. The first tournament I cashed in was the $24,000 guarantee. I played really well throughout the entire tournament. I played very solid, aggressive poker; and was changing gears at all the right times. It was an amazing run. My strategy is to tighten up a little, once the bubble bursts. I do this because there is usually a mass exodus of players right after the bubble bursts. Short stacks start going all-in and loose players get caught pushing at the wrong time. So I tighten up for a couple of orbits and then go back to business as usual.

So, I did just that in the first tournament. We got down to about 20 players left, out of 699. I had JJ on the button and came in for my standard "small ball" raise. The small blind re-raised minimum. I called to see a flop, hoping to either catch a jack or to not see an ace or king. The flop came out Q-J-8. I was licking my chops, because I knew he was short stacked, and was going to push on the flop. Sure enough, he bet the pot. I re-raised to put him all-in and he called. He had AA, and was drawing extremely thin. Sure enough, he caught perfect on the last two. A running straight. That kind of beat late in a tournament can really make you want to chuck your computer out the window or pull your hair out. But, that's poker. I had him drawing to two outs on the flop, and 6 outs on the turn. I'll take a 9:1 favorite everyday. I went out 17th for a very modest score, nothing spectacular.

On a funny side note, I played in another tournament later that night, which I really shouldn't have. I was so tired that I ended up falling asleep in the middle part of it. When I woke up, I saw that I finished in the middle of the pack. Mental note, only play when you are awake and lucid. I was close to cashing in two of the other tournaments. In both tournaments, we were about 30 players from the bubble when I was eliminated. In the first tourney, I had AK and he had QQ. I lost the race and was out. In the second tourney, I had KK and he had AJ. Lost that one too, and again I was out.

Tonight I played in the $28,000 guarantee and the Fifty-Fifty. In the $28,000 guarantee, I kept adding to my stack and taking shots at orphan pots whenever I could, pretty much on auto pilot. Late in the tourney, a short stack shoved in for 9 BB's. I called with AK in the small blind. He had 88, I got no help, and doubled him up. Nothing much happened after that, and I went out 30 players before the money. Better luck next time. In the Fifty-Fifty, I was playing well, and trying to build big pots with my big hands, and outplay the other players on the flop. Everything was going well, and I was sitting a little better than average for most of the tournament. I got lucky a couple of times after we were in the money. I pushed with AJ when I only had 6 BB's, and got called by AK. The final hand was pretty frustrating. A loose player opened for 2.5 BB's, and I had JJ. I only had about 10 BB's, so it was a pretty easy shove. We were already in the money, pretty deep really. So I decided to shove. The player on the button called and the big blind re-raised all-in. Three players were all-in. I had JJ, the button had AA, and the big blind had KK. That has been my luck lately in tournaments. I do well, play well, then get unlucky late in the tournament. I ended up finishing in 28th place. Another modest, but not spectacular score.
I loved the structure of the Fifty-Fifty tournament. You only start with 2000 chips, but the blinds are 12 minutes. Most of the players were decent quality. I saw some questionable plays and calls. But nothing like the $5 or $10 tournaments. For the most part, there were a lot of knowledgable players. I will have to make sure to play in this tournament more often. Maybe next time I'll make the final table.