Quick Update

Just a quick note to update my progress. I've played in 66 sit and go's this week. I've cashed in about 44% of them. 29 out of 66 to be precise. Here is the breakdown of how I've finished in them.
1st place - 11 times
2nd place - 6 times
3rd place - 12 times
Bubble boy - 11 times
So I need to work on my short handed play. If I could have turned those 4th place finishes into at least 3rd place finishes my ROI would be much higher. I would have cashed in 40 of 66 tourneys for a 60.6% in the money percentage. So I need to stay aggressive, but pick my spots better and hopefully not get outdrawn when it is necessary. Over the past 14 tournaments, I've cashed in 7 of them, but only have 1 second place finish and the rest are thirds. UGH!!!
Over the past two days, I have played in 21 tournaments and have been getting kicked in the balls by the deck. I lost a few tournaments to some pretty nasty hands. The first of which was when I had about 10 BB's and shoved on the button 4 handed. I had AK of diamonds. The BB thought about it for a while, then called off most of his money, leaving himself 140 with the blinds at 60/120 with Q10 of spades. He flopped a 10 a rivered a flush. Was it a bad play on his part? Well, there was 1420 in the pot. I raised another 1120, so it was costing him 1120 to win 1420. Mathematically it was a bad call. He was about a 65:35 dog. So, he really wasn't getting the right pot odds to call. Where the play is bad, is that he was putting his tournament life on the line for Q10 suited. If he was the one to raise and I had to call, it would be a different story. But I think it is a horrible play to call off your tournament with a weak hand like Q10 suited, even if we are 4 handed.
I lost another tournament when I had KK in early position. The blinds were 30/60, and I raised to 180. I hadn't raised a single hand up to this point. The table was playing very loose and aggressive and I was getting garbage. A short stack shoved for 690 total. The small blind then moved in for 1010 total. I called and was up against 910 suited from the short stack and AK off from the small blind. So I was a pretty good favorite. A 10 hit the flop, and an ace hit the river. Out of another one.
All day long, I kept getting my money in good, but it just wasn't holding up. Then I hit some pretty cold decks. I've played over 1800 hands and had AA 3 times and KK 5 times. AA held up all 3 times, but KK only held up 2 times. I had AK suited and off about 22 times, and only won with it about 40% of the time. Same with AQ, AJ, KQ, pretty much any decent playable hand in position. So I just have to keep pushing through it and wait for the deck to warm up. It's frustrating when you see other players getting premium hands and hitting flops and all you get dealt is complete garbage. Especially when your raises are getting no respect, or your timing is off.
P.S. I just got done playing a tournament and was playing extremely well. I had one big hand, but played everything else really well. I'm writing this to make note of a couple of things. First, Don't go broke with one pair....I keep forgetting that rule from time to time. The hand came down like this. Three handed, I'm second in chips. Chip leader limps in, I raise 2.7X's. He calls. I have AJ off. Flop comes J-6-2. He checks, I bet and he min raises me. He had been doing that from time to time all game long. So I pushed back and re-raised. I put about 1/3 of my chips in at this point. He pushed in and I made a dumb call to be up against a set of 2's. UGH!!! I should have won that tourney. Secondly, don't try to bluff calling stations. I ran into so many of them in this last tourney, especially loose aggressives and calling stations. I had AJ suited in the cutoff and had only shown down KK to this point. I was playing pretty tight and aggressive, and the table knew it. I come in for 240 with the blinds at 40/80 and nobody in the pot yet. The BB calls and the flop comes 9-8-4 rainbow. He bets out 240, and I raise him to 800. He calls. The turn brings a blank and he checks. I only have about 860 left and there's already over 2000 in the pot. I go all in and he snap calls me with Q8 off. Second pair and no draw. I hit an ace on the river and he rants about how I'm a donkey and it was such a stupid play. Blah blah blah. The stupid play was playing a trash hand out of position and calling off with second pair on the turn with no secondary draw. But I digress.
The key to remember is to stick to your rules and don't break them.