A little bit up, a little bit down.

I haven't played that much over the last couple of weeks. Things have been buy at work, and so I've been turning in early rather than arriving in shattered. For once.

The last few nights I've played again in the $55/108s and had some minor cashes but nothing really notable. I'm probably down a little.

I final-tabled the Pokerroom $108 today, coming in 9th for $360, but I didn't play that well. I doubled up very early, then bled chips a bit in the early stages to get back to nearly where I was. I just wasn't concentrating. When I got a bit short, I stuck my chips in behind and - the first time in ages - sucked out on someone. I've not been particularly lucky of late so I've deserved that. I then played reasonably and was in 3/4 place with about 18 left (top 10 pay. 130 runners) but the blinds were still fairly large for me. I was doing OK, but tightened up too much on the bubble (which I misread - hand-for-hand started from 12 players - shows how focussed I really was) and although I was raising OK, I only restole once which was definitely the wrong play.

Shortly after reaching the FT one player busted and I'm in the BB with 83s. The CO min-raises. Either he's got a monster and is asking for the resteal, or he's a bad player. I don't think he's been at my table (although as I say I wasn't paying too much attention) and I pushed. Its not that terrible as my position wasn't great - 8th of 9 and a good way from the person in 7th. I need to get chips and this isn't a terrible spot despite my shocking cards. Anyway he has AA, and although I flop a pair I don't suck out.

With these $100 tournies I still don't feel comfortable enough to really push it when it gets down to the last 2 tables, and I certainly need to.

Separately I'm thinking of another poker-funded Vegas trip which I can afford from my account (say £500-700 travel/accom and $2000 spending money) but I can't afford it easily. So although my bankroll is still healthy you could argue I've already mentally written a chunk of it off.

Oh, and the more I play tournaments where <10% of the field pay the less I like them.

A crack at the 40K - and a cash!

An interesting night last night as I bought into the 40K £110+10 big Sunday tourny on Crypto.

This was the first time I've played in it, after failing in satellites a few times. Last night coincided with the St Kitts extravaganza, so my rationale was that the sites best players would be otherwise engaged and so the field would be as weak as it ever would be.

I'm sure the number of entrants was down, as there were about 320 runners - so missing the guarantee by nearly £5,000.

Anyway TheWife very kindly put TheBoy to bed so I bought into my largest tournamant
(so far).

It was obviously a slower structure than I am used to, with 3,000 starting chips and 20 minute blinds. The play was pretty solid from most people, with only 1 really bad move (a massive overbet push with 2nd pair on the turn, early).

I hit a fair few hands pre-flop early (AK a couple of times, KK twice etc) but either didn't get paid or hit a nightmare flop (I've got red Kings, flop AQJ all spades).

I was up and down a bit but played OK (probably of a similar standard to most of
my opponents). I think the early deep-stack stages of this tournament are probably where the overly tight play is most exploitable.

I lost a good chunk of my chips, but bluffing in a SB/BB battle. He completed, and
the flop was J33. He bet the flop and I called/floated with K-high. He checked the turn, so I fired and he called. I was going to give up, but he checked the river again so I put a nearly pot-sized bet, and he called that too with JTo. Grrr.

An orbit or two after that though it was folded to him, and I doubled up when he held 88 and I held KK, and he (naturally) didn't believe my bets.

I hit some cards (including JJ against AK on a AAJ flop) and made some nice bluffs
after that to get to around 20K, which was just over the average when we were down to 70 or so.

I then call an EP raise in the BB with AJs, and push when the flop comes 893. My opponent (who I had covered) calls with TT, and I don't suck out.

I'm then short-stacked and play OK, but perhaps not quite aggressive enough, and whenever I do get some chips, I manage to lost them again quite quickly, so I spent the rest of the tournament with a fairly low stack, eventually going out in about 27th place for £240.

It was good fun playing in a "proper" tournament for the first time, and I thought I did OK. Obviously cashing was a bonus - too much for me to hope to win it at my first attempt. I'll certainly play this again, but probably not every week. Maybe when the domestic situation allows (although as I've won quite a bit recently I'm being allowed some leeway in these matters).