Thursday, August 11, 2005

Tourney Troubles Contine...

My tournament troubles continue... I think I've gone 22 multis without cashing now. And the last cash I had was something like $50.

Last night I entered the $52+5 on Bodog, $30+3 on Pacific, $100+9 on Ultimate Bet, and a few other tourneys on Stars. The interesting ones were on UB and Pacific. They both started at 9, and the $30+3 on Pacific gives you 1200 starting chips and ridiculous 10 minute blind levels. I tripled up in the first level with JT, flop came JQK and I got it in against AK and some other hand that was never shown... turn gave me trips... so I chipped up early. I went on a long spell with no cards and pushed in with 4400 UTG (blinds 200/400) with AK and got called by AQ and won. I finally picked up KK a few hands later (blinds 250/500) and UTG opens for 1000. I make it 2500 on the button and he jams. I lose the race against ATo that would have given me twice the average chips with only about 160 players left. ($30k guarantee and we started with about 775). I stole a few pots and then with the blinds 400/800 I am in the BB with JTo. UTG limps, button limps, SB completes and I see a free one with about 4700 behind. Flop is QT9 and I decide to jam after the SB checks. UTG calls instantly (I figured him for a pretty big hand, but really had no choice). He had AQ and won the race after the other two folded and that was that.

On ultimate bet, I lost two key pots early to go from 2500 to 1500. One of them was when I check raised someone with A2 from the SB (board of 9A42), and the river came a 3 and I check called and he showed A5. Finally I pick up AK, I think the blinds are still only 15-30 and I limp UTG planning to re-raise. A few limpers and then the button min-raises, I make it 330 and two players call. The flop is QJT, I bet small and get a caller. The turn is a K, I am checked to and bet half the pot and a guy puts me in with KQ and I (more than) double up. A long time went by and I was up to about 4400 when I finally got a really nice break. I opened with ATo and a smallish stack cold called behind me. The flop was QJ5 and I bet out hoping to take the pot but my opp called. The turn was a K and I bet half of his remaining stack and he pushed with AA and my hand held up to put me over 7k. Again, I got a nice break when I smooth called preflop behind a raiser with KK and then the button jammed for 5k... the blinds must have been 100-200 at this point...the original raiser folded and I called and made quads... This put me in the top 3 and I was feeling quite good...

I treaded water between 11000 and 13000 when I opened with AK and only the BB called. (Blinds probably 150-300). He was a short stack and I missed the flop but he checked so I put him in, he had flopped a jack with AJ and he called and doubled up. I'm down to about 9000 (still 20 spots from the money) when i find QQ and open for 1000 (150/300/ante). A slightly smaller stack re-raises to 2800. Instinctively I pushed... even though the raise amount and the time that he took seemed to signal he had a pretty big hand. When you are running good this guy always has JJ or AK and your hand holds up (or you get lucky against a bigger hand), but he had KK and I lost the race. I was down to about 5 BB's and jammed after a few limpers with 8s9s hoping to have a few callers and get lucky to win a big pot. No such luck as the first limper has AA.

15/30 remains pretty good. I was stuck about $1600 yesterday before turning a small profit... that leaves me up $6k for the month and stuck less than $2k for 15/30 now. I am also finding my shorthanded experience very useful when the tables get short...a lot of times I think they players are very inexperienced.

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