Two things to mention today. First is the fact that I've played two $3+.40 SnGs on PS. I took second in first game (Tuesday) and busted out on the bubble in the second game (yesterday). I'm pretty mad at myself for the bubble burst, as I had the second largest chip stack and we had the short stack (T800) on the ropes. I got involved with JJ against the big stack at the table and ended up pushing all my money into the center on what I thought was a pretty innocuous flop of low cards. Dumb. I violated the Guru's standard SnG admonishment to Take The Hill. Why risk your tourney life when you don't have to? Worse, why do it when you're that friggin' close to the money. Sigh.
Okay, that's the bad news. The good news is I played in the weekly FTP online Monthly Poker Tour, or MPT for short, and did very well. The Guru is in Vegas for two weeks, and he asked me to play under his account in the MPT while he was away. It was a small tourney, with only eleven entrants, but the competition is pretty good and I need practice at higher limits. I decided that my strategy would be to play basic ABC poker for the first twenty hands or so, and then start opening things up. In other words, I was going to channel my inner Guru and see if I could manufacture some chips with aggressive play. Guess what? It worked! By hand 50 of the tourney, we'd lost two players and had consolidated into a single final table. I had the second largest chips stack and was just steam rolling over the competition. But then, alas, I got crippled a few hands later when the following happened:
I was in the BB with J8s. The UTG player min-raised and three other players smooth called. I was getting 7.5:1 odds to make the call, so I did. Flop was A-K-T rainbow. I checked and everyone else followed along. Turn was a beautiful Q, giving me the nut straight. I checked planning on check-raising if someone bet, but everyone checked around. Damn. River looked like a blank and I checked again, hoping someone would bet. Check, bet, fold, fold and the action was to me. I check-raised to a pot-sized bet. Fold and the action was on the original bettor. He pushed all-in and I called before thinking it through. If I had not been so fixated on my straight, I might have noticed the board had three-flushed on the fifth street. He turned over the 78 of diamonds for a flush, and I went from second chip leader to just T1800 and the bottom of the pecking order. In hindsight, I probably should have just called his min bet on the river if I had seen the flush... but I didn't. Note to self: pay attention to the board and figure out what the nuts could be before calling an all-in. Second note to self: stop the FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome) crap of check-raising. Giving the other player(s) free cards cost me this pot and a significant portion of my stack.
Okay, I thought, don't panic. Blinds were still not huge, my M was above ten (barely) and another player was also short on chips. So once again I found my inner Guru and started stealin' and thievin' and robbin' like there was no tomorrow. Pretty soon I was a middle stack again, and I dialed it back a notch, but still worked on amassing chips. Part of my new-found bravado was the result of recently reading Gus Hansen's book "Every Hand Revealed" where he walks through, hand-by-hand, his win in an Aussie tournament. The key fact he emphasizes over and over again is: Aggression, Aggression, Aggression! And when that doesn't work, add some Aggression, dammit!
Bottom line is that I ended up taking first place and a nice little $166 prize for my effort (of course I have to split it with the Guru, as it was his account I played under), but still… not too shabby for rookie!
All-in for now…
-Bug
Okay, that's the bad news. The good news is I played in the weekly FTP online Monthly Poker Tour, or MPT for short, and did very well. The Guru is in Vegas for two weeks, and he asked me to play under his account in the MPT while he was away. It was a small tourney, with only eleven entrants, but the competition is pretty good and I need practice at higher limits. I decided that my strategy would be to play basic ABC poker for the first twenty hands or so, and then start opening things up. In other words, I was going to channel my inner Guru and see if I could manufacture some chips with aggressive play. Guess what? It worked! By hand 50 of the tourney, we'd lost two players and had consolidated into a single final table. I had the second largest chips stack and was just steam rolling over the competition. But then, alas, I got crippled a few hands later when the following happened:
I was in the BB with J8s. The UTG player min-raised and three other players smooth called. I was getting 7.5:1 odds to make the call, so I did. Flop was A-K-T rainbow. I checked and everyone else followed along. Turn was a beautiful Q, giving me the nut straight. I checked planning on check-raising if someone bet, but everyone checked around. Damn. River looked like a blank and I checked again, hoping someone would bet. Check, bet, fold, fold and the action was to me. I check-raised to a pot-sized bet. Fold and the action was on the original bettor. He pushed all-in and I called before thinking it through. If I had not been so fixated on my straight, I might have noticed the board had three-flushed on the fifth street. He turned over the 78 of diamonds for a flush, and I went from second chip leader to just T1800 and the bottom of the pecking order. In hindsight, I probably should have just called his min bet on the river if I had seen the flush... but I didn't. Note to self: pay attention to the board and figure out what the nuts could be before calling an all-in. Second note to self: stop the FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome) crap of check-raising. Giving the other player(s) free cards cost me this pot and a significant portion of my stack.
Okay, I thought, don't panic. Blinds were still not huge, my M was above ten (barely) and another player was also short on chips. So once again I found my inner Guru and started stealin' and thievin' and robbin' like there was no tomorrow. Pretty soon I was a middle stack again, and I dialed it back a notch, but still worked on amassing chips. Part of my new-found bravado was the result of recently reading Gus Hansen's book "Every Hand Revealed" where he walks through, hand-by-hand, his win in an Aussie tournament. The key fact he emphasizes over and over again is: Aggression, Aggression, Aggression! And when that doesn't work, add some Aggression, dammit!
Bottom line is that I ended up taking first place and a nice little $166 prize for my effort (of course I have to split it with the Guru, as it was his account I played under), but still… not too shabby for rookie!
All-in for now…
-Bug
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