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Tuesday, June 21, 2005

MTT Madness

I’ve been playing in quite a few MTT tournaments lately, and not really doing too well. I wish I could blame the cards. I’m just really out of practice at these things, and trying to get back into it. I have noticed that I seem to do much better at the $5 ones as opposed to the $30 ones. It’s a very small sample size, so I don’t know if the play is just that much worse at those, or I’m just getting better cards. I have yet to make the money at a tournament at Stars since I’ve started playing again. The closest I came was in a PLO tournament when my set of aces got rivered, by only an open ended straight draw, nothing better. I was also in fourth chip position at the first break of a limit O8 tournament, but I lost half a pot when my nut low got counterfeited by one of the two aces left in the deck (I had A2xx, high cards, and he had A34x, and a flush. The ace on the river gave him a better low, and a scoop. I guess a 2 would have given that to him, too.), and I busted out shortly after.

Last night, I wanted to play in the Stars $20+2 at 8:30 that I’ve been playing in from time to time. They don’t let me register far enough in advance, so I can’t register from work before I go to bowling. Being the geek that I am, of course, I was able to register from the bowling alley with PalmVNC on my Treo. It’s not the first time I’ve done that. Anyway, I get home to find that Stars is having technical problems, and the tournament has been cancelled. I check some other sites, and see a $5+.50 at Noble starting in five minutes, and a $30+3 at Party in 20 minutes. I register for both. I’m limping along at about an average stack in the Noble tournament when the other one starts. The very first hand, I raise to 80 (10/20 blinds) from EP with AKo. I get more callers than I want. I bet 300, almost half of what I have left at the Kxx flop, with two spades. You know where this is going. I get raised, and all in on the flop. On the first hand. With the best hand, and as a very slight favorite over K7s, top pair and a flush draw. He hits his spade on the turn, and I bust on the first hand.

I decide I don’t want to play any more poker for the night, but I can’t just stand up and leave the Noble tournament. I just start pushing in every hand. Well, I do it once, and say I just want to stop playing in the chat. I have K6o. I get called in two places, flop a king, and end up making a flush with my 6, and it’s good. I triple up. Very next hand, I push in with K6o again, and show it when everyone folds. At this point, I realize it’s a rebuy tournament. There’s also an add-on after the first break. I fold one hand, and then push in again with AJs. I get called in two places, and they both have QQ. I flop a jack, but get no more help, and lose some chips. From here, I decide to play well again. I double up when my TT makes a boat against QQ. I flop a K with K8s vs QQ. I never rebuy, and don’t take the add-on. As we approach the final table (and bubble, top ten pay), I start to get card dead. Finally, I find AK and win a coinflip with it. Two more people bust, and I make it to the final table as the chip leader, and my cards dry up again. I win a few hands, and bust some shortstacks, but I drop down to second in chips. I find TT, still second in chips, but with only 11 blinds, and I run into the chip leader’s QQ, and I finish in fifth place for a $72 payout on my $5.50. I don’t stick around to see who wins.

While I was doing this, I finally cleared the 2000 hands needed for my $200 bonus at Poker Rewards. I actually made a few dollars doing it, playing .50/1 stud.