The Weekend Update

On Saturday, I was only able to play in three early tournaments because of a friends barbecue/birthday. I was the bubble boy in one, ran KK into AA in another, and came close to cashing in the Stars $320. With the way I was playing, I was looking forward to the Sunday tournaments.

Then Sunday came.

To say yesterday was a little frustrating would be an understatement. After going 0 for 3 on Saturday, I was 0 for my first 12 on Sunday. I ran extremely cold in coin flips all day, took a fair amount of bad beats/coolers, and only had two notable suckouts. The sickest tourney of the day was in UB's $530 NLH event. I had been card dead most of the tourney, but kept picking my spots well. We started with 144 players with the top 20 getting paid. With 22 left and the blinds at 300/600, I got AK UTG 7 handed. I raised to 1500 with 9500 behind. The button went allin for 9200 total. I tanked to decide if I wanted to gamble at this point. I really thought it was a coin flip. I decided to go for it because if I won, I would leap into 4th place with 21 left. He flips over AQ, but a Q flopped and I was crippled. Next hand the levels increased to 400/800. The UTG raised to 2K, and it folded around to me and my QT. With 40% of my stack already in this was a must call. He flips over 97c, hits a nine and I am gone. Fortunately, I finished strong with 3 cashes in my last 7 tourneys, and one tournament was my saving grace.

I finished 11th out of 263 in the Stars $33 NLH 6-handed w/ RBs. I was in for a ridiculous $273 in it. I took 2 coolers and one bad beat in the RB period. I only had 6600 after the hour and the average was 10K. I then got real hot consistently getting my money in way ahead. I took the lead at one point, but could get nothing going at the end.

In my first ever tournament at Absolute Poker, I finished 22nd out of 487 in their $163 NLH event. I played this one extremely patient early on. The blinds kept creeping up while my stack stayed fairly steady at the starting count of 5K. I finally got some hands, and doubled up twice in a span of one round with AJ vs A9, and pair vs lower pair. Suddenly, I was in the top 20. I kept getting it in with higher pairs, and they were holding up. I took the chip lead with about 100 left, and I stayed in the top ten until there were about 25 left. I finished a disappointing 22nd after coming over the top of the CO 7 handed with KT in the BB. He made a tough call with AT for almost all of his stack. My push was about 6x his open.

In my last tournament of the day I placed 2nd in the Full Tilt $216 HORSE. There were 121 participants, with plenty of them well known. I was among the chip leaders most of the tournament. Johnny Bax was at my tables most of the way (he finished 8th). Heads up was a complete roller coaster. We played the E, H, and O portions during our heads up battle. The guy honestly wasn't that good, but I found out too late that he couldn't fold a hand. I lost two monsters during the holdem part with AK vs 42 3-bet pre. The board came 882 8 6. I thought my hand was ahead the whole way. Then I lost another monster with AQ vs 44 on a board of K96 8 T. I check raised him on the turn, and he called with his under pair to the board. I didn't follw through on the river because I didn't feel there was a hand he would fold there after the call on the turn. With about 360K chips in play, he got me down to 26K and 50K. Both times I battled back to actually take small leads, but the final bad break spelled my doom. In the O8, I raised w/ A4sJ8h. He called. Flop 864, he CR me. Turned the 5 and he led into me. My hand is marginal both ways at this point but not really foldable heads up. The river brought a 3. I thought this was a good card because I now had the 2nd best low (granted it could easily be chopped). He bet, and I just called. His A227 scooped it. He had hit runner runner straight to cripple me. I know I only had half the pot until then, but we were near even in chips to start the hand. I was gone soon after. I was a little upset, but given the way the day had gone, I was fine to end it strongly.

Here are my stats for the month so far:

22 Tournaments $4227 in entries
3 Cashes for $5942.05
$1715.05 in profit
185.87 Pocket 5 pts

Stars $33 NLH w/ RBs $652.05/40.38 pts
AB $163 NLH $450/42.86 pts
FT $216 HORSE $4840/102.63 pts

Only one significant score in terms of points. To have a good month the other two scores should have to be thrown out. Remember only the top 20 scores count. However for now, I am averaging just under 62 pts/score. This only comes to 1240 points (far short of my goal). However, I am up money, and that's most important ultimately.