Result !

Although I am clearly now on "official" poker retirement and should therefore be increasingly serious and scientific in my approach, I still have to admit to a certain amount of laziness. One excuse I can offer for this is that I have yet to buy my new PC and/or laptop. As a result, I have not yet installed the appropriate tracking software and therefore I'm not really in a position to do really thorough analysis.

It's not a high-quality excuse, to be sure, but that's how it is. The upshot is that I find myself getting involved in a few low-stakes cash games and a few small-buy in tourneys somewhat at random. No particular stories to relate.

Until last night.

I signed up for the $25 rebuy on gutshot.com and started playing it (7:30pm) whilst helping Matt with his revision. So it is fair to say I was not paying full attention. However, I was on average chips at the start of the freezeout period, and was now able to concentrate on the game.

I stayed between average and 50% of average for a long period and eventually the bubble approached. I really wanted to cash in the event, so I pretty much folded my way into the money at this stage (including folding AQ-suited on the button - at that time there were 56 players left, with 54 to pay).

However, as soon as the bubble burst, there was a clear loosening up all around and I made a very conscious decision to try to move up the leaderboard or bust out.

I called a button push with KQ-suited in the BB. Button had A3 of the same suit, and a Queen on the river saw me double up. 2 hands later, I raised on the button with KJo and called a push from the BB. His Tens failed to stand up as three more Kings came on the board.

This put me 4th in chips and I now became very active. I moved into the chip lead when, with KQ, I raised pre (1 caller). Flop JJQ. Check/Check. Turn 6. Check/Check. River Jack. Unlikely he has a Jack or a higher pair, but not wanting to see him check behind, I bet 15k. He raised to 27k and I called. My Jacks full was easily beating his A3-offsuit.

I moved upwards in chips fairly steadily until with 16 left I had more than 700k (more than twice the chips of second place).

I continued to be very aggressive but I did make the mistake of calling some re-raises when I was likely to be well behind (and was). In this way I ran A9 in to TT, AT into AA etc. Still, I was 2nd in chips when the final table formed (about 5 hours in).

The money really started to kick in at 9th and better. I finally busted (my KT vs his J9, making a 9high straight) in 5th for $2,015 which was a decent result overall. Having said that, I was disappointed at not making the most of my big chip lead. Of course, towards the end, the blinds were massive: 20k/40k with a 3k ante. So, perhaps I may not have been able to convert the victory even without making the mistake of calling re-raises preflop in marginal situations.

I believe this particular tournament runs every day at 7:30 so I may try to play it a few times and see if I can replicate or improve on this result.