Near and Far

After my relatively successful foray into pokerstars tournaments on Sunday night, I decided to dabble again on Monday night. I might not have done that but I was already playing in the gutshot forum league, so I looked for something around the same time.

There was an $8 freezeout which I was knocked out of early on, and an $11 rebuy. I entered that as well and played very few hands but I made some progress with just my big hands and then on the last hand of the rebuy period, I nearly didn't make it (and may not have rebought). I had Aces and decided I would play them a little slower than usual to see if I could really add to my stack (a risky approach).

So I raised to only 3BB and got three callers ! Flop KhJh2c. Could be worse - I thought I might get action from a flush draw or KQ or JT etc. Checked to me, I bet 2/3rd of the pot, and before you know it all the chips are in with 2 other all-ins.

One has KJ and the other had a set of 2s. Oops. However, a beautiful Ace on the river saw me almost triple up and gave me a great start to the freezeout.

Despite being in the top10% I still added on for another $10 and so began a long journey in this tournament. It had a 15minute clock which is pretty slow for an internet event.

I had one really lucky escape with JJ. A terrible player on my right put in a huge overbet and I thought I was way ahead of his range and decided to call all-in. This was at a stage where I had about average chips but it was getting late and I thought I'd be happy to gamble for the benefit of having a potentially big stack in one easy move.

He showed Aces ! I caught a Jack on the turn to survive and really move up the standings.

There were other big hands and it saw me go pretty deep in the event - rising to 5th at one point. However, I think I maybe lacked discipline towards the end - it was much less of a "turbo" than the Sunday Hundred Grand and I could have probably been more patient with my stack.

I finished 55th/1,677 which is clearly a good finish percentile-wise but the $97 pay-day was a far reach from the big money on offer at the final table.

I suppose on balance, I am happy to have three money finishes from three starts and less concerned about my failure to convert to a really good placing. But, ultimately, the objective is to win or at least be in the top3. Certainly to reach the final table.

I know what my next objective should be ....