Sticking to my guns.

Positive thinking leads to positive results...


My school held a poker tournament tonight. They do it once or twice every semester as the Student Union Board tries to raise some money and promote a fun experience. In the past the tournament structures have been absolutely horrendous. The fields are usually very soft and we always like to get some side bets going between the core group of guys here (last longers, first one out, etc.). This time around, one of the members of our crew implemented the structure that we use in our tournaments and it allowed for a ton of play. 10,000 in starting chips with the blinds at 25/50 and going up rather slow in 20 minute levels. It was great. I found it quite amusing that most of the players were complaining about starting with so many chips! Like whhhaaaaaa??? I knew I was in for a good time and the play is going to be something I can chuckle about on the inside.

Despite a normally big turnout for the event, there were only 18 players that showed up, and only one of these players regularly plays with me so it was a great spot to be in for either one of us. The buy-in was a mere $5 to cover food and the prizes were for the top three, $25, $50, and $100 gift cards to Best buy. Normally these tournaments are just straight donkaments, for all you 2+2ers out there, but this time the structure would enable me to actually have a chance without it being a luckfest.

I have been running very badly online as of late so I thought this was going to be a good change. Some live play always makes me feel better, as I do consider myself to be a much better live player and I prefer it much more. I finished up with class around 5:00p and had about an hour to get ready for the tournament. I got a salad and some yogurt and sat in the lounge to relax and clear my head. I really wanted to have a good showing in this tournament and play my best. I felt I needed to do well in order to get my ass out of this funk I have been in. I closed my eyes for a little after eating for a little while and got myself mentally prepared. I knew the structure, I knew how I wanted to play, I knew I needed a good showing to get my spirits back up. I went in there feeling great as play began a little late, around 6:20p.

Of course, the play was terrible. 6-handed at 3 tables, for a total of 18 players. I loved it. Even though there is usually upwards of 50 players, there was a very small field this time and the fact that we were short handed made me feel great. I knew I could exercise a lot of advantages short handed that I had on the rest of the group. About 15 minutes into the tournament, UTG min-raised to 100. MP reraised to 300 and I looked down on the button to find AA. I raised it up t 1,000 and then out of the blue the SB behind me shoved all-in for 10,000 chips. UTG called after a few seconds of thought and then MP thought for a good amount of time and he called, too! I was in heaven and happily stuck my chips in. Everyone had at least 9,500 chips and I had them all covered. I was up against the SB's QJss, UTG's A10dd, MP's KK and I held up, scooping a cool 40,000 chips only 15 minutes into the tournament. I told you the play was soft! Players were allowed one rebuy and they all did so.

A few hands later in the next level I picked up JJ in the CO. UTG min-raised to 200, MP called, I made it 1,000 to go, both UTG and MP called. The flop came Q J 3 rainbow. UTG bet out, MP called, I raised, UTG stuck it in, MP called, I called. Another huge pot worth 25,000 and I was up against AQ and KQ and held up to scoop another huge pot. The friend of mine, also known as JOBtheNUTS to those who have read about some of his big tournament wins here, was in awe. I was wrecking the rest of the field in chip size and it was unbelievable. I proceeded to spike another set of jacks in a 3-way for some good action and before the end at the end of the first hour I was sitting with just over 100,000 in chips, blinds were 100/200 and the next closest player had just under 20,000.

From there on out I just took over. I was reading so well and winning the hands I should win. I picked spots well to take pots and got away from two big hands that could have really hurt me. I folded a flush to a full house and a lower full house to a higher one. I didn't show, but they did and it made me feel really good about how I was playing. I did manage to run my KK into AA, but it was only for about 1/10th of stack it didn't hurt too much. I was in the zone and grinded down until we got to the final 5 players. I started to really open up and attack the loose/passive play that was going on. I chipped up a good amount and I think I took every uncontested pot out there. The blinds got really big compared to my opponents' stacks when we got to 4-handed and after the bubble burst, I had so many chips it was ridiculous. I raised from the button at one point with A5ss and the BB, who already had invested 3,000 of his chips for the blind, folded to me after he had only 1,100 left in his stack. Heads up I just raised every pot because my opponent was so short and I took about 5-6 of them before he finally had to call. He showed a Q5o and I held a K6o. I hit a 6 on the flop and it held, giving me the win. I walked away with a great showing, a $100 Best Buy gift card, and a lot of confidence in how I played. Granted it was a really, really weak field, I am happy with how well I was able to read people and narrow their range down with great accuracy.

As for the gift card, I plan on putting it towards a new monitor. I am looking for something in the $150-250 range in order to be able to run a dual monitor setup with my laptop. This will definitely help when multi-tabling and also assist at other times when I would love a bigger screen to work with.

I also want to mention that I cashed pretty deep in a $2+.25 MTT late last night on FTP. Granted, I only made $15 after coming in 12/280 players, that wasn't the big story. In the first level, I had a complete nut at my table shoving all-in almost every hand and I picked up AKcc and raised it up from OTB. He shoved like he had been doing and I called. He showed K8o and spiked an 8 on the flop and I got knocked all the way down to 50 chips. Yes, 50 chips and the blinds were 15/30. I was in the CO next hand and knew I had to find something in the next few hands to go with. I picked up Q10ss two hands later and tripled up. I doubled once again and then won another pot to get back to 800 chips. I sat for a while, just waiting for a good spot and a good hand. I picked up 1010 and got it in again with the crazy guy who held A6o. I held there too and was back in business. I was able to build my stack back up to be one of the top 10 chip leaders with 50 players left.

We broke the money bubble at 27 and I was right in the middle of the pack, but then someone turned a straight with their OESD to my 2-pair and I was at the bottom again. I double twice more and then was bounced in 12th place. This just goes to show you that you can never give up in a tournament. Just because I took a beat early, didn't mean I needed to shove all-in next hand with ATC and give up. I knew I had a long way to go and needed to get lucky more than normal, but I did and it worked out quite well. You're never out of a tournament until you have no chips left, remember that. A chip and a chair, along with some luck can go a long way.