Final Thoughts on Last Night

I just wanted to come back here and do a little more updating on last night's play.

Overall, I'm rating it as probably one of my best nights of play to date. As far as I can remember I only made 2 bad reads (documented in the previous post), I actually made one exact read, made a lot of good plays and a lot of good lay-downs, and of course you always need a little help from the cards, which I got as well.

7:45 Bodog tourney - If you were to graph my play in this tourney, it would pretty much read as a straight line. After amassing some chips at PokerRoom I focused on that tournament and *trying* to get chips at Poker.com, and I pretty much played this tournament very "robotically". However, early on in the tourney I pick up AK and raise it up 5xBB. I get 1 caller. The flop comes 10 J A, I bet, and this Jimmy re-raises all-in. I instantly put him on A 10 (ask Josh, we were IMing), and since I didn't much care, I went ahead and called. A 10 it was. But I doubled up on him when a J hit the river. After that I'm not sure that I ever hit a flop. I got chipped away steadily, doubled up with about $750, then got chipped away back down, went in on what I'm pretty sure was a decent hand but I don't remember what it was, and that was that. 400-something out of 2k. I really need to be focusing on this tournament, though, instead of Poker.com or PokerRoom.com. It payed out 99, which is about 5%, compared to the 1.5% that the other two pay. My skills would be put to best use here.

8:00 Poker.com tourney - Lets see...crap, crap, crap...double up on a suckout...crap, crap...win a big pot on a suckout...crap...lose with a broadway straight to a royal. That about takes care of that.

8:00 PokerRoom.com tourney - Since I started out playing all 3 of these tourneys at the same time, I can't really tell you how I got my chips. I don't really remember any hands, but before I knew it I had 7k at the first break when the average was about 4, and I was spending a lot of time between 30th-150th. But about 9:20 when Linz got home, I decided I didn't want to wait around until 11 for PR to 1-outer me on the bubble, so it was time to get reckless. I pick up AQc and raise it up 5xBB or so. I get re-raised, and even though I *know* this dude's got me beat, I re-raise all-in and lose to his AA. I then doubled up once with a ridiculous 4-on-the-board straight on the river, and managed to lose away the rest of it w/A9s by 9:30.

Playing 3 tourneys at once was too much. I could handle it if I played all of them pretty much robotically, but its not a good way to actually *play*, and obviously I don't remember much, so its not good for what this blog is for...analysis. That said, its still not a bad idea to start with 3 and see which one(s) I can rustle up some chips in and go from there. But at the same time, I need to focus on the bodog tourney because it pays 5%. So I guess I'll just see how things continue to work out and play it by ear.

Either way, things are looking up. I played some killer poker last night and my chip stacks are trending in the upward position early in tournaments instead of downward like they always used to do. I'm not exactly sure what I changed, but I do know what I'm doing to make that happen, and that's all that matters.

Originally Posted 8/3/2006