Milestone!

Well, I finally made a performance worth mentioning in a freeroll/MTT last night. I took 3rd place out of 1k in the Poker.com 5:00.

Woo Hoo!!!

It took a combination of a little luck, a lot of races won, and some solid poker. Here's how the FT started: FT Screen Shot

Obviously I didn't need the chips that I had to get there, but I couldn't freaking miss, and I wasn't gonna complain. I don't much remember the early stages of the tournament because I was also busy getting my ass handed to me at Full Tilt (more on that later), but before I knew it I had 36k (a personal high for this tourney) and was going somewhere. I won every race I was in, with pocket pairs holding up or spiking aces on the river to beat PPs, and I remember hitting a couple of 3 and 4 outers on the river to take people out as well. When you're hitting cards and building the stack as opposed to taking 20-30% stack hits now and then, it really makes a difference.

So the question is, looking at the final table, how the hell did I get 3rd?? And actually, I won the very first hand at the FT, taking out that Clydeuk dude, which put me in 1st. After that the 30-70k stacks started dropping like flies and it was left with the three of us with the biggest stacks coming into the FT, and I had managed to hold on to my lead. That's when I had a leg chopped. I can't exactly remember the preflop action, but the only way it makes sense is if I'm in the big. The JPNY dude was stacked and got it all-in, NEsportsfan thought about it a while and pushed over the top, and then I called w/o a thought w/AJ. And I was in THIRD. The board didn't change anything, and JP's QQ won and he tripled up to over 300k, and NE's AK took the remaining 600k. That left me w/100k, with blinds at 10k/20k at this point. I only stuck around for another few hands. If I was being extremely vigilant, I would have gotten away from that hand, because I really wanted to win the $20 and get the little red ribbon by my name, but I don't know how anyone could've thought they wouldn't get at least part of that pot w/AJ 3-handed. But theres certainly also reasons *not* to call, and I'll be able to come back to this hand in the future should I face a similar situation.

Anyway, I got my $10 (a bankroll! WOO!), and after a 2nd place finish in a $2.20 SNG, my bankroll stands at $13.80 at poker.com. That was the softest SNG I've EVER played in, BTW. I should've won because my heads-up opponent was TERRIBLE and was lucky to be leading in the first place (although the hand that got her to leader burst the cashing bubble, so I was OK with it), but just when I was about to pull even we both got a decent piece of a flop, and mine wasn't big enough. But I will be playing a lot of those $2.20 SNGs until I build a decent roll over there and can explore other options. The only sucky part is that the blinds increase by every 10 hands, and the first few levels of the tourney drag like crazy. But the level of play is worth it.

As for FTP, I played in 4 of the tightest $5.50 SNGS I've ever seen and had a top finish of 6th, and dropped 11.50 in a .25/.50 limit game, in which the only pots I won were scooping the blinds 4 times. The coup de grace, which epitomizes it all was the last hand I was in for the night. I had gotten into an 18 person $5.50 SNG in order to try and get more value out of it, playing time wise and cashing wise, and after already getting mixed up and losing in a couple of sick pots, I pick up A5o in middle position, and decide to get rowdy. With 4-5 players in, the flop comes KAx. There's a bet, call, raise, and then I re-raise all-in w/my last 800-some. Fold, fold, fold, and the guy to my right (raiser) makes the call and shows A4o. I'm thinking "FINALLY a little good fortune", and no sooner can my brain process that thought, when a 4 falls on the turn to give him aces up, and make me the first person out. Disgusting.

So I've got three $5.50 buy-ins left in my bankroll at FTP, and will unlock another $5 of my bonus w/my next buy-in. If I manage to go 0-7 in SNGs, it'll be unreal. So I'm confident that the nail is not yet in the coffin, but last night was most certainly a night for FTP to spit in my face. Luckily, my old buddy Poker.com was there to pick me up, and I'm sitting on $13.80 of free money over there.

Originally Posted 8/17/2006