Now Comment

OK, so last night was obviously going great. I started in some MTTs and busted with set over set and other suckouts. I think I have spotted a few leaks and tried my hardest to plug them and I think it is starting to work. I decided (against my better judgement) to deposit again into my PokerStars account. And as usual I ended up going into the 20 table $20 SNG. But as you can see below things worked out better.

The player who won was actually down to about 2K in chips when we were 4 handed and managed to pull AA and KK in almost back to back hands. He managed to go from short stack to chip leader in about 4 hands. At that point I told him that with his luck running like that he is bound to win it.

I really stayed out of trouble most of the game but when we were heads up I was about a 4-1 shortstack. I knew I had to get lucky and we actually traded the chip lead a few times. We both made bad mistakes and caught some good cards but I think my undoing was calling his all-ins with middle or bottom pairs to his top or middle pairs.

The final hand was a tough one. I held the all powerful 9-3o and called a min raise. The flop was Qs-6s-3d with two spades. I held the 3s and was going to fold to any bet. But it was just check-check so I saw a free card. The turn was a 9s giving me an interesting bottom two pair and a very weak flush draw. Since I was down to very few chips I pushed. He thought about it a few seconds and called with Q-6o (no spades) for top two pair. The river was a blank and I was done. Still a nice outcome.

This tournament was a true roller coaster. I was 2nd in chips early on and then made some serious mistakes and went down to 72nd place. From there I made a few good plays and was back in 3rd. At one point at the final table I was almost eliminated but by waiting for the button to go around I caught KK and more than tripled up.

I also checked The Poker DB this morning to see who I was up against and found that most of the final table players had between 5K-10K in winnings since 2005. So I guess I feel pretty good about holding my own with this bunch.

Quick Bankroll update: $1,466.56

Side note - I have been finished second a few too many times to my liking in the past few days. I can't seem to win any of the Rio and Maui SNGs that I am playing and keep coming in second. The 180 seat SNG was another example. I think I need to start practicing some low limit heads up but I am not sure that will keep me interested. I know I have to improve my heads-up skills in order to be able to close a tournament. Which brings me to another point:

Second side note - This is the highest my bankroll has ever been and I think I am getting bored with the lower limits. I think that playing Fort Knox SNGs is a little too high and I am not sure what I can do to maximize my return. If anyone has any ideas, leave me a comment.