Things are Looking Up Part I

So, things are looking up a bit… I’ve now played about 15 tournaments this year and managed three cashes including two 2nd place finishes, which is a pretty respectable ratio and a record that I’d have taken in a heartbeat if I’d been offered it at the start of the year. Unfortunately my timing seems to be a bit off though, in that the two tournaments that I’ve got my best results in have been the two with the smallest buy-in.

Regardless of the buy-in or prizepool, I’m still feeling a lot better about poker again. I’ll be the first to admit when I play badly (which has been far too often lately), but I’m really happy with the way that I played at the weekend, especially on the last day. I had to get lucky in a pot on the second day when I found myself short stacked and raised all-in from the small blind with pocket tens, after a raise and a call before me, only for Richie Lawlor to look down on the big blind and find QQ. That gave me a decent stack and I added to it with another piece of luck when I took out a short-stack holding AJ v his AQ. Things went badly for me after that though. I lost a 50-50 and was very card dead for the last couple of hours, and managed to just sneak into the money with the shortest stack of the remaining players.

I came back the next day with 35k, with the average being 160k, and 2k-4k blinds. I’m well used to playing short-stacked and I know how easy it is to get back into things with one or two double ups, so I wasn’t feeling too pessimistic, although I was fully aware that I’d need a bit of luck and that the most likely outcome was an early exit. Fortunately I got the good start that I needed, when I found AK in late position and doubled through the BB who held A4. I was still a little short after that, but with the great tournament structure, I still had a very workable stack and I was able to add to it gradually by picking up some blinds and coming over the top of some opening raises, most of the time with genuine or semi-genuine hands.

By the time it was 7 handed I had a pretty good stack for the first time, and took my first big hit of the day when I lost a 50-50 for a 700k pot which would have given me 1/3 of the chips in play if I’d won, and I was back in familiar short-stack territory. I was a little lucky again when I found AK and doubled through just in the nick of time, then managed to get back on track winning some small pots and few big double-ups, to find myself with over half the chips in play 3-handed. The key pot for me was another 50-50, this time against Jay Renahan, the eventual winner. His AQ got the better of my TT in a pot that would have given me about 90% of the chips in play. (This would never have happened last year – I must start practicing my 50-50s again). I managed to hang in for 2nd place, but was at a 3-1 chip disadvantage and the tournament ended for me when Jay flopped a straight against my QQ.