Can You Hear Me Now?

I left off with a post on Sunday resolving to pay attention to my play that night and not chase when I was beat. I didn't get a chance to test that out. When I logged onto Absolute to check the tables out I found that one of their 10,000 Player Point buyin tournaments was getting ready to start. I had points to spare and with a guarantee prize pool of 5K a money finish was well worth my time.

I wanted to concentrate on just the tournament so I didn't play any limit games that night. We had 193 entrants and only the top 18 paid. I finished a respectable 14th making it to the final two tables. The payout was decent and since I didn't have anything to spend my points on, it was like a freeroll from a bankroll perspective. Even though it wasn't a cash buy-in none of the players played it like a freeroll. It was nice to have a tournament that wasn't an all-in fest from the beginning.

On Monday I decided to play at UltimateBet because the tables at Absolute are becoming rock gardens. It's difficult to have a nice win rate when you all shuffle the chips back and forth. With so few players on the site, we are all getting to know each others play and that makes things slow. With my bad run as of late I don't want to spend the -EV trying to loosen things up so it's better to just move on. I still have almost $400 in bonus to clear so I'll have to spend time there eventually. I may take a week or two off and then go back.

Anyway I have bonus to clear at UltimatBet as well so it's all good. I fired up two tables and happened to notice a $5 multi was getting ready to start. One of the nice things about UltimateBet's tourneys is that you can use player points to buy into any of it's cash tournaments. I had the points so I figured what the heck, it'll be like another freeroll. Unlike the Absolute tourney of the previous night this was an "all-in fest". It became obvious early that it wouldn't take much of a hand for these guys to push with. I really felt I could take advantage of the situation and in order to concentrate on the tournament I closed down my cash games with a single BB profit.

My diligence was paying off and by the second break I had firmly planted myself in the top ten in chip stacks. Out of the 620 entrants most were without skill. It was nice to come to the realization of just how much my knowledge of the game has grown. Being able to see the mistakes unfold and knowing who were the weaker players had me at a nice advantage.

With 77 to go I had taken the chip lead. It was short lived since the top few were very close in chips and the blinds had risen to the point where just stealing them and the ante's would net you 10,000 in chips. I stayed in the top ten until we were down to 18. I played a pocket pair of 10's to hard post flop with an overcard showing. I passed off a majority of my chips to someone else and I finally went out in 12th. Again I made it to the final two tables. I really had a guaranteed spot in the final table for this tournament. I was getting tired and things had tightened up so much that time seemed to be moving in reverse. Another one in the cash column though so I won't complain.

Last night I finally made it in earnest to the limit tables. The cards finally made a nice shift as my hands were holding up. I also made a concerted effort not to chase. This resulted in a nice 10BB profit in an hour.

I'll hit it again tonight and see if I can make it two in a row.

As a side note, while I was playing in the tournament I noticed another blogger was playing at the NL tables. I decided to crash her table and sat down. My username at UltimateBet is my real name so she would have had no idea who I was. About the time I was going to say something, she left. I'll have to catch her next time.