Finally

I haven't been playing any multi table tournaments lately except the Bluff events, WWdN, and Pauly tournaments on the weekends. I have had absolutley no success in any of these lately but last night I managed my first final table in quite some time. In fact I was in a zone that I haven't been in for quite a while. You know what it's like, right moves at the right times, making the tough laydowns and betting better hands out of the pot.

I expected to fire up the computer and play in the WWdN last night but it was already over when I went to sign up. I must have missed the memo on the earlier start time. Feeling the urge to play a tourney I found a $10+1 w/ 1 rebuy and 1 add-on starting at PokerStars. I took advantage of both options and had a total buy-in of $31. My stack size stayed within the top 15 for most of the tournament and after 739 players were eliminated we were at the final table. Going into the final table second in chips I had a lot of confidence that victory was imminent. First hand in I put a small stack to the test with my pocket 9's when the flop came 8 high. He ended up all in and his pocket 10's had me dominated. This left me as the short stack and I went about fighting my way back to about even with the bottom 3 players. I held my own until getting down to six players. I was in the BB with pocket 6's and it folded around to the chip leader in the SB. He raised and I pushed. His pocket 9's had me dominated and I was out in 6th.

A nice little $750 win and more than the money, it reminded me that I am capable of playing an excellent tournament game. My bad run in the Bluff events recently has had me down and I needed this confidence boost. Tonight I have the Kansas City Poker Club tournament in Olathe, after which I will head to Harrah's for some live no limit.