I decided to play the 3PM tournament at Jokers today. I haven't played since April and I wanted to see how rusty I was going to be. I have been reading the two books one from Jonathan Little and have started the book from Annie Duke.
The book from Annie Duke is the one that probably has helped me the most today. The decisions we make and the guidance she presents in her book has been good. I am a person that likes procedures and I can follow procedures well. Having written them for my last place of employment and following them.
Having a more open mind and making proper decisions was my thinking today. I wouldn't say I layed down hands that I would have normally played but I did act on some of the ways Annie discussed about in her
book.
I played 1010's, KK's and AJ and lost these hands early. I wasn't going to give up but I wanted to make better decisions in the end. I started
on a winning streak with AQ, 44, AA, 99 and then flopped a pair of K,s to take down some pots and get myself moving in this tournament. I continued to play some good hands and got myself to the final table.
I have always had 3 goals when playing any tournament. 1) Get to the final table, 2) Get to the Money and 3) Win the tournament.
My last hand I played tonight was Q10 on the button. The blinds were $1000 - $2000. Everyone folded to me and I bet $4000. The big blind called and we ended up getting all of the chips into the pot. He turned over 77 vs my Q10. The flop came xxx turn 10 and the river 7 for his set. Almost got there. I am out in 8th place out of 30 players. Top 3 get paid.
I am very happy with my play tonight and I don't think I could have gotten the BB out of the hand if I bet more. He thought about my bet but he was coming along no matter what.
One other interesting thing happened during the tournament. I had Q9 in position and during the hand I had the opportunity to bet and get him out of the hand. As I was pulling out chips I could see him grab his chips and start to look at them. I immediately put my chips down and checked to him to see what he was going to do. He decided to check and we ended up checking it down and I won the pot with Q9 to his Q3. I just wasn't sure what he was doing or if he had an over pair and was waiting for me to bet so he could raise me. I decided to keep the pot small at that point. The hand eventually was xQxxx. I could then see he had a Q and he was not sure what to do with his kicker.
I had a good afternoon and it was nice to get back to playing some poker.
I don't plan on playing many tournaments as I want to get involved with more cash games.
BR: -$40
Have a fun weekend......
1 comment:
Great job Steve. I am very familiar with the formatt of those tourney's and I think you have good priorities for them. Make it to the final table, if you can do that you are setting yourself up for the chance to win. The structure is so fast that once you get to the final table, unless you have a large chips stack, you really need to pick and hand and a good position and go for it. Your move on the button was perfect, just got unlucky. keep it up!
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