Last night I played a 50+5 MTT on Party with around 300 players and when I got knocked out I learned a little something. I’ll give you the whole story in hope that you can learn the same lesson without it costing you any money.

I got no cards but for most of the tourney I actually played about as well as I can play. I wasn’t Stuey, but I played quite well. Still with no cards coming my way I was short stacked after the first break, having only played a hand or two and stealing the blinds once or twice. I was focused, stayed tight and watching my opponents closely for any weakness I could exploit but every time I got moved the new table was the same as the last, people overplaying their hands, loose and aggressive everywhere. <READMORE>

With opponents like that I couldn’t do anything but wait for a real hand and catch someone getting too excited about their AT or KQ. Unfortunately with no cards to attack them I simply folded hands and paid blinds and my stack dwindled. I would get a hand on occasion but my stack climbed much too slowly compared to the blinds and I scraped by as a short stack for the first two hours.

Thirty people made the money in this one and when we got close to the bubble it looked like I was on a beeline for it. 30th – 20th paid $110 or so, enough of a profit to be worth fighting for instead of going nuts and trying to get busted or make the final table. I try not to forget that you have to make it to the money to make the final table to win. It’s about survival sometimes. I was 33rd with 33 players left, and 32nd with 32 players left. It didn’t look good for the home team that’s for sure. Over three hours of my very best poker only to be the dreaded “bubble guy.”

Suddenly the empty seats at my table filled up, and we were down to 30! As you veterans know when there is no real change in the payout for quite a few spots people go crazy trying to pile up chips to make it to the real money. It was fairly extreme in this case and I caught a few hands to get myself a few chips. My chances of making it to the real money still didn’t look good, but I had enough chips to at least wait a little longer. My waiting for hands kept paying off and my patience was rewarded over and over just when things looked bleak. After awhile I became more comfortable, assuming things would work and staying patient.

I was down to 4,000 in chips with blinds of 500/1,000 when the seats filled up again. Someone had played for all their chips when the final table was guaranteed in a round or two for everyone but me. The next lowest stack was 12k when we got to the final table. My first hand at the final table was aces and I more than tripled up, leaving me with enough chips to be patient for a little while longer.

Here’s the prize distribution -

1st - $3,915
2nd - $2,250
3rd - $1,520
4th - $1,160
5th - $1,015
6th - $870
7th - $580
8th - $435
9th - $290
10th - $150

I can’t begin to explain what kind of odd formula Party uses to determine their prize distribution sometimes, with the jump from 7th to 6th being a lot bigger than the jump from 5th to 4th.

I scraped and struggled some more, and when I hit 6th I felt pretty good, a nice payoff considering I had looked like a long shot to even make it into the money just an hour before. I was back in the same position I had been in for most of the tourney though, 14k in chips with 2k/4k blinds. The next smallest stack was over 30k and the next big jump in money was 3rd place. I saw that top three money and I wanted it. My patience ran out.

I was on the button and I thought it was time to start making a move to get to that top three money if I could. I was on the button with 89o and when it was folded around to me I moved in. The big stacks in the blinds would call me with any reasonable hand, and the BB might call with any hand at all, but for some reason I moved in with my 89o hoping to steal the blinds. It wasn’t a huge mistake, but I had three free hands coming that could’ve been much better hands to take a shot with. If you add in the possibility that someone could be knocked out before I had to play a hand and I could move up another spot before taking my stand it definitely looks like a mistake.

I was patient for so long, waited so often, and watched so many people fall by the wayside. I fought and I scrapped and I didn’t make a single mistake. And then I moved in with 89o. I wasn’t drunk or high, I didn’t have something important to doing other than poker, and no one distracted me. I even gave one of my students hell about doing the same thing a few days ago, and I knew better, but I did it myself. Lapse of concentration I guess, but I’ll call it a lesson learned. If anyone has any idea what is wrong with me please send me an email and give me clue. Until then I will simply pledge to stay tenacious and disciplined, bide my time, and learn from my mistakes.

See you at the final table,
Fox</READMORE>