What’s up everyone? My name is Josh, and I am currently a 21-year-old senior at the University of Arizona. I have been playing poker since my freshman year of high school, but I did not start taking it seriously until last April. I started off like most normal broke college students, with a monster deposit of $100. From the beginning, I was lucky enough to have some success in the 5 and 10 dollar multi-table tourneys, which got my bankroll started.

I really believe that for good tournament players, there are hot and cold streaks. I have had weeks where I have won multiple tournaments and have had months where I have made 0 final tables. So when I am feeling good about my tournament play, I try to play as many as possible. In the first week of June, 2004, I decided to do something completely stupid and risked 1/3 of my then $1500 bankroll to play in the KrazyKanuck Challenge ($500 buy-in multi-table tournament on UltimateBet). To make a long story short, I went on the win the tournament, which had 131 entrants(you can figure out how much 1st place was….30%) plus the trip to Aruba. I went from being a broke college student to having a healthy bankroll within the span of about 6 hours. <READMORE>

I would never suggest that anyone risk that percentage of his or her bankroll to play in a tournament, but I was feeling great at the time and really felt like I was going to win it. Since then, I have been able to play higher limits and have been supporting myself completely through playing poker.

A normal day for me would be to play a bunch of $200, $500 or $1000 heads-up sit and go’s, or play the $10-$25 or $25-$50 no limit games on UltimateBet. I do not play the $25-$50 game as consistently as I do the sit and go’s because the swings can really get out of control; I prefer just to play it when the game conditions are best for my liking. I will talk more about the $25-$50 and the big buy in sit and go’s more in future articles, which should definitely make for some interesting material. I have learned a lot in the past few months about how important game selection is, and I have also learned from my own mistakes about money management and how important it is to be a winning player. I think these issues will make for good reading, and since I am constantly learning from my mistakes, I believe sharing them with everyone can help others learn as well.

Today was a typical Sunday for me. I usually wake up at 11:57, so I have plenty of time to get ready for the KrazyKanuck tourney that starts at 12:00 (Arizona time). I love Sundays, because I get to play 2 good tournaments and watch football all day. I haven’t been enjoying the $500 buy-in lately, because there have been so few entries every week, but that issue is for another article. Either way, the tournament began, and I was off to my usual start. I am not the type of player who tries to triple up within the first 15 minutes. It is not uncommon for me to win maybe 2 hands in the first hour of a tournament, because I do not play many hands. My tournament strategy will be something that I will write an entire article about because I have lots and lots to say about it.

The tournament had 81 people in it, and I didn’t really start moving my chips until there were about 40 people left. I was making some good laydowns and some good bluffs and everything was going smoothly for me. I hadn’t had to show down too many hands and was in the top 10 in chips with 25 people left when the following hand came up. I had ace queen offsuit in the small blind (the blinds were 150-300 with a 25 chip ante) and an aggressive player who I play with a lot made it 750 to go from late position. Both of us had decent chips, about 9k at the start of the hand. Many people would re-raise an aggressive player to try to win the pot right there but I felt like I had him dominated (had a bigger ace) and wanted to see a flop. The flop was perfect for me…ace king 4, all different suits. I quickly checked, and he bet 1500. I thought for a while and decided that my best move was to go all in. I wanted to make him think I was making some type of move on him, because I was very aware that he would expect me to do that. Knowing your opponent is very important, in my opinion, and it certainly played a major role in how I played this hand. I wasn’t shocked when he called me with ace 8, and after a blank came on the turn, an 8 came on the river. The 19k pot put him in 1st place, and he went on to finish in about 17th place, while I came in 23rd.

While going out of a tournament on a hand like this can be somewhat depressing, I never treat it like that. I understand that luck is a part of poker, and I do not let the bad beats get me down. One of the biggest parts of being a successful player, especially in tournaments, is being able to handle the bad beats and controlling your emotions. I was happy with how I played and that I put myself into a great position to be the chip leader with about 20 people left. With every bust out I take, I try to learn something new instead of getting upset about the suckout that knocked me out, and because I do this I think I benefit a lot.

The Sunday night $200 buy-in is the best tournament on UltimateBet. Tonight there were 339 entries and first place was about $21k. I had a dream situation come up within the first 10 minutes of the tournament. I had king 10 in the big blind in a pot with 6 limpers, and the flop came ace queen jack. The small blind led out for 60 dollars and from watching him just for the first 10 minutes, I already knew that if he had an ace, he was “pot committed.” This is why it was a dream situation. Whenever you can spot a player willing to risk all of his chips when he is drawing dead, it is a very good thing for you. I raised the minimum and had 2 callers behind me, including the initial bettor. The turn was a lovely 4 and I bet 500 which was around a pot sized bet. I wasn’t going to get tricky and let some 2 pair river a full house on me. If someone had a set or 2 pair, I wanted to make them pay for that river card. Everyone folded behind me but the dream situation guy moved all in. I beat him into the pot with the nuts, and he showed ace 6. A rare double up for me in the first 10 minutes, and I was liking my chances.

I pretty much hung around for the next few hours and actually became short stacked at one point, due to some horrible cards and some awful attempts to steal the blinds on my part. I did manage to take advantage of everyone tightening up, once we got close to the money, and I built my stack up a bit during that period. I won a huge pot against gator93, a tough tournament player, when I flopped ace queen blank with ace queen in my hand against his ace jack, and things were going great for me. I really felt like I was going to win.

When we got seated at the final table, I was 6th in chips, which was fine in my opinion. I did not recognize anyone else at the final table and felt like I was in a great position to win. I was winning a lot of pots by defending my blinds from people trying to steal and had about 120k in chips when this hand came up. There were 7 of us left, and the player under the gun, who had 50k in chips, limped for 8k (blinds 4k-8k). The saying, “beware of the limper,” is very true, but in this case I knew he was not limping with a big hand because I had been playing with him for hours. I decided to make it 30k with ace 9. Ace 9 is not a very strong starting hand, but we were playing 7 handed, and because of the size of the blinds, each pot was very crucial. The chip leader, who was playing fairly solid, called 26k more. The limper folded, as I expected, but for some reason I did not think anything of the chip leader calling 26k more. I always hate when I see people blaming their being tired for making stupid decisions in tournaments, but this is the only thing I can come up with for how I played the hand. The flop came 752, and he led out the minimum 8k. I thought for maybe 1 second before I went all in for my last 80k. He beat me into the pot with AA, and just like that, 7th place had my name all over it.

This is the type of situation that really gets me thinking. I played for over 5 hours without making a mistake in my opinion. Up to that point, this was the best I have played in a tournament in a very long time. The payout difference between 7th place and 1st was a nice car, but that does not bother me. What I took away from this tournament was the importance of taking your time when making decisions, not only in live play but online also. I got knocked out at a final table by my own play. If I had AA in his position, I would have played it the same exact way, and if I took my time to think, I would have figured out what he had and saved my last 80k for a better spot. I will certainly not be making any plays like this one in the near future.

Overall, it was a good Sunday. I got to play in some good tournaments and watched some great football. I look forward to sharing my experiences with everyone in the future and would like to thank PocketFives.com for the opportunity to do so. If anyone has any questions, feel free to email me at jsupsak@email.arizona.edu.

Josh Supsak (A.K.A. jsup) is a senior at the University of Arizona, majoring in Criminal Justice. He plays poker professionally, mainly online at PokerStars and UltimateBet.
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