Hello again, everyone. I hope everyone is doing well and has had a good week. My week has been a bit nutty as usual. I just got knocked out of the Sunday $200 buy in tournament on Ultimatebet in 9th place, but I will try to not let my disappointment about that make this blog sound depressing.

I love playing tournaments, but lately they have been causing me a bit of stress. I haven’t been playing as many tournaments, because I have been spending more time playing cash games and sit and go’s. Tournaments require patience, and lately I have been having trouble investing 5 hours in a $100 buy in tournament, where the most I can win is $5000. I have, however, been playing in the WPT satellites on Ultimatebet, and this is where the stress part comes in. <READMORE>

Last year, I only played in 8-10 aruba satellites and was able to win 3 of them. February 1st was this years first Aruba satellite, and I was excited to get started. I must say this before I talk about the 2 satellites I played in this week; as much as my friends like to tell me that I’m not a closer when it comes to tournaments, I’d like to consider myself an above average closer from my results in the past. With that being said, lately I have been having some serious doubts about myself and my ability to finish off tournaments. It seems like I am making the final table in every tournament I play, but the only tournament that I have won in the last 2 months was the OWNS tournament. I am always open for cricism from other players who I respect, and I have also been doing a lot of self-analyzing, but I have yet to figure out the problem. Hopefully this week will be different, and I can get a tournament win.

The first Aruba satellite of the year was a $100 rebuy tournament, and it had about 65 people in it. I was happy and upset to see BRSAVAGE to my immediate left at the start of the tournament. I was happy because he likes to gamble in rebuy tournaments, so I felt like I could get a big stack if I got involved in a big hand with him. I was upset because he is one of the best tournament players on UB and is very hard to play against. If anyone ever sees BR and myself at the same table during the first hour of a rebuy tournament, I suggest that you come and watch, because it gets crazy. As a tradition, we started off the tournament by rebuying, and then by going all in on the first hand in the dark. My K 3 off suit was able to hold up against his 8 3 off suit, and I had 6k in chips after the first hand. I was looking good after the rebuy period, with a top 5 stack, but I had already invested 4 rebuys and an add-on. I was a bit upset after the break that they were only giving away 1 trip, because it seemed like BR and myself contributed over $1200 to the prize pool just between the two of us.

Either way, I cruised to the final table and really liked my position. I was 2nd in chips with a very nice stack and had BR directly to my right, which is right where I wanted him. JCGOHEELS, who is also a very solid player, was directly across from me, and he was the only other player who I felt I had to watch out for.

On the first hand of the final table, I was dealt AA, and I instantly thought to myself, “I hope BR raises when it gets to him.” With the blinds at 300-600, BR made it 2200 from 3 seats off the button. I took my time and then made a big reraise to 9000. To my surprise, BR called my raise. The flop came down 5 7 4 with 2 hearts and I felt very comfortable with this flop. BR checked, and I put him all in for his last 13,000, and he called me with….86. He had flopped the nut straight with a straight flush draw. His hand held up, and I was suddenly low on chips with about 11k. BR has actually posted on pocketfives about this hand and his reasoning for playing it as he did.

A weird feeling came over me as soon as the massive pot went in his direction. It might sound funny, but I got sad. I have won and lost numerous pots of over $20,000 dollars at $25-50, where my heartbeat didn’t change at all as that last river card was coming, but for some reason, this hand really bothered me. And this is part of why BR is such a great player. He not only got me off my game, which I think is very hard to do, but he also got the whole table off their game. On the very next hand, he got a player to move all in with A 9 on a board of K 7 4 when he held 4 4. The table assumed that BR was playing recklessly because of that first hand, when in fact he was setting them up to make a mistake for all their chips when he had the goods. BR is a fabulous player and one of the toughest to play against on UB, and this will be a hand that I think I will be remembering for a long time.

Soon after the AA hand, I was able to double up off BR when he called my all in with QT when I held TT, and after he flopped a gutshot and turned a flush draw, the river brought a blank, and I was back in the tournament. I will move ahead to when the play was 4 handed and the following hand came up. The blinds were 1500-3000, and I had 70,000 in chips, which put me in 2nd place at the time. I held AK in first position and raised the pot to 7500. The player to my left, who had been overplaying weak hands all tournament, reraised it to 20k, leaving him with about 38k. My gut was telling me that he had a weaker ace, because I had seen him play weak aces like this before, but I also considered the possibility of him having a pair of anything from 88 through QQ. If he held a weaker ace, then I would be a huge favorite to win a monster pot and knock him out, and if he held any pair under KK, it would be a coin flip to do the same thing. This was a tournament in which 1st place received the trip, and that was the only thing I was playing for. I decided that I had to go all in here and try to knock him out and obtain a huge stack in the process. I was a little surprised that he beat me into the pot in a matter of 2 seconds with JJ, because I was playing pretty solid, but I understand that JJ is like AA to many people who play. When the river came down, I was without a pair and was left with only 11k in chips. I proceeded to come in 4th place and win about $1000. After about 4 hours and a profit of only $400, I felt disappointed and unsatisfied.

Last night, I played in the $200 Aruba satellite. It was a bit unusual because I had no desire to play. I had been drinking with my friends and was planning on going out for the night, not playing poker. My friends were telling me to hurry up and lose so we could get our night started. I told them that I would play crazy in the beginning, and that if I lost then we could go party, and that if I accumulated a lot of chips early, then I would stay home and try to win the trip. Well, I think I might try this hyper aggressive strategy in the first few hands more often because within the first 15 minutes I was over 8k in chips and in first place. I called a raise with 6 7 off suit from the small blind and flopped a straight against a player who had an overpair, and I was off to a fabulous start.

I kept on drinking, however, because I figured that I would get into some situation where I lost my chips, and that I would be able to go out afterall. Well things didn’t go as planned, because I made the final table with a decent stack again. Because the tournament had 150 players at $200 per entrant, they were giving away 3 trips. I really felt confident in my chances when the final table began.

I got cold decked, but was able to stay alive by stealing the blinds, and with 5 people left, I was able to double up when my AK somehow held up against the chip leader's AJ. Once it got down to 4 handed, the play obviously changed, because the top 3 were the only people who got the trip. 2 of the players had commanding chip leads at the start of 4 handed play, so it looked like it would be me or the other short stack player who would be getting 4th. To my surprise, the other short stack was playing with no fear. He understood the situation and was not allowing the big stacks to bully him around.

Looking back on the tournament, I realize that I could have cruised into the top 3 spots. I was being way too passive on the button and was not raising nearly enough pots. I got my stack up to the point where 3 of us had the same amount, and only one person had a clear chip advantage. I then got involved in a hand that I really couldn’t get away from, in my opinion. I raised the button to 25k with A10 and got called by the massive chip leader, who was in the small blind. The flop came 10 8 3 with 2 diamonds, and he instantly moved all in. With top pair and top kicker, I felt that I definitely had the best hand, and I believed that if I called and my hand held up, I would then be the one with a massive chip stack and could take control. I called, and I was shocked to see JJ in his hand. As the massive chip leader, I found it hard to believe that he played JJ like he did, but he obviously played it perfectly, because he knocked me out and won the trip to Aruba for himself and the other 2 players. I receieved about $1500 dollars for 4th place, which was better than nothing, but once again I felt like I had failed. By the tournament’s end, it was 1 in the morning and I was drunk by myself, while my friends were out having a good time. If someone asked me after the tournament how I felt, I think I would say “I feel like a drunken degenerate.” I guess part of being young is being a drunken degenerate though.

On a brighter note, I did achieve my goal from last week’s blog of performing better in the heads up sit and go’s. I started off the week winning my first 16 $500 heads up matches. I think this is my best streak ever and doubt that I will ever do it again. I took my own advice though and treated every match I played this week with the importance that it deserved, and I really focused each time. I finished the week at 24-3 in $500 heads ups and 1-1 in $1000 heads ups. Overall, I am very pleased with these statistics for the week. In a future blog, I will definitely share my thoughts and opinions on heads up strategy.

I cant really keep my eyes open right now because I am so tired, so I am going to go to sleep. I will write a blog in the middle of this week about the 100k $200 buy in that took place last night on UB. It was the biggest tournament I have ever played on UB, with a first place prize of over $33k, and I finished 9th out of 555 players. I will share some interesting hands from the tournament and talk about my overall opinion of how things went.

I do want to say more thing before I wrap this up. For whatever reason, I always seem to have a lot of people watching me in tournaments and rooting me on. I have become good friends with a lot of people, and have others who I haven’t even spoken to who also cheer me on. I just want to say that I really appreciate everyone who roots for me on UB. One of the reasons I like playing on UB over every other site is because of how cool everyone is towards me. I really think the fact that I am always able to chat with people helps me play better, because I am never bored while playing. I just wanted to express my appreciation, because I’m not sure that I ever have before. Hope everyone has a great week, and I’ll see you at the tables. Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace.</READMORE>