Online Poker Tournament Rankings

So last weekend I took a trip to AC for some tournament play.  I was hoping to win something early in my weekend so I could play one of the Borgata preliminary events. 

I played 4 tourneys at the Taj between $60 and $100 buy in.  The first was a $60 at 7pm on Sunday (my weekend is Sunday Monday).

In the first 7 hands I caught 5 small pocket pairs.  Set mined with each (at this level it's not worth betting them and winning a tiny pot) and came up dry till the 5th pair (3s).  UTG led out for 5 bb's it folded to me on the button so I called.  Flop comes 235 2 clubs.  UTG bets 3k (we start with 10 there is $600ish in the pot) WAY overbet, no way he's on A4 or 46 so I put him on big pair and shove.  He calls and of course turns up aces.  He doesn't hit the ace, he doesn't hit the 4, he hits runner runner clubs for a flush.

This knocks me down to 700 chips just as we go to the 50/100 level.  I scratch and scramble over the next hour and a half and get all the way back to the 10k chips I had to start.  And then bust with a set of 4s to a runner runner club flush, sigh.

Next tourney was pretty standard getting late 2 tables left 8 pay I wake up with AK off in mid pos and I have 8 bb's a SHORT (3 bb) stack shoves I over shove get called by guy immediately to my left he has K's I brick out.

Next tourney was the one that tilted me for a while.  Again we're down to two tables, again I am short (about 6 bb's) I have been crazy card dead so on the button it folds to me and I shove my 86 hearts.  Dealer announces my all in and then grabs my cards and the guy who folded after me in one swoop and mucks them!!!!!  the blinds were yet to act (on the other side of the dealer)  I am completely dumbfounded and screwed as he mixed the cards almost instantly.  I know I have to protect my cards but I don't use a card protector, and all my chips were in the middle.

If you ever play the Taj watch out for a middle aged white dealer named Michael.  I complained to the cardroom manager, not to get any kind of relief but just to let him know what his dealer did, then the guy gives me false hope and brings me back to the table to figure out what happened.  He ultimately says if I had called floor before leaving the table he could've saved me.  Seems weird but just wait...

So last tourney of the weekend $100 on Monday evening...

TBC.

OK so the blog I planned about my life as a staked player has been pitiful; 3rd entry since I started in January.  But honestly things have been pretty unremarkable I ran MU up to about 80 buy-ins,  knocked it down to almost zero and now I'm back to about 80 buy-ins again, sheesh. 

I did have a nice live weekend at the Taj in early July, cashing a couple tourneys and doing well at $1 $2 ring, and June had two 4 figure cashes. 

The biggest difference between my play now and unbacked is the volume.  I think this has made me sloppier in my play because subconsciously I knew I could play one of the other 6 tourneys I was already in, or even fire up another.

So I've convinced my backer to let me run only one or two at a time.  I've been happier with my play. Not only have I taken every situation much more seriously, but my reads have been better too watching every hand instead of clicking around.  I know at my stakes ABC poker is probably enough but boy when you can pick off the goofball bluffs and overbets and stack up, it makes it even easier.

That being said I've been frustrated by running top 30 but not hitting the big money, but regular deep finishes are usually a sign that something good is going to happen!

 Took down the 9:00 double "B" on ftp for my backer last night.  Unfortunately I made a bad call with 5 to go to the money in "A" or who knows what might have happened.

Played well the last few days without much to show for it besides the increased confidence of knowing you are playing well.  A definite symptom of problems for me is when I never put a stack together.  I am fully capable of blowing a big stack, but if I go several tournaments and never even build a good stack there's definitely something wrong with my game.

So make up is clear and my backer and I have both taken a little profit.   Hopefully it's the beginning of something big!

 OK, so I've been a small/mid stakes grinder for a couple years.  I don't play for a living, but the money I have profited has done some nice things for my wife and I.  Not gonna go into details but I am VERY successful in stud tourneys and moderately successful in NLHE tourneys, OPR or PDB me if you need to see what I mean by those statements.

Anyway it was always a dream of mine to be successful enough and trusted/recognized enough to be staked.  I know the arguments pro and con, but for me it makes a TON of sense.  I cash out.  A LOT.  my wife and I make enough to pay the mortgage etc... but all the extras in life are coming form poker.  This means I do NOT maintain a proper bankroll.  If I have $1000 in poker at one time it's a lot.  This leads to periodically going bust (not too often it happened 2x in 2008) and having to scrape together money for a deposit.  A backer seemed like a perfect solution.

This fall I put together a trip to the Taj open to p5's members.  We had fun, made some friends, talked some poker etc... In short the trip, though smaller than anticipated, was a success.  One player and I particularly hit it off.  He's a good player but he takes big shots and blows his bankroll.  He has some nice scores but has historically had trouble maintaining.  After a nice fall for me, he approached me about staking.  I took about 2 months to make up my mind, and in January we began our new relationship.

Well, I've run like death since then...

The lone exceptions are a $4,300 win in the 1am Guarantee at FTP, a cash in Ftops #10, and an $1,150 snd place in a Wed night stud tourney. 

What do these toruneys all have in common???

I wasn't running for my backer in any of them.  I always check in with him before I run solo, because he deserves the opportunity.  Instead of backing me he bought 1/2 my action in the stud, so he did OK there.  The 1am he never got my messages, and the FTOPS was an entire day of shot taking for me, too pricey for him.

Yes there have been bad beats and some ugly variance (especially in stud) along the way, but I worry about my mindset.  Originally I thought playing someone else's money might help my game.  I might be less inclined to take some of the risks that I have been blasted for when posting HH's here on P5's.  But since a fairly cold start now I find myself tinkering and getting tied up in knots. 

Anyway I had a multi cash night the other night, and I think I'm coming out the far side of the tunnel, reestablishing my game.  Things are starting to feel right again, and I am trying just to play, not worrying about make up or my backers roll or anything and just play the game the way I know how.  But, I can't be sure yet that I have truly straightened out psychologically.

Hopefully diagnosing the problem will help me get it back together, but I just thought it was interesting that geting exactly what I was looking for may have (at least temporarily) been the worst thing for me.

snaggs