Almost

I almost accomplished one of my poker goals for this year, but I came up just short. We were pretty even when we got down to three players but I went on the most brutal run of bad cards in the history of poker, and could hardly defend my blinds. The only thing that saved me was that I folded so much they had to respect my bluffs. The most frustrating thing was that the other two players kept putting each other all in and the one with the fewer chips kept winning. When we finally got down to heads up play he had over 200K and I had 50K. I didn't last very long after that.

Early on in the tournament I tried real hard not to get into big pots with anything less than the nuts. One of my big problems in these things is that I play too fast early on and get myself into trouble when I don't make a hand. I one a few relatively large pots early on, but not as big as they could have been since I didn't want to bite off more than I could chew. I hovered around the middle of the pack for most of the first hour.

About halfway through the second hour, I was starting to get worried as the blinds were increasing but my chip count was not. Then I got AA and had a short stack go all in ahead of me. I called and then had another player go all in behind me. My aces held up. I won another large hand after that and all of the sudden I was in the chip lead.

I lost my chip lead shortly after when someone at another table must have tripled or quadrupled up. I was never lower than fifth in chips after that though. Ok that's a lie, I made one bad play where I called an all in with my A9. I had middle pair and figured there was a good chance he was bluffing, and if not, I still have plenty of chips. He had top pair, and berated me for my poor call. I doubled him up, I don't know what his problem was. Although I watched him after our table split up and he did that to everyone. It actually became somewhat amusing. Anyway I won the hand after that to reclaim my spot near the top.

Nothing else major to report. I got to play some big stack poker which is always fun. Its nice to know that anyone at your table can double up through you and you can still have plenty of chips. It makes bluffing a lot less stressful.

So, this tournament turns my crappy January poker performance back into the black. It is also the most I have won in any one tournament, and the highest I've placed in a tournament with more than 50 players so I'm feeling pretty good. Go me.