Well, I am certainly feeling the love today. I humbly thank all the commenters who stopped by with congrats. I was at once stunned, thrilled, amazed, overjoyed and a whole lot more at my victory of last eve. Yes, it was *only* a little $10+ tourney - but, for me, finally getting to the top of the ladder was huge. Add to that the fact I was up against some tough, tough opponents (just to link a few) most of the way there, I'm even more amazed.
So how did I get there. I will attempt to answer that. For those of you who want the reader's digest version I offer this:
1. I got a fair share of good hole
cards to play.
2. My good hands held up.
3. I got lucky more times than not.
4. and - most importantly - I was never at the same table as CJ.
For those of you interested in a little analysis, the rest of this post will attempt to break it down. I'm doing this more as an exercise for myself - to try to identify where I was making good decisions, where I merely got lucky and where I blundered. So, for those of you leaving me at this point - thanks again for stopping by and especially thanks for the support - it's gone a loooooong way towards lifting me out of a particularly blue period of late.
Now for the one or two of you still with me - let's wade in.
[Author Note: apologies for the way this degenerates into something bordering on salacious toward the end - don't know what came over me.....]
Overall - I played very conservatively. Very. Conservatively. There were a total of 251 hands dealt over the course of 2+ hours. Of those, I saw the flop just shy of 15% of the time. That is incredibly tight for me. I was moved from my first table after about 5-6 hands (where my confidence was boosted with my pocket eights landing a set on the flop) and landed at a table that, if I'd had my way, I would have run, not walked, away from. With the likes of Maigrey, Waffles, and our own WSOP entrant Gracie sitting there, I puckered up and settled in for a lot of folding. I was going to need some bite to back up my bark at this table, so I engaged the patience mode and waited for opportunities to play.
Throughout Level II, I had a few opportunities - I avoided getting fancy, but at one point I felt the need to steer away from defensive territory and go on the offense. I did that in one hand where I was holding 2d 4d in the small blind. Up to this point, this was a hand I was tossing away. I decided to change it up and play it and so called a pre-flop raise which came from middle position. I paired my four on a queen high flop. Not the best result for me. I checked and my opponent bet out a little over half the pot.
Again, up to this point, I was folding like a desperate laundry worker with 2nd or 3rd pair. This time, though, I got my brain cells working a little harder. The flop was uncoordinated. If he'd truly caught the queen or if he had an over pair, wouldn't he have maybe checked as well in order to give me a chance to catch up? And if he caught either of the other two, then maybe I could convince him he was behind. There was only one way to find out if my hunch was correct. I raised.
He folded, and I got some booty deposited in the confidence coffer along with collecting the pot. But I remained focused and extremely selective as to what hands I would play. For instance - naked aces - those A-rag hands that are the dumb-blonde trophy wife on the arm of the balding, overweight, beer toting dufus kind of hands. I got away from those naked aces without a second thought - suited or not.
I had a little mantra going pre-flop - I'd ask myself what I expected from a hand post-flop should I decide to play it. Then, if I was leaning toward playing it, I'd determine if the price to play it was worth it. Then if I'd decided to play it, I'd ask myself if I wanted to add a value to my hand by raising/re-raising or if this was a hand that wanted to see the flop cheaply and limp or call. That was the basic script throughout the tourney, but on occasion, I didn't hesitate to go off-book and improvise.
Level IV rolled around, and I needed to crank it up. Blinds were at 50/100 and, going by Harrington, I had an M of around 7. Not healthy. There were two hands in a row where I felt it necessary to risk all my chips. The first - I had J-T-off two off the button - a hand I detest, by the way. It was folded to me and I min-raised and got one caller the seat to my left. Yes, I min-raised figuring if I got called or re-raised, I could get away from it easily. The flop was 9-T-Q - 2 suited. Yikes. I flopped second pair and an opened end straight draw. I know I panicked a little and as a result, I opted to push all-in. Fortunately, my opponent folded.
In hindsight, it probably would have been better to come in with a continuation bet to see what my opponent would do. It was foolish to risk all my chips on that hand - even with the outs. However - if he was on a flush draw... maybe not.
The very next hand was my second all-in. I had pocket 77. The pot was raised in front of me by a short stack. I decide I want my pair to go up against the short stack who I knew would go for a showdown, so I pushed all-in to (hopefully) shut out anyone else contemplating coming into the pot. If I lost the hand, I'd still have a few chips left - but, again, the blinds were rising and I opted to gamble. The flop was scary - K-J-T - 2 suited, but with 2 blanks that followed, my pair held up against his A-9 suited and flopped flush draw. Mr. Luck uncorked a bottle of wine.
The next few hands I opted to play I managed to get some small pots and blinds. My M was healthier, but I needed to remain diligent and not get too cocky. I did push in again against an opponent who I felt wasn't paying attention very closely. He was engaged in the chat box, so I gambled again - with A-J-suited this time - and pushed after his pre-flop raise. He folded.
During Level V I was a thief in the night and ran away with several small pots. I used what little I knew of my opponents - for instance with less than optimal hole cards, I avoided involving myself against players who I knew were capable of playing back at me with anything and went for the steals against the more passive players.
Then my pocket AA held up against pocket QQ and I had my second knockout of the evening. Levels IV and V gave me significant gains with 10 pots that came my way and 2 knockouts.
However, the cards ran rather cold the next two levels and the blinds were chipping (no pun intended) away at those gains. Plus we were now at the ante levels. I kept track of my M and soon found myself pert near at push or fold mode. So push I did - now those naked aces were worthy of playing... it was time to get that dumb blonde on her back and earning her keep.
I believe in this tourney I was all-in more times than in any tourney I've played previous. The reason being is that this time - when it was necessary - I followed through on the premise touted by poker gurus everywhere - "if you believe you have the best hand - get your chips in the pot" not a direct quote, but thereabouts. AND - when your M sucks - get those suckers in there.
That's what happened in Level VIII and my stack was touting a miserable M of 5.6484848484848.... With A-8-suited I had to go for it and pushed after a raise from Maigrey who had me way more than covered. She went briefly into the tank, which made me optimistic, and then she called, which got me ready to say buh-bye and good luck all. And then Luck sidled up to me, spoke softly in my ear and said, "here you go, hon, this one's on me."
The flop turn and river missed us both, and my Ace-high soooted won the race against Maigs' K-Q. The tide had turned.
With that double up, I now had a healthy enough stack I could tighten back up a bit. I had little difficulty the next level. I took an unnecessary risk with pocket fives, though, going over the top pushing in (again!) and, fortunately, my opponent folded. But, for the most part, I was getting involved in hands holding decent cards and ramping up the aggression. Pokertracker has my flop aggression factor a 3.5 which is a big shift for me.
Then I won a big pot (that briefly put me as chip leader) - with pocket fours. Again, I came over the top of a pre-flop raise, and pushed and got called. Looking at it now - I see I was a bit too in love with pushing... but that sexy dude Luck just stroked the back of my neck and said quietly "OK babe, it's all coming to you." The board presented baby cards and a pair of eights and my two pair gave a punch to the gut of my opponent's stack.
Actually, I'm a little appalled looking at the tourney through the eyes of Pokertracker. I was all-in happy it looks like. But, I have to trust my thought process of the moment which - being in the moment - much of which in the latter portion of the tourney, now escapes me. I was in bed with Luck that's for sure, but I know I wasn't pushing for pushing's sake - I truly believed I was ahead each time and would have an edge should I be called.
And then I was at the final table. I re-focused and shifted gears. I tightened the purse strings - folding K-Q-off to an under-the-gun preflop raise, by way of example. Why? What would I want out of a flop with that? Two pair at worst, a flopped broadway at best. Pair only one of those and then, what do I do against a possible group one hand? Plus, it was early in final table play - I wanted a chance to slow down and assess how my opponents were going to handle final table action.
I took one pot pre-flop raising with A-T then I folded a few before being dealt pocket JJ. Aye me - the hand you hate to love. I'm kind of a believer in playing jacks hyper aggressively. I looked at those fellahs, glanced left and right to see if my dude-o-the tournament Luck was still with me, then answered the pre-flop raise with a (say it with me now) push all-in. The raiser folded (is that a hand I feel on my thigh?)...
After we lost Mean Gene and Poker Jones there wasn't a broad reach between chip stacks, so there wasn't much bullying going on. I remained patient. Then I got those little pocket fours again. I answered a raise with all-in - and was called this time by A-Q-off. Luck gently sucked the lobe my ear. The fours held up and I was on top. *coff*
Eventually we were down to six. This is where in sit-n-go's, for example, I will typically loosen up my starting requirements - at six remaining. And by this time, I was incorporating S-n-G thinking into my strategy. The cards, though, kept me out of the line of fire and then we were down to five after Maigrey's pocket queens were knocked out by A-K and a traitorous board.
I loosened a button. K-T doesn't look half bad at a table of five so I engaged in a pot by min-raising with it pre-flop and got a call from the big blind. The flop was 4-5-6 - he bets the pot, give or take, and, silly me, I bluff re-raise all-in. I figured him for a steal - a bet that big usually doesn't want a call. He calls and I look for the door.
But -
Luck, oh baby, what he was doing to me now.... my opponent's strait draw (he had Q-3-off) didn't make and I doubled up. I got a walk and a steal before we were down to four. Then, bam, we were three.
We were three widely varied stacks. The short was at 3,885, I was at 38,680 and our chip leader was at a very healthy 104,355. I took out the short stack with A-6-suited and a 6 on the turn over his paired 3 on the flop (he had Q-3).
Heads up. In sit-n-go's I'm a fairly decent heads up player. I know the cardinal rule is to keep the pressure on. But I also know, that if I can find the right rhythm, then the cards don't matter a whit. I will look for an achilles heel and if I find it, I will exploit it. I do what I can to maintain control of each hand.
My worthy opponent had nearly three times the chips I had. This wasn't going to be easy. I took the first pot uncontested with a raise.
The second hand turned the tide. I held pocket AA and merely called her raise. Sneaky me. Flop - 2-Q-4. Me - check. She - check. Turn - K. She - bet 2,000 into an 8,200 pot. I merely called (and Luck slipped his hand into....) River - (oh...yes that's the spot) Ace. Me - check. She - bet 4,000 into a 12,2000 pot. I raised up to 16,000. She came over the top all-in and I called. Of course. She had K-Q.
Two hands later it was all over when my J-3 ran over her Q-6 after a flop of 6-4-J had us to a show-down.
Luck sat back and lit two cigarettes...