Bodog's Players Choice

I fancied a tournament and there one of these sats going for 100 Player PTS in 10 minutes so up I joined. There were 212 runners which meant 12 people got the 29 tournament credits to enter a Quarter final satellite. Thankfully my first level was extremely uneventful. Halfway through the second level I doubled up through an AQ vs. QJ confrontation with a loose donk-like character, I was never behind.
With half an hour gone I had only played that one above hand, I was receiving semi-playable hands, but out of position, or in position but acting after a raise, it was somewhat frustrating. After forty minutes of play I play my second hand, Ace seven suited, I make a four times the big blind raise after one limper and the blinds plus the original under the gun limper. The board does not look good with the straight draw and a possibility of a made flush, I had to surrender. Do in position raises not mean anything anymore? I am most definitely moving over over to the school of thought which believes that “Under the gun is the new button.” Nobody respects a late position raise anymore, which is a real shame in my opinion as I feel this takes away a large part of strategic play, late position steals. However just because late position steals are heading towards being out of the question, Early steals are becoming run of the mill in games everywhere.
I lost around 1K chips in a pot where a short stack pushed on a board of Q44, with AQ I was happy to call. He turned over QJ, and the turn came J, so he made a better two pair. Within a few hands I was back in the action with KT, I managed to catch a full house when my opponent caught Broadway and picked up a 2K pot. The poker gods rewarded my play the very next hand with AK, I hit a king on the flop and never looked back, I eventually hit trips and knocked out a short stack. The pot took me to a shade below 5K. I was dealt pocket 9’s in middle position, so I put in a tester raise, two called, the flop came ten high, which is a pretty good flop for 9’s. The worrying thing was that the one player at the table who had me covered decided to bet half the pot, I thought and elected to call. The turn brought a and he repeated his half pot bet, this time I decided to re-raise to find out where I was, and he folded, there’s my answer. Pocket Kings were my next port of call, however I only picked up a small pot. It was then time for the first break, I was sitting pretty with 6.4K with the average was 3.5K and blinds at 50/100. Only 89 players remained from the original 212. The first half hour after the break was horrific, I had absolutely nothing, a few well timed steals maintained my stack around 6.5K. The most frustrating thing was continually being moved tables (the downside to MTT’s) From 45 minutes of boredom to sheer madness, My Jacks held up against a loose big stack nine ten, and stealing a lot of pots put me on 16.7K at the second break. Thirty Three runners remain, blinds will be 200/400/50, placing over one thousand chips in the middle before the cards are dealt. The tables went crazy, all-ins all over the place. My mindset going into this crucial period was all wrong, I began to remember bad times of the bubble period. I am a strong believer that half of the battle is in the mind, so there goes half the battle. After a long struggle I was eliminated in 18th place. This was so frustrating as my bad bubble period run continues. Anyway I will be playing again soon, I will try and sort this run!

Whats going on

Well starting off with the tournament at circus on Saturday, it was a good day. There were 69 runners with top ten being paid. We kicked off about quater past two, had our first casulty within a ten minutes, thankfully wasn't me. Nothing too eventfull happened before the first break (2 and a half hours) I won quite a few pots, without showdowns, standard hands like AQ AJ etc. I ended up at the break with more than double starting stack of 7K and 5K above average. I was extremly happy with my play up to that point, hadn't put a foot wrong, took my oppertunities, I couldn't really have asked for anything else.
I was moved tables shortly after the break, I had pushed my stack up to around 23K and was a little upset about having to move because I felt I had the number of a few players and could have built my stack a bit more. I was sat across from a lady who had probably about 60K chips and a man to my left who had around 30K, the rest of the table were feeling the pinch with the rising blinds and now added pressure of antes. I tried to get involved once or twice with standard raises, hands like KQ AJ but was strongly re-raised on both occasions, but decided to fold. I played a hand against a shortish stack woman, who had me really woried about my top and third pair, but I had to call. which virtually eliminated her. She only had second pair, but I seriously thought I was beat. Then I was dealt KK in the cutoff, it was raised from early position, I decided to re-raise all in for another 12K, which was insta-called, I was covered just. Fortunatly my opponent turned over Queens and my Kings held up. I was then up to around 45K with the blinds 1500/3000 300 ante, I was moved back to my original table with a few new faces obviously as the field was thining fast.
There was a drunk guy at my table, giving a lot of chat and banter, and I watched him single handedly demolish one persons stack, who must have been among the chip leads in two decisive hands. I wasn't sure he was as drunk as he made out, definatly one to be avoided. We were fast aproaching the final table, with my tight image I was able to steal pots that I had no right being in at all in all honesty and I was managing to stay above 40K.
It was bubble time, eleven players left, and I was moved tables again and sat between two ladies each with big stacks. Every time I caught a semi raisable hand one of these two got in first, and the hands were definatly not re-raising material. Now with the blinds at 2000/4000 and 400 ante I was strugling, but there were a few worse off than me. But I had decided today I would comit poker suicide. I was in the big blind with KQsuited and there was a raise from a player who had been entering a lot of pots, it was folded to me, so I pushed over the top all in, She virtually had to call for her last 18K and did and turned over a A9off, niether hand improved and I was crippled. That was virtually the end of the tournament for me, I went out in 11th on the bubble. I was just more gutted that I had played for near seven hours then blow it on KQ, I hope to play these office poker tournaments again in the near future as I definatly can see myself winning one.

Since then I have had a few online sessions and have ran into a rough period playing 5-max cash games I ran into set over set and then my full house beaten by quads. And totally lost my attitude So I have decided to take a break and haven't played for a day or so.

anyway I hope to be back at the tables feeling good very soon