Chip and a chair and perfect poker

Well I didn't make the points last night but I sure did make a good run considering I only had 3000 chips going into the 2nd hour with blinds at 500/1000.

I was pretty card dead the whole first hour and I was at a VERY aggressive table. The hand that cut me down was when I shoved preflop for about 6k with blinds at 200/400 against two limpers and I had AT. The 2nd limper who was shorter than me called with AJ which in my opinion was a terrible call and I know plenty would agree with me. If you're going to put your tournament on that hand, why would you limp/call with it? You should be raising that hand not limping with it.

Needless to say I wasn't feeling great about my chances after that but I resisted all urges to just shove my chips in and go home. So I waited 10 minutes and got back in it by picking up 22 in the bb. A late player with a short stack baby bumped it and I shoved. He called, showing AJ and amazingly I won the race so that got me up to 9k (I had stolen a blind round previously).

The 2nd hour was completely opposite of the first. I had AK twice, QQ twice, AQ; just running hot. Before I knew it I was up to 36k, and pretty much got it all from a doofus with the chiplead who had cracked KK and AA on the same hand with 88. So it just goes to show you that you can be down but never out, and never give up hope.

HOWEVER the more tournaments I play the more I realize how you really do have to play perfect poker to win these things. And one key hand i didn't really think through, or maybe I was just riding the rush is what kept me from making the points:

The blinds were 2k/4k and I was still sitting on about 35k. A really tight female pushes all in for 17k on my big blind and I wake up with AQ. I wasn't really crazy about the hand but I thought there was a very good chance she was shoving with a weaker Ace in which case I'd be a big favorite. So I called and she turned over AK, the absoloute worst hand she could show me. The board bricked out and she took it down.

Obviously in retrospect I could've laid it down and probably would've made the points, but I forgot to play perfect poker. It also brings to mind some material I've been reading about what makes Hellmuth such a great tournament player, and that's knowing the value of chips saved is just as important as chips earned. That 13k I called could've been much more useful to me had I saved it and used it to push around other players on another hand. Instead I gave it away after working very hard for them and ended up having to push 67s for my tourney life. I got called by A9 (another iffy call IMO) but it held and I was knocked out.

I guess I have to do it next Friday instead if I want to make it to the TOC. But you know what? Even if I don't makei it that's ok because I really feel I'm playing these tournaments extremely well these days and that's all I can ask for. Everything else will fall into place when it's supposed to.

Laptop's back and I've stuck to my plan of $10 cash and $5 SNG's. I'm in one now about to make the final table with about 5th place in chips. Cash game tomorrow and I'm ready to tear some donks up. Expect a report maybe tomorrow night or Monday when I'm at work. Peace out!