I have attempted 4 different times to finish my previous blog, going into detail on various final table hands, and each time it has not saved.  It either just doesn't save at all or gives me an error message.  So until it is consistently working for me I am not going to go into any lengthy details.

Cliffnotes on rest of tourney-Made it to final table 5/9, shortstacked with 8 left, doubled up a few times, went into 3 handed play with t40,000 with both of my opponents having over t200,000.  Eventually went out losing A8o against villains AQo.

Tonight I am doing poorly going 0/5.  I am still in the 50/50 sitting in 116th place out of 415.  924 started.  Hopefully I can run hot in the later stages and we will see how things go.

    Finally got the deep finish I was working for, although anytime you get that deep in a bigger buy in tournament, anything other than winning is kinda blah.  Played the $50+$5 15k gauranteed on Monday, June 16th, finishing third out of 236 for a very nice $1800.  Also final tabled the 4k gauranteed Omaha tournament on Friday the 13th for an insignificant $138.  In between I played myself out of the $5 rebuy on Friday, bubbling myself with a disgusting AQ vs. AA hand that is too dreadful to even put into words.  I also shallow cashed Fridays 50-50 for $105 and was the first one out in the money on Monday for a whopping $34.  Didn't play over the weekend but all in all a nice wraparound.

     Some tournament notes on the 15k gauranteed:

     I played it very close to the vest for the first hour and my stack dwindled from the original t2000 down to t1590 at the first break.  At the 40-80 blind level is when I began my chip up that would continue all the way through the rest of the tournament.

Hand #56-Limped in middle position with 77, and called a raise by the button of t110.  The flop came 9-4-8 rainbow and it was checked around.  Turn was a 7.  I led for t400 which got two callers.  The two callers was disheartening but the river brought a beautiful 4, filling me up.  I doubled up through a slowplayed 10-6.

Hand #81-Raised two middle position limpers to 500 (blinds 50-100) from the button with 99.  Two callers.  Q-9-3 rainbow flop.  Checked around.  Turn brought the case 9 giving me quads and I simply smooth called when MP limper #1 bet t900.  MP fired t1300 on the river, which I double raised, but he folded.

Hand #97-Dealt AA on the button.  MP raises to 540 and I reraise to 1250.  MP pushes all in and I gleefully call.  MP turns over JJ and I eliminate him bringing my stack up to about t11000 at the 80-160 level.

Hands 100-130-I attempt 3 raises in middle position with AQs, A2s, A10o.  All three are heavily reraised to the villain directly to my left, who becomes a thorn in my side until I play back at later.

Hand #138-Complete small blind after 1 limper with A10o.  Flop AA2 with 2 clubs.  I lead with a pot sized bet, and late position limper shoves all in.  I call and limper shows 66.  I am up to t16000.

Hand #148-I use all of my poker skills.  MP shoves all in to my big blind with AJ.  I call with KK.  No ace and I make another elimination.

Hand #189-The only hand of the tournament I feel that I really butchered.  I raised 3x the big blind from the cutoff with my old nemesis AQh.  BB calls.  Flop comes 5-2-6, 2 diamonds and we both check.  A standard continuation bet here would have one the pot, and this is one of the few I missed throughout this tournament.  Turn brings a King and again 2 checks.  River pairs the board 6's and the villian leads out with a 1500 which I call.  Looking back there was a king on the board, and the river completed a flush, should have been an easy laydown.

Hand #227-This is the hand I feel I played the best.  My villain directly to my left had been reraising me mercilessly for quite some time.  I was sitting at about t25,000 at this point and he was at about t40,000.  I picked up A10o on the button and it was folded around to me.  I raised to t2,400, and planned to call a reraise if the small blind made one.  On cue he reraised me to t8,000, which I called.  The flop came A-Q-K and villain led for t8,000, which I called.  In hindsight I should have just pushed the flop because once I called for half my remaining stack I was going to go with the hand.  The turn came a 5, and the villain checked.  I shoved, he folded and we essentially changed chip position.  This set me up for the next hand...

Hand #228-Again KK (which I had 4 times in a 340 hand tournament) dealt to me in the cutoff.  Two middle position callers and I bumped it to t4,000 (5x the big blind).  Both MP callers called.  Flop came 7-6-6 and it was checked to me.  I bet t14,000 and one of the MP callers shoved for t18,000.  There was a chance I was beat, but I figured him more in the range of 99-JJ.  I called for t4,000 more and he showed 7-9d.  Turn and river bricked and I was up to about t55,000 in chips.

Hands #229-#272 I went completely card dead and my stack started to dwindle.  We were nearing the final table bubble and I was going in the wrong direction.

Hand #273-

Edit to come.

      Never personally though too much of blogging but figured I would give it a shot.  Not so much because anyone cares how/what I do but as a place for me to put my exploits into words as a source of personal accountability.  I hope to also use this as a place to consolidate all of my poker resources.  I plan on updating daily, with only poker content for the sake of talking myself through the previous days positives and negatives.

      Last night was frustrating as I semi-bubbled the only two tournaments I entered (87/699 in the FTP $26-$16,000 gauranteed with 72 cashing, and 106/513 $5 rebuy-$7,000 gauranteed with 66 cashing).  This puts my into a mini 0/9 cashing slump.  Not horrible by any means and very easy to turn around but is especially frustrating due to the fact that I was 5/8 in cashing in MTTs before that getting deep into everything I played but not being able to hit anything "big".  My biggest cash in that stretch was a 1rst in a $26-45 man for $410.  My early tournament play has been solid allowing me to acquire a big stack, and my endgame has been good, but it is that dreaded "midgame" that is killing me.  Specifically in the t400-t800 blind levels up to the t1000-t2000 blinds with a stack size of 15-25 big blinds.  I find myself calling with mediocre hands or getting carried away with steal attempts (specifially BvB hands when I run into a real hand) and subsequently bleeding my stack away.  I also feel I could have gone very deep in several "big" money tournaments recently had I avoided putting myself in dangerous situations with marginal hands (although who couldn't say that).  Luckily I feel my recent flaws are quite fixable with patience and perserverence.

     Such was the situation in the $16k gauranteed last night.  At the t400-t800 level i was sitting semi comfortably at ~t16000.  I was delt KJo on the button.  I called after 2 MP limpers.  Flop came AKJ rainbow.  It was checked to MP limper #2 who put out a pot sized bet.  I raised, he reraised all in for slightly more than half my stack and I called.  He showed AA and it was all over.  A foolish limp on his part after another limper...probably.  But I should have gotten off the hand easily seeings as I could beat almost nothing he makes that move with (AQ maybe?  probably not and even if it was he had lots of outs).  Slowplays by opponents seem to be working a lot on me, perhaps I am being read (correctly, recently anyways) as an aggressive player with the inability to lay down a mid strength hand.  I was stuck at about t6000 for a while untill I busted out in 87th place with As10c on a Js10s4s flop.  Aggro big blind had 8s6s for the made flush and I didn't hit.  Game over.

     The $5 rebuy was slightly less eventful but ended more painfully.  I was in for $25 (original double rebuy + 1 double rebuy + add on) and again, same area of the tournament.  Nearing the bubble, not quite on it yet with blinds at t500-t1000.  I was floating in the t9000-t12000 chip range for much of the past hour so I wasn't in great shape to begin with.  Aggro mega stack (~t50,000) raises it to t5000 from EP and I find AA in the BB.  RRAI, mega stack shows 66.  6 on the flop and my poker day is done.

     Tonight I hope to play the $16k gtd, the $32k gtd, and the $5 rebuy again.  I may add in an $11-45 man SnG or two just to hopefully get things headed back into the right direction.

                                                                                                       CRE