I wasn’t able to play too much poker this weekend, but I did play a bit last night, and once again came tantelizingly close to the Big Enchilada.

I played in a $33 buy-in event,  198 players.

I was almost knocked out in the first 10 mins when some bozo sucked out on me with pocket 8’s.  Putting me in dead last place with 186 left, and leaving me with 295 chips.

Somehow I held on,  and about an hour later had the pleasure of taking the very same bozo out when the flop came down with Q-10-2.  I had Q-10, giving me two pair.  He bets large,  I think about it,  and push all in.   What did he call with?   4-5 off suit.   i.e. ZERO.. nothing.  Not a raise (bluff) with nothing, but a call with nothing.   It’s astonishing how bad some players online are. 

After that I was able to stay in the top 20 the rest of the tournament.

I make it to the final table,  (top 9)  top prize in this one is $1,782, and I reach the final table in 6th place.

Alas, it was not mean’t to be as I made a move a pot and a guy makes a very questionable call that takes me out of the tounament:

I had Ace-Jack spades,  I raise pre-flop, he calls.

The flop comes down Q-spades, 7-spades, 2-hearts.

I push All in… and he Calls….

WITH NOTHING.   A-K offsuit,  No spade.

I couldn’t believe it,  again some guy risks the entire tournament with Nada, at the final table even!

With 2 cards to come, and 12 outs that can win it for me,  I of course get no help.  neither a jack or spade came on the turn or river, and the guys Ace-King held.   I could have a pair of 2’s, and he would have been out,  unbelievable.

So I take 10th, and $100 bucks.   Just out of the big prize money again.

I’m coming close, and soon hope to have a report with some good news.  

I also think I may be playing these things a little too tight. 

At the final table everyone was folding, it was super tight.  And there was one large stack stealing blinds right and left. 

It’s a fine line between using leverage, and playing too laggy (Loose-Aggressive),  I believe my game has drifted a bit to the tight-tight side of the isle, so I’ll try to leverage a few more hands in the next tournament.

Note: I’m not going to post the $100 win in the $300 challenge,  since I’m no longer doing the sit-n-go challenge, it’s pretty meaningless (see the “I’m not a grinder post below”)  I’ll try to come up with a better metric to gauge my progress soon.

Another tough session in Sit-N-Go Hell on Poker Stars tonight.

After all was said and done, I ended up down $66.15 for the night.

I took a few 3rds, and a 1st in the single table $6.50 Turbo Sit-N-Go’s,  and didn’t finish in the money in a few 3 and 5 table Sit-N-Gos.

It was the same old story,  I played well, and time and time again I was either sucked out on,  or would make moves and get called down by clueless players.  

The suckouts started fast and furious,  three times in a row I lost with KK,  twice to lower pairs,  and once to some bozo calling with K-10 off who hits a straight.   I also lost quite a few hands where the players were calling down boards they had no business being in,  situations where some guy is holding pocket 77’s, and with a flop of something like K-Q-9,  will call my big continuation bets,  totally oblivous to my what I might have, or even be representing.

As the evening wore on, my game got worse.  I started limping more,  bluffing more, etc. 

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m just not a grinder.   I already knew I wasn’t a cash game grinder.  You know, those guys who play at a $2-$4 table all night, hoping to squeeze out some kinda edge after an 18 hour session.   Sure its fun to play in cash games every once in awhile with your friends, or if you’re at the Bellagio in Vegas or something,  but night in, and night out,  no thanks.

And it turns out,  playing in these rinky dinky 9 player turbo Sit-N-Go’s,  that’s also grinding.  Just a different form of grinding,  you’re grinding away hoping for those top 3 finishes and a good ROI.

Not for me,  I just can’t take the statistically expected swarm of suckout after suckout that’s required to play like that,  sure others can,  (Congrats Beanmo)  but it’s not where I’ve had success, and it’s not my style of play.   I think my game actually gets WORSE grinding in these Sit-N-Gos, not better.   And the players, especially at the $6.50 level are terrible,  they are almost all gambling Donks.

I know I can do well in the larger fielded tournaments, with larger buy-ins,  larger starting chip stacks, slower blinds.  That’s where I’ve done well in the past,  and it’s where the heart of my game is, so that’s what I’m going back to.

It pretty much invalidates the entire idea of the $300 challenge though,  So I’m not sure what to do about that, I suppose I’ll keep the counter on there just so people can track my progress as I ease back into the real tournaments,  however it’s going to be more erratic,  and baring a lucky win the next time I play, I’ll have to reload pretty soon.

So back to the real tournaments,  with the non agressive blind schedules, better players,  less hectic play,  and lucrative payout structures. 

What a strange evening.

For the first time ever,  Pokerstars crashed on me while I was playing online.

I had (3) single table Sit-N-Gos, and a 45 player tourmanet going at once, when BLAMO…  frozen tables… no connection.

I tried for 30 mins to reconnect,  I couldn’t even log onto the Pokerstars website from either of my two machines.  Everything else worked, email, the web, IM, but Pokerstars was down.  However, my brother was able to log on from Chicago,  so I knew it must of been some sort of west coast issue.

As I frantically tried to get back onto my tournaments, I get an email from PS telling me I took 3rd place (and $10 bucks) in one of my single table Sit-N-Gos.  not bad for not playing!  hmmm maybe I should give this strategy a shot.

The real bummer was that in the 45 player tourney, I had just doubled up before I lost connection with around 40 players left.

FINALLY… after about 30 minutes I’m able to get back on.

The other Sit-N-Gos are history,  however the 45 player tournament is still live,  and there are 15 players left,  and I’m in 15th place.   I wasn’t blinded out!

Almost immediatly I get AK, push all in, and double up against some Donk calling with A-7.  (You should never call a push with Ace trash, the reason being the person pushing almost always has a pair over your trash card, or even worse, Ace 10 thru Ace King).

The double up keeps me alive, and by some miracle I make it to the final table,  then to the money (top seven),  then to the final three,  then heads up, and then… 

I win it!  

Woot!   Ok it was just $70 bucks,  but not bad for a guy who didn’t even play in the tournament for 30 minutes.

While it wasn’t a lot of money, it was one of my more satisfying wins of late.

So I jumped back into the poker pond this weekend and resumed the $300 challenge.

However I really wasn’t in the mood to grind it out playing dozens of tiny turbo sit-n-gos.  I know that’s the mission of the $300 challenge, to try to have long term gains based on positive ROI,  however I believe if you’re not in the mood to grind, then you shouldn’t play them on a particular session.

I was in the mood to play in a longer, slower, bigger tournament for a large cash payout,  so I played in the $55 Buy-In event at 2pm Sunday on Poker Stars, and decided to take a shot at the BIG ENCHILADA!

I love this event, first, I won it almost a year ago in early May of 2007, my biggest tournament win ever ($11,280),  and second, you start with twice the normal stack, $3,000 in chips,  this combined with the slower blinds (every 15 minutes) really allows for skillful play for a good portion of the tournament.

We started with 1,520 people,  with the top 252 players making the cash, and first prize paying $13,000.

The first hour was pretty uneventfull, I played it really tight, but then right before the first break I got, well, a break;   I was dealt 6-9 offsuit on the big blind,  a few players limped in, the button min raises, the blinds were still very small, I believe $25-$50,  so throwing in another $25 on the BB was worth it.  

The Flop comes up…

7-8-A  rainbow.

I couldn’t ask for much better considering my garbage hand.     I check the flop, everyone else folds,  the min-raiser makes a small raise, $100 chips.   I figure the pot odds are pretty good so I call, everyone else folds.

The Turn was my bingo card,  a beautiful 5 of clubs,  giving me (so far) the nuts.

I check,  min raiser bets $500,  I re-raise $1000,  he goes all in, I call.

Predictably, he had an Ace,  Ace Queen, he never saw the straight coming.    The river was a useless deuce, and I double up right before the break.    It’s rare that you get a hand like that,  but when it happens you usually double up on someone.  However, he should have known I had something by the mere fact that I was on the big blind, and the flop was raggy.   Always be aware of BB or SB limpers when raggy flops come up,  odds are they hit a piece of it, or maybe even a monster with some sort of goofy straight like I had.

The next hour or two were uneventful,  I bluffed a few pots,  and was the benefit of a small suckout when I called a short stacks All In with 77.  It was only 20% of my stack so I figured it was a good call,  he shows 88,  but I river the 3rd 7. 

I make the money (Top 252) in around 150th place.  

From here on out it gets into push/fold territory for most of the stacks,  If you’re sitting on less than 10 big blinds, it’s really the only move you have.   

When it gets down to the top 100,  I’m in trouble.  A few times I push all in, and win the blinds on some cold stone bluffs,  one in particular was a situation where a large stack was trying to push me off after limping in the BB with 55.  The flop comes up A-K-K.   He bets,  I push All In.  he thinks.. and thinks.. .and thinks.. and folds.   Even though if he had called, he would have been ok,  I’m pretty sure he didn’t have a damn thing and was just trying to bully me out of the pot.   The reason I pushed All In is because of a lesson I’ve learned about a flop like tht,  if it’s down to you, and one other player,  and you see a flop with 2 high pairs, such as AA thru 10-10, or even 9-9,  if someone has the 3rd card to make the set, they NEVER.. EVER…NEVER…EVER bet the pot.  99.9% of the players you face will slow-play that hand,  so a bet is a sign of a pure bluff.   I’ve re-raised these bluff attemps maybe 100 times since I figured this out, both online and in real life, and only ONCE did the other guy have the set.

I make it to the top 60, but in big trouble,  I’m right around the bottom, in 57th or 58th, and down to 5 Big Blinds,  finally I had to make a stand with Ace-3 Clubs,  I push all in, hoping to steal the blinds.  All fold around to the big blind, who calls with King-King.  I don’t pop an ace, and finish in 51st place, for a cash payout of $130.98.    I think I made the right choice on pushing with the Ace-3 Cubs,  I suppose you can debate that, however I was on the verge of being blinded out,  and it was just bad luck that the BB picked up KK.  Had he he not, I’m pretty sure I could have stolen the blinds there, and gained some ammunition to survive another orbit.

So I ended up around $75 for the day.   A good day for the $300 challenge,  however a very disappointing end to the tournament.  I know finishing 51st out of 1,500 people isn’t bad,  however the real money ($1,000 and up) started with the top 18.    Over the past year I’ve come so tantalizingly close to the big money,  I would guess this is about the 10th time I’ve finished just out of reach of the final table in one of these big multi-table tournaments.

The Big Enchilada will have to wait for another day,  meanwhile, the $300 challenge awaits.