After getting the free poker money last month, I’ve played a bunch of low limit Texas holdem, and managed to eat into my bankroll, bringing it down to about half. I just don’t have the right mentality for that game. I’m still signed up for the no limit hold-em tournament that I talked about, and it’s running tomorrow, so I thought I should maybe get some tournament experience under my belt before walking in blind.

The poker sites run “sit ‘n go” tournaments all the time apparently, so I sat down to my first single table tournament last night. $6 gets you in the game, then the top 3 finishers (out of 10) make money - $25/$15/$10. The low limit tournament wasn’t a lot different from the low limit games I’d been playing (ie, I’m not patient enough.)

Then I sat down at a pot limit single table tournament. Same structure as the other one, but with the increased limits on bets, the game is a lot more dynamic. It’s far less likely that some goof will call a big bet when all he has is 8 high and he still needs two cards to make a straight. That happens in low limit all the time, and when you’ve got enough of those goofs, chances are good that one of them will hit his big hand.

Anyway, the first tournament was a lot of fun, and I managed to come in second. I knew when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em and all that good stuff. The second tournament was even more fun after getting down to a very short stack, I built it back up again through well timed bluffs, and having the right cards at the right time. I managed to bust out three other players through skillful play, and put two others on life support when they wouldn’t call me for their last few dollars. I got all kinds of good cards too, which doesn’t hurt. It came down to three of us left, and I had more than half the chips at the table, but I doubled up one of the other players twice to get busted out myself. I was taking bigger chances, because I wanted to win the first prize, and the difference between second and third didn’t matter so much to me. I think that next time I’d be a little more cautious, but in the end, pocket fours hitting their trips on the flop would probably beat me with a pair of kings again.

So, I’m really looking forward to this tournament this weekend. The top 60 finishers are in the money (out of something like 600) so I don’t expect to walk away with anything, but you never know. It’s going to be a fun time, until I get busted…

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Alright brain, you don’t like me and i don’t like you, so let’s just do this thing and I’ll go back to killing you with beer.” - Homer