Solid night... tournament drought

Played 2 tournaments tonight. The 28k and the 11.5k KO 6max. Donked out very quickly in the 28k, and lasted about an hour and a half in the 11.5k. I was up to 7k in chips, flat called a raiser with KQ, Flop 88Q and he had J8c. So I doubled him up and lost 3k from my stack. From there I was able to double up, but then my QQ ran into AK and lost the flip for all but 350 of my stack, and that was pretty much it. Haven't been able to get much going since my deep run in the 32k, but I'm still hopeful.

Meanwhile I played a nice 96 minute cash session during the 2x ftp "happy hour". 1109 hands, interesting session, with a fair amount of right cards at the right times. Slow start when I had KK run into AA for a full stack. I got "lucky" on a set over set situation where I had 55, called a raise, flop was J5x. Other guy had JJ, I check called the flop. When the flush hit on the turn, I bet out, he called, then I bet out the river, and just flat called. Lost 45$ on that hand, when I should have lost 100. Also the big hands I was hitting just couldn't find any action. However I grinded my way back to even midway through the session.

Then had an interesting hand where I limped JJ utg. 4 other people also limped, and the BB who had very tight stats raised 4x, which was a strange size raise, because he knew he would get alot of action that way. I opted to flat call since I put him on a big hand, even tho I knew that would invite everyone else in. We went 5 way to the flop which was 887. It went check check to me, and I figured to have to best hand if the preflop raiser wasn't showing any aggression, so I bet 10$ about half the pot, trying to find out where I was. Everyone but the SB called. Turn J, Yahtzee! To my delight the SB led out with a $22 bet, at this point I figured he either had a big hand, or some kind of draw. It is very unlikely he would check call the flop, then bet out the turn on a bluff. So I knew i had to raise, so I made it 50$ and he shoved with K8o. Nice turn let me pick up a big pot.

Little bit later a tight utg player raised to 3$, and middle position called. I had 56h in the SB, and decided to make the call. I rarely call raises with these hands OOP, but I figured I had a good chance of getting paid off if I hit something big, and both other players had full stacks. 3way to the flop... AQ5, 2 diamonds. I check, raiser checks, MP bets 4$. I don't suspect the raiser is slowplaying anything, so getting over 3:1 I make the call. Turn 5, Yahtzee! I don't put him on AA or QQ so I figure I'm way ahead now unless he has the fluke Q5 or A5. I check, he bets 9$, and I put in a big raise to 34$. Either he has an Ace and I want to build the pot as much as possible, or he has a flush draw, and I want to make him pay to suckout on me. He thinks for a while and shoves, I call and he turns over AQ, probably putting me on a big draw with my very large raise. Another nice pot.

These two 2 outers pretty much add up to my $200 profit on the session. I also got my 200 ftps for the 27th already, so just one more day to go to qualify for the Iron Man 30k freeroll next month. I did pretty well during the midweek and hopefully I can have a good weekend. Good news... my withdrawal from a week and a half ago made it into my bank account yesterday. 1.5 weeks is pretty good time for fulltilt, previously I waited as much as a month for a withdrawal.

Random thoughts about how I've been playing...

Since the NL100 tables are more aggro than the NL50 tables I have been countering it with tight play, and not overly aggressive. My issue comes when I play hands so weak (like the JJ hand earlier), that I never really well define where I am in the hand. I find myself in odd situations where I don't have alot of information about my opponents hand to make my decisions. My concern with playing hands faster preflop and on the flop, is that I will still find myself in some very tough spots, and the pots will be bigger. And considering that I generally have trouble folding, even when I feel like I should... I want to keep myself out of those spots, reducing my variance, and reducing the likelihood of me going on tilt. So when I do make mistakes, hopefully it will be in smaller pots where it costs me less. Part of why I play so tight is because of those factors. It seems to be working better at the more aggro NL100 than it did at NL50. Maybe I am losing out overall by losing value on some pots where I should play faster.

Also, one mistake I feel I have been making, is that I generally tend to bet my monsters very strong on the river (close to pot, sometimes more, unless the pot is huge already, then go for slightly more value). Normally this is a good way to go, because when I get called, im getting paid pretty good, and then people don't get to see my cards for cheap. However, when I try this method against players who I know are solid, who maybe call my flop and turn bets, then usually flee when the big hammer comes on the river. I feel like against players who I know are solid, I should just go for a normal value bet, while I keep hammering the river against players who I don't think are quite so wise. These are just some things I've been thinking about, I'll be giving weekend reports starting tomorrow.

-Boooom