Event #3 Recap (6/8/2011)

Buy in:  $450

Event:  Deep Stack No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry).  100,000 Guaranteed.

Entries:  800ish

Finish:  200ish

Net:  -$450

Just finished up the deep stack re-entry today.  The only good news from a net-loss perspective is I didn't need to use a re-entry.  I ended up busting out well past the re-buy period around 200th after about 9 hours of play.  Started at 11:00 a.m, busted around 8 or 9 p.m.  My stack began to dwindle after I was situation dead for a while.  I lost a coinflip against a short-stack TT < AJo, all in pre.  That took my M to around 5ish where my only move was then to shove.  Two  hands later I picked up 88 and shoved all in from the CO over a late MP open.  He called and I couldn't have asked for a better situation, 88 < A8o all in pre.  That ended my day.  Two aces ran out to rub it in, ok I get it.

Anyways the tournament was a good experience.  I had fun and was happy with my play.  I enjoyed the change of pace.  I didn't feel at a skill disadvantage in comparison to any opponent encountered during the day.  Even the two better players (I noticed) made some pretty spewy plays in bigger situations.  Any player who accumulated a bigger stack pretty much luck-boxed a big situation to get them there.  Either a massive cooler, or a fish busting a stack into them obviously behind.

You had a lot of casual players open limping, even when the blinds got deeper and some b.s like that.  Lots of big fundamental mistakes.  Letting M's fall below 5 without making a move, defending with pathetic holding, and people calling 3-bets waaaay to light.  There wasn't any pure psycho spew-boxes.  The table was very tight a large percentage of the time, especially in the middle stages.  But then all of the sudden you would seem some dude take a heroic stand holding KTo getting 3-bet OOP, call.  Then commit all of his stack on a draw?  Uh ok? Where did that come from?

I never ran into a big situation to get myself in a position to build a lot of chips.  I was sort of hanging around all day, just working with what I was given.  I'd often steal a pot here and there to keep my M around 15-20.  But as the blinds increased I couldn't hold up in one meaningful situation.  I never gave up and fought hard.

I would consider throwing in a tournament into my schedule every once in a while.  I also want to keep studying MTTs.  It's just crazy how top-heavy the structures are.  I couldn't imagine playing tournaments for a living and losing 20+ in a row without a score, blows my mind how people do it.  I guess it's sort of hard to do that without online now.

So I was planning on playing the upcoming $450 tournament this Friday (standard structure).  Then perhaps the big-stack on the 15th.  After that It's the main event (6/19), which I'm still trying to get some money together to take a shot at.  I don't want to put more then 5% of my working roll in play at any time, so I would need some backing for the $2700 championship event.  I'm aiming to put up around 25% myself and get some backing from some family members.  Maybe I should just sell some stocks, not like they ever do shit anyways.

My cash games are going to take a hit this week, and my body is very confused by my current schedule.  It was extremely hard for me to get up and make the 11a.m tournament today.  I forced myself to wake up after 5 hours of sleep the night before so I would be tired Tuesday.  Tuesday night came around and I forced myself to go to bed at 12:30 a.m.  I woke up around 4:00 a.m starving and sweating (thanks for turning off the AC roommate).  I made something to eat and turned the AC back on, but I don't think I fell asleep again after that until 8:00 a.m.  So I am damn exhausted right now.

Schedule for the next few days:

Thursday:  Basketball, grilling with friends, having fun.

Friday:  $450 tournament event at 11a.m.  If I bust early I'm going to take a nap and play cash later.

Saturday: All Cash if I don't make it to day 2 (around 8 hours)

Sunday: All Cash (around 8 hours)

Monday:  Depends on how I feel, but at least a 4 hour session.

As always I question if the Friday even has enough value to bend my schedule around.  Probably not, but I made a commitment to play a few tournaments and I want to stick to that.  Also the brief change of pace is good I think.  Also practice is good if I stick to playing the main.  This has a similar blind structure.