The lesson for this weekend is “Never Give Up”
Saturday I played in a few $2 SNG’s at FTP, all in all I was down about $2 after playing in 6 of them. That makes one 1st place, and 1 3rd place (the rake took the rest). So not too good for the day. I didn’t really learn much except the 1st place finish came at a table where it seemed everyone was in a hurry to give their chips away.
We started the SNG tourney, 9 players, all even with 1500 chips. After two hands, one player is gone (all in with something ridiculous, like 78 off. So, one normal hand goes by, nothing exciting, someone took like 180 chips. next hand I limp in with A-10 if I remember right (don’t have the history handy) and 3 people call all-in. So I’m outta there… in the end, the player winning against the other two had like J-10 off suit, the others didn’t even have pairs. Weird table… in the long run I ended up chip leader when we were down to 4 players and that didn’t change. I actually played very few hands and came out on top.
Sunday, I slept in and missed the big fish, but it was -19 with the wind chill, and bed was just too warm. Getting up later meant a different crowd, but it worked out ok. I played two games in the afternoon, one third and one first… later in the evening got a second on the only other tourney I played in.
So overall, I’m in good shape for the weekend, bankroll climbed a bit (ok, Friday equalled it out if you count it) and I’m around $27 – 29 at this point.
I want to post up some specific hands, but left my USB key with the history on it at home (yes, I’m goofing off at work).
Anyway, what I learned this weekend is the following:
In the afternoon $2 SNG 9-player at FTP that I ended up winning, at the third blind level I was down to 1/2 my chips after chasing a bad hand… but I would have played it the same way again… the showdown was against someone who was fairly wild… but then I tightened up… played only premium hands, scraped some pots, stole a couple of blinds and then started playing tight but aggressive on the bubble… ended up head to head with the person who put me on 1/2 my original stack. She complimented by comeback and we went at it… she had become very tight and was opposed to push/fold. 4xBB was her with a big hand, a call meant a low pair or connectors (if I remember correctly). I started feeling like i knew exactly what she had each hand, allowing me to be super-aggressive. I would re-raise and force her out on simple calls, but would see the same from her sometimes. Finally I hit some big hands and slow played one, trapping her when she thought she had me beat. After that she’s down to about 3,000 chips against my 10,500 stack… she all-ins and I figured what the heck, called and took her down.
The moral of the story… being down to 600 chips early on is no reason to start throwing all ins… my M was still around 10 and i hung on and played premium hands, ending up the winner. Don’t ‘Tilt’ and give up, throwing all in when it shouldn’t be viable…