Weekend update

Great news! PokerStars held a "Million Dollar Man" tournament today where the top 100 finishers get a 0.01% share of Ylon Schwartz' winnings at the final table of the WSOP Main Event. Using deposit bonus "MDM", I got free tickets to these tournaments each Sunday, so I gave it a shot. I didn't make the top 100 (although I was briefly the chip leader near the beginning of the second hour), but there were nearly 12,000 entrants and I finished 356th, good for $31.50. That put my bankroll up to $113.30, enough to warrant moving up to the $5.50 SNGs.

In my first $5.50, the 6th hand went like this:

Hero's M = 45.33
PokerStars Game #21337048231: Tournament #115258746, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/10/19 21:52:55 ET
Condensed history provided by the Tournament Trimmer (v1.1.4w) from http://www.FlopTurnRiver.com
Table '115258746 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: Mader74 (1520 in chips)
Seat 2: DoanDiggy (1360 in chips)
Seat 3: watdog1969 (1380 in chips)
Seat 4: braguss (1260 in chips)
Seat 5: chirolicious (1940 in chips)
Seat 6: The Null Set (1170 in chips)
Seat 7: SouthPaw_982 (1870 in chips)
Seat 8: KALISPELL1 (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: radman84 (1500 in chips)
SouthPaw_982: posts small blind 10
KALISPELL1: posts big blind 20
Preflop: DoanDiggy dealt J K
radman84: folds
Mader74: folds
DoanDiggy: raises 40 to 60
watdog1969: folds
braguss: raises 60 to 120
chirolicious: folds
The Null Set: folds
SouthPaw_982: folds
KALISPELL1: folds
DoanDiggy: calls 60
Flop: 3 2 6
DoanDiggy: bets 180
braguss: raises 180 to 360
DoanDiggy: raises 880 to 1240 and is all-in
braguss: calls 780 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (100) returned to DoanDiggy
Turn: 7
River: A
Showdown:
DoanDiggy: shows J K (a flush, Ace high)
braguss: shows 6 A (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
DoanDiggy collected 2550 from pot


Once I started to get a feel for the table, I noticed that the play was very tight. I was able to use aggression effectively and remain chip leader or close to it for the rest of the match, and I pulled down first place in my first-ever $5.50, netting me a $17 profit.

Taking into account a $5.40 double-or-nothing that I lost while playing that match, my bankroll is now up to $124.90, meaning that I'm about two weeks ahead of schedule.

I'm sure that I'm in for a run of bad finishes before too long -- my current projected total of $35,400 is certainly not going to hold up. But at least for now, things are looking up!