Just took down a record 25 player tournament last Monday night in Flatline.
I have to say I played well - but honestly I can't remember the last tournament where I placed so highly and at the same time found myself getting my money in bad the majority of the time.
Every time I used my aggression and/or position correctly, I would get coolered. My Jacks ran headlong into Aces - a life-support short stack woke up with queens after my A7 suited shove. And countless times my kicker would either be smaller or simply out flopped.
So, in short, I got lucky. More than several times.
I have to look back and see how often I have bemoaned my bad luck - playing "perfect" (or at least decent) and simply getting unlucky. This is the first time the reverse was true. I played far from perfect (though as I said, I don't think I was horrible) but the poker Gods saw fit to bless me with just enough suck-outs to take this one down.
To be fair to me, I managed to accumulate chips (after being crippled more than a couple times) and climb back up simply by the grace of poor play by my opponents. As many times as I got lucky in this tournament, there were ten times as many times where I woke up with a marginal flop connection and it held up, as I was priced in by a terrible turn bet and a frequently absent river bet.
Truly, truly terrible. And yet, wonderful.
Also managed to finish 3rd in my 16 player live home game tournament last weekend. The last hand was a killer, as I got it all in as a tiny favorite in a three way pot. I was crushing the chip leader with 4's over 2's, I was racing against my brother who spiked an ace to go with his big slick on the turn. Then the chip leader hit his two outer on the river to take down the entire tournament with trips.
Ah well, it was a great ride - and I really felt I played well throughout.
Recently I've been studying online via' www.proplaylive.com, a training sight headed up by Greg Raymer and Annie Duke. Raymer has had a few gems that have helped me on perspective, but Duke is simply amazing in her instruction - and I feel has significantly raised my tournament game after only watching 2 of her videos. Say what you want about her as a player and a person, but she is an amazing instructor - very articulate and an expert communicator who holds my attention and gets the information to sink in.
My poker future looks bright indeed - next week I hope to lock down my seat in the WSOP with the penultimate satellite tournament in my online group. Wish me luck!
