Let's get it started in here....

After working on a few leaks in my game I'd mentioned a while back, I decided that I would take a shot at one of the 180 player MTT's on FullTilt. Definitely NOT one of my normal games. But I was wide awake and felt like I would be for some time, so why not give it a shot?

All I needed to do was, set myself a strategy on how to play the damn thing. My decision was pretty easy, I'll just play a little "snug." So I popped on the tunes, grabbed a frosty cold one and away we went.

After the first 62 hands, my stack and stats looked like this.


I think "snug" was a good word for it.

I found it very easy early on, to get paid for a couple of monster hands. The first 30% of the players seemed quite willing to stack off with anything related to TPTK, no matter how the board looked or how the hand was played. So a slow played flopped boat and a check-raise all-in when the board four flushed, managed to get me a few chips from an un-improved Big Slick who'd flopped his second Ace. Nice ! Needless to say that with play like that, 60% of the field was gone by first break.

The second hour saw a mix of play. Some of the players were obviously the same types as earlier in the game. They must have either gotten lucky on a hand against someones flopped nuts, or they were part of some Donk on Donk violence and managed to come out on top. These players seemed to have the vast majority of the chips. Goal #1 would be, to get me some of those chips! The direct opposite of these players, was a group that obviously felt the same way I did. They would also be fighting for some chips from the, "I can draw to anything" crowd.

I think the shot of my stack and stats here after 146 hands, shows that the "snug" nit that I was being was still paying off.


Seeing only 15% of the flops made for some incredibly boring poker to be honest, but I spent an awful lot of that time watching the others. I did love winning 100% of my showdowns however, as no matter how I played or what the board managed to come up with, I could still say that I was holding the nuts and I was going to get paid. Although that was only in six hands to this point, it was a pretty incredible feeling!

The really disappointing part up to that point, was the six hands I just had to let go after the river card came. A few of them cost me a fair amount of chips, as I was sure I was ahead and kept building "my" pot up at each chance. Only to see river cards change the dynamic of the hands as they played out and make my holdings appear to be minuscule by comparison to what could be out there. I got to see that I was 100% correct in my folds 3 out of the 6 times however, so I was pretty sure I did the right thing on the other half of them as well. The two players with all the chips at my table, KelsieO and 48Follower could not miss any draw. It was actually quite brutal a few of the times that they had to show down. In one hand, KelsieO had committed about half of his stack on a draw to the river, where he naturally hit of course, but was making the play all the way with nothing but a draw to gutter 2-outers and middle pairs that would win set over flopped set.

In the end, it was ultimately that style of play that ended my game as well. Play folded around to me in the SB and I had not played for some time. I open for a 3x raise from the small with the Jc-Kc. (who doesn't love crubs?) To no big surprise, I get the call from KelsieO. We see the flop of Ks-3d-Jh and KelsiO bets out pot. This does not worry me in the least, as this has been his MO for the 15 or so hands he has been at my table. I decide to re-pop it to 3x the pot, as I believe I am good here. My friend takes about three seconds to get all of his chips into the middle. I get mine all in as well and we are about to see who has what and more importantly, who has who!

My TOP2 is up against..... the Ad-10d. Stack in on another gutter? But having played NLHE for almost two years now, I knew enough to gather my things and get ready to turn the computer off. There was definitely a Queen coming. NOPE !! How about the six of diamonds and then the eight of diamonds for the runner-runner Flush my two and a half hours of great play to a 11th. place finish away! Sheeeeeesh !!!

On the bright side, what I've been doing with my newer NLHE strategy seems to be working for me right now. We'll just have to hang on for a bit and see how things go. Although I haven't gained back large amounts of the money spent learning the game over the last little bit, I have been getting paid AND... the goofs at Sharkdope took my little pet fish away as well. I guess getting paid, (even if only a little) in your last 9 games in a row, is good enough to drop the fish! And that's a pretty good start in my books.

Speaking of good starts, our Brit Blogger Boy Nick has a new Blog up and running called TwitterPoker. I was kinda' fond of his Hairy Gymnast page but, since his goal is to build a bankroll large enough to come over and see us here on the "other" continent, who am I to hold him back? :)

Another good, (dare I say great?) start was DonKaaa's introduction to the BBT4. I see a great second place result for him in Monday night's Riverchasers game!


Congrats Donnie! Nicely done indeed. Now can we get back to something really important? LIKE GOLF !!!! :)

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....