small loss financially, big gain mentally

Well Sunday came and went again and the huge score alluded me once again, however for the 2nd Sunday running I got deep in one of the tournaments and had a shot a very nice 1st prize. Last week, my over zealous play caused my demise in the UB 200k shortly after acquiring the chip lead, this week however I finished 21st in the Stars 2nd chance comp and was crippled with one of the most bizarre hands ive seen in a while. Pokerhand.org still not operating so I will post the whole HH here

PokerStars Game #10140574836: Tournament #50597871, $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit -Level XX (4000/8000) - 2007/05/27 - 23:54:12 (ET)Table '50597871 31' 9-max
Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: bikocruz (348290 in chips)
Seat 2: mdshack14 (82696 in chips)
Seat 3: jerseyjosh (119428 in chips)
Seat 4: colson10 (254965 in chips)
Seat 5: akat11 (212988 in chips)
Seat 7: hankgold (136461 in chips)
Seat 8: Paolo69 (143963 in chips)
Seat 9: Dark2000 (123803 in chips)
bikocruz: posts the ante 400
mdshack14: posts the ante 400
jerseyjosh: posts the ante 400
colson10: posts the ante 400
akat11: posts the ante 400
hankgold: posts the ante 400
Paolo69: posts the ante 400
Dark2000: posts the ante 400
Paolo69: posts small blind 4000
Dark2000: posts big blind 8000
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to Paolo69 [Ac Td]
bikocruz: folds
mdshack14: folds
jerseyjosh: folds
colson10: folds
akat11: folds
hankgold: folds
Paolo69: calls 4000
Dark2000: raises 40000 to 48000
Paolo69: raises 95563 to 143563 and is all-in
Dark2000: calls 75403 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [6s Kh 4h]
*** TURN *** [6s Kh 4h] [7h]
*** RIVER *** [6s Kh 4h 7h] [8d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***Paolo69: shows [Ac Td] (high card Ace)
Dark2000: shows [3h Jh] (a flush, King high)
Paolo69 said, "wtf"
Dark2000 collected 250006 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 250006 Rake 0
Board [6s Kh 4h 7h 8d]
Seat 1: bikocruz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: mdshack14 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: jerseyjosh folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: colson10 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: akat11 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: hankgold (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Paolo69 (small blind) showed [Ac Td] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 9: Dark2000 (big blind) showed [3h Jh] and won (250006) with a flush, Kinghigh


He beat me in the pot when I pushed all in, was remarkable. He ended up finishing 4th for $14k, what a fine line tournaments are.

One good thing become of Sunday though. I realized that I was playing like a puff in mtt’s since deciding to play them again. I have detailed how bad I have been running all week, but not once did I accumulate a big stack. All the time I was hanging on, hanging on until 1 hand decided my fate. I was so concerned making sure I had the best hand before going all the things that made me a good tournament player in the first place. I used to be a loose aggressive tournament player, with no fear of busting, constantly putting pressure on my opponents and had many gears. Once the stars million started I decided I was going to forget about how bad I was running and start playing LAG poker again. 2 out of my 4 tournaments ended quickly, the stars million and the UB 200k. IN the stars comp I flat called a raise with 44, then when the original raiser bet 2k into 4k on a A 9 9 board I moved all in for 10k total, he had around 16k total. He eventually made a good? Call with QQ and knocked me out. UB I never got going and finally went out with KQ on a TJx flop vs AA.

What was most pleasing to me was the massive stacks I accumulated in the Full tilt 400k and stars 2nd chance, it was confirmation that I had been playing like a scared little girl all week (no offence any female readers). I just missed out on the cash on full tilt with a miss timed move, and then ran deep in stars for a $1.1k cash.

I have animated my hand history of the stars tournament using pokerxfactor and can be viewed clicking the link below. Should demonstrate my loose gambling style for tournaments which proved so successful in 2006.

http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HH63247/594_20070528_082303