First Night

Posting after each tournament will probably not happen, but I figured that since it is the first night I would share my experience.

After work I had a plan to load the kids up in the new pick up and drive 30 minutes to a bigger town to pick up some food and supplies.  My wife is out of town at a seminar or training, so I have the kids this week. 

Since I have the kids I figured that the 5.50 game was out of the question since it starts so early, so I figured why not take care of a few things in town and then I won't have to cook.  My sons have been quite anxious to go for a ride in the new truck as well.  I think it's because of the sound system.  Three amps and I don't know how many speakers makes it sound pretty awesome.

We went shopping for some stuff to keep the pool clean, weed eater string, the last of school supplies, and easy lunches for the babysitter to make for the kids to finish out these last 2 weeks of summer.

We got back around 9:00.  It was too late for the 2.20 game as well as the badugi tournaments.  I took a look and the nightly 1.10 500.00 guaranteed tournament was still in late registration so I registered.

The blinds were already getting large 125 250, but with 5000 starting chips and 12 minute blind levels it was not too much to worry about. 

I lost a couple thousand chips early with decent starting hands calling raises and folding after the flop.  Then I got a KQo and called a smallish 2X raise.  I flopped a K and called an all in.  He had 10 10 and didn't get his 2 outer. 

Then I made my first mistake.  I raised and called a 3 bet with AJo.  The flop was 9 8 7 rainbow.  They go all in and with an inside straight draw and 2 overs I called all in.  He turns over 88 and I don't catch my 10.  There was 3 minutes left in the re entry period.  Sometimes I can catch somebody trying to gain chips at that time because they can re enter if they need to.  I was the one re entering.

After the re enter period, I start gathering some chips again.  Then I made a risky call pre-flop with KQo as a short stack goes all in.  Another player calls after me.  The flop comes out Q high.  I bet  3000 and the other player goes all in for an additional 9000.  That would leave me with about 300 chips left with blinds at 250 500.  I called and the raiser has 10 10.  This looks similar to the earlier big hand.  The all in player tables AJ suited but his suit is not a worry, just his A.  The turn was a blank and the river was a K just to rub it in. 

Now I had ammunition.  From there I slowly grew my stack until we reached the money.  I was sitting in 30th place out of 120.  After the money bubble, I started getting good starting hands and would raise to be re-raised all in.  They weren't that good, so I would have to fold.  Then I lost some flips to short stacks going all in.  Finally I was short stack and had to make a play.  I went all in with A9 and lost to AK when my 9 made his flush.

Looking at the hand history, I stayed in some hands too long.  I also needed to fold to larger bets if I did not have a made hand yet.  There were a couple of hands I should have stayed in, but thought the bets were too large.  My hands would have held up.  I made notes on those players so if they pull those all in bets again and I have a hand I can look them up.

My first tournament was 2.20 after my re entry.  I finished 81st for 2.10.  It looks like I may be sticking with this game this week until my wife gets back home.