SnG Weekend roundup

Played three games on Friday before heading out to celebrate the new year. Not much to say there. In the first one, I finished 10th. How? I had A K and raised it up preflop. One guy re-raised me. There were two callers. Flop came A K 6. I bet and was raised. I re-raised all in. He showed A A. Ouch! Pocket rockets made for a quick game.

Next table, I played a bit more patiently and came in first. Yes! I survived a bad beat when my K K got cracked by the flush draw on the river. But then I went on a rush and my 190 grew to 3450 within the next ten hands. Played the good hands well and caught some nice flops. I also like to think I played short handed very well. I went on the nice rush and after building the short stack up, I stayed aggressive when everyone was thinking I was pushing on anything. The rush was over and suddenly I was a big stack. But the comeback would be short and I would finish in second.

But then I ran into the opposite in the third game. One guy played well and was a chip leader throughout the game. However, when it was down to just 4, he became a total wuss. I was sitting in second place and pushed the short stacks as well as the big stack around with some aggressive bets. Problem was, the short stacks were being pressured by the big stack. He could have taken one guy out on three different occasions. The short stack had about 800 after posting the big blind. The big stack, with about 8000, should have pushed him in with any two cards but was folding. I didn't like that at all.

And it would cost me. Because I wanted him to take out a short stack, it made me a bit more aggressive than I should have been. Thus I went out in 4th when I raised it up on a steal with just an A 8. The big stack was in the big blind and re-raised me all in. I called though I should have folded. If I fold, I am still in 2nd by a couple of hundred. His 9 9 held up. It sucked. The passive play by the big stack put me on tilt when I should have been fine. So on that note, I went out and got drunk for New Year's Eve.

I didn't play again until Sunday night. Played some conservative poker until we were down to 5 again. That seems to be the solid game plan. Nice hand of note was a 10 6 big blind hand I had. It was called to me so I saw a flop with 10 6. Flop came 8 6 3, with 2 diamonds. I bet out my pair and was called. On the turn came a 2. I checked. My opponent bet out half the pot. My gut was he was on the flush draw. I pushed all in to take down a couple thousand when he folded. It is nice to have the instinct to figure out why they just called and know that they were on a draw. Too many people do not take that chance. And you can't unless you bet it out. I set up a nice stop and go with the check and it paid off.

The guy I would end up head up against took took the last two out on two consecutive hands and had a chip lead on me. It doesn't hurt to get a pair of 6s and flop the set to take the lead. I then bet out the A J and had him push all in with Q 4 diamonds. Though two diamonds hit the flop, he had no more help and I was a winner again! Nice

So the 9 game experiment is finished. I have 3 firsts and one third. But the best part is getting my game under control again. My original $100 is at $151. A 50% return. I will play more of the SnGs for a while before doing a $10 multi experiment. Of course, the multis is where the big money is at.