APL and online poker update

Yesterday was the Regional APL poker tournament. I haven't had a good result in one for a while so I was determined to do well. I've seen "card dead" before but yesterday was ridiculous! My table was loose and had a number of weak players playing rubbish hands, I just needed something semi-decent to take advantage of this.

Anything playable that I had wasn't connecting with the board and it took me an unbelievable EIGHT levels or roughly two hours before I won my first hand. With the blinds at 1000/2000 and my stack down to just 1600, the blinds would hit me soon so I took my chances with king 8 suited. Hit two pair on the flop and quadrupled up. I then got ace ten off and with a break in 3 minutes I decided to starting moving and pushed all-in. I got called by the big blinds pocket 7's and hit a ten and an ace high flush to double up again. Last hand before the break, pocket tens in the big blind. I thought about it for a while and decided to push it all-in again. Big blind considered it but then folded. I go to the break with 17,000 in chips but the blinds are about to go to 2000/4000.

I got moved to another table that I knew a few people at and didn't get any hands or hit any flops. Having just gone through the blinds and on the button with 6000 left, I (stupidly looking back) decided to call/all-in with pocket 2's. Big blind hit a ten, took down the pot and I was gone in about 20th place, final 3 tables. Looking back, I should've waited for something a little stronger, after all I was through the blinds and would've had 4 or 5 more hands to choose from. Oh well, lesson learnt.

Now to my online poker play at PokerStars. After my last update about playing MTT's, I have been playing a lot of tournaments and almost no cash games. I really do enjoy the tournament format more so than cash/ring games. I've been continuing to play the 90 man games at mostly the $1 buy-in but with a few $2 non-turbo's thrown in as well. After 4 agonising 2nd place finishes I finally broke through last night and won one! I went to the final table in a strong position, got some hands at the right time and watched as players knocked each other out and took a few out myself. We got to heads up (where I have not been doing well) and I had a commanding chip lead. My winning hand was king 3 off and in an unraised pot I had two pair on the turn but there was possibly a flush out there. My opponent tried to represent the flush but with my chip lead I was willing to take my chances and pushed him all-in. It turns out he had bottom pair no kicker so I won in a very short heads-up contest (possibly just 5 hands). It was only a $1 buy-in so the prize was $25 ... still, a nice return and good to get a 1st again.

Last night I also played in the large $1.10 entry tournament. There were 2700 starters and I finished 81st. With about 100 players left I found myself in 50th position and doing quite nicely. I called a raise and a call from the bb with ace king suited. The flop came down 7, ace, king with maybe 2 clubs out there. Small blind checked, I bet and the initial raiser called. Next card out 7 so I bet solidly again and called. By now I'm really hoping its a split pot to the same hand or that he's calling with ace queen. As the pot was so large already and with my stack covering the caller/initial raiser, I decided to put him to the test on the river when the ten of clubs came. He called and turned over pocket aces! I couldn't believe my bad luck, not only hitting the last ace in the deck but I also hit a king to give me two pair on the flop yet I was infact drawing dead. If you didn't know, I'm not Phil Hellmuth, I can't dodge bullets (baby). See video footage below if you don't know what I'm referring to.

I was left with less than 20K in chips and the blinds moving up quickly. Under the gun, with only 3 times the bb left, I decided to push in with ace 4 off. I only got one caller, pocket 2's. I liked my chances in that race, ace comes on the flop ... and you guessed it, 2 on the river. OUCH

Bankroll update ... I'm up to $136 and almost 700 in FPP's. I'm wondering whether I should use my points for a PokerStars t-shirt or use it for buy-ins to tournaments. I'm guessing I'll go with the latter but I would like to grab one of those t-shirts.