Update from the last week

Since my last post things have been a bit more consistent for me. Thankfully no really bad days, just break-even or winning ones which makes a nice change.

Day 1 was profitable on the back of the satellites to the Sunday Quarter Million as I cashed in 2 out of 3 of them and the next day I cashed 3 out of 8 of them. My concern over those few days is that I was just managing min-cashes and of course bubbles in the other tournaments I was playing.

On Monday I played in the Guiness World Record Tournament on PokerStars against almost 150,000 other players. With 5 minute levels the structure certainly didn't suit my style of play and I never managed to build a big enough stack to stay ahead of the blinds. I finished in the top 25,000 players which wasn't the min-cash but the level or two above that.

As I was playing in the above event and it was an early start on the Monday I decided to also play in the Sunday Quarter Million rather than just converting the buy-in in to tournament dollars. Again, it was a massive field of 33,000 players and I was disappointed to finish just outside of the money. I'm yet to cash in this tournament and I had a good stack for much of it and was feeling good about my chances. I think I tried once or twice to get people off hands which didn't work and getting close to the bubble I ended up shoving under-the-gun with ace 9 suited. Normally its a move I wouldn't make but if I had stolen the blinds I would've been securely in the money ... not normally a concern but when I qualify through this game using FPP's any cash is a bonus. So I shove ace 9 suited and get flatted by someone in midposition and not surprisingly he turns over aces and although I have outs on the river I don't find any and fall agonisingly short.

I decided to spend the rest of the day playing and just took a break for lunch, dinner and a nap in the afternoon (because of the early start time of the first tournament). A couple of bubbles and a couple of min-cashes later and my bankroll was under $300 for the first time in ages which was a bit of a concern. Its not that I need the money its just that I'm not moving forward but feel like I've been playing well without reward.

I was just playing the $3.25 45 man tournaments and a few $2.20 180 mans. After short-stacking my way in to a final table I got some cards 4-handed and managed to survive the eliminations and get heads-up. I faced a huge chip deficit and large blinds compared to my stack so got it in first hand with king jack off ... unfortunately he had ace jack and I couldn't find a king or a ten on the river to improve. The $30 for second was a nice upswing tho especially since I was happy just to cash and surprised to make it as far as I did.

I had a few cashes around that one, felt I was playing well and near the end of the session got a win in one of the 45 mans. I went to the final table with a good starting stack and played well getting to the heads-up with a 3:2 chip lead. It was a quick heads-up battle that was over on the 3rd hand when I called a min-raise with 9, 10 off, 9 was the top pair on the flop, he shoved I called he turned over king high and my hand held.

I finally managed to final-table one of the 180 mans after bubbling or min-cashing them for seemingly so long. I often just get blinded out in these situations so I wanted to play for the win in this situation. I got pocket 7's in the hijack first hand and when it folded around to me I shoved for 4 or 5 times the blinds and was snap-called by a big stack on the button. He turned over aces and I was done, out in 9th.

So bankroll over US$360. I didn't play today and am not sure when I'll be playing next but hopefully the decent form will continue.