Poker Blues

Well, last night's poker tourney was a bust. Finished 4th out of 12 - on the bubble, as they say, one spot out of the money. I picked the wrong time and person to try to bluff out of a pot, went all in and lost it with King high to like 3rd pair on board or some garbage. What I was counting on was my opponent fearing the 3rd heart that had hit the board, and that she'd figure I'd hit the flush. When I think about it now, she was using a cheat sheet to remember all of the poker hands, and a player that "new" probably wouldn't even be looking at the board to think about what the OTHER players have. At that stage, you're too busy concentrating on what you DO have (in her case, a pair of 7's). There are other reasons I shouldn't have risked all my chips to try and take a pot from this girl, but suffice it to say, that was the biggest. Moral of the story: think about who you're bluffing before you bluff, and for God's sake, don't do it with all your chips on the bubble!

I started keeping a log of my online sit-and-go tournaments, and here are the results for the last week and a half or so:

11/18/04 - $10 - 5th -
11/19/04 - $5 - 2nd ($15)
11/20/04 - $5 - 3rd ($10)
11/20/04 - $5 - 4th -
11/20/04 - $5 - 3rd ($10)
11/22/04 - $5 - 3rd ($10)
11/22/04 - $10 - 5th -
11/22/04 - $10 - 7th -
11/23/04 - $5 - 2nd ($15)
11/24/04 - $5 - 6th -
11/26/04 - $10 - 2nd ($18)
11/27/04 - $5 - 3rd ($9)
11/27/04 - $5 - 10th (2-table, 18 players)
11/27/04 - $5 - 9th

The most obvious thing - no 1st place finishes in this run. And I'm down $3. (More like $16 when you count the tournament fees). Not so good. Could be worse - but not good at all. I've been making notes on some of my tendencies and have been working on a few things, one of which is my positional play. We'll see how it goes. I'm sure I'll be posting an update soon, either telling the tale of how I busted out, or how I turned myself around and won millions...