Well I was back at the tables today and decided to start off the day with another sitngo tourny. I started out a little slow, folded the first 7 or 8 hands as all I could seem to catch was 10-3 off suit, J-2 ect… I finally got a decent starting hand in late position with KQ spades. The blinds were still cheap at $15-$30 and the pot was raised $120. I opted to call since there were already 5 callers in the hand and I was getting over 6 to 1 on my money if I hit. The flop comes Ace Spades, Jack Spades and 3 clubs. I flopped the nut flush draw. Unfortunately by the time it got around to me we had two players already all in and I was not going to risk my tournament life on a draw. So I opted to fold. I would not have hit anyway so it was a good laydown. Really a no brainer, however if there was a small bet after the flop I would have called just to see the turn for cheap, and I might have hit the nut flush.

This fella runfan99 was tearing up the table. Not by his good playing ability, but was shitting out every hand. As a matter of fact, I don’t think he had the best of it one time going in, but always managed to shit out on the river. I remember one guy played him like a tune and had pocket KK, flop came Q, 3, 10 all different suit. Player with pocket kings bet $400, and runfan99 went all in. He was holding Q-7 and hit yet another shit out on the river with the 7. This fool thinks he was playing good poker, but anyone with a clue that was paying attention would see every call he did he was behind in the hand. Poker players like him have no shot at making money consistantly which is what I hope to teach a few players reading my blog here. The difference between half way decent players like myself and this fool, is that he never even considered laying down his top pair with no kicker. Anyway, enough about clem, lets move on.

The next hand I played I was on the big blind with Q-10 suited of spades. 3 callers and no raises so I opted to check. I thought about thinning the heard with a small raise, but I had seen two of these players already make a few good moves and no sense in getting myself involved in a big hand when I can see the flop cheap. Well the flop comes out Q clubs, 8 spades and 9 of spades. I flopped top pair with a gut shot straight flush draw. First guy checks and second guy lead out with $300 into a $400 pot. I kind of thought he flopped second pair and this was just a feel bet. Next guy who was on the small blind raises the pot $700. Now I had a decision to make. I thought I may have had the first player beat, but I really didn’t know about the second player. He was pretty crafty. I said the hell with it, even if he has top pair and I am outkicked, I still have a straight flush draw and a gut shot straight draw, not to mention any spade hit my flush. In short, I had a bunch of outs. So I went all in on him. I had been playing tight up until this point and he was a player, so my goal with this bet was to get him to lay down is KQ. No such luck, he called my all in bet and turned over pocket rockets. Like I said, this guy was pretty crafty. However, he did make the mistake of not raising preflop, because I hit the 10 on the river for two pair. Had he raised the pot preflop I would not have called. That is the problem with slow playing a hand. It’s a lot more dangerous with 4 people in the hand and no raises. They could be holding anything. I am more partial to slow playing a hand only if I have the dead nuts and there are only a couple people in the hand with no trouble on board, flush draws, straight draws ect… I just ran the hand through the poker odds calculator and saw I was 60% to win that hand after the flop. So that was that, my stack was now sitting around $3500.

Before I knew it we were down to three players including myself. The clown to the right of me who hadn’t made a good call all day and was still winning decided to raise my blind, I had Ace Jack. I reraised him, feeling that this clown probably has shit like he’s had every other hand. He went all in, I called and he turned over K-10 unsuited. Flop hit his King and I was out in third. What can you do. It was a $11 entry fee for this tournament, $1 juice so my net profit from the $12 buy in was $7, as third place paid $19.80. That now brings my profit for the last two days up to $45. Not bad, I have only played two tournaments, snapped the first one off and came in third in this one. My goal is to double my bankroll playing some sitngo tournaments, then I may hit the ring games, or I may up the stakes in the single tournaments. Im just not sure yet and will cross that bridge when I get there. I have the nuts at these low stakes tournaments, meaning I will consistently make money if I played 10 a day. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to do that. However, remember the action gets a little tougher as you move up in stakes, so I will play it by ear. I am really not looking for any tough action, it’s when you start playing the $40 and up tournaments, the level of competition can get a little fierce. We will see what happens, as for now I am quite pleased with my first two days, and I may try one more tournament before I call it a night.