It's the same 'ol story, same 'ol song and dance, my friend

Played in the MATH last night. This was my first blogger tournament since 2007. Wow! 2 1/2 months I took off. I take that back. I think I did play in one bodonkament of Smokkee's.

Anyway. I played very well, I thought. I did suck out at least once and I won my coin flips -which is critical to going deep in any of these blogger tournaments. I was reading when the table was tight and when it was loose and playing back at it accordingly. I even laid down AQ with a Q high flop that turned a J to a big raise from GCOX. Maybe I gave him too much credit, but he said he had trip Jacks (as I assumed he did). Some well timed aggression along with some luck and I managed to grab the chip lead with around 24 players left (of the original 70something). I had been playing aggressive and won a couple of coin flips when the next hand came and kicked the wind out of me.

Tripjax was sitting to my immediate right and had come to my table the chip leader. I don't remember exactly how, but he had lost about 3/4 of his stack (a good chunk to me). I was sitting around 20K in chips and he was around 12K. I had just won a coin flip and had been buying blinds aggressively. He raised my blind and I came over the top of him with QQ. Now, I didn't shove but I bet enough to make him uncomfortable to call with a bluff. Conversely, I bet little enough to look like I just might be on a re-steal. I wanted his call. He came over me all in.

Now I'm thinking for a second here. Did I just walk into AA or KK? I don't think so. Trip is the kind of player that does not like to be pushed around. Especially by someone trying to bully the table and someone who stung him for a nice sized pot earlier. I put him on A10, AJ, maybe even KQ. And I know if I call him here, it is another coin flip as surely he has an overcard to my Queens. I feel he is making a stand and I must push him down. And if I do, I take a very nice chip lead in the tournament.

I call his all in and he tables A8. Nice. Pretty much what I thought. Except he doesn't have the straight draws I thought might have been there. "Dodge an Ace. Dodge an Ace." And the flop comes: Axx. Sprinkle an 8 and another Ace on the river just for good measure and my Queens are rolled over and spanked by the full house. That was the turning point for me as I couldn't quite gain ground afterwards.

Here's where the same 'ol story comes in. I am sitting around 8th with 14 left and an M of about 13. So I am not super short stacked but starting to feel pressure. We are 4 from the bubble, again, the hardest part of my game to play in. An aggressive player raises my BB and I attempt a resteal semi bluff with Ace high. Busted! He calls and I go home 14th. My point here is that the 2 cards I had were irrelevant, the position I was in was. Getting close to the bubble, I tried to steal assuming everyone was going to be super tight.

I just said yesterday that I need to slow down near the bubble and get to the money. My aggressive style will take me to the top 20% of the field, but it is so hard to slow down when I get near the bubble. Of course, if I win that flip against Trip, it would be hard for me to imagine I don't final table this tournament.

Oh well. It was fun getting back into the blogger games. I plan to start playing Mondays and Wednesdays for the remainder of the BBT3. Hope to see you there.

Stay patient (especially near the bubble)...