I may have discovered the perfect online poker tournament for me. On pokerstars they now have (maybe they always did and I didn't spot it) a 180 person tournament which cost $20 to enter. This gives it the advantage of not costing very much and (if things go well) taking a lot of time to play, thus saving me losing loads of money in other quicker tournaments. Of course the chances of winning are reduced, but there seemed to be a lot of players who didn't really know what they were doing (or were playing aggressively because of the relatively low entrance fee) and half of them were soon gone.
I was playing pretty well and for much of the tournament was in the top twenty (the first 18 win some money), but after the first hour and a half I wasn't really getting any cards and was only making money from stealing the blinds and making the occasional bluff which would work because I was playing very tight.
I got to the second break and there were only 24 players left in, but I was 21st and though not terribly short-stacked knew I would have to make a move soon if I wanted to get up in the proper money. A part of me was thinking of sitting back and waiting til I was definitely in the money, but I figured that a) everyone else would be thinking this and b) that this would probably deplete me enough to guarantee that I ended up somewhere between 10th and 18th which would only get me $40 anyway (so a $20 profit for two and a bit hours work). Thus as I got myself a beer in the break I decided to suddenly get aggressive and got the opportunity on the second hand where I had A 10 in an early position. I tripled the blind and everyone folded, up to the Big Blind who put me all in. I was pretty much committed, but felt it was likely he had a pair which if lower than 10 would give me a 50/50 shot at the money. I was correct, he had 66. Alas a 6 came up on the flop and I came 21st out of 180, an agonising three places off the money. But I was pleased that I hadn't let the money affect me.
I had had a bit of luck earlier when I went all in with JJ and someone called with an A5 - a pretty stupid move to be honest - but then he fluked the straight with a 2 3 4 on the flop. It looked pretty desperate, but I prayed for an unlikely full house and was rewarded with a Jack on the turn and a 2 on the river. I have been having some bad luck with getting bad beats like this myself and felt I deserved this good fortune given my opponent's stupid call in the first place.
Alas the disappointment of missing out did mean I went on to play a few games of heads up (thus spoiling my theory) and I won $80 but lost $90. But it wasn't a bad night's entertainment for $30 and next time I will win the $1000 for sure.
I felt sure I'd finish the script today, but still a couple of gaps to fill. Surely tomorrow it will be over. Then I can deliver a mere three and a half months late.
