My Tournament Play

As you know, I finished 4 of 10 at the tournament.  I picked up some great hands (pocket Aces 3 times) and made some nice calls.  At one point, my friend Pete pushed all-in and I called him down with A10, putting him on a A9 or A8.  He indeed flipped up A9 and I took the pot.  This call was after the flop with an Ace showing.  So good play on my part there, but there were other times when I made the absolute wrong moves.  See the Big Hand 1 and Big Hand 2 blog entries below.  I was up and up big at one point and a high chip stack for most of the middle of the tournament, which lasted an incredible 4 1/2 hours.  Usually it’s more like 3 hours max so this was a marathon.  Overall, I would say I was inconsistent.  Not great, not good, but not terrible, not bad.  I think that comes with rust.  It hurts that I could have won that tournament going away.  

One thought that continually entered my mind on the drive home was I played too many hands.  You keep getting into battles with everybody at the table and you’re going to go home fast in a 4 1/2 hour tournament – even if you’re ahead most of the time.  Also, you’ve got to make the right calls and laydowns when you do get in the hands.  Luckily for me, I picked up a lot of premium hands and won more coinflips than I lost.  The only times I lost were the two times I pushed with AK.  Maybe I played too many hands because I got too many good cards.  It will be interesting to see how I fair next time without all the great starting cards.