I have not been playing much tournament poker at all recently. The combination of the time involved and my lack of desire to grind it out for 4 hours+ just hasn't interested me. So I have been playing a lot of cash games in little hour blocks.
I did, however, play a few tournaments on Wednesday night. I actually managed to take one down. It was a smallish tournament with only ~200 players and a small $10 buy-in (I usually don't play these small buy-in tournaments but I have been running bad and just was goofing around). First place paid over $500 so what the heck. The top 20 or so made the money and I got into the money with a fairly decent stack (top 5). I had murdered the cash bubble by playing hyper-aggressive and actually was responsible for bursting the cash bubble. I had about 35k in chips and a guy to my right raised (blinds were 300/600/50 ante) to 1600. He only had 7500 or so in chips. I put him all in from the button with JT suited. He snap called with AK and the flop came AJT and my 2 pair held up.
Once we were down to 10 people I had built my stack to ~60k when a strange spot came up. The blinds were 400/800/100 and we were 5 handed. I was relentlessly raising and taking the blinds and antes probably 4x every 2 orbits. I raised with AQ to 2200 and got shoved over for a total of 20k. This looks like AK or a pair. I probably need to fold here since I am taking down the blinds and antes so easily at this point without resistance. But I felt this player's range was basically any pair 66-QQ and AK or AQ. I doubt AA or KK shoves all in there since they want action with those hands. Since I am 50/50 against most of those hands in his range I found a call and he showed the one hand I didn't want to see AK. So I lost 20k+ there and was back down to an average stack of 40k +/-. That was a bad call given the whole situation, etc.
We got to the final table and I switched gears and played much more conservatively until we got 4 handed. Guy on my left was raising and re-raising virtually every pot so I was patiently waiting. Finally my opportunity came when I was dealt JJ. I was in the cuttoff and just called (I think the blinds were 1000/2000/200). Right on cue Mr. Aggro raises to 12k and I shove on him for 60k putting him all in for his remaining ~35k. He calls with AT (lol..good call) and my hooks hold up. I then busted the other shortish stack when my 22 all-in preflop faded a million outs on the river versus AJ suited. Any club, board pair, A or J and I would have lost 40% of my stack but no sir.
Finally we got heads up and it lasted a good while with both of us sucking out to keep the stacks fairly even. We then got it all in when I flopped middle pair, a flush draw and a gutshot straight draw holding 9T. He actually had top pair (Q) so we obv got it all in and I hit my 9 to make 2 pair.
Not a huge pay by any means but I hadn't won a 100+ player tournament in some time so it was good to take it down. I also had played rather poorly the last few times I had final tabled. So always nice to play well at a final table and catch a few cards too.
Golf
Finally seeing progress in my short game and specifically my putting. I have really been struggling making anything and decided to play around on the practice green and try different grips, postures, etc. until it felt like I was hitting better putts. Buddy of mine actually said it looked like I was too far from the ball. Generally a good putter will stand over the ball with his eyes directly over the ball. My eyes were significantly inside the ball which causes an inside out stroke and a lot of hook or pulled putts. So I got more up over top of the ball and this squared up my stroke and they started rolling much straighter and more solid. Played yesterday a practice round for Monday and made 4 birdies as well as a bunch of 4-5 footers.
Much more fun to play when you are making putts. I had played in the Baltimore Country Club guest day last Thursday and shot 69 missing everything. Missed a 3 footer, 3 or 4 five footers and a ton of birdie putts from 10-16 feet. That gets old very quickly and begins to creep in to all phases of your game. I am really excited for all of the tournaments I have coming up in August and if my putting is back....
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