Sit n' Go's and Latest Tourney News

Sit n' Go Madness

I have been testing a few theories as of late, and I am finding some interesting results. I started playing at the lowest level sit n' go's again $5 on bodog (well they do have $1 ones, but that is almost not worth the effort). Well anyway I have cashed 12 out of 24 times with a few $10 tables mixed in, so I am batting 50% at, and I have cashed 8 out of the last 10 at one of poker's lowest levels. This is very interesting to me, as you have good streaks here and there, but I think it means I am playing above the players at my level, every table I sit at for $5 I feel like I am the dominant force at the table whether I have the chip lead or not.

I am seeing things that I didn't see before, I believe that Phil Ivey said it best when he said the way to become a better poker player is to see a lot of hands, and play a lot, this is the only way you will gain the experience of being in just about every type of situation. Here is an example of a change in my thought process.

Hand of Note:
We were 8 handed in a single table sit n' go, I was Dealer everyone folded before me, I folded. The small blind had $627 chips (you start with $1000), and the big blind had $800 in chips and the blinds were at $30/$60. The small blind moved all in for $627, the big blind thought about it for a few seconds and called. The SB turned over A 3 clubs, and the big blind turned over Pocket 8's, now of course the big blind is ahead and hoping that no Ace or flush comes. At this point the 8's are a 66% to 33% advantage over the A 3 which are pretty good odds. Of course an A comes on the flop and the Big Blind now has the short stack at $173.

The Big Blind then complains saying he had a good read, and it was a good call heads up, and the other guy got lucky making a bad play.

Those statements are true, and in the past I would have agreed with him, but he didn't take into account a lot of factors like the fact that Bodog flops a lot of Aces, there was only $90 in the pot before the SB pushed all if you let him win the $60 chips you still have a lead over him, it's early in a 1 table sit n' go there is no need to risk your stack this early, the pot odds were not good, if you got in trouble in the hand you were only left with 2 outs, and several other pieces of information that go into that decision. In that case I would have folded on the simple premise of what I stood to gain was not worth the risk in that situation, some people may say I'm crazy but why would someone push all in to win a measly $60 chips? They don't have a monster, they must have a marginal hand and want to steal the measley pot just let them have it. Remember this is at pokers lowest level, and the reads are much easier IMHO, so I would not have rolled the dice there.

B-House Tourney

There was a tournament at the B-House again, a decent sized one with about 34 participants, and a $25 buy-in as well. I have been having decent success there as of late, I won 2 tourneys and finished with points in most of the events so far this year, the other 2 or 3 times I was the bubble person or close to it. We started with $2500 chips, and I was down to about $800 chips early in the tourney until I made a straight on AT&T to beat her pair of Kings. When it was down to 2 tables I noticed THEBAT had the chip lead, and he knocked out the jackal, I heard a recap of the hand and it sounded like a classic clash between those two. But I eventually made it to the final table, and busted out in 6th place 1 place out of getting points, but I did take home a cash prize. I was satisfied with my play, even though I was a little bit too aggressive in spots, and that contributed to me having $3000 chips at the final table instead of $10000, it only takes a few hands to eat up a decent stack. Nik passed me in points, but I kind of expected her too she is always in the mix and she is defending champion from last year. I can't wait for the next one.