Placed 5th In A 90 Man Sit N Go

I played 3 tournaments yesterday. I did pretty good in two of them and got stupid in one of them. I final tabled at one and was 7 positions away from ITM at another

180 Man $10 +1 Sit N Go - placed 25th (Not ITM)
180 Man $4 + $0.60 Sit N Go - Placed around 120th
90 Man $5 + $0.50 Sit N Go - Placed 5th.

The $10 +1 180 man would have been nice to final table. I had a good chip stack but I got involved in a hand with KJs and my opponent had AJ. We both hit Top pair good kicker on the flop. This was late in the tournament, down to 3 tables, so the blinds are killers. By the time you raise, get called, and bet the flop - you're pretty much all in. That was a bummer. I really thought I would final table.

The $4 + $0.60 180 man - I was doing good. I doubled up early. But I honestly just got stupid. I don't remember the hand, but I had gone from 3000+ chips to 500 and when I lost, I felt I deserved to lose that game.

My highlight of the evening was the $5 +$0.50 90 Man Sit N Go. I did well throught this tournament. I had a couple big coin flips that I won. Almost the entire tournament I was ahead. I final tabled. Around the last 27 players I was ranked #1. I kept that rank until the final table, when I fell to 3rd. The other two players in 1st and 2nd only were ahead of me by the blinds or so.

My last hand was a very good hand - considering it was 5 handed (short handed) and the blinds were at something like $350/700 + $50 ante. I had about $24,000 chips. The top two players had about $70,000 chips each. The other two players were below my chip count, around $15,000 or so. So basically none of us were short stacks. We all had wriggle room. Hands were getting to the flop about half the time. People were not blind stealing with all-ins.

Basically you needed a decent hand.

I got dealt pocket JJ's. I think I was UTG. I raised the pot up to $4000. The cutoff called and so did the big blind. This was good news for me assuming a low flop. The flop came some thing like 9,7,4 rainbow. Sweet!

The pot was around $13k and I was first to bet. My stack stood at $20K. I figured this is a good flop for me, but I am vulnerable to higher cards falling on the turn and river. I bet around $5000. The cutoff raised it up to 10,000 and the big blind thought about it before finally folding.

I had a good overpair on an uncoordinated board. I figured my opponent made a pair or was bluffing the pot. But honestly it didn't matter. I needed to make a stand with this hand. I was already ITM and it was shorthanded. If I won this hand, I would have doubled up to $50K and had a good chance at winning the tournament.

As luck had it, my opponent had pocket 77's and flopped trips. By the river the board paired and he ended up with a boat.

I am still happy with that hand. Had he not flopped trips, I think I could have stacked him nonetheless. He probably would have called the $5000 bet instead of raised it. When the turned paired the 9 he would have had two pairs but I would have had the higher pair.

So three decent field size tournaments and one final table. I consider that a good poker night. I find that I place in the top 15% in large field tournaments fairly often - maybe 70% of the time or so.

This Sunday I will be playing in the Poker Stars Million Dollar Turbo Take-down tournament. Guaranteed $1 Million dollar prize pool. Top 33% get ITM. There will be 30,000 players. So 10,000th place gets about $35. Final table starts at $4000 and first place gets a whopping $40,000.

The only way to play this tournament is with 2000 FPP's. I won a single table tournament satellite for my seat. I parlayed 800 FPP's into a 2000 FPP ticket.

The best part of this tournament, besides the 33% ITM, is there is a knock out bonus. If you knock out a pokerstars Team Player you get up to a $480 bonus. The earlier you register, the more the bonus is worth. I registered weeks ago, so I should get about $400 for each knock out.

Just knocking out one team players would be a nice payday!

I will be interested to see how well I do in this large field tournament.

There has not been a lot of poker time this week. I think I would like to try to play the steps tournaments again to see if I can win a step 4 ticket and play the Sunday Million.