Poker Tournaments

Last Wednesday I caught the flu. Sucks to be sick. It was a 4 day flu.

No better way to spend time sick than playing poker right? Ahem. Well, in between sleeping and feel down right awful, I managed to play quite a bit of poker.

I figured since I was sick and may not be in my A-Game, I should play tournaments. Loosing several buy-ins at the cash tables while having the flu probably isn't the best medicine for getting better.

I played too many tournaments to list but I will say I was running hot. I did not make thousands of dollars but at one point I was ahead $170. Not bad for a $510 bankroll. In the end though I ended up $105 ahead.

Tournament Highlights.

Wednesday

1. Took first place in a 27 player $10+1 tournament. ITM $100. Wow.

Thursday

1. Took 4th place in a 68 player $10.70 + 1 tournament. Top 3 winners got tickets for the Sunday Million tournament - a $215 dollar ticket. Notice I placed 4th. Doh! That was upsetting. One more place and I would have won the ticket to play in the Sunday Millions! I did place ITM for $35. Still trippled up my buy-in.

2. Took 14th in a 180 player $10 + 1 tournament. ITM for $21.60. That is pretty good for a 180 player tournament. I have never placed in one of those before.

Friday - played, but did not keep track of winning tournaments

Saturday

1. I played in a 4146 MTT (Multi-Table Tournament). This was the weekly $30,000 Silver VIP tournament for 100FPP. I placed ITM at 439th place for a $15 win. For my first major tournament, that is pretty darn good. That is top 10%. I turned 100FPP into $15 - that is $.015 per FPP - which is outstanding!

2. Took 2nd place in a 27 player $10 + 1 tournament. ITM for $72. That was another nice ITM...would have been nice to win 1st.

Sunday

1. Took 2nd place in a 18 players $13 + 1 tournament. ITM for $19. First place won a ticket to the Sunday Million tournament. This was dissapointing. I was heads up and had $17500 compared to my opponents $8000. I should have won this tournament. My opponent was tight and tricky and she outplayed me for sure. Still a good win considering 18 total competitors.

2. Took 4th place in a 27 player $10 +1 tournament. ITM for $28.

3. Took 3rd place in a 18 player $10 + 1 tournament. ITM for $36.

So those were some of the highlights. I played at least another 8 tournaments that did not win. One other highlight is I played a 48 man 500FPP tournament. First place got a ticket to the Sunday Million. I placed about 5th and just won back my 500FPP.

I played about two of those FPP tournaments for the Sunday Million - one I got my FPP's back and the other I lost completely.

I also played several other satellite tournaments for the Sunday Million. One 18 player $28 + 1 SitNGo. I did not place ITM. Bummer. Top two spots won tickets to the Sunday Million too.

I played in a couple other Sunday Million Satellites - none panned out.

Obviously, I decided to try to win a ticket to the Sunday Millions. This weekend did not pan out for playing in the Sunday Millions. But I can VERY close to winning that ticket in at least 3 tournaments.

I played 4 tournaments last night before I went to bed. 3 at the same time and then I added the 4th while the last of the 3 was playing out. I lost 3/4 tournaments. Actually, I placed ITM in one of the first 3 and that paid for all three. The fourth tournament I placed ITM but just $8 over what I paid to enter the tournament. Overall, I barely made over what I invested in those 4 tournaments.

I was either running hot all weekend in tournaments or I have vastly improved my game. I never placed ITM so often in tournaments before.

Perhaps my cash game skills have improved my tournament game?

At this point I am at a crossroad. I increased my bankroll from $511 to $600 over the weekend. I could have done that with cash games. If I was running good, I could have done much better with cash games. Of course, I could also have done much worse too.

I now need to decide if I will continue playing tournaments or start playing cash games again. Tournaments are more fun and the big tournaments have much better payouts. But cash games are supposedly more lucrative.

Perhaps I will do both. Not sure.

For certain, If I want to get FPP's or make Gold VIP I will need to 6 table cash games at least 15 hours a week. I will have to look into how much FPP's I earn playing tournaments. If I were playing $100NL I know I can earn $25 FPP's per table per hour. I don't think tournaments can come any where's close to that earning potential.

Poker Goals

The goal for this week are:

1. Earn 750 VPP points
2. Increase bankroll to $875.
3. Win a Sunday Millions Satellite (Cash of FPP)