A change is as good as a rest

I have been playing a few multi-table tournaments lately on sites like www.pokerstars.co.uk  and I've been doing really well. I'm not entirely sure what key things I've changed, but I've made the money in probably over 50% of them I've played recently. Unfortunately you really have to get far in one of them to make a lot of money, and that has been the biggest struggle.

Just tonight I played a $5+rebuy tournament on Pokerstars with my mate and things were looking pretty poor with only $7000 chips after the first break (the average was around $11,000), but relative to the blinds I had plenty. I moved around a lot and had really good table position for the first three hours as I stayed around and right above average. I think I played very well and mixed it up a lot, but there was a lot of poker to go.

Needless to say I got all the way down to the final two tables after being a short stack for most of the time during the last three tables. I was in 9th place out of 18 people when we combined tables. I doubled up early with 66 vs QJ suited to get to $500,000 chips (average was $800,000) and I was playing pretty tight, picking up a few hands here and there. The blinds were 20000-40000 and I was blinded back down to 300k when I was dealt AA, finally a hand I can really pick up some chips with. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) a short stack went allin and I raised on top, forcing the rest of the field out. He had 79 of spades and lost his last 90k to me. Take what you can get though, eh!

The next big hand came up with 14 people left. I raised from middle position with J9 of clubs and the short stack directly to my left reraised all in for an additional $160k. The pot was $480k and I had committed myself to calling. He flipped over AKo and down came the flop:

6 9 9 !! PERFECT! My roommates and I yelled and high fived and all that crap and I said these terrible words "Well he's gotta hit runner aces or kings now..." Why do I talk! Haha, you can imagine ... A .... A. He hit his 0.7% draw and doubled through me, leaving me with $245k. After screaming YES we were all just... screaming, haha. I wasn't out though, and two hands later I was dealt AKo myself in the small blind. The button raised, I went all in, and they showed QQ, woops! I didn't improve and I busted in 13th place for $250, so close!

I haven't made a final table since my big $10 rebuy win for $1,500 in 6th place, but I keep getting closer and closer, so it's only a matter of time, I'll keep you all posted!
 

The power of the float

Last night my mates and I invited five other guys over to play a small sit n go tournament in our house instead of at www.pokerstars.co.uk . 10 People started and we were paying out top three. I took some liberties in the first hour and dwindled down to $3500 (From $5000 starting chips) and decided I should start tightening up. I made a few hands on the turns and rivers and was back up to around $8200 with 5 people left when the button made a standard raise to $1200 (blinds 150-300). He was a fairly tight player that doesn't try to steal the blinds that much (fairly passive in that respect), so I knew he had a hand worth playing, I however was in the big blind and looked down at KK...

Most often I would try to play a big pot preflop with my kings and not risk having him folding after the flop if he had a hand like 55 or A10, but I've been burned enough times in my online tournaments by someone cold calling with a high pair that I decided to give it a try. I called and the UTG limper called as well. The flop came down 2 4 6 and I decided to lead into the raiser for $2200. The UTG limper shook his head and folded (later said he had 47 and didn't believe me at all, haha) and the button reraised all in. I called instantly and showed the two kings, this time it was his turn to shake his head as he showed JJ, my play had worked perfectly!

The turn gave him a flush draw but he missed on the river I had him outstacked, propping me up to 2nd place on the bubble, and later going on to win the tournament. Cold calling with a really strong hand like KK works really well late in a tournament. I know it has happened to me deep in online MTTs, because at that point the blinds are so high most of the hands end up with someone all in. The last time it happened I opened with 1010 and the SB cold called, bet into me on an 8 high flop, and I pushed, he called with QQ, so it felt good to be on the other side of the hand. However, early in a tournament dont' cold-call. At that point the blinds are low and people have plenty of play left in their stacks and it's unlikely to make a huge pot post flop, not to mention letting other limpers in the pot behind you could potentially spell diaster.