anomaly16

I played 4 MTTs tonight (buyins of $9-$15), making it into the money in the $9 one only (180 entrants). There were some pretty bad players which helped me to around 6th when the bubble burst at 18.

I had a super-aggressive Dane two seats to my right which restricted how much I could play in late position as he was calling down with a pretty wide range and getting lucky, but a couple of well-timed 3bets kept me in contention. By the time I reached the final table I was last in chips although with a pretty low M, with the Dane still in the same position and playing the same strategy.

A couple of orbits passed and with an M of just over 5 I got 99 in the BB and with a raise from the Dane I 3bet him all-in. He called with A3o and a 9 on the flop was very welcome! The blinds and antes kept eating away and with an M of around 4 I shoved in late position with QTh. It looked bad when I was called by AA but the board came 2K5T with 2 hearts and a river Q saved the day.

I knocked out the players in 4th and 5th with AQ and A3 as they were very short and we were down to the final 3. The eventual winner knocked out 2nd place and we started HU - he had a 3:1 chip advantage. I got it back to just above 2:1 but dropped back and in the end my open-ended str8 draw lost to his KK and I finished in 2nd for $244.80.

I'm much encouraged by my play tonight - reading some of Harrington's wisdom definitely kept me more focussed and I picked my spots much better. Luck played its part, but it has to in tournaments and I was happy to be on the right side of it this time.

I'm fired up and ready to play in the Office Poker toruney tomorrow and hope I can improve my 3rd= position in the league.

Cash play has been pretty terrible this month, particularly the last week but the win above has given me some hope that I can manage to turn what was looking to be an overall losing month into breakeven at least if I can keep my focus. I'm realising that the increased aggression I've been playing with over the last 2-3 months is exposing weakness in my hand-reading and post-flop play and its all part of my evolution into a better poker player. I haven't been studying as much as I should - either with hand analysis, video training or reading 2p2 and the other good sites which I need to address. I also hope to get my coaching with Kush (his new blog linked to on the right) soonish and I'm sure he'll be able to help me seal up some leaks.

[For anyone that doesn't know what 'M' is try the wikipedia entry on M here]