27th August 2009 (part two)
It's been a funny old day, and when I say funny I do of course mean bloody frustrating!
I've been back on the STTs this afternoon and the one positive I can take is that I have played more of them today than I expected to. I got through 16 this afternoon and another 9 this evening to obviously make 25 on the day and I said I'd like to play 100 a week in a previous diary entry so that target looks fairly easy to hit and even exceed.
That's close to being the only positive though as things haven't been going that well. The thing is I think I know some of what has been causing today's bad tourney results and it's quite easy to fix. It's me. There, I said it. I haven't been playing well when it comes to the crunch stages towards the end of a tourney. I have been too quick to call an all-in when I have the bigger stack and a marginal hand such as A8, KT etc. You know the sort of hands, the trouble hands. I think KQ will be ahead of his shoving range but he's waited for an Ace so is playing A3o so when the board bricks out he wins with a better kicker. That's happened too often to me tonight. I've also had hands where I have been on a stack of ~10xBB with AJo and shoved only for TT to look me up and I miss all streets. I've had situations like that a few times too. The remedy? Tighten up my all-in calling range massively and watch that all-in raising range too. I'm too quick to shove when stacks get down and I only have a small pocket pair (as I write that I end up with it all in with 99 v ATo in one of the tourneys I am finishing off, fortunately I win). I can fold and still have a stack of say 8xBB which is still playable (to an extent) and can still do some damage. I tend to err, panic isn't quite the right word but I hope you get my drift, and think I need to really start pushing even the smallest of edges (or perceived edges) so as to have a stack that can win the event. It's partly true but I need to survive long enough to make the money first. I read an interesting article on bubble play recently. It said you should play tighter than you might think, especially calling all-ins, because the jump on the pay scale is 20% whereas the jump from third to second is only half that. And that's an interesting point. A $7 profit for third is barely worth fighting for in some respects; it's not going to change anyone's life so people won't tighten up so much that they are scared of not getting at least third place so be careful what hands you're in there with as the average hand is likely to be stronger around the bubble. If I have chips I can play so why risk it all with mariginal hands?
That said I am getting my money in good (or at least good enough) and hitting more than my fair share of nasty rivers. My last tourney exit came with Qh5h on a flop of 7s-Qs-2h, so top pair with a backdoor flush draw. The turn is 6h to give me that flush draw. The river is 2d and the rest of the money goes in (it has been decent action on all streets thus far, which I am happy with as I have top pair and don't read him as having a better hand). He flips Js-2s for rivered trips. He had that flush draw from the flop, fair enough, but to river that 2...
So a frustrating day that saw me lose $14 in the afternoon and a further $18 in the evening. Sure, some of that could be turned round by better play of the short stack in the late stages of these tourneys but some of that is also down to awful river cards coming down. I know that's the normal poker player's lament and that some times the river will make rather than break my hand but it just gets to you at times and you need to let off some steam.
I won't get a full day's play in tomorrow but I hope to get a few hours in early on so would be happy with 10-15 STTs. If I make a profit too I will be over the moon the way things have been going. Can I just not beat PokerStars players? Should I be shopping around elsewhere? Back on Party/Empire perhaps? Something to think about.
Oh, just quickly before I go - books. I have ordered Phil Shaw's book on winning STTs so should have that in a few days. I have also had another book pile reshuffle and brought Arnold Snyder's Poker Tournament Formula off the book shelf and to the top of the 'to read' pile so I will be digging into that shortly. I am more familiar with Harrington so let's have an alternative approach for a while is what I am thinking.