Weekend of Deep Runs

I probably played waaay too much poker this weekend. Thank goodness that I have a most understanding wife. However, I seemed to be running good and it was the start of the Battle of the Blogger Tournaments 4 (BBT4), so what else could I do. In order:

Friday: Won one small tournament and finished second in another in one of my poker groups -- MurryTheCat + Friends. I am the MTC point leader for January and for February. This came right after I finished a very close second in another poker group -- in the inaugural Shark Poker Tour Player of the Year competition for February against a very tough Shark crowd. The Shark competition included six tournaments and I missed two while on vacation, so I thought I did a damn good job.

Saturday: I played at my legal "home" game at Illinois Charitable Games. Our regular place, the Bloomington Elks Lodge, is closing, so there were all sorts of special drawings. I won two free meals (great for my diet, huh?), a free drink, extra raffle tickets, and a $5 instant prize. My tickets were called four times over the course of the day, but I missed out on the big prizes. But hey -- who doesn't like seeing his name drawn four times?

I rarely play tournaments at ICGA since I have been sucked out on so many times. It is funny -- I am known there as a cash player who doesn't play tournaments. However, this week I decided to play in two tournaments. I got 9th place in the $30 Warmup. I went out on a huge hand -- I flopped two pair, another guy flopped a set, and another guy flopped the nut flush draw. I knew one guy was on a flush draw and I hoped to bet the other one out. Little did I know he hit his damn set when he made a minimum raise. We were all all-in and the set won the pot. The guy ended up chopping with another player or two at the end.

I am proud to say that I cashed in the $10 Holla -- a real donkathon with unlimited rebuys the first hour if under $1500 chips. I decided that I would push ... push ... push ... and not rebuy. If I went out, I went out. I did get the add-on after the first hour. Anyway, I took third when my A-10 was bested by K-Q.

Sunday: I took second place in a CardsChat (another of my poker groups) tournament at PokerStars. I should have won at heads up as my opponent twice hit his flush draw on the river. That's poker though, right? The first event of BBT4 was the afternoon Brit Blogger Game. I finished a respectable 7th place in a difficult blogger field. In the evening, I placed 6th in the Big Game, so named for having the biggest buy-in for blogger tournaments. It was a deep stack tounament with plenty of time for patient play. I needed patience as I got crappy cards the first hour and could rarely make any decent hand pay off. I finally went out A-J vs 2-2 all-in preflop when Rake Feeder (the eventual champion) hit a 2 on the flop and turned a boat -- 2's over 6's.

I was the only person to make the final table of the first two BBT4 events, so I have gotten off to a good start in the points battle for March. Now if I can only keep up the good play ...

It seemed like I did nothing but play poker this weekend. Maybe that is because I really didn't do much other than play poker -- ha! I am bushed, but am heading to bed tonight feeling good.

Great weekend! Hope yours was just as fun.