Very Disappointing Tournament Dat

I was planning to start up playing 6max NL50 to build up what I had lost earlier in the week, but that tourney itch that many players get was becoming very distracting this afternoon. When I have a free afternoon without many distractions, I like to play a couple of tourneys to get the blood flowing. Even cash players have to agree that theres nothing better than taking down a huge pot with your tournament life on the line, and nothing more crushing that taking a sick beat in a tournament for all your chips. I fired up a mix of regular tournaments and sattelites and couldnt really get anything going in either.

The final tally of tournaments today came to:

Omaha Super turbo (-15)
Hold'em Super turbo (+70.85+ 9 KOs = +98.85 total)
90-man 24+2 KO (-26 + 2 KOs = -18)
45-man 24+2 (-26)
$2 rebuy (-4)
$10 rebuy satt into 200k (-30)
$75 dollar token satt into 750k (-75)

By far, the most frustrating of the tournaments were the Hold'em super turbo and the 45 man. In the 45 man, I started pretty quick. I doubled with AA early on a weird hand that looked as though I shouldve been a goner on the river. The very next hand, I picked up QQ and took on two opponent, both of whom I was lucky enough to beat. I picked off a couple of resteals to chip up. By abusing my passive table, I pushed my way to chip leader with 15 left, then with 13, then with 11. I got reshoved on and folded a few times which chopped some of my stack off, then lost an all in with A6 to A8 for 155 of my chips, and I somehow found myself in 5th of 8th going into the final table (two players were Ko's on the previous hand). One shorty busted and I was still in fifth when the fateful hand came up. I reshoved A8 from the button against a CO open and got called by the BB who had JJ. I couldnt get lucky and I bubble.

The super turbo was a really strange tournament. I should have been out tons of times, but I "ran like a kenyan," as my friend, Ferocious Kitty, likes to say. Five hands in, I ran AQ into AK and 77 and proceeded to hit two queens on the flop. Ten hands after that, I picked up AQ again and got it in vs. JJ and AA. I turned and rivered a Q to take down that hand as well and build my stack from the 300 starting stack to 1800. That hand put me in the top ten in chips out of the 450 people still left. I chipped up a bit, split a big pot AQ vs. AT all in pre on a KKQTJ board, and then the very next hand I got the same player I just chopped with to put in 1/2 his stack pre with 33 against my AA only to watch him call my bet on the flop with a flopped set bringing my stack down to 900. I then lost A5 to AT for 2/3 of my stack. I now was back at my starting stack with things looking grim. I was lucky enough to double up three times in ten hands (I was ahead or racing every time) and built my stack to 2k.

I got moved to a new table and before I could even get settled, someone shoved their J10 into my QQ and I held to get to 3.6k. Twenty or so hands later, I showed my propensity to run good by restealing on the button with 87dd and got called by the original raiser with A10dd, but I hit an 8 and doubled. A few hands after that, I won a huge hand with QQ to push my stack over 13k and into 2nd in chips of 40. I lost a few chips down to 10k and then won AK vs A10 for 7.5 more. The very next hand I chipped up in a BvB with A4 vs KQ to 23k and I cemented myself as chip leader. I got a little frisky trying resteal over a CO raiser with KT, he flipped up TT and I lost half my stack. Luckily, I doubled ten hands later with AJdd vs KQss to bring me back to 21k and safely in 5th place of 14. Unfortunately, fifteen or so hands later I pick up 99 in the BB. The CO opens to 8400, with blinds at 600/1200. Im not sure if this intentional, but looking at this again it might make sense that he was trying to make it 4800 and misclicked. With 23000 and only 20BB I figured I had to stick it in even if I was healthy in chips in relation to others (5th of 11), I got snap called and my opponent turned over KK and it was gg me. I came in 11th of 777 for 85 bucks plus nine $3 KOs. I know I got lucky to get as far as I did but it would have been nice to at least final table this tourney, if not top three. It would have been a quick way to refuel my bankroll, some day....

Before I forget, my good friend Deliver4nce has a great blog that is a honest representation of what its like to grind it out while still being a college student. He's got a great writing style and is definitely an up and comer in the poker world. Plus, he's an all around baller, so check it out, either by clicking on the link above or looking in the blogs I read list (listed as On Every Street).

Good luck everyone!