Day 5: Moral Victory (But not much more)

I dashed out to Bristow this evening for a tournament. Nearly a dozen members of my A League attended this shindig in a development clubhouse. Our group took four of the five paid spots, including the top two, in a field of twenty eight. We are definitely better than the average recreational poker-player.

I wish I could say that I was one of the top two, but I was not. I finished fourth and doubled my money. Reviewing my play, I can find only two choices I might make differently another time. I skipped one opportunity late in the game to push all-in on the button and maybe pick up the rather large blinds (everyone folded to the big blind), and I chose not to call from the big blind for all my chips when I was short-stacked and pretty much otherwise destined to finish fourth.

It often seems to be the case that fortune favors the bold; although my opponent turned over a dominating hand, the math of the situation really did dictate that I should have made the call. There's no way, of course, of knowing whether it would have changed the outcome. It probably wouldn't have. I was gambling instead on the slim chance that the one of the other three would somehow manage to bust out before I ran out of chips. Didn't happen.

All in all, I played a good solid game. Had the big blind not found a monster pair when I raised preflop with decent cards earlier in the tournament, I probably would have done even better. I didn't have particularly juicy cards in this game, but I maximized the cards I did have, and got away from my second-best hands with minimum damage. I played the player where I could.

All in all, a solid showing. But dang, wish I'd placed higher.

Live bankroll: 98.3%
Online bankroll: 103.4%