Today's Not the Day

I decided to play in the 25K gauranteed tournament on Party last night as I have been playing prety well in the MTTs and pretty crappy in everything else. Two Thousand signed up which meant that 220 paid. I think we lost over half the players in the first hour. I am used to a bunch dropping out quickly in the $50 MTT but this shocked me. I ended up 3x my initial stack at the first break which is unusual for me. I am usually happy to be around my original 1000 by then. I try to accumulate chips in the second hour when the blinds are worth stealing and most of the crazies have already been eliminated.

I flopped quad Aces late in the first hour and checked to the river when a Q came, putting a four-straight on the board. The player in front of me made a 1/2 pot-sized bet. I raised him ALMOST all-in (a weak effort at deception) and got a call. The most amazing thing I remember is that I do not think I received nor gave a bad beat all night long. My good hands held up and my poor hands faltered. I gave away 1/4 of my stack late calling what I thought was a blind steal when I had A5o in the BB. The flop came with a K and a J and I folded to an all-in after much inner deabte. THe player showed me his KJh, making me feel good for laying down the hand but stupid for calling the pre-flop raise. When the blinds got to 2000-4000, I was sitting on about 10K and decided to make a play if I had the hand or position. I finally picked up AQc and an early position raised to 8000. I figured the minimum raiser for a weak A or small pp and pushed all-in, hoping to shut out everyone else. He called, turned over 44, and I was in bed in 53rd place. Not too bad with so many players.

The biggest problem was the stalling that was going on right before we got to the money. Unlike other MTTs I have played in on Party, the game never went hand-for-hand. Of course, i don't think most players understand the concept of hand-for-hand, and don' realize that stalling will not help them get into the money.

The stalling continued after we were in the money also. That, I've never seen before. It's usually an all-in fest once we hit the cash until the short-stacks are gone. Only then, does it typically slow down. Last night, we were getting the blinds raised every cicuit due to all the stalling. As a result, our table was cash poor (I was the big stack at our table with 27K while the next smallest big stack at the other tables was 41K)with little hope of improving until some were blinded off and sent home.

Well, it's not a good weeknight event but I had a lot of fun. I continue to think the MTTs are my strength based on my results over the last year. They should hold a big MTT in a casino soemwhere. I'd love to take part in that. Heck, with all this interest poker is getting, they could probably get a few hundred people together and have one every year. That'll be the day.