Ten Tournaments

Today I played 10 tournaments with buy ins totaling $2,010. Here's what I played and where I finished (money finishes are in bold):

$109 Pot Limit Hold em 6 handed 47 of 54
$55 NL hold 'em 1671 of 1971
$55 NL hold 'em with 1 rebuy and 1 add on 319 of 459
$215 Sunday Million 708 of 7557
$530 Sunday $500K Guarantee NL hold 'em 341 of 993
109 NL hold 'em 771 of 1062
$109 with rebuys 375 of 477
$215 HORSE 104 of 240
$33 NL hold 'em 6 handed with rebuys 19 of 252
$215 Sunday Second chance NL Hold 'em 40 of 1338

Today is a great example of why it would be super tough to play multitables for a living. I had three money finishes in ten tournaments and I still lost $837!!! You really have to make a final table to make any money.

I was close to something sweet in the $215 Sunday Second Chance which was the last tournament I went broke in. There was a guy at my table raising 75% of hands. So with blinds of 2,000/4,000 I decided to see a flop in the big blind with K2 of diamonds after he made it 10,000 to go. I had about 70,000 total and I only had to risk 6,000 when the pot (including the antes) had close to 20,000 in it already. Furthermore I was 100% sure that my opponent would bet the flop no matter what came down so if I hit big I knew there would be a very juicy pot. When the flop showed up Q 8 5 with two diamonds I decided to check raise semi bluff all in.

Of course my opponent bet after I checked. He fired out 20,000 and I moved all in for my remaining 60,000. I was hoping he would fold, but he instantly called me with K8, I missed the diamonds and I was out. Winning that pot would have put me somewhere around 10th place with 39 players left. 18th paid $1,650, 12th was $2,850, 7th was $9,750, and 1st was $54,480.

When I get close like this I always tell myself to keep giving myself chances and I'll close out one of these big ones sometime soon. With two finishes in the top 10% and one in the top 3% in only 10 tournaments I have to feel pretty good about my performance even if I didn't win any money. I really feel like I'm playing great poker lately and I'm hoping I can catch the few breaks I need to do something special in the WCOOP which starts a week from Friday!