End of Day One and Further Explanation on The Last Blog

www.fullcontactpoker.com. In that blog there were three factors: Strength of Field, Tournament Structure, and finally, Field Size. I need to explain what I mean by tough, because after hearing some comments, and re-reading my blog, it wasn’t clear enough. When I think of “tough” I’m thinking in terms of the skill set required to win the event. Obviously larger field events are always tougher to win, but the skill set required to play in a tournament where many of the stacks range between 20-30 big blinds and have lots of average players, is minimal. There is a special skill set required to win tournaments with deep structures and a high percentage of skilled players. These 10 events I mentioned represented the top 10 skill based events that you simply can’t fluke. In order to win one of these, you have to be a high level thinker to a certain degree. Basic tournament strategy can help you cash, but in order to win one of these events, you have to play great. ***************************************************************** This is my 6th tournament of the year. I don’t include the Premier League, the NAPT Bounty Shootout, or the NBC Heads Up in that list because they aren’t really multi-table tournaments. I’ve only cashed in 1 of my first 5, but I bubbled two of the events, just missing out on the money. I made it through day one again, but it was a struggle to get any chips and then I lost a big pot to end the night: Blinds at 400-800 (100 ante) I raised under the gun to 1800, the ONLY hand I raised the entire hour. It was the first time I raised before the flop and it was with about 5 minutes left on the night. One player two to my left calls, and the button makes a strange raise to 4500. I have the 6d 9d and have to call another 2700 more. I think anything but a call there is a mistake. I called as did the other player. The flop came Kh 8h 7h and I planned on check folding no matter what happened on the flop. I checked, as did both of my opponents. The turn was the 5c which looks like gin for me. I decide to bet 11,500 to protect my hand. The first player calls me, and the button folds. The river is the Jd and I notice that my opponent only has 10,500 in front of him. Seems like a no-brainer, so I move him all in and he insta-calls me with the Ah Jh.
I later mention to Matusow that I lost a bunch of chips in a cooler, then I explain that I had the 6d 9d and he goes, “I love how he starts off telling me a cooler story by saying I have the 6d 9d LOL.”
It doesn’t matter what you start with, situations just come up sometimes where you are destined to lose some chips, and a lot had to go wrong for me to lose those chips: 1) If the button made a standard re-raise I fold
2) If there is a bet on the flop I fold
3) The turn had to be a non-heart 5 or a 10 That’s a pretty sick parlay! Oh well, I ended the night with 19,600 in chips to keep my streak alive, and now I have a day off in San Jose to veg before playing day 2. I don’t think I’ll leave my room. I may go to the gym for a bit, take on a few calls I need to make, and try to screw around on the internet if it’s stable enough, but it should be a chillaxing day. ]]>