Weekend of tournaments, Event 1: Happy Days 7 PM

(Edit: originally titled "Four for four: respect my authoritah!") After yesterday's rant about how I seem to suck at low limit brick and mortar ring games, I spent a few minutes talking to my wife about it. As I described it to her, I think I discovered what the problem is: I play very tight, and very aggressive, and in online play, and in tournaments, that aggression is rewarded -- I frequently take down pots unopposed. In low limit ring games, where true donkeys will call with almost anything, aggression is very rarely rewarded with an uncontested pot. Somebody's gonna go to the river, and somebody's gonna hit two pair.

The only solutions I see: tournament play only. I don't know that playing higher stakes would make a difference, and I really doubt that I could play as aggressively at the higher level; it's too intimidating.

So, with the wife and kid on a trip this weekend to Ocean Shores, I'm spending the weekend playing as many tournaments as possible. It's started out well -- at tonight's 7:00 Happy Days tournament, I placed third, netting $156 (plus $10 in blackjack match play, plus another $10 in non-match play BJ waiting for the tourney to start.) I've placed in the money every time in the last four Happy Days tournaments, and have won four of the seven brick and mortar tournaments I've entered this year.

I tried something new tonight, which allowed me to finish in third place instead of fifth, which is a big chunk of change: when it gets down to the final table, don't worry about getting blinded out. Almost everyone has a small stack compared to the blinds, and you're going to lose a couple of players every orbit. Let the other players knock each other out. Even if your on the big blind of 10000, and your stack has only 10000 left, there's no need to call with a less than premium hand. You've got another orbit left in you -- let some other people get knocked out, and you'll end up in the bigger money.

Net: +$176