Boing, boing

You know how in my last post I said it'd been a slow week? I didn't clarify that statement, but it was really because of the very steady non-movement of my bankroll at the $0.50/$1.00 tables. In consecutive sessions since last Thursday (Sept. 7), I'd left the table -$1.15, -$1.85, +$8.05, -$1.01. (Okay, so the $8.05 was better than I remember).

Well, I need to be more careful when I wish for more action. I was gleeful at my $12.75 win on Wednesday, September 13. Then I was down in the dumps on Thursday, after losing, -$16.10. Then last night, I won $20.45.

Tournament play, on the other hand, has been dry all September. Thirteen tournaments, thirteen times out of the money. I'm getting too agressive when the blinds start going up, and I play as if I'm in worse shape than I am.

Last night at a $4.00 + $0.40 NLHE tournament's a good example. 180 players, top 18 positions pay, and I've got about 2500 in chips left; the blinds are 200/400 + 25 ante, so I've got at least three or four orbits to go before I'm blinded out. While I'm a bit below the average chip stack (around 5500), I'm not in trouble yet. I sure played like I was, though.

I'm two off the button, and get dealt TT. The UTG player (with twice the chip stack as me) raises to 625, the next player (with 7500) calls, and I ... push all in. WTF? After 90 minutes of play, I make a donkey move like this?

Both of the other players call, then they push all in on the flop of 839. The turn's a 5, the rivers a J, and the big stack takes it down with 95s. By all rights, the UTG should have taken it with his KK, and I had no business splashing around like that.