Tournaments and Tilt

Starting Bankroll: $3.66
Buy-in: $3.40
Cash-out: $10.00
Session: $6.60 gain
Finishing Bankroll: $10.26

So after playing a few cash-game sessions, I've realized I'm not a cash-game player. I never know when to stop. I'll be on a huge rush and taking down lots of pots only to loose a huge one and be down from my starting buy-in.

Aside from some poker nights with friends, my poker experience has been all tournaments. I'm not sure why I'm better at tournaments than cash games. Maybe it's that tournaments have a tangible goal (keep playing until you have all the chips or have no chips).

Given my small bankroll, my tournament options are limited. No $10 sit-and-goes here. That's ok, I prefer multi-table tournaments anyway. Fortunately, the site I play on has $1.00 + 0.20 multi-table tournaments (45 players). I figured my bankroll could handle a buck and entered one. Things were going good and I was accumulating a lot of chips. After about an hour, I was sitting at about 8th or 9th with about 25 players left when I played "The Hand". You know the one. The one that's the turning point where it all goes bad. The one you remember days later and it still stings. So I limp into a pot with Ks9s in middle position. The flop comes K-9-6 suited. I make a pot size bet, get a caller and couple players fold. The button, who I have covered by about $250 raises all in. I call and everyone else folds. The button also limped into the pot pre-flop, so I don't put him on AK, KK, 99 or even 66. I've seen this player go in with a king or an ace with just about anything, so I'm guessing he's paired a king with who know's what kicker. I call and the cards are flipped: A2o. Are you kidding me? No flush draw, no straight draw? No pair. The turn comes A. Uh oh. No problem, I still have 2 pair over his aces. Let's rag on the river and get this jackass out. The river comes a 6. Great, the board has paired and he has an overpair. I can't believe it. Good on him for trying to steal with a naked ace, but come on. I wish he did have KK.

So you can imagine how the rest goes. I'm still in but with a crippled stack and in danger of being blinded out. I pick up a few small pots, but my night's over. Eventually the blinds drown me. That's all she wrote.

So I'm feeling a little dejected from losing a third of my bankroll on the tournament. Then I break the cardinal rule of poker: don't play on tilt. I buy in at a $0.01-$0.02 no-limit table and resolve to win back my tournament buy-in. Yeah, you can imagine how well that went. After losing some big pots with the nudicles* I'm busted. Great, now I've lost another $1.00. I walk away from the computer and contemplate my ineptitude at cash games.

A couple hours later, I stroll back to the computer. Hmm... I've got a buck 40 left. Enough for another tournament, why not? I resolve to play smart and think though every hand. I'm careful about which hands I get into, and when I do get into one, I push hard and apply pressure to my opponents. I paid attention to my stats and think I played a good game:

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 147 hands and saw flop:
- 25 out of 37 times while in big blind (67%)
- 13 out of 35 times while in small blind (37%)
- 19 out of 75 times in other positions (25%)
- a total of 57 out of 147 (38%)
Pots won at showdown - 20 of 31 (64%)
Pots won without showdown - 16

A large portion of the game was spent as chip leader and I wasn't afraid to throw some weight around. When it got down to me and one other player, we were pretty even, chipwise. I lost a few coin flips and came out in 2nd. Whoo hoo, 10 bucks!

So now my bank roll has a bit more padding and I've decided to stick to the micro buy-in tournaments.


* Nudicles are fake testicles they put into neutered dogs. Hence, nudicles = "second nuts"