You should always be aware of the other action at your table
So I made a bonehead move at my tournament last night at the Tulalip. It is a weekly $40 entry, $300 added, no-rebuy tournament and I have gone for the last three weeks hoping to crack it like I have the Drift on Inn tournaments, in which I have tied for first twice, and made final table and cashed several times over the last few months of going most Sundays.
So the Monday night tournament at the 'Lip has had over 100 entries every time I have gone to it, and last night was no exception, there were 12 tables of 11 to start with plus we got all the alternates in before the second level to make it nearly 140 entries.
I made it, through my usual patience, some good plays, and at least one example of Forrest Gump-like dumb luck, to the final two tables of 10. That's 140 down to 20, not bad.
But now comes my bonehead move. I was pretty short stacked by this point so I had basically one move, All-In, and I had to be sure that I only used it when I had a better than average chance of having my hand hold up if I got called. I used it a couple of times with no callers to steal the blinds, usually with a dry ace or king, occasionally I would have something better than that. So I am in the small blind for 2000 in chips out of 10000 total that I have J5 off, but the player to my left is a tight player and will not risk 10000 on a couple of blanks so I decide to go all in and steal the big blind. And it worked like a charm, he folded right away, at which point my focus expanded to take in the whole table not just the blinds and realise that the guy two seats to my right had gone all in before I did and I compleatly missed both the verbalization, and the big stack of 1000 tournament dollar chips that more than covered my little stack of 10.
He flips up AJ off and I show my J5 and the board helps neither of us which is to say, I get no help at all to recover from my bonehead mistake and I am out of there in about 18th place.
I think I can crack this nut in the future and look forward to going back again, but I will have to remember next time to check out all of the action around the table and not be so focussed on my own and the action ahead of me.
Live and learn.
The upside is that I had a pretty good $3-$6 night, which never happens to me so I more than made up for the Tournament entry fee, but not the potential winnings of 7th place or better which is where I think I could have landed had I noticed the All-in bet ahead of me.
So the Monday night tournament at the 'Lip has had over 100 entries every time I have gone to it, and last night was no exception, there were 12 tables of 11 to start with plus we got all the alternates in before the second level to make it nearly 140 entries.
I made it, through my usual patience, some good plays, and at least one example of Forrest Gump-like dumb luck, to the final two tables of 10. That's 140 down to 20, not bad.
But now comes my bonehead move. I was pretty short stacked by this point so I had basically one move, All-In, and I had to be sure that I only used it when I had a better than average chance of having my hand hold up if I got called. I used it a couple of times with no callers to steal the blinds, usually with a dry ace or king, occasionally I would have something better than that. So I am in the small blind for 2000 in chips out of 10000 total that I have J5 off, but the player to my left is a tight player and will not risk 10000 on a couple of blanks so I decide to go all in and steal the big blind. And it worked like a charm, he folded right away, at which point my focus expanded to take in the whole table not just the blinds and realise that the guy two seats to my right had gone all in before I did and I compleatly missed both the verbalization, and the big stack of 1000 tournament dollar chips that more than covered my little stack of 10.
He flips up AJ off and I show my J5 and the board helps neither of us which is to say, I get no help at all to recover from my bonehead mistake and I am out of there in about 18th place.
I think I can crack this nut in the future and look forward to going back again, but I will have to remember next time to check out all of the action around the table and not be so focussed on my own and the action ahead of me.
Live and learn.
The upside is that I had a pretty good $3-$6 night, which never happens to me so I more than made up for the Tournament entry fee, but not the potential winnings of 7th place or better which is where I think I could have landed had I noticed the All-in bet ahead of me.