January 2

Was super tired. Literally never went to bed all night of the first. Got back from "Charlotte's Web" (2006), decided to play in the last day of Texas Hold 'Em sit & go tournaments on Pokerstars.net.
First up was a pot limit game.

Typically in pot limit people will reraise each other until it hits the maximum. This severely alters play. I like to see the flop and tend to pay into almost every pot in no limit...I will pay 10 on the chance of hitting the flop and getting someone to bet into me. Well, in limit hold'em...the raises are limited so you should really only play when you have a strong hand. If you bet into every pot, even the ones you win aren't going to pay you back for all those you miss. The math simply isn't correct. This means I am a poor pot limit player since I bet into too many hands holding 5/6 off suit type stuff. As a result, I rapidly get short stacked and unlike No Limit where one hand takes you from short stack to chip leader, Pot Limit requires more of a slow, steady climb where you only play hands like high pair from anywhere, low or medium pair from late position when only a few people are in the pot, Big Slick, etc. Normally I enjoy the challenge and adjust my game accordingly but last night I was not in the mood to sit out hand after hand after hand catching nothing. At one point I had seen the flop something like 3 of 23 times. Then i got bored and just went nuts, calling everything, doing what they call "tilt" betting. Essentially, if I had a pair i bet it like a straight, a straight I bet like a flush, and a flush I bet like a full boat. Not that I got any straights or flushes...actually, I was lucky to catch a pair. Of course, in limit, you can't really bluff people as they can easily and inexpensively match you. Got down to 400 chips, managed to get all in...and won. Went all in with 490....and won. Went all in with 560....and won. Ridiculous. Got up to 1100 ish before my luck turned and I was able to bust out. Which I was trying to do.

So I went back to my first love, no limit Hold 'Em.
Started with my typical...call the big blind, see the flop, fold if it misses me. Requires discipline, especially when nothing is hitting. Fortunately, this time I had a King in the pocket on the third hand and 2 more came on the flop. I smooth called, then when someone bet 200 after a 9 on 4th street I came over the top for a thousand more. When you start with 1500....that's a lot. I figured the big bet would drive people off. It didn't. Three people called and my Alabama Night Riders held up to give me the comfortable chip lead.

There are a couple of choices I had at that point. One would be to sit on it, only play big hands and shoot for the final two, planning to win heads up. This is the conservative way. Or you can play my way...see every flop regardless of your hand. Well, playing that way I was missing flop after flop after flop. So when I pulled 4/8 off suit I folded...and the flop came with a pair of 4s.

*** When you start a strategy, stick with it. I knew going in I would pay a lot of pots a small amount, but then get it back when the flop hit me. By stopping 1 hand early I cost myself. ***

Got to about 3500 chips and the guy before me stold my blinds twice. I told him I had my eye on him and his blind stealing, to be careful. He called the blinds once, then raised them a hundred. At that point the blinds were something like 15/30, so that was a substantial raise. He had a habit of "sitting out" when he had enough chips to be top three, then coming in to play when he was out of the money. He had just gone out of the money so come back in to play. I had about a 2 - 1 chip lead and K/10 off suit so I came over the top and went all in. The other 2 (we were down to top 4) players dropped, he called so we were head to head.. He had J/Q suited.
I caught a King on the flop, he caught a 10 Queen. 4th street gave him a nine and possible gut shot straight but the river gave me the Alabama Night Riders and put him out.

Don't blind steal me. I will put you all in as soon as I have a hand and it will cost you.

I went back to seeing every flop and pretty quick picked up a straight. So did the guy who had been going back and forth with me for chip lead so we split the pot. The next hand the short stack took him for a ride, dropping him from about 6K to 3200 and putting her in first. The next hand he made a bit of a tilt bet and I put him away.

Heads up went back and forth. It is hard getting someone to bet into a hand they don't have. Finally I caught Big Slick when she had Q/J and we went all-in. I just had to avoid the Jack..she paired her Jack on the flop...but I paired my King. We both hit the Queen on 4th street and the River was nothing so I had another tournament win.