The warming-up was already good last time during the $2 tourney, but the real match round, the $5 tournament was a big succes: I finished in fourth place, cashing $42.75. With this cash out, I can at least run break even in my series of sixteen tournaments on Poker Stars. My excellent result was mainly due to my super tight aggressive play.

I was happy to double up already very early in the tournament, after just a few hands:

I think I play this hand by the book. I flop top two and it’s immediately clear to me that my opponent also has a good hand, top pair, two pair or the nut flush draw and I extract the maximum value. Then I was carddead for a while and I observed a lot of retarded moves at the table (call an all-in preflop with Q8 off, pay somebody till the river with toppair on a board full of draws,…). Then it was my moment to receive my portion of donkament chips:

This guy doesn’t give me credit for a hand, during a period I hardly played a hand. I don’t get it anyway why people can call an all-in with KQ: what can you beat, really? Then I was carddead for a very long period and I was able to steal a few pots because of my tight image. However I was a few places below the bubble all the time. But then I received another donkament and was able to reach the money and even the final table. I didn’t receive a lot of quality hands, but there was a lot of action on the table, with people quickly disappearing. With six people left I won an important pot, knocking out an opponent:

I was a little scared when he picked up a flush draw on the turn, but everything turned out as it should be. Another one went home and then (when i was third in chips) I reraised someone all-in with KdQd but the other guy happened to have Aces which I couldn’t beat. Anyway, this cash out gave me confidence again.

My thirteenth tournament, with a $5+.5 buy-in, was a pretty funny one . I lost a big chunk of my stack thanks to a misclick, then doubled up thanks to this same misclick and subsequently lost almost all my chips again on a serious misread.

It all started in the second blind level, I was about 500 chips up and I wanted to bet 115 chips on the flop after hitting top pair (pot was about 175). Instead my finger slips over to the ‘6′ and suddenly there were 1156 chips of me in the middle . Worst thing is: a player behind me instantly shoves all-in for 1050 chips more . I decided not to go for it with of course some amazed reactions in the chat^^ . But this retarded move paid off two hands later:

So this guy calls my all-in with A high and is crushed like hell, havin only two outs to beat my AK suited. He would certainly never have called if I didn’t make that retarded move earlier. After being moved to another table I lost almost my whole stack on the next hand:

Now I put this guy on two high cards, like AQ, AJ suited or something. That’s why I reraise but he makes a small reraise over the top. I call and after catching an OESD on the turn I’m not going anywhere of course. Well he díd have two high cards, but they were paired… Finished in 66th place, would like to finish in the money again…

I played my second $5+.5 tournament and I got eliminated in 70th place. However, not much I could do about it, just lost two important pots.

Not a lot of spectacular things happened early on in the tournament. I played some hands fairly aggressive in late position and I won some and I lost some. Because seeing some hands still is the most interesting, I converted an important one for you:

I think KJ is a good hand to open a pot with, but on the flop I sensed something was wrong in this hand, thanks to one of the scarce tells you have in online poker: the time someone takes to make a decision. So I also checked but when the SB checked the turn again I was kinda convinced he didn’t have a 6, because of the draw on the board. However, in the end he happened to have this draw along WITH the 6. It was this same guy who would eliminate me a few moments later ;). Kind of the same situation preflop:

I flop top two pair and obviously bet the flop as I can represent a lot of even stronger hands. When the turn comes a diamond, I realise my chips go in anyway, also having the nut flushdraw now. Too bad for me, my opponent already had the flush… I calculated my odds afterwards with the poker calculator and I (only) had 25% in that spot, so exactly a three to one dog.

I played my first $5+.5 tournament and it went pretty well. Unfortunately I ended up as 14th, the top 12 being paid…

However, finishing in 14th place was quiete an accomplishment regarding my bad start. First I woke up with TT on the BB, where I raise it up and get called by the SB. Flop comes QJx and I make another bet, representing a strong hand obviously. I get called again and the turn comes an A: my opponent leads out, I give up the hand. Subsequently I get another premium pocket pair:

I give up my Queens because preflop I’m almost sure he has AK so on the flop I decide to stick with my read. So I’m kinda crippled after this hand but quickly after this I get a marvellous opportunity to recover from this:

The beautiful art of flopping a flush got me back on track  and I was able to play some good poker after that. But then I was carddead while the tournament was heading towards the bubble and I decided to take my chances with pocket snowmen:

So eliminated after a coinflip, maybe I’m gonna wait it out next time because this is kinda frustrating…