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Monday, May 01, 2006 

A Good Weekend

A good weekend...
I'll cut right to the chase. I have accomplished my goal for the weekend and then some. Still can't retire, but we're getting there, lol.

You'll recall my intent to win a satellite for Sunday's 1 million tournament at PokerStars.com. Being the last Sunday of the month, the buy-in increases to $500. Good chunk of change. Normally the one table satellites cost $27 for entry in to the typical $200. With the increase however, satellites for the one table set up are $70. Took two stabs at these Saturday night to no avail. I didn't play very long Saturday night. Could not cash to save my life. After a few satellites and minimal success on the sit n go's, I called it an early evening and got a good nights sleep.

Sunday rolls around and I find myself back in Sod hell. However, the yard is now complete and I will not be laying any additional sod for a very very long time. Once I wrapped up the yard though I decided to take one last crack at the $70 satellite. I figured it would be worth the risk bankroll wise. Been fairly healthy with some decent wins lately. What the hell.
I get involved with this satellite and decide to really bear down and practice the patience factor I so lovingly speak of. Ended up getting fairly low in chips but sustained until I found myself with 5 people remaining. Waited for a few key starting hands and found myself the chip leader 4 times over. Finally got heads up and took a huge hit. Ended up out chipped 3/1. In similar situations in times past I usually get frustrated and tilt myself out of the tournament and move on to the next satellite since I've essentially won my money back for 2nd place. In this case though, I decided to keep playing my game. Turns out I called him on 2 very important bluffs putting me back in a commanding lead. He tried bluffing off the rest of his chips with 7 2 suited. I call with A 10 and my hand holds. Off to the $500 tourney at 4:30.

This accomplishment felt pretty good. While only a satellite to some, like I've been saying, these satellites have been eluding me for several weeks causing me to really analyze my play on these games. I think it's fair to say where my shortcomings fall in to place on these tournament. Adjust I shall.

So, 4:15 rolls around and I'm as mentally prepared as I'm going to be. Wifey poo was extremely supportive. She left the house. lol. She headed off to the movies while I was left to my own devices. When I'm playing in the big tournaments, she really does offer a supportive hand and I certainly thank her for that. To ensure I have no disruptions I decided to let the dogs out one last time. Huge mistake. Having just laid the sod, I forgot to gate my back yard after watering it earlier. As a result, my 3 dogs are roaming the neighborhood and I have 8 minutes until start time. I start to run outside to grab them and realize I'm in pajama bottoms. Normally wouldn't care, but these had gnomes on them. Nevermind. Anyway, I throw on some shorts and run outside praying this is not a sign from above. First dog runs right up to me no problems at all. 2nd dog doesn't know what the hell's going on and just goes right in the front door. Then there's Oliver. Half way down the street I go running. Strangely enough though, he doesn't put up a chase. I grabbed him and heaved him over my shoulder and returned him to the house. 2 minutes to spare.

I finally sit down with my heart racing. My hope was to sit back, calm down and get in to a groove. No luck. First hand AJ suited. I raise, call call. Nothing on the flop. I bet, fold fold. Okay, I can live with that. Second hand AK. JESUS! Leave me alone for a few minutes I'm thinking. I raise, one caller. We take it to the river and split the pot.

After that, things calmed down for quite a bit. I took a hard hit in the second hour which really had me scrambling for a decent hand. I ended up making some moves which got me back in to a comfortable position. Hour after hour passes and I continue to find myself just slightly under the chip average. I never really obtained a huge stack but just continued to fly under the radar. After nearly 4 hours, finally approached the money cut off. Naturally, everyone tightens up like a drum. Often times, I'll use this opportunity to scoop up key pots and add to my pot. However, I was in a position where I wasn't really hurting for chips, yet I wasn't really far ahead. So, rather than go all out, I decided to bunker down and await the money. As it turns out, ended up stealing 2 pots with decent hands anyway which did help. Finally made it to the money. At this point, the fireworks fly. People pushing all in left and right and before I even get a chance to make a play, I find myself in the next payout bracket. This continues for some time and I keep pushing up that money bracket which is perfectly fine by me. Had a pretty good stack at one point but the blinds quickly became a factor and I found myself having to make some plays. This worked out for a while...but I ended up shortstacked with 88 and made a final stand. Two callers, AK and 10 10. A on the flop and it was all over. Fished 124th out of 2323 players. I was very pleased with this. Payout was $1626.10 bringing my bankroll on stars up to $2500. Not bad for a $70 investment.

What's next?
I've got some choices to make as I move forward. This will really allow me to hit the WSOP satellites hard. However, I want to choose a path and concentrate on it. I'm thinking of increasing my sit n go buy in's while working toward the WSOP. I'm going to be thinking on this today before going in half cocked. I should have a more detailed strategy moving in to this evening.

Thanks for everyone's support...
-Adam

Win Wrap Up...

PokerStars Tournament #23112706, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $500.00/$30.00
2323 players
Total Prize Pool: $1161500.00
Tournament started - 2006/04/30 - 16:30:00 (ET)

Dear JvilleWhip,

You finished the tournament in 124th place.
A $1,626.10 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 160.11 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/tlb_tournament_rankings.html

PokerStars Tournament #23981244, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $35.00/$3.00
6 players
Total Prize Pool: $210.00
Tournament started - 2006/04/30 - 18:00:21 (ET)

Dear JvilleWhip,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $136.50 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

PokerStars Tournament #23966371, No Limit Hold'em
Super Satellite
Buy-In: $65.00/$5.00
9 players
Total Prize Pool: $585.00
Target Tournament #23112706 Buy-In: $530.00
1 tickets to the target tournament

Tournament started - 2006/04/30 - 13:13:50 (ET)

Dear JvilleWhip,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
You qualified to play in Tournament #23112706 and are automatically registered for it.
See Tournament #23112706 Lobby for further details.

If you choose to unregister from this tournament your account will be credited
with $530.00 Tournament dollars. Tournament dollars can be used to buy into
any tournament.
Visit our web site at http://www.pokerstars.com/tournaments.html
for more details.

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