Nice Finish in MTT

Yesterday I transferred $100 over to bodog to take advantage of a 100% instant deposit bonus. The only restrictions are that I need to earn 300 bodog points, prior to a withdrawal. You earn a point for every $1 raked and 3 points per $5 tournament fee.


Even though the cash games are soft on bodog I am not fond of playing without PAHUD. I've grow attached to having stats available. I probably wont play many cash games, maybe a few to help me get past the withdrawal requirements.

One of the biggest draws at bodog for me is that not many top internet players play there. It is mostly sports bettors who like to try their luck a poker after they hit a win. Another added bonus is that almost every "guaranteed" tournament has an overlay.

Last night I decided to try my skills at some NL cash games. I sat at the $0.1/$0.25. I didn't fair well and got stuck for my buyin. I decided that I should hold off on the the NL games on bodog.

I sat at a $.5/$1 limit game. I played ~50 hands and ended up finishing ~+10bb. I registered for a $11+1 guaranteed. and finished out of the $.

At this point I was happy with my MTT play. I decided to register for the $17.5k guarantee. The buyin was ~$57 and if I didn't make the $ I would still have my original $100 deposit.

I played very well. I had been listening to a seminar put on by "sheets" the previous day, and it helped me to put together a solid strategy. I was getting short stacked but still had a "M" of ~9. In fact I had an average stack and that meant that a lot of people were getting short stacked. I wasn't going to take an risks.

I ended up seeing a cheap flop and flopped a set against 2 other opponents. I played my hand like it was weak, and trapped both opponents. My hand stood, and I was now the table chipleader. In fact I was in the top 5 players in the tourney.

I started making moves and pushing players around. Before I knew it I had a $20k lead over 2nd with ~20 players left. I positioned to win the tourney. The second place stack was to my right. I ended up making the following marginal play and losing half my stack.

I had ~55k in chips and was the bb, blinds + antes =4k. Everyone folds around to button who is ~10k he raises for 4k, SB raises to 8k. I have 55 and come over the top for 25k Button calls SB pushes. ~70k in the pot. button shows A2o, SB shows AKo. flop is 939, turn 7, river K.

SB ends up in excellent position, I think he may have gone on to win it. He was a solid player.

I am left with ~25k and end up playing to finish 12th place and take down $209.99 for my effort. Overall If I had it to do again I wouldn't have got into a confrontation with the second place guy. Live and learn though. I think my MTT play has made significant improvement in the last week and plan to continue to refine my skills.

My bankroll now sits at $313, and I still am expecting my rakeback by this weekend. For now I am going to limit my MTT buyins to $20 or less and play a solid game. I may be moving to the $.5/$1 limit games this week.

I have started into HOH1 and am about 30% through that. I have also been absorbing as much MTT strategy resources as I can find online.