Dispatches from MiniFTOPS XVIII

For a long time I frowned upon tournament poker. It’s just too slow. There’s too much luck involved in making a deep run in a single tournament. It’s a ‘one hit wonder‘-game. Cash games ar so much better, especially Rush: making and losing large amounts of $$$ in a matter of minutes. That’s how I like to roll.

But, alas, there needs to be more in the life than just Rush poker. The search for happiness and fulfillment, for example Tried to solve that one many times. Like by being married or, most recently, online dating... Failed miserably. It's the edges, you know. They are too thin.

Then yet another weekend comes around and there's not much going on. Suddenly playing tournaments doesn't seem so bad. A small investement for hours of poker. Turn a dark, depressing December weekend into something challenging and hopeful. Maybe in these MiniFTOPS I won’t fail. Maybe this time I’ll succeed in something. And maybe I’ll add some cool tunes, cold beers and a relaxing spliff to the mix... Just to make sure I'll at least enjoy the ride.

So I started Friday night with 10 big blinds in MiniFTOPS #6, a Super Turbo tournament. Quick and dirty poker is my cup of tea. Everyone goes crazy here. Shoving all kinds of trash from any position. So I just seriously nit it up and stay cool all the way down to 3 big blinds or so. Shove better hands and don’t get unlucky, that’s my strategy. It all went smooth. Passed the bubble and made my way deeper and deeper into the monies. With only 200 players left I had over 15 big blinds. That’s huge in a super turbo. Hell yeah, on my way to victory!
Smang it, baby!
Then my Aces got cracked.
A few hands later I went busto...



Anyway, finished in 169th for about $120.
First tournament, first cash. Not a bad start.

On Saturday I played Event #10, a Turbo tournament, but never got anything going. Nursing a shortstack for an hour and a half before busting out anonymously somewhere in the middle of the pack. An uneventful night...

Sunday there was Event #11, a very reasonably priced knock-out tournament with a $250K Guarantee. Over 25.000 players registered. In this huge field, I busted somewhere in the middle of the pack once again. No monies here.

In Event #12, the heads-up tournament, I won my first match. 99 versus AK was good for a ticket to round two. There I ran into a big, fishy panda who outflopped me... My AK was no good against his K7 on a KQ7 board. Busto. The end. No big scores. No great moments of glory.

Four MiniFTOPS tournaments, 1 cash. Exactly break even. Right where I started.
Nothing but another mellow weekend. But I learned that tournament poker isn't that bad after all...

I'll just keep on trying
'till I get somewhere.
Any road will do.
Anywhere is fine.