Surviving the Bubble and Making the Money

October 2, 2007

Well it’s been a good while since I’ve played any MTT’s mainly due to time and needing a bit of time away from poker in the evenings (when most of the tournaments seem to running).

Anyway things are a bit more under control with the admin side of 4kingpoker now I’ve got a bit more of a daily schedule for work on the site – So I’m going to start playing in more multi-table tournaments during the day.

With a bigger screen I can now look playing MTT’s while working without making a hash of either playing or working (thats the theory).

The big factor for daytime UK play is you need to be playing at the biggest poker rooms like Full Tilt, PokerStars and maybe I even need to start playing at Party Poker again.

Anyway first results are encouraging – well at least I didnt go out on the bubble playing my first game yesterday – The $6,500 Guaranteed with $24+2 buy-in at Full Tilt Poker

With 273 entries I got off to a really good start and was chip leader for a while with over 7k in chips – things then ebbed and flowed but once it came down to the last 40 odd players I was getting very low on chips. Time for a realistic approach to the game – either go for broke or try to just stay in the game to scrape into the money (payout was from 27th place for $39.31).

Now whilst I’d got my eye on a top 10 finish early doors it was time to think …

“Is it better to make the money and at least clear $13.31 and a 50% profit or take the game to the table and push with anything looking playable ? “

At this point I decide it was best to play by the cards – and it was also very clear from the table I was on (with 2 of the chip leaders) there was going to be no small pot poker – This was all or nothing each and every hand.

Long story short I literally blinded myself away to make it into 27th place and the money.

While this may not be exciting alot of players throw away a payout because they cannot be patient and realistic about what they can achieve. I had only got the ante left when I’d folded round two rotations of the table twice but finally the one player between me an the money went out.

I managed to play a few hands and double up here and there and finally finished in 22nd.

I guess the lesson here is that it’s better to scrape into the money than bust out on the bubble. And sometimes that means simply folding rather than playing – The leaderboard and chip stack stats become your guide and decision maker.

Written by admin · Filed Under Scrawnybob's Ramble