3 Table Tourney on Party Poker

I have to say I think these new tournaments are a great addition to Party Poker. They only take about 90 minutes if you make to the final table and the payouts are pretty good if you finish in the top 5.

Last night I played a $30 buy in. For some strange reason my table was pretty stupid as one player went all in on the first hand and busted out. Then about 6 hands later, another player did the same thing. I managed to get over $2000 in tournament chips before the blinds went up from 15-30 so after that I pretty much just picked my spots.

Once we got down the final table I was second or third in chips with about $4,000 but the chip leader had over $10,000. He must have been a one man wrecking crew on the other tables.

I was doing fine until I tried to steal a couple of times by overplaying hands that were normally a call. I figure if I can raise and get the blinds, that's good. If I get called, maybe the flop hits me and I can make a lot of money. If the flop misses, I may make a stab at it anyway. Anyway these moves cost me 1/2 my stack so now I had to play defense and hope the other smaller stacks knocked themselves out. And that's exactly what they did.

I really learned last night that it pays to be patient with the short stack when you are close to the money. There's always a chance that a big stack could wake up with AA and get busted out by someone who calls with a straight or flush draw and hits it. Obviously if I was dealt a good hand and I was first in the pot, I would move all in trying to double up.

In fact I was down to about $900 with the blinds at 200-400 when on the button I was dealt AA. The chip leader called the blind in front of me. I moved all in, and then the small blind who was one of the bigger stacks moved all in. The chip leader called him. Naturally I am esctatic because now I have a chance to triple up.

We turn over the cards, and the chip leader had KK and the small blind had JJ. What are the chances of that I wonder? Anyway, I tripled up, the small blind busted out, and the chip leader padded his lead nicely. The best part is, that elimination put me in the money and now I had a little breathing room on the blinds.

I got no help the rest of the way and ended up in thrid place and winning $140. Not a bad's night work. I really feel like I am ready to make a good run at one of the live tournaments.