Discipline

Hey I think I might be learning something.

Last night I am playing Party Poker 3 table NL tournament.  I am holding steady and slowly increasing my stack.  Then in small blind I am dealt AA.  In the book I am reading on Tournament Poker by TJ Cloutier he suggests always limping with AA so that's what I am going to do.  The flop comes out 9-10-J and I make a standard bet just in case the board scares everyone else and to make sure nobody draws for free.  2 players come over the top of me, all in.  I fold and watch one of them win with the straight.  Which by the way, he didn't hit until the turn.

Ok, good for me, I didn't get hurt too bad.  Very next hand I have QQ on button.  A couple of limpers and I make standard 3x big blind raise.  The big blind goes all in which is about 6 times my bet, even though I have him covered.  I have been beat this way before.  There is actually another caller before it gets back to me.  I fold and they turn over KK and AK.  Jeez!

I lost about 1/2 my chips in those two hands but I think 90% of the players out there would have been eliminated.

A few hands later, I finally get lucky.  I am in late position with one limper and I raise my AJ.  The blinds fold and the limper calls.  Flop comes J-9-2 rainbow.  I go all in, which is a little more than the pot.  The limper calls me right away.  Uh oh?  He turns over slow played QQ.  Turn no help but BINGO! a Jack hits the river and I double up.  Now I am up to about the average stack with about 15 players left.

Nothing much happened after that.  I had horrible starting cards and was basically blinded off.  I made the final table as the short stack and couldn't catch any good cards.  I'm amazed I made the final table.