WSOP fever and random musings

I have main event fever. I have been checking the internet postings of pokerwire and the Tao of Poker for chip counts and seriously wishing I was there to take it all in. It is freaking unbelievable that Greg Raymer has a legitimate chance to go back to back and win this thing. As of today there are 60 players left and he has about an average chip stack. He was the leader at the start of the day yesterday, but lost a big chunk of chips when he was outkicked with KQ vs AK when his King paired up on the flop. Also I think the world may be coming to an end if Mike Matusow wins the Main Event. He is second in chips right now. I can't imagine what the that fame and money would do to him. He would be dead within 2 years.

My poker updates......last weekend I tried to play a bunch of $55 sit-n-gos on Party. I played 3 at a time and managed to squeeze in 21 tournaments. I may be reverting back to the mean. I lost $255. I had 1 first, 3 seconds, and 2 thirds. Playing 3 tables at a time is not all that difficult, although surprisingly I find it hard to concentrate on the other players and look for tells and patterns. I guess my main focus is just playing my cards and making sure that I don't time out, that I put note taking on a low priority. That definitely needs to change.

I also had some tilt creep in. It is way too easy to get frustrated by one hand and have it seep into your other tournaments that are going on at the same time. In a ring game it may only cost me a couple of bets before I calm down. In a sit-n-go at a later level, one false move can bust me out.

I was stuggling with a couple of situations. I had medium pocket pairs in late position and facing a raise in front of me. With a lot of chips left is it best to reraise and take control? Or is it best to just call, keep the pot small and see what happens on the flop. With AA, KK, or AK I almost always raise, because I don't mind someone reraising all it. With QQ, JJ, or 10-10 I may have to lay them down to a reraise.

A few times late in the tournament I was forced to reraise all in with medium pairs and I kept running into overpairs. Earlier, I always seemed get overcards and I was winning my coin flips. Oh I how I love the luck factor!

Another struggle is when to go to war with an overpair to the board. I heard Phil Gordon say that it's a cardinal sin to go broke with a lot of chips with only a pair. I went broke with a pair of Aces in my only WSOP satellite even though I was a huge favorite when I made the call. There I had the benefit of being able to read my opponent's body language. Online it's a totally different matter. Online players tend to gamble much more and I can't tell you how many times I have seen players go all in with top pair and medium kicker. Is it worth taking the risk early in the tournament?

From now on I will concentrate more on following the action even when I am out of the hand and I will consider being less aggressive with my medium and low pairs and see how that goes.