Praise be! I"ve actually managed to cash in a tournament. I had 2 attempts yesterday and the first was in an $11 "deepstack" (3000 chips is deep is it?) shorthanded affair on Betfair. I had the right side of a set-on-set confrontation in the first hour, but otherwise had to rely on scraps and eventually went out in around 80th place, about 20 places outside the money.
Tourney number 2 was a 5 euro deepstack on Ladbrokes at 7.30pm. I"ve not played in it for a while and its a curious beast. Not only is it 8-handed, but the, normally several hundred, players can be divided into 2 camps; two-thirds are utterly incompetent and will happily go all-in during the first level (250xbb starting stack) with either flopped top pair or any pocket pair. Negotiate the first hour, preferably with a double-up and things settle down a bit. If you get to the last 80 or so players the tournament changes character completely, as by that stage most players know what they are doing and the standard of play is worthy of a higher buy-in. I managed to double-up on the second hand of the first level, although as if to illustrate my point about the volatile nature of the early stages, I was only in eighth place when I did! I eventually departed in 23rd place (from 291 starters). With around 12-13 x bb I shoved with pocket jacks, got a caller (pocket sixes) and flopped a full house to put me into 10th place. The next hand I was in the big blind with pocket queens, the action folded to the tournament leader on the button who raised,I shoved he called with aces and it was all over. For around 3.75 hours play I made a profit of 9 euros.
I think both tournaments suggested to me that my tournament play is as healthy as its ever been and there"s a sizeable win waiting just around the corner. World domination could yet be mine. Hmm, maybe.
