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Weekend Action In the FTOPS
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11 August 2008
I don`t have any money in my Full Tilt Poker account because I haven`t really played much online poker in the past month since my last withdrawal. But I`m aware that the FTOPS tournaments are taking place, and some of them offer excellent returns, like today`s $300 + $22 buy in for $1.5 million guaranteed.
I chose the path of poverty and like a Zen monk began on Saturday afternoon at rock bottom in a 5000 player freeroll. The top 100 finishers qualified for the big no limit poker tournament. The freeroll went surprisingly well, mainly because I padded up my chip stack early so that when it all went pear-shaped and I lost 90% of my stack thanks to a bad call I still had 500 chips to play with. From there I navigated my way to the top 100 and won a seat in today`s big event.
There were some big name poker players in today`s field: Erik Seidel, Mike Matusow, Scott Fischmann, Josh Arieh, and a host of other pros made up part of the big 5000 player field. The top 548 finishers cashed.
When the bubble loomed I was below the average chip stack but confident that I could hang in there to earn some money. Once that milestone was reached I started to play very aggressively and doubled up to 30,000 chips pretty quickly. I felt that I had a chance to go really deep in the event, and by the time the blinds were 1000/2000 with a 300 ante I found myself as the chip leader of the whole show.
I then ran into an opponent who flat out had my number. These things happen, and unfortunately I didn`t stop to think about the fact that there were 8 other players at my table who weren`t reading my game as well, or that my position in the overall tournament was still strong. This guy whittled me down in big chunks by coming over the top of my raises (he was in the small blind and then the big blind when I raised with decent starting hands).
I suddenly felt like I had lost focus even though with 50,000 chips in front of me and the blinds at 2,000/4,000 there was really no need to panic. I also saw that against other players this same guy was raising and calling with weak holdings like K9 and QJ.
I was dealt QsKs and limped from early position. He raised 3x the big blind from the small blind and it was folded back to me. I got angry and figured he was bullying again so re-raised all in. Just typing this makes me feel ill because it was such a patently obvious poor play on my part. He insta-called, flipped over, Aces and I was out in a very disappointing 155th spot.
I made a little over $1000, all of it profit, but still this was one chance to possibly get to the final table of a major poker tournament. One needs to have the usual balance of good fortune and good reads, but also a level of concentration and mental endurance that for some reason I do not possess.
Next time you`re in a big MTT such as this one remember that the key is the marathon nature of the event. You must keep calm throughout. Aaarghhhhh!!!
Posted by: Marc at 08:12
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