First Blogger Tournament

Played in my first blogger tournament, Mookie's Bird Flu O Waffles Tournament. Crapped out in 17th place out of 26 or so. Frankly, I was pretty intimidated, despite some encouraging words from Surflexus.

First, it was pretty expensive in bankroll terms. I've never played at that high a level of buy-in, and I was scared money. As far as strategy I did two major things wrong:

1. I played a limit strategy. In other words, I fought back when I had top pair with a decent kicker, calling or re-re-reraising instead of folding. This was exacerbated by

2. Not realizing that my opponents, who are better than the fellow schlubs I play in the Pokerstar .10 MTT's, were playing more straightforward than I thought. I thought I was getting bluffed and dipsy-doodled when I should have realized that a re-raise generally meant what it usually means- he/she's got the goods. This affected me in other ways as well. I was being too cute- slow playing the second-nut straight in one hand only to let my opponent draw into a full house. Later, I tried trapping someone else with my own boat, and ended up having it checked down for little profit.

Oh well. There were some good moments, too. I took a few pots with bluffs. I crippled someone at my table, first by sucking out trips against his bottom two pair. Later, I took a large pot from the same person with my two pair. And really, I usually end up a little better than half the field in SNG's anyway, so this wasn't so far from my normal result.

It was great fun, an adrenaline rush. Unfortunately, my 'roll and my tourney skills are not to the point where I'll be able to play many of these. Now, if I could get some interest in a micro-limit cash game...