Recovering

I guess it's been a while since I posted on here. I've basically been recovering since the beating I took at both FullTilt and PokerStars. Since that beating I've dropped down to lower blind levels and I've started playing 6 handed tables.

So far the results for me have been great. I've been playing much more aggressively and I attribute that to being more willing to take some risks on draws. The bet amounts don't seem quite so huge and so I'm willing to put my money in to chase a draw more often now and it seems to be paying off.

In addition, I'm much more willing to attempt a bluff at someone who shows weakness. I've had this happen against me and now I'm willing to try it myself.

The scenario usually occurs when I'm in one of the blinds and I call a preflop raise and then call a bet on the flop. I usually do this with medium pocket pairs or AK and I can comfortably call a pot-size flop bet even when I don't hit the flop. Then if the preflop raiser checks on the turn I will usually bet into him on the river unless a scare card appears. I rarely get called when this I do this and it's easy to get away when I get raised.

I've had people do this to me especially at the higher blind levels I was playing at before and I've always suspected I'm being bluffed but the bet amounts were so large that I just couldn't call. Now I feel much more comfortable with the bet amounts that I'm willing to make this play myself.

I think this has really improved my game and my bankroll. I've read lots of articles about bankroll management and how sometimes you need to drop down in levels until you've recovered from a bad stretch. I've had bad stretches before but I've usually been able to struggle through them and remain at the same blind levels. This time I decided to drop down and see what happened. So far I'm happy with the results.

On another note, tonight I did something I haven't done in a long time but something I've wanted to do for a while. I went to Canterbury Park (my local card room) and registered for a tournament that's part of their "Fall Poker Classic". They've been running this series of tournaments each year for a while now and I've always thought of playing but just never made the effort to do it.

So tonight I plunked down my cash and registered for a tourney on next Tuesday the 16th. Hopefully I'll have some good results to post. I really don't play very many tournaments because they take so long to play and usually I only have a couple of hours each night to play.

I played in a tourney at Canterbury a couple of years ago. The top 11 places were given a trip to Vegas and entry in a satellite to play in one of the World Poker Tour events. Out of about 225 players I came in 23rd. For my first live tourney I thought that was pretty good but I was still disappointed that I didn't win a trip to Vegas.

On my last trip to Vegas I played in a small tourney and came in 6th place but of course only the top 4 were paid. It seems kind of common for me to just miss the money and I think that's because I keep playing tight as the tourney progresses. I've read lots of books about making moves as the tourney goes on and how you can't let yourself get blinded off but I just can't seem to pull the trigger when I'm actually playing. I'll try to make sure that doesn't happen next Tuesday.