Poker, Football, and everything sports

I woke up super early this morning to grind some of the lower stakes tournaments that I don't always get to play. Between 8 and 9, there are a 10 buck 6 handed tournament, a 5 buck heads up, and the 10 buck cubed. There are also a few others I played, like a couple 26 guarantees, and the 15 buck super turbo omaha and 10 buck heads up that I've had frequent success in in the past.Well today I made alot of very deep runs, and here's a quick recap.

The morning started on a down note with an early elimination in the 5 buck heads up, but I quickly got a good run in the 10 buck 6 handed going, so I was ok. In my low stakes days, I grinded this tournament alot, and its still one I like to play from time to time. It had been a while since i had made a deep run, so it was alot of fun relive old memories so to speak. Well from about 24 people on down to the final table, I played hyper aggressive. 3 betting alot of pots and getting in alot of action with a few other guys who were likely getting pretty tired of me. I had the chip lead going into the final table, and I held it for most of the way to 3 handed. There were about 300k in chips in play, and it was spread evenly throughout all of us. I had been getting into it alot with one particular guy, and while i rarely showed down a hand against him, I almost always had it. And I knew he was getting frustrated. I made a standard button raise with AQ and he called in the bb. The flop came Q104. He checked to me and I bet half the pot and he called. Turn was a blank and he check and I bet 20. He put in a smallish raise to 50k. I figured if u have Q10 gg to me but more then likely he was trying to take me off a pot for a change. I shoved on him, and he called with QJ. We were all but even, so the winner would have a 2 to 1 chip lead heads up. The river....a brutal J of clubs. The 3 outer cost me 400 bucks. Its always frustrating to lose one of those constant battles like that. OT have the guy pegged, only to have FTP let him off the hook. Sucks.

More time went by and I ended up in the money of the 10 buck heads up tournament. I played a variety of opponents, and it was a great example of how you must be able to mix up your play to be successful. I faced one guy who would pot bet every single flop. Against him, I had to sit on my hands, and wait to flop some pairs, and check raise him. In another pot, I had a guy who min raised every button. Against him, I did alot of 3 betting preflop with marginal hands to pick up alot of pots. And in others, I played hyper aggressive against a fairly passive opponent. You have to be able to switch gears in poker, especially in heads up play. I ended up getting to the finals, with first getting 560 and 2nd getting 320. With such a big difference, I asked if he wanted to chop, but he didn't say anything I ended up losing the match. No bad beats here he played a better match. He took an early lead, then play trip 8's on the flop well and got me to shove in on him. So we have a 3rd and now a 2nd

The last tournament was a standard 20 buck HORSE tournament. For those of you who don't know, HORSE is a 5 game tournament, where each level changes the game. It goes limit holdem, omaha hi lo, razz, stud, and stud hi/lo. I consider myself a pretty good all around player, so I was hoping for a good run in this. and I got it. The tournament only got about 68 players, so it only paid the top 7. Well I got to the final table, as one of the 4 bigger stacks. There were 4 good stacks, and 4 very low stacks. All of the low stacks busted, and the 4th place player busted. At this point, there were talks of a deal. I was the severe short stack compared to the others. One guy had 48k, the other 35, and I had a measly 9k. The bet sizes were 500 1k, so I was pretty short. In a chop, the low guy on the totem pole always gets the lesser end of the deal, so I told the guys if I double we talk if not oh well. It ended up being a good decision. As I recall, the payout were in the ball park of 480 fir 1st, 290 for 2nd, and 180 for 3rd, or something like that. I ended up doubling up and one guy fell a bit, so we struck a deal where first got 350, 2nd got 290, and I got 266. I decided it would be good to almost guarantee myself 2nd place money, and in a horse game, with levels that high, it was basically whoever got the most cards that would win.

So after that, I ended up being up around 800 on the day, and cashed out 400 for my efforts. In January, I made it a goal of mine to have 100k in total winnings, with 25k being profit. At the time, my numbers were roughly 75k in winnings, 20k in profit. Now I sit at around 86k in winnings, and 24k in profit. So my goal is looking good.

Next week the mini ftops starts, and I will be playing a shit ton of events. Not sure how many, but at least 10-12. Also, the Winnin O Green is starting at the Bike casino, and I'll probably play an event or two there. As always, I'll post my schedule here as it gets updated, and you can always check my twitter tayke2 for daily updates. Thanks for reading.