I love to hate tourneys....

So I took a few days off after losing big the other night for 2 main reasons...one so I could cool down and get a clear head and not just donk off the rest of my bank roll and two, because I just wasn't in the mood to play. I'm an advocate of only playing when you truly want to so anytime I have a lack of focus or passion I just take some time off and try to analyze the past few days...poker wise.

Yesterday I decided to dive into some tourney play and had some success in the deeper stacked tourneys as usual. I think overall I played 5 tourneys, cashed in 2 for a profit of just over $20, but had some unlucky situations like always. In the three $4 180 SNG's I just couldn't avoid the bad beats losing with the following hands...

1) Kings to Q8off when I was called down on a board of Q 3 7 5, and the lucky donk hit his trips on the river when another Q fell. gg me.
2) Right after the first break in another I got it all in on what looked to be a squeeze by me with QQ and got called in both spots and was ahead of AJ and 44. The flop was harmless but the turn brought an ace and I was done for. gg me.
3) I think we were in the 4th level and I was sitting w/ around 17 bb's when I was dealt AK in one of the blinds. It was raised in front of me so I naturally re-raise and get pushed on. I call and my opponent flips AQ...NICE! Flop an ace...nothing on the turn...river queen. gg me.
4) This tourney I just got unlucky when my queens ran into aces.

All of these tourneys were nothing though compared to my deep stints in the 15K guaranteed and the $3 rebuy. Coincidentally, both of these tourneys have deep stack structures which I feel gives me an edge. In the 15K I was just a force all the time and basically chip up in every round...no real huge hands only the one I busted with, which was my A10 vs. 55. I was getting blinded away and had to make a move and my hand went unimproved and I finished in 142 out of like 2400 players. In the $3 rebuy I had a monster stack the majority of the time. After the first break I was sitting with my usual 8 - 10K in chips and ran with it. I made the right plays when I needed to and only got the chips in the middle when I was in dominating positions. I think it was right around the money bubble when I made my real move and doubled up with a KJ vs. 77. From that point on I went from just around 40K to 500K in about 35 hands and was sitting in 5th place with less than60 players left. I got a bit pf a cold deck and decided I wasn't going to let myself lose this monster stack so I continued to raise it up trying to pick up blinds and antes. I got caught twice and lost some chips and ended up getting it all with fours vs. jacks and busted in 32 place :(. It was a good run considering there where somewhere close to 3,000 people in this tourney. I played good poker and got to work a lot on 3 betting players late in the tourney who I felt were weak. It worked 100% of the time and that more than anything was the reason for the majority of my chips.

I continue to play well in tournaments and put myself in positions to make big scores but come up short. I've said it before and I'll say it again...with the way I'm playing right now I wouldn't be surprised if I score huge here in the next month. I'll continue to play these lower stakes tourneys and hopefully in the near future I will be reporting something great!