Sunday, December 21, 2008

Limpy gait

Final tabled another HORSE tournament last night on Stars. More runners (234) and larger buy-in ($11) makes this a slightly more respectable finish.

Got very lucky to even cash. Around 10 spots before the money bubble, I was down to crumbs when the big blind hit me in hold 'em, forcing me and my 5-3 offsuit all-in against two players. I didn't even bother watch the hand play out and turned my attention to the other tournament on the screen. Yet a short time later, the HORSE table popped up and I discovered I had just over 1,000 chips. A freakin' minor miracle had occurred.

I managed to win a few more hands, hunkered down and pretty much folded my way into the money (40 paid). More luck propelled me toward the finaly table after the money bubble burst when I made two pair on seventh street to win a big stud all-in. I got up above 40K at one point, but bled off far too many chips chasing speculative hands against smaller stacks. I was on fumes when I we reached the final table of eight players and lasted just a few hands.

HORSE tournaments emphasize to me how minuscule the edges are. Small mistakes you make throughout the tournament seem to have a compounding effect. The need for aggressiveness must be balanced against the rising swell of blinds and antes. The approach that seems to work best is playing extremely tight preflop and pounding hard when you think you've got the upper hand. And, as always, position is huge in determining which hands you can play and those you cannot.

I also had a minor cash in an $11 knockout tournament on Tilt last night. ($8 goes to the prize pool and $2 is your bounty.) The bounties produce a noticeable change in the way people play. Shortstacked all-ins are more than likely going to get called by big stacks with marginal holdings for the chance to collect the extra dough. I'll be looking to play a few more of these.

Finally, headed to a satellite clinic of one of our mega-hospitals today to finally get an MRI on my left knee. It took three visits to a rheumatologist to finally convince someone that the 24/7 pain I feel is something other than osteoarthritis. The doc's best guess was a torn meniscus. I'm hoping that's the case and some arthoscopic surgery will provide relief.

The growing pain has been a drag and is life limiting. Just walking 10 blocks to lunch on Friday proved ill-advised. Playing golf or throwing batting practice at the moment is inconceivable. The sooner I can get this fixed the better.

1 Comments:

Blogger Memphis MOJO said...

4th out 665 is great, nice job!

"(tough getting the laptop screen to your forehead)"

Too funny.

10:59 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home