I made it to 18th place at the San Pablo tournament last weekend, but not far enough to get into the money. I ended up calling a guy's all-in with AQs. I was short stacked and felt I had a good read that he didn't have much. Sure enough, he only had T8. But he got a strait and bounced me out.
This week, I've been pounding away at a qualifier for a big online tournament going on this weekend at Full Contact Poker. The tournament looks pretty sweet. You start out with a ton of chips, the blinds go up slowly, and there's a million dollar guaranteed prize pool! The game should last two days, with a six and a half hour first day. I want to enter bad, but the buy-in is $1,000.
So what I've been doing is playing these $15 sit & go qualifiers. If I win the SnG, I'll get a free ticket to a $120 SnG. Win the $120 SnG and I'll get a free $1,000 ticket to the big event. The only problem is I keep getting 2nd place in the $15 qualifiers. 2nd place doesn't advance, but I do get a free ticket to retry. And that's what I've been doing... retrying over & over. Each time, I go out in 2nd. I always seem to end up all-in with my opponent when I'm just barely dominated. For example: A2 vs A3, K9 vs KT, 77 vs 88, etc.
So I've been stuck in tournament limbo all week, just retrying with my redo tickets. It finally ended last night when I went out in just 3rd. Man, that was an intense 15 minute three way session there at the end. Approximate chip count when three way started: #1 - 10,000, #2 - 4,000, Me - 1,000. Since it's winner take all, the only strat is to be as aggressive as possible. I managed to double up in a good spot, then went on a tear. I eventually took the chip lead, then lost the chip lead by folding my blinds during a run of crap cards. Then, when the chip leader had only about 50 more chips than me, I was all-in with 99 vs. AT. He caught an A on the river and I was bounced out.
Frustrating, to say the least. I wasted a lot of time on that qualifier, time that could have been spent making money. I was thinking about doing it again, but the idea of having to win two winner-take-all games in a row, wasting who knows how much time, just wasn't appealing to me.
And that's when my wife came up with a plan. We titled it One Thousand Dollars in Four Days. Starting today, as soon as I come home from work, I'll hop on the $3/$6 tables. She'll provide me with food, coffee, and love, while I try to generate as much cash as possible. My goal is to make $1,000 before Saturday morning. I only actually need about $500 more to get my bankroll up to $2,800. That's the magic number where I can lose the tournament and still be comfortable playing at $3/$6. I'd be happy with that, but I really want to earn $1,000 so that it's a no stress buy-in.
It's time to pull out some poker magic, generate some quick cash, and take my shot at the big game. As a good friend once told me, "Shit, son, I don't fuck around with penny-ante qualifiers. I want into a tournament, I raise the cash, y'dig?"