Hopefully three’s a Charm

I truly impressed myself last Thursday by winning the AP Forum tournament yet again. This was my second win in three weeks which in my opinion screams that I am getting much better at this game. The forum tourney is filled with many great players from the forum as well as some unknowns new to both the forum and tourney itself. The match is played using the Turbo Blind Structure, second only to the Ultra Turbo, with blinds increasing every five minutes. The $10+$1 buyin forum tourney field remains quite small with only the top three positions getting paid, however, when you consider the top prize of this weeks tourney was $95 added to the $150+$12 seat to the weekly AP 75K guaranteed tourney awarded to the winner, the risk reward factor is huge.

I was very fortunate to have not been seated at the same table as my mentor and best buddy dealace1 as he has taught me just about everything I know and can easily exploit my weaknesses without hardly any effort at all. It was only fitting that I give myself a better chance at the match by placing a bounty on his head early on in the match only to have him place a bigger bounty on my head. Although all in fun, the prospect of having everyone gunning for you does indeed reduce your chances tremendously. I finished the match heads up with Vikesfan whom I have never played heads up before but was able to get the cards needed to slowly shred his stack down to nothing.

After my first forum win I was able to cash in the 75k tourney taking 37th for a payday of $265. This week’s tourney I felt that I played much better and shoved my AJ with a small M for the purpose of stealing the blinds but ran into two additional shove playing an AK and JJ. There were three hearts flopped and I had the nut heart but never found the fourth heart on the turn or river. Had I hit that hand I would have easily placed not only in the money but probably been able to score my biggest cash ever. This is the element of the game that I believe luck plays such a big roll because I got my money in correctly and luck could have gone either way for me there. I went out in 87th place just thirty three places out of the cash but felt like I could not have played any better then I did. With my cash in my first attempt at this tourney I went into this last weeks tourney with not only a well selected strategy, but for the first time ever the confidence that I have the skills to play at this level with a very good percentage of not only cashing but going very deep as well. The 75K tourney draws a very large number of online pro’s so to cash in this match is not just a fluke or luck by any means.

I am now looking to my next opportunity to play in this tourney which hopefully three’s a charm….