Cashed at the MATH!

Even though my poker playing hours have been fairly low this month, I still try to make it to some of the blogger tourneys because it's fun and it forces me to play more tourneys rather than cash games. Having said that, I discovered what would be otherwise very obvious... playing cash games while playing in a blogger tourney is definitely -EV. I was too busy chatting and playing the tournament that I was literally just playing cards at the 2-4NL table I had open... and since I wasn't catching them, I just gave away money at the cash tables. Lucky for everyone else at that table I suppose.

On a more positive note, however, I finally cashed in one of these blogger tourneys! Considering that I truly consider myself a tournament donk (unlike some others who claim they suck as they continue to final table big MTTs), outlasting the other bloggers to come in 5th overall (out of 52 runners) at the MATH was certainly an accomplishment and quite a proud one at that. I, unfortunately, don't have a screen shot of the tournament lobby but here's the link to the results. The only thing I'm upset about is that I really didn't give myself a chance to win. Towards the end, I wanted to cash more than I wanted to win and I truly believe that Astin was stealing my big blind from MP every time. I KNEW it. And yet, I did nothing about it because I did not want to bubble out of the money. But it was literally a situation where lucko has described in his post here. That's where I learned the term "ATC" (any two cards) which is very frequently used by the bloggers (aka the hammer). The presence of the low stack (islandbum1) who eventually lasted to the money made me not want to bubble and as such, I tightened up... at the same time, went relatively card dead (there were marginal hands that I could have played back with but again, I was too scared to bubble). So, needless to say, I let him steal most of my blinds... by the time the bubble burst and we were all in the money, I didn't really have a chance to win. The only chance was maybe if I can finish 4th instead of 5th, etc but unless I got crazy cards, I was no longer a threat to anyone and as such, I pushed with J4 soooooooted, only to be called by the eventual winner with KJ and I'm out in 5th place. Astin, in case you read this blog, since I let you steal my blinds, I stole your screen shot. Thanks! Yours truly in 5th place. Next up, the Mookie!