On A Rush

It's been a good weekend, poker-wise. I stated some time ago that my goal in tournament poker was to reach a top 10% average, and this weekend certainly helped.

Friday night I played the $1.00 O8 nightly tournament that so many of us play on a regular basis. Though I bubbled out in 97th (top 63 pay) I was still pretty happy to hold on for so long. (Placing top 13.6%)

Saturday began with a $1 SNG, and came in 4th out of 45, top 7 were pay spots. (8.89%)

Next, for lack of choices, I played a FPP entry tournament. There were 872 entrants, with only the top 9 places paying. I ended up in 18th, which was out of the money but again I'm not complaining. (2.06%)

Then last night, Al, Drizz, Felicia, EasyCure and I were all signed up for the $1 O8 again. Al ended up not being able to play, but the rest of us grinded for hours against 905 others. Drizz made 27th, and I battled it out to the final table. Actually, going into the top nine I was the chip leader, but three bad beats in a row reduced my stack considerably and I went out in 8th place. (0.88%)

Simultaneously, I played a $3 limit hold em tourney with 870 entrants. I was paying very little attention to this table, as the O8 tournament required a lot more attention. I was short stacked through most of it until I hit a rush and started dominating the hands. Shortly after I finished the O8, I busted out in 39th place, once again making the money. (4.48%)

Since I made the final table in the O8 tourney, I gained entry into a weekly freeroll this afternoon, and was debating whether or not to bother. I was most concerned about reckless players, and didn't really want to bring down my average for a freeroll. Anyways, I decided to play, and for the first hour seven players at my table were sitting out. I KO'd the eighth guy within a few hands, and had another opponent join me. We decided to just take turns scooping the blinds, as there was not a lot of sense battling it out against each other. I had a decent chip stack once I was brought to a table full of players, and managed to double then triple up right away. I was actually the chip leader at one point, then hit the driest run of cards imaginable. I finally pushed all in with A9 when I was shortstacked, only to come across quad Q's. I ended up finishing in 34th place out of 937 others. (3.63%)

Though there was not one significant prize amount in the bunch, it was a good weekend for getting my head back in the game and focusing on what it is I want to accomplish by playing poker. My average for these six tournaments lands me in the top 5.59%, so I am more than happy about that. Now I have to consider playing some tournaments that have higher buy-ins so I can actually make some money at this again.