Back here

Well, im back here at Singapore. I had a blast in the Philippines. Really felt like a vacation went I visited. Never had to move a muscle except to eat, sleep, and well, eat again. LOL. Had loads of fun with my family and especially with my girlfriend. You really dont realize how much a person means to you until you spend a day without seeing them. Definitely working on a plan for my gf to move here. :)

Once I moved back I started playing more on Poker.com. I had been playing a few of the 2.20 SnGs and cashed quite often. I finally ended up putting my BR up the $40 mark. Got it down a bit and tried a 2.20 MTT. After a huge suck out, I found myself back in the tourney and in the money. Played solid in the final table, raising a lot in position and catching good hole cards. Finished in 2nd for an $86 payday. Not bad.

From the winnings I got on Full Tilt, I decided to play a few of the SnGs and cashed in some of them. Seem to be running into sharks and micro grinders who always seem to know what I was upto. Hehe. Then I decided to try my luck at 5.50 MTT that happened to start in 5 minutes. What a tourney that was. The table I got into was tighter than (insert your own comparison here). I just kept raising with junk in middle and late position and making continuation bets with little or no resistance. When someone would look me up, I would flop two pair or a set. It was insane! I also ran into players trying to make plays on me when I hit the flop, with one guy literally bluffing all his chips away when I hit a boat with my 57o on the flop. He had K3. Hehe. I had the chip lead within the 2nd hour and never looked back. I just kep pushing people around and no one ever pushed back. I stayed clear of short stacks and kept picking on the middle stacks that could afford to fold. When I reached the FT, I was still in first but was in tough company. Looking up their stats on www.officialpokerrankings.com, I found myself with guys who regularly cashed in micro MTTs and were quite aggressive. I decided to just sit back and let the cards come to me, since I could afford to wait with my huge chip lead. After my Aces were cracked by K9 on the river, hehe, I lost the chip lead and got 3rd for a payday of $112. Chaching, as I told jonard. Hehe. It was a good learning experience. I got a little cocky and decided to play an $11 tourney that was about to begin. I just got ITM, getting $18. LOL. Something better than nothing, right? Hehe

I remembered this one post from gamefrog about how satellites are the key to maximum profit potential, or something to that effect, for cashing in the guaranteed MTTs at full tilt. So then I tried my hand at the 4.40/9 that gave one seat and 6.60/18 that gave 4 seats. I was unsuccesfull at both, alot. Never even cashing. I then played again late last night, and saw I was beside a guy named jonpokertour. I gave me a message to jonard on YM and he confirmed that was him I was playing with. I busted out early in that SnG, but jonard stayed him, but unfortunately just took 2nd for $10. Both he and I want a $26 satellite token to one of em big tourneys. I noticed how he played and why he was successfull at SnGs of late. It was because he wasnt forcing things to happen, at least not early on. He was just waiting for cards to come and rarely raised in the early and middle stages of the tourney. And whenever he did, the table showed him respect. I applied this, and whaddaya know, I got a token an hour later on the 6.60 SnG I was playing. When I play MTTs, people are usually so tight in the beginning that its easy to pick up the dead money and slowly build your stack. But in SnGs, people are so bad that they are willing to call any raise no matter what position with any Ace X, King X or face card combination. So its very easy to get unlucky or for your opponent to get lucky when they hit the flop, then call you down with any pair. In one SnG, in the middle stage of the tourney where I had played quite tight, I had raised all-in to 750 with ATo on 30-60 blinds in middle position with 3 limpers. One of the limpers called for almost 50% of his stack with K8o! My hand held up and I was in awe. "He must have thought I was really weak. Putting me on K7 or K6." I would rather bluff my chips off with K8 than call with them.

With things looking up for me on the online gaming front, Im quite happy. I feel that I have improved my game somewhat and am confident to cash in more MTTs in the future. Those guaranteed tourneys look really nice with first to third place usually in the thousand dollar ranges. That would be so friggin sweet!

One thing Im looking into improving is restealing. One way of building my stack either approaching the bubble or ITM is raising in middle and late position with a wide range of hands, but restealing has been a skill that has always eluded me. Maybe someone out there can give me some tips or pointers or guidelines or rules of thumb. Much appreciated, thanks.

Thats all for now. Thanks for reading.

Good luck at the felt, both online and live!