ANOTHER FINAL TABLE + FULL ANALYSIS

I spent a few hours these last few days, railing some of the bigger online tournaments. Because I’m in Sydney, a lot of the Sunday tournaments’ final tables form during the morning hours, so I was pleasantly watching the action with a cup of coffee in my hand after a relaxing night’s sleep (I feel for the Europeans in these tournaments).

I was watching out of general interest, but obviously also paying attention so that I might pick up on the intricacies of late tournament play – something I openly confessed to needing assistance with, in my last blog.

In fact, I’ve really gone back to becoming a student of the game and this blog has played a vital role. Because I’m reporting HOW I do (and more importantly WHAT I do) I seem to be more alert and more deliberate in my actions. Because I also wanna do well, I’m a lot more intent on improving my established skill-set by way of learning from others – as well as myself. Just yesterday, I decided to do a full review of all hands from my most recent MTT and I went about it as analytically as I could. I figured the objective would be to gain a more thorough understanding of an MTT in general, but also try to unlock any of my inherent traits, which might be hurting my overall success. Here’s what I got:

The last time I played I – incredibly – managed to make another final table. My tournament selection this time was as follows:

Tournament 1: $5.50 rebuy MTT – 14th place Profit USD -15.50
Tournament 2: $22 Freezeout MTT – 5th place Profit USD 122.00

I thought I’d played well throughout the tournament (another in-the-money finish, 5th overall – I mean, come on – that’s not bad right?), but after having reviewed my hands I’m not so sure. A few stats first:

For the sake of this analysis, the following definitions apply:
- Hands played = Hand that did not fold preflop
- Early Position = UTG, UTG+1 and UTG+2
- Middle Position = MP1, MP2 and HJ
- Late Position = CO, Dealer

TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS SEEN: 194
TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS PLAYED: 44

Comments: I don’t have much to compare this to, but off-hand seems ok. I’m playing roughly 23% of hands and don’t think it should be a lot more (or less, for that sake) than that.

TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, RAISED: 25
TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, LIMPED: 5
TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, CHECKED BB: 5
TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, CALLED RAISE: 7
TOTAL NUMER OF HANDS, RERAISED: 2
This really bothers me. The limped hands aren’t that bad – except for one. Actually, they’re all from the SB except for 1, so it’s not all bad. Still - just because somebody limps ahead of you, does NOT mean you need to follow suit (no pun intended) and limp along with Qd9h. No, the bothersome part is the number of hands I reraised. I did it twice – both times out of the blinds and both times with a pair (9s9h & JsJh). Incidentally, I won both hands but not the point. With my new focus on late-stage tournament play, I’ve come to realize that this is a leak of mine. I’m simply not protecting my chips well enough. Need to start looking for spots, at that stage of the tourney, where I can come over the top of a raiser, when I think he doesn’t have it.

TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, PLAYED FROM EP: 6
TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, PLAYED FROM MP: 6
TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, PLAYED FROM LP: 12
TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, PLAYED FROM BLINDS: 18

These figures seem fair enough. Except for 1 hand (raised 7d8d from UTG, just ‘cause it’s soooo pretty) I had the goods each time I raised from EP (inter alia, AA twice), I was very solid from MP as well (KK twice) and apart from a poorly played 6s5s that I raised on the button, as well as a loosey-goosey call with Ac2h from the SB, I can’t find too many errors in my LP/blinds play too much.

The last statistic I’ll share is my ‘frequency of involvement’ – a phrase I coined just now. Please send me a couple of bucks, if you decide to use it. This table is pretty crude, but it proves my point.

Hands 1-30: 9 involvements
Hands 31-60: 8 involvements
Hands 61-90: 9 involvements
Hands 91-120: 8 involvements
Hands 121-150: 1 involvement
Hands 151-180: 7 involvements

From my last blog, “Once I get close to the bubble, I definitely try to loosen up my game and thereby take advantage of the weak/timid players”. Well, that’s just a load of bullshit isn’t it? A convenient little sound-bite that I probably picked up from a poker-player with ACTUAL BALLS between his legs. Geez, I’m a pathetic fucking wimp aren’t I. Rhetorical. Don’t answer that.

Starting bankroll: USD 5,173.13
Session result: USD +106.50
New bankroll: USD 5,279.63
Days left until Aussie Millions 2010: 289

More to come. Thanks for reading.