First post in a long time

I realize that I have not posted in a long time, but this is because I have not had anything to post about. I took a long break from poker for my summer job. I made a lot of money for the summer job so I made sure I stayed focused and relaxed for the job. I have transfered my money from Full Tilt to Poker Stars because I am trying to play tournaments only to get the big scores and PS has the biggest fields.

I began to play 2 days ago and I cashed in 1 of the 3 tournaments I played in. These were micro level tournaments to get used to the poker stars system. I placed about 150 out of 1300 players and only doubles my money.

Yesterday, I went to Rockford Charitable Games and it was located within an hour of me (usually longer.) I played a 50$ sng and was in 1st chip position with 3 left. I was in the small blind and the button doubled the blinds. The blinds were huge so this is a common raise at this level. I looked down at the holding cards and I had pocket kings! I took about 10 seconds before I decided to just call realizing that the big blind was so short stacked that it did not matter if he called or not to me. I just called for 2 reasons. #1 it was an easy trap to be set for the button. #2 If an Ace hit the board, I would be able to get out of the hand and be about tied for 1st in chips. Big blind folded and the flop came 8 3 2 rainbow. Immediately after I checked, the button went all in and I called without hesitation. I stood up and flipped over my kings. Slowly, with a smile the button flipped over Aces!!! As the story ends I was crippled below the blinds and went out in 3rd. I got my money back for the effort. It was just bad luck to run into Aces 3 way, but up to that hand I played the sng perfectly.

I thought I would try something new and I entered the Large 100$ tournament that they have. 4 Tables with 11 players was how the tournament started. 11 people really bothered me, but some donkeys went out very quickly so it didn't matter that much. I built a very tight image and didn't play a single hand for the first blind level and not until the later end of the 2nd level did I play a hand. Blinds were 50 and 100 and I was on the button. There were 4 limper's and I have already decided before the hand that soon I am going to start raising no matter what I have because of how tight I was looking. The action was to me and I looked at my 2 down cards and saw 8H3H. I didn't express any emotion about my hand and I announced a raise. I raised it to 450 chips, about 1/8 of my stack. Very quickly every player folded at the table and i got an extra 550 chips. Through out the tournament I attempted to take down small pots with jab bets and avoid big pots unless I had huge hands. This took me all the way to the final table. Play slowed down tremendously once we were down to 6 because that was the bubble for the money. I was running pretty low on chips, less than 6 times the big blind so I pushed with the button and blinds behind me. I had 6's and the button pushed all in over the top of me. He said he got me and flipped over aces. First card to show on the flop, a 6! I was very happy to suck out and it was the first time that I was all in with the worst hand and the only time I sucked out on another player the entire tournament. This got me to the top 3 and I pushed with only 3 times the big blind in the small blind position with KD4D and got called by the big blind who had A 3. Neither of us paired and I was out in 3rd, but I received 700$ and a free cheap poker chip set. All in all I was very happy with the outcome even thought I was def the best player of the final 3 and could have easily won it with a little more chips.

Over and out. Poker has begun again for me. Congrats to Lee Watkinson, 1 of my top 5 favorite players in getting 8th place at the main event of the WSOP!