Thunder & Lightning - Very Very Frightening

This weekend did not go according to plan as luck deserted me at crucial moments.

My first attempt at a world series seat was a major disappointment as I finished 18 places short of the seat I so desire. My Ace Jack was looking fantastic with AJ7 flop and when I got an all-in reraise by someone holding Ace Seven, I was rubbing my hands. That is until the turn card showed another seven! When I ran into pocket cowboys twenty minutes later, it was all over.

The 40k was looking more promising, 3 hours in, I had steadily built up to 13k in chips.
When we got down to 46 players, I had 8k in chips with AK in the big blind. Everyone folded around to the small blind, who went all in with his 16k. This was my moment, I called and he showed Q8 off. This would put me right back in it. Flop 679, Turn 10. Ouch!

The discovery of the weekend for me was a new format of single table tournaments, Thunder tournaments. These are the same as regular STT's but with only six hands per level. For a player who only plays with Aces, these are a potential nightmare. However curiousity got the better of me and I started to play one. First hand saw two players all in preflop, 44 & JT, this was crazy stuff. However 3 games later and 3 wins, I was starting to change my view!

I played 16 games in all (in about 2 1/2 hours!) winning 9 and coming second in 4. Whilst I am not sure these are the future for me, they certainly helped me fund my Multi tournaments in an otherwise unspectactular month.

One of the key skills in poker is being able to change your game depending on your position in the tournament, your ratio of chips to blinds and how tight/loose your table is.

These Thunder tournaments are certainly helpful in forcing you to play more hands and get more experience of hands that you rarely play with.

The week ahead for me is focused around the world series qualifier on Saturday, but in the meantime I have not made the money in my last 5 attempts at the 15k and not added to my bankroll in February. These are areas I intend to address over the next week.

Be lucky!
ClintonO