Day Off Doin's

Beginning Bankroll: $11.88

Wow! I had an actual day off at home, and the weather was too cool and damp to work in the yard, so what else is a guy to do but play some po-kah? (Well, after taking care of some other necessary errands, anyway.) I scratched out time to play 4 single-table, 9-handed NLHE SNGs. If it weren't for the vicissitudes of that old poker bugaboo, luck, I'm sure I woulda' cashed in all of 'em. (Note, each SNG cost $1.20 to enter and paid the top 3 places.) Here's how they went.

The first one I entered I took 2nd place after a long battle. It took a LONG time before I got much of anything to get things started, so I had to battle back from the short stack (a common theme throughout the day). But by the time we got down to heads-up, I was the big stack and held about a 2-to-1 chip advantage. Then we had the traditional coin-flip all-in showdown of my pocket sevens vs. my opponent's 2 overcards. Naturally, he hit his pair on the river to go up 2-to-1 on me, after which I just could not get any cards to work my way back to the lead, and I eventually bowed out as runner-up. But that was worth a $2.70 payout, or a bankroll increase of $1.50 after accounting for the buy-in.

Next up was another long wait for decent cards in profitable situations. (By the way, I do generally play pretty darn tight in the early stages of SNGs, letting the other players take themselves out by battling with the marginal hands they seem to like.) Things were going pretty well and we got down to the final four. I worked my way into a very comfortable 2nd place, with over 4000 chips, vs. the big stack's 8000+, with the other two players under 1000 each (13,500 total in play at the table). The big stack, to my immediate left, had been raising and re-raising me throughout the tournament, so I was ready to battle back when I found pocket kings in front of me. I made a standard raise, he re-raised, and I went all-in. Now, I shoulda' just folded right there to stick around and wait for the short stacks to bust out, but I was getting tired of folding to that guy. So, as proof that the poker gods do enjoy torture at my expense, Big Stack made the call and turned up pocket aces. So much for cashing that time.

More of same in my third SNG of the day. My flame-out came in 5th place this time, again with the poker gods turning ugly. This time I started with pocket sevens and hit my set on the flop. My all-in got one caller, and I was thrilled, ready to double up or more. That was before the caller hit runner-runner to make a straight and crack my set. Grrrrr!

SNG number 4 followed the familiar pattern: wait, wait, wait for something good and let the field thin itself (occasionally with my help when I did catch a good hand). I made it to heads-up, but this time with a large chip discrepancy. I was down almost 10-to-1. So, of course, I overcame that and won. I forget the specific hand details, but obviously I hit the right hands at the right times. And the win netted my bankroll another $3.30.

So overall I grew my bankroll by 20.2 percent today. Not bad for a daily increase if I can maintain that pace. I know I have a winning strategy to follow in SNGs; it's just a matter of staying on the poker gods' good side to avoid more than my share of bad beats. Thanks for looking in today, and good luck at the tables.

Ending Bankroll: $14.28, up $2.40