Poker sadness...and Three Rivers Poker Challenge

Ugh...I told myself to keep up with this blog, at the very least it allows me to keep my promise to keep playing poker as much as a full time job, 2 kids and wife will allow...  I've been pretty stagnant the last few months.  Things missed since last post: I've played 2 poker league games Season 11(Woohoo Poker League started!) starting in November and I'm looking forward to playing Three Rivers Poker Challenge Events mid February.  I got 2nd in 2 of 4 Fantasy Football Leagues.  I also played in a couple events at the Pittsburgh Poker Open while Poker Night in America was here and I got to watch pros Phil Hellmuth win the PPO Main Event against the likes of other pros Shaun Deeb(25th), Matt Glantz(2nd), Josh Brikis(13th) and David Baker(3rd). 

I'll elaborate on Poker League in my next post, for now, this was written about the Three Rivers Poker Challenge back in June and I never "Finalized" it so here it is:

Well, based on the title you probably guessed that I'm not having good results... Three Rivers Poker Challenge came and went and while I ended up not playing as much as I wanted to.  While not suggested for aspiring poker players around the world, some of my poker roll is being withheld for unplanned and immediate possible future family investments.  I played 3 events, Event #2, Event#11: a satellite for the Main Event and Event #14.  Overall I think I played pretty well.  There were a few spots I wished I went with my gut to be more aggressive in a hand, a few spots I wish I was less aggressive...I dunno, I like to think I'm pretty inexploitable, or at least as possible that can be in a tournament.  I think exploitability is more easily defined in a cash game setting, where there is no real end in a session, where a tournament has a finite beginning and end to it...

Event #2:  started with 15K, 20 minute levels.
In the first 3 levels, 1st hour or so, I had Aces and Kings twice, Jacks and 8s and they all lost... My Kings went up against flops of A-Q-Q and 4 players to the flop.  Overall I lost almost half my stack, albeit probably lucky I only lost that much.  I even had to fold a top set of 8s on a 8-4s-5s board against 2 players when the turn brought the 6s and I bet out and was raised BIG by a pretty conservative/nit player...it was feeling a little hopeless until my set of 7s actually KOd a short stack, I then squeez shoved with K9 that 2 players called...oops, I hit a K on the river and I suppose they must've had mid pairs since they both folded...that felt lucky, tripled up to 18K.  I doubled up again with 10s AIPF vs AQoff to put me up to 30K.
1000-2000 300 ante I rase to 4K with 9s, 1 caller and another overshoves to 16K.  I shove and 1st caller folds.  My 9s vs...ugh...10s... No help, I'm down to 18K.  A few hands later I'm in the small blind and limp with 9-10hh.  4 players see a flop 10-9-5rainbow.  I think for a minute, enough to go with a check as my first reaction, but also enough to yell at myself in my head while checking... My thought was that player next to me would probably shove most boards and I could go over the top.  Unfortunately he and everyone else checked... Turn a 3c.  I shove and get called by the guy who had 10s vs my 9s earlier.  This time he turned a set of 3s and I got no help on the river...Out
In the end, I made it 26th out of 75 and if I just shove the flop there I would've had a really good chance to FT...NEXT!!!

I played a satellite for the Main Event

Event#14:
800-1600 200 ante.  AKhh AIPF for 19400, another allin for less and another over the top...QQs covers both vs Aces(smaller stack) and I flop 1 heart  3-Jh-5, with a 10h on the turn, giving me everything I could hope for as a sweat on the river...only to drop a 10c on the river...Sucks about that hand was that I could've hit the last Ace, 3 Kings, 1 Queen, 9 hearts to win or at least come away slightly less than even by only beating the QQs that had me covered...too many outs, though if I have to go out, that's what I want, right...?  This game I was KOd 61st out of 145 entries and I was playing pretty good I was hoping for a good run...Winner paid out 1390 and they paid out 15 spots, I think.