Staying Patient

Well, I wasn't exactly patient, but it paid off. So I had time Saturday to play some MTTs and SnGs. There is a real dearth for good low buy-in MTTs at Cake Poker, so rather playing above my comfort level [or playing a satellite for a Sunday MTT I couldn't play], I decided on sprinkling in some 30-person SnGs from Cake with the MTTs I played.

I decided on a Deepstack $2 and $2 rebuy on Full Tilt. I added an $8 Stars $5,000 Guarantee and $4 Stars $2,000 Guarantee. Finally, I loaded up a $1 Cake 30-person and settled into playing some poker. All I managed from this first burst of energy was a 73rd in the Deepstack for a $3.84 prize. Way behind. I managed two final tables in Cake $1 30-person SnGs, but that didn't pay as 8th and 10th is out of the money. This made me sick to my stomache. I hit the final table at 2/10 and 1/10 only to suffer some bad beats. I had loaded up a $6 Bounty 30-person SnG on Cake right after I busted the deepstack MTT on Full Tilt, finishing 13/30 with nary a bounty.

This is where I decided to chase my losses. I loaded up my final stab at winning by loading another $6 Bounty 30-person SnG on Cake. Nothing was going right. I don't know why, but I don't seem to collect bounties in KO MTTs. I managed, finally, to catch a shorter stack, and get a bounty, but I figured that was it, I'd lose $3.60. A combination of poor hands and aggressive opponents kept me from being able to make a move while I still had FE. The other telling blow was losing a pot to a shorter stack. Anyway, I was down to about 3 BB when I pushed K2, getting called in two places and managing to triple. I started rolling it up a bit and managed getting to the final table with a bit more than 22K which set me up with 11 BBs. I started getting dealt a few hands, but the key hand was flopping the nut flush versus a K-high flush. When we got 4-handed, I started pushing almost everything. I was so short with basically 5 BBs for 3-4 orbits. I get all-in vs the two chipleaders and triple. Then I hit two back-to-back hands against the former chip leader and move into a commanding position over the final two. 2nd player knocks out 3rd setting up the final see-saw battle heads-up. He was really awful. I could raise him off most anything and he either limped or folded his SB. I finish winning the SnG for $36 and 4 bounties. Overall, I only made a bit over $8, but it was gratifying.

Monday I played some cash games. Once again, I am struggling with NL4 at Cake. I managed to lose $7.16 [almost two buy-ins!]. Oddly enough, however, I did well enough at Poker Host [now on the Merge Network with Carbon Poker/PDC Poker]. I finished up $11.48 at a NL10 cash table. Overall win. Just wish I could figure out Cake.