I’ve thought a little bit more about my play last night. I think I did a pretty decent job of executing my personal tournament strategy (which is mostly TJ’s) up until the hand that knocked me out. I laid low all night long for one thing — I saw 13% of the flops, only 1 or 2 from the small blind, and less than 10 from the big. I’m a horrible blind defender, obviously…just not willing to tangle. I didn’t try real hard to steal blinds, either…I wasn’t in a position to do that, chip-wise, and actual position-wise with all the big stacks it seemed like I was up against.

I’m still very frustrated with myself for that one loose hand I played, the one that knocked me out. I can tell you that with A9o, it was definitely a semi-bluff blind steal attempt. I know I was thinking that, and I really should not have been, not at that point. What I can’t explain is the raise that I called that put me all-in. I really panicked, and so I pushed. Ten more seconds of thought and I would have folded as I should have. It would have crippled me, sure, and put me in a short-stack mode, but I would have still been alive. So my fault, I’ve concluded, is this: I didn’t think the whole hand through. I made a bet without considering fully the possible outcomes, and what my reaction was going to be to those outcomes.

Now, I’m no Sklansky brainiac with the arithmetic. I play a lot based on gut & experience. But I do think a lot about just what a bet, a call, and a raise mean in terms of position, stack size, etc. I totally failed to think it all the way through, and so I ended up letting someone take (very good) advantage of my natural aggressiveness, and I let someone else put me all-in. That there was my mistake — letting someone else do it to me. There are certainly times that you want that to happen, of course. But I usually don’t let it happen unless I want it to. I’m still trying to break down my internals that told me to go ahead and push. That’s a big, big flaw.

So anyway — some random poker blogging from a guy who’s not collected a nickel from the game yet. It was nice getting to the final two tables, but you can’t make any money from there. Got a long way to go, kids.