A start

I think I will start a poker blog. I suck at writing, but perhaps having a blog will be a way to improve my writing skills and my poker playing.

So dear reader, I promise to really proof read and spell-check these ramblings.

As far as how blogging will improve my poker playing, all I can say am I know reading other people's blogs has improved my playing. Psychology is a large part of playing poker, and reading poker blogs has helped me keep my head in the game and minimize tilt. (The book Zen and the Art of Poker by Larry Phillips helped here too.) So perhaps writing about poker will improve my game somehow. We will see!

I am fresh off making the final table in Full Tilt's midnight 12K. I played it on a lark after being bounced from the 20K and Party's 40K. I have a bunch of $75 that I was saving for 200K satellites; so I figure what the heck, give it a shot.

I was card dead for most of the tournament, but survived on blind stealing and bluffing people out of pots. One of the key hands of the tournament for me was when we got down to 16 people and I was dealt K8o in the small blind. The blinds had just increased to 1000/500 and I had 2,430 left after posting the small blind. The payout for 16^th was $114 but 15^th jumped to $153. I watched a player go out on another table in 16^th so I knew I would get 15^th at least if I went out on this hand. I decided would push all in if it was folded to the cut-off or button and they raised. Iakaris on the button did indeed raise, and I called all in. I was happy to see Iakaris’s K4o and the K8o held up.

I am very happy with my play in the tournament. I think I was making good reads and decisions.

Sleech