Finally, a nice score

I should warn you, this post is long-winded and chock full of poker nerd content.
If you're a faithful reader of this blog (meaning my wife and a couple of my buddies), you may be wondering where I've been all week. Losing money playing on PokerStars, that's where I've been. And too frustrated to type anything about it.
Let's rewind to about seven days ago. I was contemplating my wildy successful month of July (+$1,300), patting myself on the back and such, when I had a reality check. I realized that in order to make my poker pipe dream a reality, I need to be making more cheddar. Specifically, I figured that if I were to earn $1,300 a month, it would take me about 28 years to earn enough money to pay off my mortgage. At which point it would be nearly paid of anyway.
The upshot is, I need to either a) move up to higher sit-n-go stakes; or b) make some big scores in multi-table tournaments.
To be honest, I'd never really checked what PokerStars had to offer in terms of multi-table tournaments (MTTs). I pretty much just stuck to what they offered under the sit-n-go tab. And for the most part, that was fine. It's a time issue for me - I don't often have five-to-eight hours to play a huge MTT.
But last week, I had a bit of time on Thursday evening/Friday morning, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that PokerStars has an awesome array of MTTs. They're at a wide variety of buy-ins, starting every 15 minutes or so, and they guarantee large fields by offering guaranteed prize pools.
The thing with massive-field MTTs is, the variance is just huge. Whereas my raw odds are one in three to cash in a single-table SNG, they're more like one in 1,000 (or worse) in a massive field.
Thus, it was no surprise that I blew off a couple hundred bucks' worth of my bankroll chasing a big score. I threw away a couple of early MTT buy-ins, as I learned I needed to discard some of the over-aggressive strategies that I employ in sit-n-gos.
The problem, as far as bankroll management, was that I was still mired in a SNG slump in the meantime. Add it all up, and I was on a $500 downswing.
My multi-table foray wasn't without deep runs. I made a min-cash in a huge turbo tournament, and I was really deep in a $10 standard-speed tournament when disaster struck. For background, you need to understand that this tourney had 1,551 starters and a $2,700 first-place prize. We were inside of 40 players, and I had a slightly below average but playable stack of about 20 big blinds. Just a couple of minutes before the four-hour break, I was dealt AA in the big blind. The player on the button shipped 10xBB, I snap-called, and he showed JT offsuit. Flop 783, turn 9, and river was inconsequential as he made the nut straight. Frickin' awful. I busted a couple hands later to end up 37th. My payout? 27 freaking bucks - also known as one per cent of first-place money.
The long odds notwithstanding, I felt I had a truly deep run in me - like a final table. So on Thursday evening I gave it one more go, and struck paydirt in a $30 MTT with a $4,000 guaranteed prize pool. 228 players started, and I ended up finishing third for exactly $772.92.
I played real solid early on and steadily built my stack. In the middle stages, I ended up getting a key double-up holding KK vs. KQ, with all the money going in on a queen-high flop. Hard to find a better spot than that.
I cruised through the money bubble (at 36 players), but I had to get real lucky a couple times once we got down to two tables. At one point, a late-position player limped into the pot, and I had A6 in the small blind. Sensing weakness, I shipped it for about 12xBB, and was snap-called by AK. Now, I realize I got my money in horrendously in this spot, but I have no idea why anyone would slowplay AK. At any rate, I rivered a six to knock out my opponent, whom I had covered by a few bucks.
Later on, with 10 players left, I shipped all in with AdQd after a mid-position raise I thought was suspect. Unfortunately for me, the big blind woke up with AK. Unfortunately for him, I paired my queen on the flop and turned trips.
That got us down to the final table, and I was second in chips with about 62k. Average was 38k, and I was determined to just play snug and avoid the mistakes that derailed me at my last MTT final table (see the Aug. 2 post). For the most part, I succeeded at that. My stack had some minor fluctuations, but I was able to make it to three-handed with about 65k. I grinded it back up to 80k, with blinds at 1250-2500, when I met my demise. Holding AQo in the big blind, I shipped over the top of a button raise. The button called with 88, and the flop came 877 - disaster, game over.
My payout was about $700 shy of first-place money, but I was really happy with how I navigated the final table. I gave myself a good chance to win, and I've managed to get back in the black for the month of August.
I am of the belief that I could use a poker break - my SNG slump is a big concern - but I'll spend $60 or so on MTT buy-ins on Friday morning before I relax.
Bankroll = $5,000