Wrapping up the poker year on a winning note

One of my new year's resolutions is to update this blog more often.
The reasons I went without posting during the month of December are varied. For starters, I was exceedingly busy, both at work and in my private life. After a long day of writing at the office, coming home and doing even more writing didn't seem like a fun use of my time.
Additionally, my heinous poker slump continued, blunting my desire to write on the topic. It felt as though I'd forgotten how to play the game. Confidence = Shot. My bankroll, after peaking at $6,000 at the end of October, shrank to around $5,100 when I wisely decided to take a break from PokerStars a week before Christmas.
On the last day before 2010 expired, I finally managed to put together a positive result. I went to Cascades Casino in Langley for a New Year's Eve rebuy tournament, and had a reasonably smooth trip to a $465 payday. Sweet.
I was basically in for the minimum - the initial $50 buy-in, plus a $20 add-on at the end of the rebuy period. I played a simple, snug game, and was fortunate enough to triple my stack during the first hour of play.
On the key hand, I called a 300-chip raise in late position holding AQ, and saw a flop of A86, two hearts. The small blind led out for 400 and was called by the initial raiser. I started the hand with about 2,500 in chips (starting stack was 3,000), and just decided that if I was beat, I could always rebuy. I stuck all my chips in and was called by both players. The small blind had A-10, and the middle-position player had 4h6h. I managed to dodge all their outs to earn a big stack.
I kept it snug with the big stack, and built up steadily en route to the final table. I ramped up the aggression early at the final table, stealing a series of blinds and antes to build up to 39,000. That left me in second or third place.
I hit a speed bump at that point. I was in the big blind (1000-2000) when the chip leader limped under the gun, and the small blind completed. I looked down to see AK, and I decided to raise another 6,000. The chip leader called, the small blind folded. The flop came 568, two spades. I continuation bet 8,000, and the chip leader called in position. The turn was the four of spades - a terrible card for me if there ever was one. I contemplated firing another bullet, but decided discretion was the better part of valour. I check-folded to my opponent's 12,000 bet, which would have crippled me, and he showed 77 for the straight.
I retrospect, it might have made sense to check preflop. Given the size of our stacks, and the likelihood the chip leader would call in position, keeping the pot small and seeing a free flop might have been wise. It's a play I make in certain situations online, and I considered it in this spot. Another way to go might have been to raise all-in, but our stacks were too big in relation to the blinds. Checking would probably have been the way to go.
That hand cost me nearly 40 per cent of my stack, and the blinds quickly carved away even more of my chips. I was down to 16,500 with the blinds at 2,000-4,000 when I finally picked up some hands worth raising with, and took down some crucial blinds and antes.
Only four places paid (the tournament had 30 starters), but the prize pool was around $2,300 due to all the rebuys and add-ons. With six players remaining, we started talking about a chop, and the second-largest stack said he'd consider it in three hands, when the big blind hit him.
The very next hand, I found As10s under the gun, and raised to 9,000. The big blind said, "Well, I'll make your decision easier," and shoved his stack of about 19,000 into the middle. I started the hand with around 30,000, and though losing would have crippled me, I decided I had too much invested, and called. I was stunned when he showed KhQh. What was this dude thinking? We were talking chop, and he decides to put his tournament life on the line in a ridiculously marginal spot.
Fortunately, the board ran out with nothing but rags, and I vaulted into second place. The very next hand, the short-stacked small blind shoved on me for 9,700 total. I looked down to find A8, and even though I knew his range was very small, I decided I probably needed to call, getting 3-to-1 odds. He showed AA, which made perfect sense. Rockets was probably the only hand he was shoving with - clearly he was a wiser player than the dude who was just knocked out. He obviously doubled up.
With no distinct short stack, and with the chip leader in a hurry to make it to another appointment, we decided to chop up the prize pool on the money bubble for $465 apiece. That was better than third-place money, and I was all too happy to do the deal. I wasn't eager to get into a coin flip or another marginal spot on the bubble when I could score a nice little payout.
So at the end of 2010, my bankroll is at $5,500. That's about $5,000 more than it was in September 2009, when I started playing the higher buy-in tournaments. It's about $2,000 more than when I began this blog experiment back in June. Sweet. And it's hard to overstate how nice it is to end the year with a great live result.
That said, my poker confidence is still rather low at this point. I'm not eager to play on PokerStars these days; the only factor that might get me playing in January is, I'm just 1,000 VIP points short of earning a $250 gift card from Future Shop. That's about one month's worth of play, and it might be worth my while.
But I'm really feeling moved to dial back my online poker hours; thus, the poker/bankroll/mortgage premise for this blog might take a back seat in 2011. I'll still be updating this site regularly, but I imagine fewer of my posts will relate to poker exploits. Please continue to visit. I promise to be interesting.
To all five of my regular readers, I wish you a wonderful and blessed 2011.