Sat down at a 5+1 SNG tonight to try to bring myself up past a 200$ bankroll at Party Poker again. Made some good and some bad plays in the early rounds as I tried to build a bit of a chip lead. Of course, they balanced themselves out and I hovered within a few hundred of the 800 start. As usual, half the table was burning chips as fast as they could, and eventually we ended up down to 4 with myself around 2000 in chips, a couple at 1500 and the chip leader at 3000. I didn’t get too many hands, but it was easy to buy out the blinds with raises pre-flop, so I didn’t move too much up or down until the 4th place player went out. I kept my patience and played my good cards hard to capture the chip lead and to bust out the third place player.
Then it was heads up. I know this is a part of my game that is pretty questionable, as I play a bit too conservatively with the chip lead, not wanting to give away the farm. It went back and forth for a while until I two paired my K9 on the flop (K89) and my opponent called my raise. Two pair looks good so I kept on betting when another low card hit on the turn, my opponent raises and we end up capping. Still, I don’t believe he’s got cards to back it up. River comes an 8 and he goes all-in with the rest of his chips and I call. Of course he turns over 86o for the set. I’m not sure what he was doing betting, but suddenly I have only 1000 of the remaining 8000 chips. A painful, painful suck out. But, I claw my way back to a 2:1 chip advantage, but with a 600BB, things are already becoming a matter of luck more than good play. So, when my K6 pairs the 96A flop, I bet. He pauses for a while and then raises. I don’t think he has the A and I re-raise. He re-raises right back for a partial bet that puts him all in. I decide to call, what the hell. I hit the lucky 6 on the river and take the 25$. I would have felt worse about winning on the massive suck out – though I still would have had enough chips to make a go of it if he’d won the pot – but he’d survived on luck earlier, so it just made us even.
Of course, with my Party account 200+ again, I decided I’d get in some ring .50/1.00 action at Empire to see if I could bring that account up past 500 (after a 300 buy-in) so that I could pull 400 out to put up at either Pokerroom or UB for a juicy bonus. Of course, I was feeling pretty good, so I grabbed a beer and was watching a bit of TV. As usual, that made for some sub-optimal play, putting me down 10$ at one point. But at least I realized it and when I hit a few hands in a row to draw up even again, I bailed for the night. So, +19 on top of the +5.5 and +4 the last two nights has me almost halfway back through the 65$ I dropped on the weekend. I’m hoping a good session on Saturday might put me back to growing my bankroll.