structures, formats, and success

There is something soothing about being in a tournament format you understand and are comfortable with. I specifically prefer a longer structure with deeper stacks.

These tournaments are not that common on Full Tilt. Standard stack size on FT is 1500, standard blind rounds are 6 to 10 minutes, and the blind schedule is almost always super fast, doubling and antes by round 8. So when I find a tournament that has deep stack (3000), 12 minute blinds, and a 10/20, 15/30, 20/40, 25/50 type blind escalation, that is a structure I want to be a part of.

The 69+6 tournament we played in last night was exactly that. GO NINJA for cashing in this bitch... 298 players, paid 36, and he lasted until 30 players.

My ride in this event was ri-donk-ulous. I got hit with the deck big time, I got monster after monster, and I was in 2nd place in the second blind round with a huge stack. I wasn't being an idiot, I was playing conservative aggresive poker, and just flopping hot with my big starting hands.

And then it all imploded. I had 2 outers suck on me, I had gutshot str8 draws calling bigger than pot size bets on 2 streets to hit. I was still getting hit with the deck, but no one would go away, even when I represented the strength I actually had. I went out in the 4th blind round because I got sucked out on literally 6 hands in a row, and then I was left with a normal stack again, and got sucked out on one more time to lose it all.

Bleh. But it happens. I immediately entered the next deep stack event, which happened to be a 3.30 event, and I made it deep... 80 out of 350, no cash.

Ninja isn't kidding either. He made the cash in that big event having NEVER reached the stack size I had accumulated by round 2. That is solid conservative play.