Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Being Backed

Had a good chat with my backer today. I get backed for Sunday tournaments and it's been going well despite being in make up. It's interesting being backed. It's not your money and you assume none of the risk, so you would think this would make me feel free to play however I wanted without the fear of losing money. But for me, it's not about the money. It's about succeeding and doing my best.

The only measurement of how well I'm doing are the results, so I think I've tended to fixate on those a bit much. Even though I'm really improving as a player, the results haven't quite showed it yet. I believe this is primarily due to a rough early start where I nitted up like crazy not wanting to make mistakes and the fact that I've only played 70 tournaments. I recently hit a final table in the $30r, but 8th place didn't make a significant dent.

BUT, despite my worst fears of him thinking I'm not doing well because I'm 10k in makeup, he's totally fine. In fact, he's happy with the progress I'm making. He can tell through hand history reviews that my thought processes are solid. He reminded me that he's had other horses that were 50k in make up.

His exact words: "Don't worry about the make up. Not only don't worry about it, don't think about it. You got it easy, all you do is have to play. Zero risk."

That really helped me put things in perspective...ZERO risk. Who cares. Don't put extra pressure on yourself when, in fact, there is less pressure to succeed then with your own bankroll.

"Just keep trying to improve. I'll help as much as possible and lets see what happens."

So I went into last nights session in an attack mode and I was able to build up deep stacks consistently. I rarely got below 30bb and usually hovered around 50bb. I had an unfortunate pot in the $30r when I iso shoved 88 and the big blind woke up with AA. This left me with about 8bb and I went out in 65th (paid 63). But then my momentum really started picking up and I found myself one of the chip leaders in the 50/50 (the 50 Hundo this week). I really felt a lot more confident with the super aggro players and was picking my spots well 3 betting, flatting, etc. I didn't really think about the strength of my hand and just played the situations.

Unfortunately I busted in like 89th place out of 2300 when I overplayed top pair. My backer was watching me play and vs. a very aggro player he said "play top pair like it's the nuts vs. him". Which of course in concept is correct. However I took the advice too literal and I didn't take the time to read my situation appropriately. Short story, I defended KTos in the bb vs. a min raise. Flop is T45 and after I checked, he checked behind. In my mind he had something of showdown value and was pot controlling. This could be a mid pocket pair or tp with a weak kicker. The turn was an 8 and after I bet, he raised me pretty large. To me, there were red flags. Of course this could be a delayed bluff and I have to consider that. But based on my original read, 88 was possible as was 67 or even T8. Instead of just calling the raise, I jammed and he snap called me with T8. I think because the call left me with like 17bb left I didn't want to call and have a pot sized bet left. BUT at this stage of the tournament it's not like I can't fold the river (if needed). I don't HAVE to get it in here. Plus, by jamming, I'm not getting a lot of worse hands to call me so there really isn't much value. Again, I think I kinda spazzed out and took the advice of "play it like the nuts" too literal. In my mind it was "I'm not going to fold to this lagtard".

Anyway it was a great session overall and I built up a ton of confidence. Ready for more!!

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