Kickyourace updates and FTOPS

11/15/09 - 56th out of 9832 FTP FTOPS#24 Knockout. Sorry I haven't written in a while. I wasn't happy here from my result, I wanted the final table but looking back, I also didn't know we had this many people either. I signed up early for it and never looked at the 9832 people that were also in this event. I didn't. I only cared about making the final table which I didn't get. I did knock 5 players out of the event. My goal of course wasn't to knock any players out. I wasn't looking to risk my stack for a $20.00 knock out when a $150K prize was in front of you. But I did go after the short stacks when I had chips. I raise 2000 chips. Short stack shoves for $3000, I'm priced in to call and I was getting pretty lucky with random 2 cards. One guy even wrote me and said, "you raised with 2/5 off and knocked me out". Sure, short stacks are normally tight, unless they have a monster, they don't shove or call so my range opens a lot. Also, a lot of my flips held up, I was playing down to the river a lot rather then giving up on a missed flop just in case other players were just putting 2nd bets. The most surprising thing I was doing and getting results was min raising players or 3 betting then if I thought they were weak from watching them repeatly doing the same thing through the tournament. I'm not sure how someone playing 8 games at once will catch on to this type of tell and if you do play 8 games consider this in the future.

Chipmeup.com mentioned my run and thanks for the rail. The backers made a few dollars also. http://chipmeup.pokernews.com/news/ftopsXIV-wrapup . I did cash in 3 of the 5 FTOPS I played in. All my events were stakeback if I'm correct so any cash, the backer made money. At the least, if I cashed, I paid the staker back his share of his stake. I think the last time I played FTOPS, I bubbled one of the 6 I played, misplayed another one that cost me a cash and never got going in the others. One thing I like about Chipmeup.com is the conversation we as players have. I don't see us looking to tear each other up but rather help each other grow in our sport. This is something I don't see a lot of on other staking sites.

The month of November seems to see a change in my style or consist of changing of my style to suit the tables and players and the results and cashes are starting to add up. I'm playing more SNG's also and seeing a positive ROI for those also. Still a ways to go to where I'm happy with my play (and I'm hard on myself regardless) but good to see progress. Shoutouts to Nomaddman, LilPokerGirlie, Telefonkiosk, Mttsmasher, Fooge (always behind you Fooge), Craiggray, Thomas Bihl who didn't get mentioned but cashed a lot in the FTOPS and final tabled a non FTOPS HORSE event. I got to watch his events and he played solid but sometimes the cards don't go your way even with the best hand and he had the best hand almost everytime. Rwestover was also a big support in the last few months as we pointed out mistakes we were making and adjusting to not do them again. If I didn't mention your name, with over 100 active players at chipmeup.com, everyone was pulling for all players through FTOPS events.