Running Hot Makes Poker Fun – Courtney Gee Poker Update

And the good run continues! I played four days and 34.5 hours last week, which is exactly what I hope to do every week. I also wish the results could be like this every time:
# MTTs: 171
Hours: 34.5
Net result: +$10,300.65
That’s an ROI of 180%, so I somehow don’t think it’s sustainable :P
I made all the money the first two days that I played trick cards last week, which were Thursday and Friday. Interestingly, I only cashed a total of three tournaments both those days combined. That amounts to a 3.5% ITM (in the money) rate, which is extremely low.
On Thursday I bricked everything until I was 1-tabling the 4 pm ET $162 freeze-out. I just recently put the $162 into my daily MTT schedule, so I feel fortunate to have made a final table already. I placed 5^th for $4,685.62.
On Friday I cashed just a $35 180 before I made the final table of an $11 Rebuy/Add-on (which also takes place at 4:00 pm ET). I had a pretty healthy stack at what ended up being a pretty funny final table.
Most of the players were very bad with the exception of one very good reg. We were both trying to build stacks off the weak players while also trying to stay out of each other’s way as much as possible, so it was an interesting dynamic. The bottom line was that neither of us wanted to lose too many chips to each other when there were so many easier chips to be won elsewhere.
I ended up losing a big flip short-handed and then having to double up off a poor guy with J4 versus his Ax (I runner runnered a flush and he then proceeded to berate me from the rail for being a fish). When it got down to 3 players, it was with the reg and a very inexperienced infrared ink player. We decided to do a chip chop 3-handed, with all of us cashing for ~$9.5k.
The best thing about the larger buy-in freeze-outs is that the fields are much smaller. I had to beat just 586 players to make the final table of the $162 as opposed to the 2,672 I had to beat to make the final table of the $11 rebuy. And then consider that the prize pool of the $162 was bigger than that of the $11 rebuy and it’s a no-brainer as to which I’d rather play.
Obviously there are downsides to the higher buy-ins. A higher buy-in means that you must, of course, have a bigger bankroll.
And then there’s the fact that the field is much tougher in the higher buy-in freeze-outs. You really have to adjust your play quite a bit when playing an $11 rebuy compared to a $162. Sometimes you have to try to build your stack in different ways depending on the tables you draw because the players can differ so much in skill.
I’ll continue to work on my game and to build my bankroll so that I can keep adding new tournaments to my schedule. And if I can also keep running hot, that would be a fantastic bonus!
Have a good week at the tables :)