3rd in $30, 1st in $10 Hyper HU, 6th in $10

Since my last post I've been going deep in a quite a few mtts. Came in 3rd in a $30 mtt out of 850 people, for roughly 2500. Two nights ago, I won the $10 hyper turbo for about 1900. LOL. God, you need to run good to win that tournament, too bad you dont get TLB points for heads up tournaments. Also, 2 nights in a row I've made the final 2 tables of the $10 MTT that starts at 7PM est. The first night, with about 18 left I have about 850k, blinds 5/10k. 2nd to act makes it 30k(560 total stack), 1 caller(chip leader), and I have kings on the button. I think about 3 betting it here to like 100k or something, but I was moved to the table a few hands before this and didn't really have a read on anyone, so I jam for 850k. Guy who opened tanks for a little bit, and ends up calling his other 53bbs with AJ suit, yea LOL, and he hits a flush. A few hands later I'm out due to a race.
Last night I was in the same boat, with having a big stack for quite a bit, I was up to 840k when blinds were just 2/4k. Eventually I was at about 1.4 mil blinds 6/12k, and I called an all in for a total of about 750k with JJ, he had AK. And even though it was just a flip, the way it played out was just brutal. Flop came J 9 2. He doesn't have backdoor flush drawing, so only out is running Q 10, and what do you know it came. I fought back and was able to make the final table, but am upset with myself for the call I made to go out. Blinds 30/60k i have about 1.1 mil, and raise it first to act to roughly 2.5x. BB who has about 1.8 mil if I remember correctly, just jams. I think for a little bit, and he was re jamming shorthand ALOT earlier, so I call but he has AK, and I brick. Even though I have that read on him, I should have folded, because he was the only other solid player at the table, and I could have outplayed everyone. But 6th was good for a little under 1k.

Heads ups still have been a little rough lately, and I'm still trying to find a groove. I played last night after my MTT, and finally had a positive session, even though it was a short session, in a LONG time. As for mtts, my confidence is staying very high, making consistent final tables, and I have been climbing up both the yearly TLB, and monthly TLB for March. I've moved into 258th on the year and I'm only 1300 points back from being on the top 150 list, and I'm also 67th for the month of March. There's almost no way ill fall out of the top 100, so I'll be getting a $100 bonus, which is pretty cool, and I'm only 27k fpps away from starting my $4k bonus. Pretty excited for the NBA playoffs to start in a few weeks, go lakerssssss, and just as excited for baseball to start on sunday.
That's it for now, Good luck.

-pomp

Update

The last 9 days or so I've been really struggling to find a groove. Ever since my $10 mtt win, I've been running extremely awful, and I'm on a huge downswing, and tilt is only responsible for a small portion of it(a lot less than normal on my downswings). Since I don't have class today I'm going to take the day off in heads ups, and just play a bunch of mtts, including A LOT 180 mans, they can really help out with TLB points. Bfizz11 has this bootcamp thing, which is basically like poker school. He holds online classes, with replays available for download at $35, so I'm going to give that a try and see how it goes. He's #1 on Yearly TLB thus far, so who better to learn from, and improve my MTT game even more.

I read a friends blog, and we are kinda in the same boat/have the same thought process on our downswing. I'm trying to stay positive during this downswing. Like bpmst2 said, during a large downswing, confidence in most players drop, and negative thinking comes into play, which will lead you to not play your best game. It is extremely important to always stay in a positive frame of mind. I think the one thing I need to work on in my heads up game(mostly vs fish), is not trying to make so many hero calls, and maybe play more basic since they are so exploitable. For up and coming heads up players, trust me, try to stay positive, because if you don't it can and will lead to massive tilt, and the uneccesary loss of many buy-ins.

I'm currently in 461st on the yearly TLB. I really would love to get on the list that you see on the pokerstars client(top 150), and I don't think it is out of reach. But I'm going to need to do some griding, and have some nice results to get there. Also, I'm at 58k vpps on the year. It's closing in on 1/4 through the year, and to be on pace for 300k vpps, I would need 75k vpps, which I obviously wont be at 1/4 through the year. But you have to take into account that I missed 10 days in January since I was in the Bahamas, so I think I'm on pace, if not very close to on pace for 300k vpps. Also I have 204k fpps, so the 250k fpp bonus is in sight, and I can't wait to get started on that, as I will see it as sort of a bonus for the work I've put in so far in 2010. Also, the swelling in my leg has gone down dramatically. There's almost no black and blue on the front part of my leg, but still some on my calf, and a little on my foot, probably going to take another 4-5 days to completely heal. That's it for now.
good luck

-pomp

1st for $6500, and a ridiculously swollen leg

Last week I injured my leg playing football. It instantly started to swell up and I started to swap heat and ice on it. After a few days it started to get black and blue, and each day it just got progressively worse. It finally reached to a point where I needed to go get it checked out, so I went to urgent care since it was the only place I could get into. It looks alot worse then it actually is. The X-ray came back fine, and he said it was just tissue bleeding or something, lol. So he gave me prescription for anti-inflamatory and instructed to always have light compression on it and heat 4 times a day, and that should help.

As for poker, I've really been struggling in heads up lately, just constantly having run-bad sessions. So it's definitely a good thing I've been doing well in MTT's. I won an $11 mtt on Sunday, with 4100 runners, for $6500. It feels good to finally achieve a win in an mtt. I've won mtts before, but only $3 or $1 buy-ins when I was a very low-stake grinder. I've been making steady cashouts, if you would like to know how much I have made so far this year just ask me. I'm roughly at 53k vpps on the year, and about 185k fpps, so I'm closing in on 1/4 mil fpps for a $4,000 bonus.
That's it for now, good luck

-pomp

Shipping, 3rd in $109 MTT for $8200

Came in 3rd in the $109 Freezeout on Wednesday for $8200 :). Felt really good about the way I played. Came into the final table as the shortstacked with 20+ BBs if I remember correctly, but I stayed patient, and it certainly paid off. I hit a major heater, and in 10 hands I went from shortstack at 110k, to chip leader at 900k. When we got to 3 handed, we were decently deepstacked at 6/12k, as we all had over 650k. It was very tough 3 handed, as one of the other players was agriffrod, and the other I didn't know who he was, but he knew what he was doing. There was a ton of 3 betting and some 4 betting too, and I was holding my ground as well. The hand that basically cost me is as follows: button opened to about 48k at 10/20k, from the small blind I 3 bet with AK to roughly 115k, and agriffrod shoved for 480k total, back to me and I snap called, he had Q10 of clubs. Flop came A 10 9, with 2 clubs, and after the turn I was drawing dead as he hit his flush. If I had won this hand I would have been guaranteed 11.5k I think, and had a 1.5-1 chip lead. After being shortstacked for a little got it all in blind vs blind with AK vs KK and couldn't hit, but 8200 does ship my way :).

Other than that I really haven't played much. I actually just checked my latest mtt stats, and I've only played 17 mtts in the last 8 days, which kind of sucks, but theres nothing I can really do about it. I am on spring break from school until the 22nd so I'll probably be able to get some more volume in.
good luck

-pomp

March

Since i'm playing in a few MTTs at the moment, and I have an essay due tomorrow, I'm going to keep this as short as possible. Made Final Table of the $150(starts at 4EST every day). Came in 7th out of 580 ppl for about $2800, and I'm pretty happy with the way I have been playing lately. Other than that I really have not played much. Been busy doing other things. School, been going to visit Grandma in the hospital. Friday went to AC and stayed overnight. Partied on Saturday night, and worked on Sunday. Currently in 693rd for yearly TLB. If i remember correctly I was in 550th or so, but I haven't played in a single MTT in 4-5 days, so I've dropped a bit, and I'm still making steady final tables for the volume that I play compared to most of the sharks atop the TLB. Spring break starts Friday for me, So I'll prob be able to play a decent amount, and also make up some ground on my VPP grind. That's it for now, good luck

-pomp

Update

Although I'm getting tired of this snow, I cannot complain too much, because on thursday it enabled me to enter some MTTs during the day because school was closed, and I had success. Made the final table of the $10 rebuy with 2700 runners. I came into the FT as chip leader. Just like most final tables play was tight at first, but then since it was a 10 minute level tournament, players started to get knocked out quickly, and one guy hit a heater and took over CL. He was a good player, 3 betting, raising a lot, doing the normal things a big stack should do. With 4 left. I raised on button with 1010, big stack shoved from big blind and I snap called. Hand is as follows:

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to PompYouUp [Ts Th]
Sheriff_20: folds
PompYouUp: raises 172500 to 322500
zmeyga: folds
jackellwood: raises 7356948 to 7679448 and is all-in
PompYouUp: calls 3229370 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (4127578) returned to jackellwood
*** FLOP *** [Kh Qc 7d]
*** TURN *** [Kh Qc 7d] [Ah]
*** RIVER *** [Kh Qc 7d Ah] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jackellwood: shows [8s As] (a pair of Aces)
PompYouUp: shows [Ts Th] (a pair of Tens)
jackellwood collected 7238740 from pot

:( Unfortunately it couldn't hold for almost 50% of the chips in play. GG me in 4th place. for $5k. Other than that have really done much. Ran pretty bad sunday, didn't play a ton of tournaments, and went 0 for. Quads were hit on me 3 times, maybe 4. Wasn't a fun day.

Going backwards now, I played in a live $150 buy in on Saturday, starting with 56 people. I have some funny stories/hands for you guys. Blinds 300 600, couple limpers and 2 people in blinds, so 2400 in the pot.(one of the limpers is VERY tight, if he shoves all in pre-flop, he has monster, post flop he has good hand). Flop comes A Q 4 with all hearts. Tight player just jams for 10,500. Guy thinks and calls, other 2 fold. Tight player says I have a set and flips over 44, guy that called goes "I have a set too", and flips over 1010, LOL. That's not a set buddy. I didn't misunderstand him, because the other people right around me thought he said the same thing.

Blinds 400/800, I raise to 2400 with AKsuit UTG. Small blind and big blind call. Flop comes 7 5 2 rainbow. Both check I bet 4k, small blind who was donk/aggro (same guy as "set with 1010") min raises to 8k, other guy folds and it comes back around to me. I only have about 10,700 behind, and I was pretty convinced that this guy didn't really have anything, like just overs. Not even a pair because he would prob call with that since he would have odds, based on his history. So I jam for another 10,500 and he snap calls, I say, ahhh I have nothing, he says "I have nothing either and flips over 63os for a gutshot, haha. Turn comes ace and takes away his lives and river brick I double.

Blinds 500/1000, I have about 50k I think, from a 16k starting stack. Couple limpers, I bump it up to 4500 with AQ, small blind calls, everyone else folds. Flop comes Q 8 5, with 2 hearts. Guy open jams for 36k!!! I think for a little bit. This was the same guy that 3rd hand of tournament. Bet a J 8 5 flop, and over-jammed the turn which was a 4 I think. He went to muck his hand and it was accidently flipped, and he had KQ, no draws. So I call even though I only have 4500 invested, and he has just J9 for a gutshot, lol. He bricked and I scoop the pot.

There was this one player, which it seemed like it was his first time playing poker. He was to my left when we were down to final 2 tables. blinds 3/6k, he has 23k total. He limps for 6k, some guy makes it 18k, guy in the blinds calls, limper with 23k JUST CALLS leaves himself with 5k(kinda like a Frank move for those of you who know him, without the same plan on the flop, lol) So anyway, flop comes w.e idr. he checks, guy who raised preflop jams, other guy folds, and guy with 5k left FOLDS!!!! Also i can't remember if it was after he doubled twice or before the hand i just explained, but he was in BB for 6k with 4k behind, and folded to a button raise. Not bad IMO. I ended up min cashing for $500, while jeff owned and won the tournament.

Switching topics, school is still going well, got a 95 on my first accounting exam. Ship. 2 other classes are a breeze so far. Loaded another 6k into my mutual funds, and thats been going up lately. Hopefully it can keep it up, and I can keep final tabling mtts. Hope everyone is off to a strong start this year
Good luck

-pomp