This weekend I was mostly venturing with $16 SNG tournaments, and I didn't fare well. I played 10 of them, finished 1st in the first one and 3rd in the third one, and lost the next 6, before finishing 3rd on the last $3 micro-limit.

I thought I played fairly solid tournament poker, and more often than not I got my money in as the favourite. But I got bad-beaten a lot, and had to bubble out when blinds got so large that I inevitably had to push any King-high or those type of hands. Here are a list of key defeats, all of them preflop all-ins:

AT vs 76, opponent was all-in as BB, I had modest stack at best and really needed the blinds, board was A8866.

A5s vs K2, opponent only had slightly more than 1 BB, I had him covered but again I really needed to pick up the blinds, board was AT522.

AA vs KK on the bubble, opponent was a huge stack, board was 8765K.

AA vs Q2s, bubble, opponent was an aggressive blind stealer, small stacks for both of us, board was 83522.

AJ vs 77 against the same opponent on another table, identical bubble situation, I didn't improve.

AJ vs AT, bubble, opponent had a big stack, running 4 clubs on the board, opponent had Tc.

A7 vs JQ, I was in the 3rd place money and just barely hanging on, big stack opponent rivered a Q on me.

QQ vs big-stack AK vs tiny-stack A2, board was J7272 -- I took a meager side-pot while shortie was rejuvenated.

K7s vs T5, SB vs BB, big-stack opponent only had to call less than a BB extra, board was AT9T9.

So as one can see, most of the beats really weren't that gross -- when the money was in I was only a modest favourite, but to give me a big hand on the flop and then take it away on the subsequent cards especially those running trips -- those were simply brutal.

I also experimented with some 6-max NL25, and it was a good (and winning) experience. In a 6-max table I was able to exploit weak players over and over again.

Some ring hands from the past weekend:

Friday evening hands. It was a brief decent session that saw me winning about $25:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?790010
This is the 2nd hand in a row which I pulled this crap -- preflop all-in in an unraised pot against multiple limpers. The previous hand I had AA and didn't get called. This time I had KK and some fish made a costly curiosity call with T8.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?790013
A6s, all-in after I flopped top 2 pairs against two people who each had AK and both went nuts. Nice big pot for me.

Sunday evening hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?795623
Another instance where I lost my cool and failed to maximize EV. So I called a small preflop raise from the blinds and flopped bottom 2 pairs with suited crap on a really dry board. I bet and was immediately raised, so it's unlikely he had the invincible AA, probably AK or AQ or something like that instead. I got so excited and pushed flop. I was called, my opponent was drawing to 5 and 8 outs, and therefore my EV was 73%. If I waited for a non-Ace turn to push -- again, this was an ultra-dry board, so dry that top pair hands would be scared by no turn cards -- I would have improved my EV to ~84%.

I was outdrawn here, which hurt my wallet a bit. But that's poker. On the other hand I think I should also start realizing the times when I failed to maximize EV even when my hand held up. With a reliable read (like here) I should definitely try to remain calm and remember to execute the higher EV play -- analyze flop before deciding when is the better time to shove.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?795624
I called a rather hefty raise preflop raise, hit my dream flop, and my opponent 3-bet all-in with 99 (overpair + open-ended straight draw). Tough spot for my opponent.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?800997
I called a moderate preflop raise with 98 from SB and flopped top-two. Legal meu was rather tight -- definitely too tight for 6-max -- and quite predictable, so it's obvious I've trapped his big overpair. I check-raised all-in, noclue got out of the way, legal meu called with Aces. The turn counterfeited my hand but then the river boated me up. A roller-coaster finish, with justice prevailing.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?800998
I feel sorry for noclue -- when I raise with suited crap I hope to deceive and destack someone else, not a good friend. But then I don't soft-play anybody.