Day 3

On the third day of my experiment, frustration gave way to immense satisfaction!

I began the day once again trying the Full Tilt Main Event freerolls but had absolutely no luck. Later in the day I added a couple of poker rooms to my list, so I played freerolls at Bodog and at Carbon Poker. At Bodog's $500 freeroll, I competed against 4500 players and managed to come in at a respectable 275th place -- nothing to write home about, but evidence of improvement. I then played in a $50 freeroll at Carbon Poker in which I finished 81st out of 1500. Unfortunately, these freerolls don't pay nearly that many places.

At 10:15 P.M., I elected to try one more at Carbon Poker and all my efforts were finally rewarded. Again facing 1500 opponents, I managed to finish 3rd and open my bankroll with $5.00! It doesn't sound like much, but believe me, it took me a long time (over a year of play and study) to finally finish in the money. In the crucial hand I was playing short-stacked with about fifteen players remaining. I found myself looking at A-4 suited in hearts on the button. After the table folded around to me, I raised 3 times the big blind hoping to steal a pot. However, "greatbambeeno" in the big blind (with a chip stack that had me well covered) decided that stealing was not an option for me and called, leaving me to start considering what he might be holding. I decided he was probably holding a medium pocket pair, something like 8-8 or 9-9. The flop came 2h-5s-Kh, giving me the nut flush draw and a gutshot straight draw while I didn't think it helped him. Bambeeno checked and I checked right behind, happy to see a free card. The turn brought another 2 and bambeeno once again checked. I thought that the King had probably scared him and the paired board couldn't have been good for him either, so I went crazy and shoved all-in. Bambeeno instacalled and turned over A-K, leaving me almost dead. I had 11 outs, leaving me a 4-1 underdog in the hand. However, the river brought me an absolutely beautiful 3 of diamonds, filling my straight and doubling my chip stack!

After I finished the tourney, I moved to a micro-stakes game with .02-.04 blinds and won a whopping $0.67 in ten minutes, leaving me with a profit of $5.67 for the day. It doesn't sound like much, but it was infinitely better than the zero I started with!

On Friday, I played in four freerolls and didn't fare very well. I started with a freeroll at Full Tilt at 8 a.m. (an ungodly time) and didn't make it to the first break. My thinking doesn't really begin working quite that early it seems. I later went to Ultimate Bet where I finished in 471st out of 4112 and felt like I wasn't playing well. I decided to rest for the afternoon and get some things accomplished around the house, and I was back to the tables for the 6:15 and 10:15 freerolls at Carbon. In the first one, I finished in 160th position out of 1500 after making a really dumb donkey call -- I called an all in with A-10 suited, only to see one player acting behind me call as well. Unfortunately, they were holding 10-10 and A-J offsuit, leaving me only a flush or straight possibility to win the pot. The poker gods had a different idea though, not giving me any of my hearts and only low cards on the board -- leaving me drawing dead on the turn and river. In the 10:15 I again got away from my game plan of playing tighter than a drum at least through the first break and got knocked out 20 minutes into the tournament when my flatout crazy all-in semi-bluff didn't hit.

I'll be back later with news on how I fared today!