Tournaments and The Gaming Club

After getting my Party Poker reload bonus, I decided to try some new things within the poker world. I am bored and I need to find something to pique my interest before I bleed away the rest of my bankroll.

I spent most of the weekend playing sit-n-go tournaments (well, that’s slightly wrong… I spent most of the weekend with my family, but when playing poker…). Of the no limit hold’em variety, I played 50 person SNGs at Party Poker and 45 person SNGs at Full Tilt Poker. I also played some single table (9 person) HORSE tournaments at Full Tilt.

I lost both of my SNGs at Party Poker; I played both very well, building a decent stack until the blinds eventually caught up to me. I pushed it all in with the better hand both times but lost anyway. That happens in tournament poker, I suppose. I was quite pleased with my play considering my bad luck in the past with tournaments and my general inexperience with tournaments. I had similar experiences at Full Tilt, although I cashed in about 2/3 of the HORSE tournaments (I played 5-6 of these), allowing me to win a little over the weekend.

Part of my non-poker weekend involved at trip to Target to purchase various supplies, including baby formula – that stuff is expensive! It occurred to me while I was at Target that I could still chase a PokerSourceOnline promotion to play at The Gaming Club (the connection: PSO allows you to purchase Target gift certificates with their PSO points). Therefore, I deposited $200 on Monday into a new account at TGC. I need to clear 350 raked hands at $2/$4 (or $0.50/$1.00 no limit) to clear TGC’s $50 initial deposit bonus; otherwise, I need to clear 750 raked hands at slightly lower limits (e.g., $0.50/$1.00 limit) to clear the PSO promotion.

My first impression of TGC was that it was just like many other smallish sites. There is not a lot of traffic, which is a slight problem because I could not find a full-ring limit game at $2/$4. That meant that I’d either have to play no limit or play short-handed limit. Because neither of those options was attractive to me, I decided to try both (makes sense, huh? Try living with me…).

My initial session at $2/$4 short-handed limit was a good one, but I donked my profit away playing no limit. During my next session, I donked off a bunch of money playing limit when I got too aggressive on the turn with top pair, top kicker. I then started the bad beat train in which my opponents were seemingly catching two pair or their inside straight draw on every hand. Luckily, I compensated slightly by winning a big pot in my no limit game. I also started playing better in the limit game. By the end, I was again profitable, until my AQ ran up against AK (no limit). By the end of my first day at TGC, I had lost $16.

My second day (Tuesday) at TGC has been one of my dream poker days. I caught a few bad beats, but I have won enough big pots to push through. So far, I am up over $100, playing my twisted combination of $2/$4 limit and $0.50/$1.00 no limit. Right now, I am hoping that variance doesn’t catch up to me – at least until I clear the 350 raked hands for my deposit bonus. After that, I will be dropping back to stakes more suitable for my bankroll.