I'm a Golden Poker God!!

Ok, I'm saying this half laughing, but I must say that some would classify me as a Golden Poker God after I fiinished in 9th Place in yesterday's Taj $100 poker tournament in Atlantic City. Ninety people played in the tournament and I finished just within the money, getting paid out $144. True, it's not a lot of money, but I consider it to be a great accomplishment that I finished in the Top 10 in a 90 player tournament.

Throughout the tournament, I played in total of probably 20 hands. When I wasn't in the big blind I played A,A; A,J (twice); A,9 (twice); K,Q unsuited; K,10 suited; A,Q suited. That's pretty much all I can remember, but I think that's it. Overall, it was probably the most disciplined and tight i have ever played before. I'm usually crazy aggressive, but for some reason yesterday I wasn't. I even folded pocket 3s and pocket 7s when people raised before me. There was one time I tried to bluff another player out of the pot. When he called my bluff, I didn't bluff anyone else again for the entire tournament.

We started out with 5,000 in chips and the most chips I had at one time was approx. 34k, which was good for near the top of the rankings for most of the time. Probably my biggest hand of the tournament was when I was holding K,10 diamonds. The flop came Q,Q,A and I bet 6k with the blinds 1k-2k. My only opponent called and the turn was lucky for me as I pulled a J to complete my straight. I bet 6k again and my opponent went all-in. I quickly called and my opponent turned over Q,10 for trip Qs. The river came up blank for my opponent and I took a sizable 20k pot home.

After that, I caught a string of bad cards and simply sat at the table constantly folding while players around me got knocked out of the tournament. After making the final table, I was one of the small stacks and started to get blinded out when the blinds went up to 2-4k with 500 antes. I literally didn't get one hand to play and went out with A, 3 when my opponent turned over A, 10.

It was quite a learning experience and while I think what might have been if I won the $2800 top prize, I am really happy with how well I played.