Running bad

Well, I have been running fairly poorly over the last couple of weeks. This is both in tournaments and in cash games.

Today was a somewhat reflective example of my last couple of weeks.

During the first hour (3 levels) of the huge overlay ($87k overlay) rebuy tournament, I would have been perfectly content to get all my chips into the pot in even money or better situations to build a big stack. My starting chips were $800T, and I naturally elected to do a rebuy on the first hand for $1kT (for $40).

During the rebuy period I was able to get my chips all in on the flop twice where my opponent had 3 outs. Lost the first one, won the second one. I had about 3rd chip stack at my table with both big stacks on my right, so I limped on almost every hand that they did (which granted was no more than 3 occasions), but didn't encounter any interesting situations.

At the break, I had only a slightly larger than average chip stack. I took another 3 outer from a shortish stack (~1/3 of my stack) after getting him all in on the flop.
I had chipped up to an average size stack when I got crippled when my all in preflop pair over pair lost on the river to a set. I was left with a chip and a chair. Even after doubling up 4 times, I was knocked out about 2 orbits later. That's tournament poker.

I am pleased to have gotten my chips into the pot in such great shape so many times, but in some ways this was just luck as well. I simply recognized that several of the geniuses at my table were willing to put their entire stack into the middle with a huge range of hands after calling a preflop raise and catching any part of the flop.

Anyways, it was a pretty crappy day, but it is just as well to get knocked out early than to get knocked out on the bubble.

By the way, I was wrong about how loose the action would be during the first hour. The action was not significantly looser than a regular Saturday rebuy tournament first hour. I'm certain that many of the participants simply did not understand the overlay involved in the tournament (there was even a player at my table who did not do double rebuys, but did take ~4-5 single rebuys each time he went broke.)

Okay, I've got the bad feelings all out of my system. I want to be in a positive frame of mind for the next two big tournaments coming up next Saturday and Sunday.