# 1 in my Poker League
I play in a poker league here in New York. There’s about 20-25 regular players in this league. We only play tournaments and the buy-ins range from $25 to $50. Mostly $30 tourneys with bounties. Each player donates $1 to the quarterly final table freeroll for every game they participate in, with a portion of the money going to the player of the year and the best player in any given quarter. The free roll prize pool is usually $600 or so. The top 8 ranked players get in automatically. Then the next 10 players who qualify get a chance to play into the freeroll, with the top 2 advancing. The top player in the quarter also gets a $100 bonus. The top player for the year gets $300.
I was # 2 for the longest time until this Saturday when I took down a Omaha/8 tournament. There were 16 players and top 3 get paid. When the table got down to 6 players, only Omaha hi was played. I managed to hit my straight against a set to take the tournament down. By taking down the tournament I finished first overall in the quarter.
That’s my style during tournaments, grind em out and play aggressively in spots. I like to pick my spots and play a more trappier style when the hand merits it. I’d much rather outplay my opponents post flop than risk a major move pre-flop (unless I’m short stacked). I’m not sure if this is a result of me playing more cash games than tournaments (i’ll have to research this).
Bobby the 2nd place finisher, is the opposite. He finished 1st more times but cashed less. His style is ultra aggressive and he’s willing to gamble with any two cards because of his aggressiveness. This leads to more wins but less cashes. He’s either a huge chip leader or he’s out early. When he has chips he’s a monster. His lean on you style of poker gets results but then he’s gambling more and making riskier moves. I’m 1-1 in heads up matches with Bobby so there’s not a lot of history there (although we’ve played against each other a lot).
When I first started my tournament play was weak and had a lot of leaks as I was playing mostly cash games (as a matter of fact, most of my winnings came during the side cash games when I was knocked out) but something clicked this quarter. Maybe it was because I knew the other players much better and played to their tendencies. Maybe I’ve gotten lucky this quarter, more so than the previous quarters. I know that I’m playing better positional poker and my pre-flop game has improved so perhaps that’s it.
So my loose aggressive style in cash games didn’t translate into success during tournaments, so I changed and the results changed also. By tweaking my tournament play, I was able to cash more times in the money. Out of 20 tournaments this quarter I won 3 of them and chopped the prize pool in another. I finished 2nd 4 times, 3rd 4 times and 4th (in tournaments with 18+ players) twice. I bubbled 3 times also.
I think I need to work on my end game a little more so I can finish 1st at a better rate but I’m not complaining.
In total I won $435 while risking $627 in buy-ins. Not a bad rate of return. Hey this isn’t the WSOP but I’ll take it anyway.
The next step is the quarterly free roll. The league has collected over $700 in league fees of which $100 goes to me for finishing as the quarterly champion and $600+ goes into the prize pool for the quarterly final.
If I can finish ITM for the quarterly final table then this will shape up as a very nice quarter for me. Just one time baby!
Related posts:
- The Rockets Red Glare…or how I won a poker tournament in my poker league.
- Enter the Matrix at FullTilt
- Tournament Poker 101
- Cash Game Poker at Seneca Niagara Casino
- Double or Nothing SNGs on Pokerstars – Building Your Bankroll the Easy Way
Categories: General Poker Articles
