I think I need more focus…

I played a couple SNGs last night on Stars. I felt pretty good about the way I played in the WWdN tourney on Tuesday night so I was hoping to get some better results in terms of cashing.

I ended up playing in two $3, 1 table turbos and one $5, 3 table turbo. I came in 2nd in one of the $3 which earned me $9. Bubbled on the second $3 and came in 8th in the $5, which paid the top 5 spots. I thought I played ok but nothing too memorable really. In the one that I cashed, I was the short stack with 4 to go and ended up with QQ, AA and AK that all got me some nice pots. The thing that bothered me about this one was the way I played once I got heads up. I let my emotions get to me because the big stack was bullying me.

He was doing it to everyone during the tourney so I am not sure why I took it personally but I did. I know, this is another sure fire way to lose money. I guess the first step is to recognize it right? Anyway, earlier, he had a huge stack and I just kept folding until I could nail him and ended up doing it twice so I wounded him pretty good. Unfortunately, noone else at the table was patient enough and he ended up busting a lot of the table. When it finally got to heads up, I had donked off a bunch of my chips while he had grown his stack. He had me 4 to 1 to start. I had to fold a bunch of hands until I got some nice high cards and took the plunge. I ended up pushing 3 times in a row and getting called at one point to give me a slight lead. That was when my trouble began. I had grinded back like that and then called a raise with J6 sooted. For whatever reason, I figured he was still bullying. The flop came with 9 7 6 to give me bottom pair. I bet and he raised. Rather than give it up, I called. To make my donkey play even worse was my double BB bet when the A fell. He thought for a minute then called. I figured I may have rattled him a bit by representing the A. The river brought a K. Again, I decided I needed push it a bit so I bet 3 times the BB. He again thought and called. He turned over his pair of 9’s!! to take it. Now, I was being pretty dumb in trying to make that play one both the turn and the river after his raise after my flop bet, but figured I had a shot. Anyway, after that hand, I was back down to about 6-1 in chips. I pushed with A6 and he called with K9 and ended up making a straight or flush or something to send me packing. Normally, I play heads up much more conservative and make better reads. This time I was just plain dumb. After the hand, I thought about it and realized that this guy had been calling everything anyway. My play to push him off by representing the A and/or K might have worked on a lot of people, but I should have known if this guy had anything, he was gonna call.

Oh, well, down $2 for the night. The story of my life really. I hope tracking my play and results will help me because I sure need it.