Secrets of the Amateurs

Battered the tournaments on-line today. I played 4 speed tournaments and 5 "proper" tournaments. Mind you two of the proper ones lasted about 5 minutes between them. Annoyingly these were the two with decent added money. One was just the breaks, I had top pair against a big draw on the turn and lost. One I made a bit of a blunder in retrospect. Very early on, 1500 chips and 10-20 blinds, I found AA under the gun and made it 60. Either limping (to induce a reraise) or making it at least 100 would have been better. What I did inhibited a reraise but still let everyone in for 4% of their stack. Flop 862 rainbow gave me no chance to escape from a cunningly concealed 62s. I don't knock the guy's play here, why not take a flop for 60. In the very first level or two I realise you should either limp/see a cheap flop, limp/reraise or make a large enough raise so as not to give people implied odds. Live and learn.

Rather frustratingly I couldn't win a race all day, until finally on Stars I knocked AA off with JT and won a 50/50, which was sufficient to take me to 22nd/400. I can't remember any other all-in coups, although it's possible I'm selectively forgetting the odd win :-). Enjoyed it though, and learned something too. Nice to feel I'm moving forward. And tomorrow I have a day off, family stuff.