CRAMMING FOR THE FINAL... WELL, SEMI-FINAL:Negreanu Semi’s this weekend.

I'm a day away from the Weekend With Daniel Semi-Final online tournament that I qualified for last week and I've been trying to get in as much poker knowledge as possible. Being a slow but thorough reader, I'm now about half way through the second installment of Dan Harrington's Hold 'Em series of books. I've also been running through jungles and swinging from vines with Yoda on my back to get my stamina up. Oh, and punching frozen meat in a meat cooler to get my... meat... punching... in a cooler abilities up.

The last few days I've been trying to apply what I've learned and my results in the Hubble Free Roll Tournaments have fallen off: 5094 out of 12000, and 756 out of 12000. But hey, sometimes you gotta get worse before you get better. Harrington describes how to stay in contention in these quick tournaments where the blinds go up like crazy and it involves taking a lot more risks. I swear, in the one where I finished 756, I felt like I was developing an ulcer by the end, what with all the all-ins and agressive betting. Playing poker is stressful! Screw this, I'm getting an office job with tight deadlines and presentations to give.

But the proof was in the stats: I had won about 25 pots when I was eliminated, 20 without a showdown. I definitely came out of it feeling a lot stronger as a poker player. I pretty much just made one big mistake at the end, challenging the wrong guy at the wrong time. Otherwise, I was in the best position I had ever been in stack-wise for that late in a tournament considering the cards I was getting (i.e, mostly crappy ones). The time I finished 234 out of 12000 I seemed to be getting A-A, K-K and Q-Q at all the right times. The 756 finish feels like my best so far.

And the beat goes on for the kid...