THE COMEBACK KID: A Runner-Up Finish On Full Tilt

Hey all! It's been a while since my last post. My apologies. I've been busy with a new job and trying to get back into shape after the nasty appendix surgery. Not too much online poker happening.

Since my last entry, my Pokerstars bank roll sank down to a single penny. I had previously cashed out my $50 in winnings, leaving me with a little less than $8, so I could start from true zero building my bank roll (I deposited $50 initially, then lost it all, then got back up to $50 through free rolls). Unfortunately, I lost 7 straight $1.25 one table Sit & Go's, leaving me with the penny. The most I'd lost in a row before that was 4 and I had placed in 15 of my last 20 one table sit & go's. I didn't think it was possible for me to lose SEVEN in a row anymore! But alas, that's Poker.

Pokerstars doesn't have any free rolls where you can win money right away, you have to win a weekday qualifier to get to a weekend money tournament. But with my new job, I'm not available for weekend poker anymore, so bye bye Pokerstars! ... For now...

So, I've turned my attention to Full Tilt Poker, which has $100 free rolls 3-4 times a day, including a strictly Canadian Free Roll. Since I haven't been playing that often, I've been making a lot of impatient donkey moves and as I make them and lose, I ask myself "Why the hell did I just do that?!?" But finally, I got back to solid poker and managed to finish in second place out of 2674!!!! That was my best finish of any multi-table tournament I've played in and I won $12, my best cash finish!!!!

I came soooooooo close to finishing first, with my stack 3 times the size of my opponent head to head. I pushed the other guy all-in with my pocket 8's vs his A-Q and he hit the ace on the river to give him new life. After that, the action was fast and furious and we were both going all-in on tossups. The tournament was over 6 hours at that point and I'm guessing we were both really tired, battling for only an extra $3 (First place: $15, Second place $12). As you can tell by all the exclamation points, I'm pretty jacked about winning $12 in 6 hrs, but hey, it's all about breaking new ground, reaching new milestones.

Speaking of milestones, my big win came on this day, Dec 12, 2008 exactly 5 months after playing in my first online tournament on Pokerstars (which was pretty much the first time I played poker - Thanks for the lessons, Dan Harrington!).

So now, I have $12, this time on Full Tilt Poker, trying to build my bank roll from nothing. Same story as before, different online poker site. The beat goes on!