Slayer of $2 Donkeys

34 / 3,192 = 1.07%



I probably should have been out of the tournament early when I lost half of my stack trying to blow a guy off Q-Q on a K-8-9-K-6 board.

I Am Not the Mariano Rivera of The Challenge II

This seems to be a recurring trend.





I really need to stop with the min-cashing.

Couldn't Quite Get There

I played in the Daily Doubles again tonight. I didn't fare so well in the DD B, but I managed to squeak out a $21.33 cash in the DD A.



I know where my NLHE tournament leaks are, and this tourney definitely brought them into focus.

Now the real question is whether I'll make improvements or whether I'll keep repeating the same mistakes again . . .

First Blood

Tonight's tournament line-up:

Full Tilt Daily Double A
Full Tilt Daily Double B
PokerStars $4.40 PLO-8

Things started off well when I doubled up on the fourth hand of the Daily Double A.



Then things went a bit backward when this guy shoved over my LP raise.



I couldn't get much going after that and ended up going busto in this blind versus blind confrontation.



So much for hitting both of the Daily Doubles.



I had a similar fast start in the Daily Double B.



Apparently presto is not gold when up against a straight draw / flush draw combo. There weren't really a lot of memorable hands after that. Just grinding, grinding, grinding away. I exited the tournament on a relatively standard flip after shoving over a MP raiser.



It wasn't all for naught, however, as I managed to make a small cash in the Daily Double B.



That's my first tournament score for The Challenge II. Sure, it's not astounding, but I'm on the board. $16.34 prize / 13.68% finish.

I managed to put together an even deeper run (3.48% finish) in the PLO $4.40 PLO-8 tournament, but for a slightly smaller prize $14.80.



My first big hand was when I nailed the flush portion of a flopped nut flush draw / OESD in a multi-way pot to take down the high half.



I had a bit of a set-back when this guy limp shoved with this gem of a hand.



The funniest part about omaha-8 is watching people betting into other players when all they really have is a low. Those antics got someone quartered in the following hand.



I got to "announce" StB's favorite words after this hand.



NUT NUT!

Things started to go a bit downhill after that hand, as I was missing flops or missing flopped draws while my stack was whittled away. A timely double, however, kept me in the game.



Although I flopped the nut flush draw and the low draw in the following hand, I ended up getting only half.



The following hand was pretty interesting because I open-shoved and got called in 4 spots. The villain in the SB potted the flop, pushing out the other two players. I will never know if one of the other two players held a 4, but if they did, thanks Itsinmyblood!



I was still relatively short at that point and finally took a stand with this hand.



I'm beginning to think the cheapie PLO-8 tournaments on PokerStars are going to be sweet spots for me as The Challenge II continues.