After doing rather well (finished in the money on most occasions) in the lowest of low buy-in, single-table Sit N Go Texas Hold ‘em tournaments over the last week, I decided to move up to see how it is at a loftier height. After all, it’s only one sit n go tournament right?  What a mistake! I was playing in a game that, for me, was truly costing more to buy in than I was willing to lose (always a bad idea). I found myself playing like I did when I was brand new. I looked at everyone as if they were holding AA or KK.  I truly did not want to lose all the money that I had made in the last week in this one tournament.

Having that mindset I tried to fold my way to a healthier me, chip stack-wise.  Hand after hand went into the muck.  As we all know, that doesn’t work; the blinds got bigger and my stack went proportionately the other way.  Of course, I made it past the overly aggressive players and got down to the last four.  Two of them had big stacks, then there was me and one guy with less chips than I had.  I thought if I could play tight until somebody took this guy out, I might just get out of this tournament alive.

I was so busy in survival mode that I used none of the things I knew how to do to win, or at least keep myself alive long enough to finish in the money.  I was unfocused and never took the clues the other players were giving me about how they play.  On the other hand, I never changed up my game, giving everyone at the table what they needed to know about how I play.  I allowed myself to get so short-stacked that even in the right position, I was never able to make the moves I needed to make.  Even when Mr. Short-Stack (the guy with less chips than me) was begging me to take him out.

What did I take away from this?  I learned to never get in “over my head“, to stay at the buy-in level that is comfortable for me so that I can concentrate on the things that allowed me to win money playing Sit N Go-s the previous week.  There will come a time to move up the ladder.  But in the meantime, why am I messing with success?  Protecting my investment became the sole focus and I never used the 5 things I knew to use in order to make money:

• Position
• Bankroll Management
• Information Gathering
• Stage Play
• Patience

(I’ll be discussing these in coming blogs)

Oh, how did I finish in the tournament?  I lost… of course!

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