It's been a while since I updated my blog.
I have played in a couple of big tournaments recently but haven't had much success. On Sunday I played in the 100K on Paradise and the 300K on Stars. I played ok but didn't accumulate enough chips early on to withstand some bad beats later on.

In the 60 K guaranteed last week I was chip leader of the tournament with about 60 people left out of the original 1017. I was dealt JJ and a guy with KK doubled through me. THe tournament then went on break for 5 minutes and when I came back, I was dealt JJ again, and again I ran into KK. That was the end of the night for me. Disappointing.

In the Football tournament on Monday, I felt I played great. I accumulated a large stack and was really able to sense when people were weak. However, I lost a large portion of my stack to a loose aggressive player who had obviously satelited into the tournament. He called a raise out of position with 5 9 offsuit. The board came all overs and he fired out at the pot. I reraised him knowing he was weak (he had made a similar play before). He called my reraise for over half of his chips. Strange play, but it worked out for him when a 5 and a 9 hit. Fishingking was his name, and believe me, I took note of it. Can't wait to play him again, although I suspect he satelited in and I doubt he'll be back anytime soon. Too bad because if there was ever a definition of dead money he is it.

Most recently, I have started my cash game 50k challenge. WHat is my 50k challenge? Well it's not like Negreanu's 500K challenge where he takes anybody on in any game for 500K. Nooo! This is more of a challenge to myself. I've never considered myself a very good cash game player, but I really would like to become better. I have issued a challenge to myself to start with a bankroll of $200 and work my way up to $50k by the end of the year in cash games. This means I have to refrain from entering big tournaments with any part of that bankroll. To start, I decided to play on Interpoker. Mainly because of their bonus structure. Getting a bonus every month will help me with my goal. My tournament bankroll is completely seperate from this bankroll and I will not dip into one to feed the other.

At first I was going to limit myself only to fixed limit games, but I have found that the small stakes no limit games on interpoker are profitable too. So far I have played $.50/$1 no limit hold'em(max $100 buy in), $1-2 fixed limit hold'em, $.50/$1 Euro fixed limit Hold'em. I started this on Monday and my bankroll is now at $448. This doesn't include any bonuses. So far so good. I have had 2 winning sessions and one break even session. Once I am able to build my bankroll up significantly, I will make the jump up in limits but that won't happen until I am good and ready. I am really trying to discipline myself with this.

I'll keep you posted on how I am doing with my challenge and any significant news on the tournament front as much as possible.

Cheers,
Brad