Finding My Game?

My tournament play was terrible last weekend. Friday night I play a 5+.50 and got bounced about 15 from the bubble. I was a night of ups and downs as I tried to use my positioning to increase my chip stack. Some aspect of my game were much better as I moved up early and with half the field eliminated I was sitting in the top 10. This changed shortly after when I wimped out on the river and didn’t bet and lost to bottom pair. I raised before the flop and made continuation bets after the flop and the turn but lost my nerve. A big bet may have made the other player fold but I backed off. From this point on I looked for advantageous situations to increase my stack when this hand occurred. I’m at just below average and get pocket jacks in the BB. UTG min raises and UTG+1 goes all-in. He has me covered so this is the point of no return. I call the raise and UTG folds. He flips over AK off suit and hits his King on the river to bust me. All in all, I guess I played OK and if I win my last hand I would have been in position to move up the ladder.

Sunday saw me risk a large percentage of my stack on a 20+2 tourney with $2500 guarantee and 135 players. The top 20 were getting paid so I felt I had a good chance to money and get a good payday. It was not to be as I was knocked out about 20 from the money. The hand that caused my demise was 78 of hearts on a flop of 9hTh6c. Lets just say my strait/flush/strait flush draw was no good. I was in position to through this hand away but couldn’t as I pot committed my self and lost to a full house as the enemy had top 2 pair and hit a 10 on the turn. I was above average at the time but I wanted to win.

Now that I wasted 1/3 of my bankroll on one tourney I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. NLHE seemed to be the best choice so I hit the .05/.10 tables looking for a score. In the end I made $12 with most of it coming from pocket queens on a scary board. There was a strait draw and a flush draw but I felt my opponent was sitting on AK, AQ, AJ, KQ, or a medium to high pocket pair. The flop came 678 with two clubs. I made a ¾ pot bet and was immediately called. I’m not sure where I am at this point. I could be behind trips or he could be on a draw. The turn is a king of clubs and I don’t like this. I make a continuation bet of 1$ and get called after a long pause. The river x does not help either of us and I’m not sure what to do. I tank for a bit a decide to check with intentions to call or raise depending on the action. My opponent makes a ¼ pot bet and I come over the top all-in. I get called as the time bank was ready to expire and my queens are good over his 10’s. I think what made this decision easy was the fact he didn’t push back at any point. If he would have come back at me when the king hit the board I would have had a tough decision to make, but because of his passive play I felt I was in the lead.

So right now I’m starting to think the NL cash tables may be the way to go. The variance is higher but it seems to me that I can play tight and still get paid off if I’m on the right table. In reality table selection seems to be the important part of this decision, as I need to get paid off for my hands. Also, one thing I noticed is that if you play to tight you wont get paid for your monsters. I have been playing my suited connecters when I get them and by opening up this, I have gotten more action. Lets hope the trend continues.