My Tournament Game Seems To Be Coming Around

I have to admit that my tournament game is a little rusty with all of my focus on grinding cash games for a profit. MTTs have never been a big money winner for me, but with WSOP Event #27 just a few weeks away I need to be honing my skills for a solid showing. I plan on playing a bunch of tournaments every night that I can, at the expense of growing the roll (unless of course, I hit a big cash). I played several last night, and did pretty well me thinks.

FullTilt 8k

Got off to a decent start doubling up in the first 1/2 hour, and played solid till my exit. Ended up bubbling out in 47/488 (top 45 paid), when I went card dead late and had to shove UTG with a naked king or be all-in on the next hand. I couple key hands really hurt me in this one. Early on, I was all-in on a 7k pot and had to split it when my kicker was counterfeited on the river. Late, I'm all-in preflop PP over PP, but the board makes a straight for a 5k pot split. If I can scoop up the whole pot on either of those, I know I make the money, and have a shot at going deep. I still did beat 9/10 players which is normally good for a cash in an MTT.

BoDog 3.5k

Got off to a good start again getting my stack north of 7k early in the second hour. Went card dead in the middle, but worked my way through it. Started chipping back up late, running my stack up to 28k when the final two tables formed. Then after getting blinded back down to 19k, I pick up AKo. I open raise 2.5x, and a guy with my size stack pushes in. I make the call and am against AQo for a 37k pot. Flop comes king high all diamonds, and I don't have one. The turn brings another diamond, and that dirty gold digger the Queen of diamonds scoops the pot. I am crippled down to about 1.5k and exit a few hands later in 16/333 players for a decent cash. If I win the hand I am close to 39k in chips which would be about 4th, with 15 left and I am looking to go deep at the final table. I had enough chips to fold to the final table, but I am looking for the win here. Felt good, but its always a disappointment to go out like this after all that work.

I plan on continuing to run as many tourneys as I can before the WSOP. I got the PokerSavvy freeroll tonight on Poker.com, and the DADI tomorrow night. If I continue to improve my game, I will post a nice cash in this here blog before July 18th. I want to go to the WSOP on a high note.