I have been reading the Harrington on Holdem series, and I don't think there is any coincidence that I have started doing well in tournaments.

I have made some very good plays recently, although there hasn't been a big haul yet.

I do feel very confident in my tournament game, especially holdem.

Sunday I played the party poker 200k and to say it's soft is an understatement. I went deep and only picked up a premium pair once. I think I ended up finishing 23rd for $1.1k

The hand that effectively crippled me was along these lines.

I pick up 66 in MP and open raise, the BB who I have covered by around 50k is the only caller, the blinds are 6k/12k.

The flop came Q55 which is quite nice for my hand, probably one of the best flops I can ask for that doesn't involve a 6 of 543.

So he checks, I bet 40k and he raises to 80k. Now, I think I would have folded this against most opponents, but I had seen him do similar with AJ high and ended up getting lucky to split.

So with that in mind I pushed and he called showing a slowplayed KK, nh and pretty much gg me.

I played a lot of tournies tonight on full tilt and today was the day for suckouts. AA versus QQ flop Q high, AA v AK, flop K turn K, AK v TT flop TQ* turn * river J, so yeah, not so great.

I cashed for about $50 in another tourney.

I finished 2nd in a HORSE tourney for a little over $1k. I played good, but the chiplead the guy had was about 6-1 or something, so I had little chance. Infact, the last hand I made open aces on 4th, he called my double bet, pushed me all in on 5th and made a straight on 6th, so nevermind.

On a side note, there was quite a bad player in a 30/60 razz game and although I am underrolled, if I was ever going to take a shot, it was now. He was involved in a capped 3rd street with a K versus my A and someone elses A, which was nice.

Infact, in that hand I made what I think was a very good play. I am going to post it up I think, once my friend has taken a look at it and decided if it was good or not. If it was infact bad, I probably won't although I think my reasoning was justified.

So I took down about $1k in that game to leave myself up a peachy amount.

I actually look forward to playing tomorrow which I don't think has happened for a while, I think it's the tournament addiction or something kicking in. I might just play them all day.

5/10 and 8/16 Stud and Razz when mediocre and I didn't play any NL100.

nn.