Tournaments from 3/23/10

Two more tournaments tonight, pretty similar vibe to both. I managed to build up to about $4000 in each (starting with $1500) but can't catch any cards to save my life. I can tell I'm playing too conservatively but how much can you do with Q/3 hand after hand?

Tournament #3: Card dead the whole way, I finally get something decent with QQ. I'm all-in pre-flop and get one caller - AQ. Naturally, he hits an ace and I'm busted in 13th place. Well, that sucked.

FINISH: 13th Place
PAYOUT: $0.00
PROFIT: -$0.25
BANKROLL: $55.18

Tournament #4: Another card dead tournament. Hand after hand after hand of 9/6 and Q/4. Ugh. I manage to hang around, though, and eventually double up to about $5100. I start getting blinded off and I'm down to $3100 ($200/400 blinds) when I get AA. One guy in front of me raises to $800 and I'm all-in pre-flop. Player to my left re-raises all-in to about $3700 and everyone else folds. We're heads-up and he turns over.......10/6 off-suit. What the hell? Flop comes 4/5/7 rainbow...can you see where this is headed? Yeah, he rivers an 8 for a straight and I'm done. Not happy with this one at all.

FINISH: 11th Place
PAYOUT: $0.00
PROFIT: -$0.25
BANKROLL: $54.93

I think I'm going to want to look into some books on tournament strategy. I have a pretty solid idea of what I want to do but it's clear I need to investigate ways to play more hands when I'm running card dead. When does it pay to play lesser hands based on blinds and # of players involved in a pot? These are the things I need to learn. That said, I doubt it's ever profitable to play Q/4 :)