The Streak

I woke up this afternoon in a foul mood. It occurred to me that I have never cashed in an event worth Cardplayer of the Year points and I started brooding over it. I felt like I let a good opportunity get away yesterday because the structure of the tournament was quite good and I have been playing real well.

I am now 0 for 20 in these tournaments. This adds up to a net loss of $63,100. Obviously neither of these figures is at all acceptable, but I do know that I can reverse things in a single tournament. Based on these figures I would say something is wrong with my game. While I certainly have room for improvement, I do think I have been very unlucky not to cash at least once in these events. Also, I am always playing for first place where the big money is and not looking for a minor money finish. And I'm definitely playing better now than I have throughout this streak (most of which took place during the World Series).

Am I a bad tournament player? I don't think so. I'm almost exactly even now for my tournament career thanks to the two big online scores. As I've said before, I am confident it will not be long before I make a huge breakthrough in a monster tournament.

I have a few strategical things I need to work on, especially getting more aggressive. There is a huge difference between tournaments and cash games, and a huge difference between playing live and online. Right now I am one of the best online no limit cash game players in the world, but that has little to do with playing live tournaments. But for me they do have an important connection: as long as I continue to dominate the online cash games, I will be able to feed my live tournament addiction without putting myself under financial duress.

The streak is especially annoying when I realize that Kwickfish is 1/2 in these events and Bag is 1/1. I can't have my friends showing me up like this.

The Fall Poker Classic at Canterbury starts Saturday. The events should count for Player of the Year and I will be playing every day looking for that elusive cash. Correction - I will be looking for that elusive victory. I have just one goal for Canterbury, and it is to win the Best All-Around Player Award.