Okay, I'm very guilty of saying that I'm going to do something on this blog and not following up.

So, I'm doing some house cleaning. This one is an update on the Degree Poker Championship from May.

I played again this year and busted out about 150 out of 250 at the 200/400 50 ante level of the blinds. This was about 5 minutes before the break.

But, I'm sure the field thinned very quickly after that. With about 150 people left, that meant the average chip stack at that point was @$3300. The next level was 400/800 blinds with a 75 ante. So the average M (for harrington readers) was under 2 for most players. Not that you could go two laps because blinds were going up quicker this year and you could only get about 10 hands in per level.

How'd I go out? With the better hand of course ;-).

But before then... I was mainly blinded down through the first two and a half levels and HAD to try and double up before the third level. I pushed with a 74s from first position (I'm telling you I HAD to push with any two cards). I got a caller from second position and the table slowly folded around. I announced "I'm pretty sure you are way ahead before this flop." He responded, "I'm not so sure," showing his K7o. "Well maybe," the guy finally says after seeing my trash. But, the flop gave me a pair of 4s and I was doubled up plus some much needed blinds.

Three hands later the table folds around to me on the button and I hardly bother to look at my cards and push all in again to steal the blinds. I take the pot without a fight.

6 or 7 hands later a player coming of a pretty bad beat min-raises from early position. I figure I have him covered in chips and he oozing weakness with the min raise. "All in," I say absolutely confident that my ATs is best vs. his hand. I was actually more worried about a caller after me, but the table slowly folded back to our original raiser. He puts in what feels like a 10 minute think and finally calls showing KJo. I go into the hand a 2:1 favorite and get slaughtered by a Jack on the flop. To add insult to injury, I didn't have him covered and I was out.

So much for dreams of poker glory. But, with a tournament structured the way this one was, you can bring your A game and it won't matter unless you double up regularly. And to do that you just have to be lucky.

I was happy with my play, but a win would have been nice.

andre