closing out august strong

well - i'm finished playing 1 table games for august and focusing on just that one game has really shown dividends already. here are my final numbers for those that want to take a look at my play. i was playing two table games before 8/12, so these numbers only represent all the single table tournaments for the month (although i'm ahead in the money for all games this month too)

out of 156 games
61 top 3 finishes - 39.10% (these are the cashes)
49 middle 3 finishes - 31.41%
46 bottom 3 or 4 finishes - 29.49%

27 1sts - 17.31%
19 2nds - 12.18%
15 3rds - 9.62%
19 4ths - 12.18%
17 5ths - 10.90%
13 6ths - 8.33%
16 7ths - 10.26%
16 8ths - 10.26%
10 9ths - 6.41%
4 10ths - 2.56%

my roi is 14.80% for this game at this level, which has me really stoked. that is really great and i look forward to continuing to build my skill level and my bankroll.

i can't even begin to explain the transformation my game has taken on in the last two weeks. i may be playing a little too tight early on, but i can't tell you how often i see people call off their chips preflop with very marginal hands. 1. because they are overplaying them and 2. because they are playing them out of position. they aren't stopping to think about what they could be calling against when someone puts them all in.

i have been guilty of this in the past and have tried to plug this leak in my game. i have made a couple of lay downs (i.e. folds) that surprise even me. here's one from today. second hand of one game i had AQ of diamonds and made a pot sized raise preflop. there was an early limper that came along for the ride. flop came out A97 all hearts. the caller checks to me and i put a bet out for about 2/3rds of the pot. the limper pushes all in on me. that was unexpected - so they checkraised me with what? AK AA or any two hearts like KQ etc... heck they might have had somethink like A9 for two pair and are scared of the hearts (which is more likely - usually if someone flops the nuts, they slow play to extract as many chips as possible vs. trying to scare their prey away) although AQ is strong, i decided it was early and plenty of time to make chips back up so i laid it down. i still don't know what the person had, but i went on to cash in that tournament (and he didn't) and probably wouln't have if i had called there.

the other thing ive done to shore up my game is play positon a lot more and stop limping as much as possible. i've been coming in for a raise in most every hand i play - i'm amazed how many blinds i steal without any confrontation that way. its nice.

i do have a cash game with friends tomorrow and i've signed up to play a tourney on Sunday for $11 with a guaranteed prize pool of over $200k spread out over 600+ players. at last count there were over 3600 entrants. i'm not overly optimistic - i think i have even chances of making the money. i'm anzious to see if my new found tight/position strategy will pay off in a tourney this big.

hope everyone has a safe holiday weekend.
peace and love and happiness to all
k-