Another Invitational, Another Cash

18th. Again.

At least the BBT5 has been cheap for me.

Last night was a tale of mediocrity, and ended as it should, with a mediocre finish.

I was playing a pretty tight game early on, and unfortunately had a table that respected that. Meaning that I didn't pull off much when I had the goods. How tight? Well, I folded KK to Joanada when she kept calling me down and then put out a good-sized bet after a flopped ace.

An otherworldly suckout against 1QueensUp1 with Q2h vs 55 on a Q53 flop gave me some real chips (runner-runner hearts), only to have James McManus take a chunk of my chips and move tables.

But I aggro'd my way back to a respectable position after that, only to then hit a run of counter-aggression from my table that led to me backing off for a bit.

After that, I never really got things going again, and the blinds caught up to me. I was ready to shove a few times, but not against other aggressors or with cards like 94o. KTc won me blinds and antes, and AJo ran square into McManus' AKo to KO me in 18th. MCMANUUUUUUUUSSSS!!!!

Seriously, loved the book, hated the being knocked-out. I believe I now have to send him a t-shirt.

Did I play badly? Not necessarily... but I played safely. Which was odd, because I was more focused on this game than any previous ones. No TV, no other games, no photo editing... just the game.

I need to adjust my mentality a bit too. I usually try to get to the late game with an around-average stack, and then play for first. I think I'll need to play for 1st from hand one now.

I'll try and fix that tonight in the Poker From The Rail game. Full Tilt, $26, 10pm ET, pw: 2010WSOP.