Friday Tourney at Bay 101

It is about six weeks until I hit Vegas for the WSOP. So, I started my training with the Friday Bay 101 tourney. A field of 94 signed up today.

Early on I hit a couple of nice hands and had 5x the starting chips at the first break. With the add on I was in good shape and decided to cruise for a while. Perhaps I should have pushed it hard with my stack because I went card dead and until there were about 45 people left. I got a little frisky with 56 suited on the button and raised it 3x the big blind. The guy who had called under the gun instantly called me and I knew I was in trouble. That was until the flop came outt 5-5-Q. The guy under the gun then bet with his shirt shaking indicating he had a queen with a big kicker. He went all in because he had only a moderate amount left. Too bad he didn't have more. My trip 5s held up and I was back in the hunt.

The blinds go up every 20 minutes in this gig so my 18,000 that looked so good after the trip fives, was a little thin when the blinds went up to 1500/3000. We were now down to 22 players and I thought I needed to start moving with almost anything decent. In the BB after 6 more players were eliminated with A-7 offsuit I was ready to push when a guy in the middle pushed all in for 20k. I thought about for a while and then folded. The next hand, I again I looked down at A-3 again offsuit. Getting ready to push in, I heard ALL-in from another middle player. I hate not having first mover pressure power so again I folded. Was I being too tight?? Should I have gone in with one or perhaps both of these hands???

The next hand I felt pretty good about my choice to fold when I was on the button and woke up with K6 suited. Everyone folded around to me and pushed in. I was feeling smart until the BB called and had me dominated with A3 suited. No diamonds came for me and an Ace popped up on the turn to send me to the showers. I finished 15/94 out of the money.

Any thoughts on end game short stack management?? I need to improve to get ready for the World Series of Poker

Surgical Poker