Satellite Strategy Gone Wrong

Monday has arrived after a very tiring weekend of eating, drinking, donking at the tables and frying in the sun. I have just been to the shops for some nicotine reinforcement and the temperature gauge in car is sitting at 30 degrees.  Now that is HOT when you have a Scottish skin that is designed for wind, rain, snow and hailstones.

On a more sombre note, I was very sad to hear about the Air France flight this morning. It kinda puts all our problems and challenges in life into perspective. We all have to put our trust in all of the variables, technical and human, when we step on a plane. I have flown over the Atlantic many times and I always feel relief when I walk off the plane intact. I HATE flying but if you want to see the world it's impossible to avoid it unless you have lots of time on your hands to do it by boat. I always remember packing to come home in our Toronto hotel not long after 9/11 and the Canadian news channel was reporting an Airbus that had come down in Queens. We were heading to Pearson airport to get on an Airbus and it was a horrible feeling.  Those poor poor souls and their families. Awful and extremely sad.

Anyway, I hadn't intended to write that paragraph but it just jumped into my head as I started typing. 

I played in a WSOP satellite earlier today and saw some of the worst satellite strategy I have seen in some time. It was a Stage 1 on PKR which is my favourite poker site (no use for multi tabling but fantastic PS3 style graphics) There were 12 runners with the top 2 going through to Stage2 which offers a 1 in 5 chance to progress to a direct Main Event qualifier. Now, I am no expert in odds and strategy as I tend to play more on instinct. I have been fairly successful in this type of tourney which has allowed me to play in quite a few big events. Unfortunately I have yet to take down a BIG one but live in hope. I always regret folding a hand when I was 2nd out of three to go on to TV in 'Poker After Dark'. Top two went through and I was left cursing my bad bubble play after having came through two satellites to win the $400 seat. Today I won the satellite and there was a player who had over 20,000 chips at the end of the rebuy period. By the time we were 5 handed I was thinking 'he could fold his way to a seat'. He ended up donking all of his chips away on less than premium hands and went out 5th after calling an all in pre flop with 74 suited !!!! The other players at the table were as surprised as I was. I noticed that he came from Newcastle and perhaps he adopted the same mental strength as his football team :)

I have negotiated the first hurdle of my WSOP dream. I am now two games away from The Amazon Room. It's a dream but dreams can come true, even for me. I am crossing everything I have.