I been kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet...

Had my head stoved in at The Mookie, but I'm still on my feet and I'm still... willin'.

It was one of those nights at The Mookie, which more closely resembled a donkament than any blogger event I've ever played. It even outdid the generally wild WWdN. 150 chips in the pot and somebody pushes all-in for 1200 more? Did I stumble into a $1 rebuy? These are poker bloggers? Did I miss the virtual kegger before tournament time?

I think it was four times somebody pushed all-in on me when I made a perfectly normal 3BB raise before the flop with reasonable starting cards. We're not talking short stack play or anything like that. Level 2 blinds, nobody hurting in the chip area, and people are hugely overbetting the pot with all their chips.

I knew the last all-in was coming before I even put the raise in. He'd done it to me once before and made some inane comment about not stepping on his blinds. I understand blind defense. Going nuclear with blind defense in Level 3 is not smart poker in my book. So I waited until I had far above average cards before raising his blind again. Just my bad luck that he happened to have even better cards. There was a suckout, then a re-suck, and it ended the way it began -- him in the lead and me feeling very picked on and unlucky. Boo-hoo.

I totally donked out of the Monday's At The Hoy this week. In hand #9 of the tournament I ran my flopped set of 7's headlong into a flopped set of K's. The outcome was predictable and ugly, at least from my perspective.

I did a bit better in the WWdN this week, finishing 11th out of something like 47. Still no final table and no money.

My lack of success at tournament play has made me re-evaluate my poker priorities. I like to win, and I haven't won at tournament poker in so long I can't remember when the last win was. I cashed in some tournament at Full Tilt a week or two ago, but that was chump change for making like the final four tables. I even tried the nightly Ticket Tournaments after Hoyazo recommended them as being extremely easy. Managed to bubble even in that one. (I do have to generally agree with his assessment.)

So I've been spending a lot more time at NL 6-max ring. Since my bankroll is far less flexible than it once was, I've been playing way down in the shallow end of the pool so I run little risk of drowning. My results have not been fantastic, but that's mostly been the result of a small number of hands where I got my money in with way the best of it and just got unlucky. I think in the long run this will be profitable. Not like I'm going to become a full-time player at $0.10/$0.25 NL, but I'm at least hoping it will get my bankroll moving in the right direction again.

I doubt that I'll completely give up tournament play, but I am going to cut back and will probably not play as many of the blogger events.