Come on a poker journey with me as I try to bink a $80,000 tournament

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I had a nice run in sat tournaments today. Something didn't add up when reviewing my play. After further review I was correct. I was missing a $11 tournament entry. I did some digging and found the $11 tournament entry was credited to my account in tournament dollars. This happened because I won two entries into the same tournament. I played for about six hours placing in four hyper-sats to reach the final phase that awarded a $75 ticket. I didn't realize it at the time as I was playing 4 tournaments simultaneously. There was a point throughout the day I was multi-tabling six. Long story short I busted out of the final sat that awarded the $75 ticket when my AA got cracked by 88; all in preflop. While the knock out was unlucky I can't help but think I would have played that game completely different if I was paying a little more attention and noticed it was the final stage. I'm not sure if doing so would have made a difference or not with my AA getting cracked but I do need to pay more attention. We still have our sat for a $109 ticket to play that starts in 20 minutes time. Currently there is 220 registered with 75 winning a ticket. Players had to win multiple tournaments to get into this one. The field should be tough. I'll be back to report the results after the game concludes. I got some tournament dollars to factor into my bankroll. Something I didn't consider before this point.

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The above hand was played in the final game for the $109 ticket and was the very first hand dealt. It was a scary one. I min raised preflop and get called. Opponent bets the flop and I ponder for a moment. Top pair at this point with J kicker isn't looking that great. I decided to jam regardless. My opponent tank calls and flips over two overs with the nut flush draw. Luckily my hand held and I essentially double up on the first hand of the tournament and KO an opponent as the cherry on top. I get moved to a new table and find myself in a flip situation. I was in the small blind and my opponent in the big blind. I had 66 and Jam. They call with KQ suited and I lose the race. I am down to 600K. A few hands later I pick up AK in the big blind. Cutoff min raises and I jam all in. I am up against JJ and I hit. I double to 1.2 million. I'm now nursing my stack as I'm currently in position 17/150. First to seventy-fifth place pay the same so no need to go for the win. I just need to maintain my stack. I made it to the first five minute break. Meaning the first hour of the tournament is over. Current position is 37/120. I just lost a 850K pot when my straight got rivered by a flush. Our stack is currently sitting at 1.16 million. The blinds are big in this turbo tournament with six minute blinds. If only we folded that straight. I would have if I wasn't holding the A of clubs. Doing so made me think my opponent might of been trying to bluff me after I checked the river to them.

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Break is now over. I'm typing this out in real time. Meaning at the moment of typing this the game is still ongoing. I been playing all day so I grabbed a quick snack while the break allowed me to. I been folding allot of hands I would usually play in turbo events but with how the prizes are structured its best to avoid pots when your stack gets to a sizeable amount. I'm simultaneously playing a $2.20 buy in sat for a $22 ticket. Top 10 in the $2.20 buy in sat get a $22 ticket. Currently I'm 9/15 and short stacked. And just like that the $2.20 buy in sat is over. I'm one $22 ticket richer. If I don't win the $109 ticket at least I just binked the $22 dollar one. I have no clue what tournament it was for but it must of concluded because the ticket isn't in my inventory. Looks like they gave me $22 tournament dollars instead. I'm currently 42/92 in the $109 sat. Blinds are increasing fast. I have 900K in chips but that is just 11 big blinds. I don't think it will be enough to fold to top 75. If I wake up with a hand I'm shoving. I'm now 55/90; its down to the wire. The ticket is in our eyesight and within our grasp.

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Looking at the chip stack of those below me; there aren't many really short stacks. Its going to be close. Of course if I wake up with a hand and double we are almost gntd a $109 ticket. We might have to attempt to steal the blinds or be forced to watch our stack dwindle. Knockouts are coming slow. Everyone is nursing their stack. A good time for stealing but timing is everything. We just did that with A 4. Now we wake up with 10 10. We are all in; fingers crossed. No callers we get the blinds two hands in a row and are moved to a new table. Our current position is 28/88. I think we got this ticket in the bag. It'll take AA or KK to get me to play a hand at this point. Even in position 28/88 I have just 12-14 big blinds. Such ratios are not uncommon in turbo events. One bad decision can have me on the rails or very close to it. We pick up KK UTG (first to act) and jam. We get no callers and pick up the blinds. Currently we sit at position 33/87. We have 1.7 million chips which is equal to 14 big blinds. Woke up with A Q. Big Blind was all in due to not having enough to cover the blind. Small blind has me covered and I'm in the position just before the button.

Usually I'd just jam but decide to limp. Small blind calls and the flop comes J high. I have to fold to the chip leaders post flop raise. They were holding QJ. It's likely they would of called my all in preflop so good thing I limped -> folded instead. We have AK suited I'm likely going to shove...... Looks like someone beat us to it. It's a short stack and we call. They also have AK and we chop. We did almost run out a flush on them. Current position is 30/80. We should be a lock but with just 8.3 blinds in our stack we are at risk of bubbling. Chip leader is next to me and jamming my blinds. With just 3 left to get KO'd before in the money; the chip leader knows its not likely I call them. If I wake up with AA I still might fold. Placing is the goal in these tournaments. Folding AK and big pocket pairs, even AA is sometimes the right move. AA still loses 20% of the time to any other pair. No point in risking an almost sure $109 ticket for some extra chips that bring no extra value. The second five minute break is here. I don't suspect a third five minute break will be needed. The game should be over within the next 15 minutes. We just got AK in the cutoff with 76 players left (Easy fold). Pocket pair the very next hand (another easy fold). Tournament play is now hand for hand. We are sitting pretty in position 35/76. Its time to fold our way to a $109 ticket. It's just a waiting game now. Boom; it's all over.

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That was fun. Today has been a successful poker day. The ticket got credited to my account. I thought for sure I would get auto registered for the final game. Looking in the poker lobby its already started about 15 minutes ago which is likely why I got the ticket instead of being forced to play. I been running hot today so I'm joining the game. Regardless of what happens next I call this day a win. We increased our tournament dollars from $0 - $33 and won a $109 ticket. All from playing freerolls and sat tournaments. Working our way up to real money games. The game the $109 ticket is for has $80,000 GNTD. The blinds are 12 minutes. A vast difference from the turbo we just played. We will need to adjust our strategy. As mentioned the targeted event has already started and is at level 2. Looks like its a bounty event so I better hurry up and register. We don't want to wait too long as having the players at your table covered gives opportunity for bounty collecting. Lets keep this party rolling. Here we go. The tournament is a two day event. When 16 players remain the play stops and continues the next day. Looks like bounties start at $25 each and progress from there. Currently I have a $25 bounty on my head as that is the starting bounty for everyone. See second screenshot below for a visual of such.

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We have a slightly aggressive player to our left and the chip leader directly after that. They aren't shy with floating the board and/or bluffing. Nothing out of the norm; they are playing well but we do have to take that into account when raising our range. Meaning we need to tighten that range a little. We don't mind being in hands with the player but we want to do so with premiums. On the plus side: if we make a hand vs. them we might be able to stack them if its in a pot they choose to float/bluff. We were steady the course increasing our stack from 100K to 140K but a slightly misplayed hand had us down to 120K. We proceeded to try our luck on a board that we had second pair and a straight draw. It didn't hit and we were faced with a sizable bet on the river. We folded and good thing that we did as the river gave one of the two opponents that was chasing an open-ender top pair. First break is now underway and we are sitting with 104K. No bounties were collected by us yet. Current position is 217/517. Late registration is open for another 1.5 hours. Looks like the once chip leader is trying to collect bounties. They are coming in pots with decent but not great hands. I say once chip leader because they lost an all in with A 7 suited to JJ. As I type that I pick up AK suited vs. them. They raise 2.5 X into my blind and I shove all in to see if I can entice them to call, they tank a little but ultimately fold. Currently their bounty is worth $37.50 USD. Ours is still at $25 because we haven't KO'd anyone.

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And just like that we collect our first bounty. +$12.50 to the bankroll and +$12.50 on our heads. We currently sit in position 76/491 with 232,989 chips. Even if that is all we bank in this tournament its been one heck of a day. Lets see how it goes from here. That excitment was short lived. I pick up QQ and call a raise preflop. Board comes ten high and my opponent checks to me. I bet 3/4 the pot and they re-raise. I tank jam and get called by AA and lose a large portion of my chips. I am now sitting with 80,000 and am 391/475. Two hands later we double through the chip leader. We are now up to 170K and are 168/477. What a roller coaster. We are now on the second break and will be on level ten once the break finishes. Blinds are 12 minutes so 160 minutes has past since the start of the tournament. There is still 41 minutes of late registration left. Considering starting stack is 100,000 chips and this is a bounty those of us with more chips than that and are bounty hunting welcome all who join late.

Break is over and we are back to playing. Table chip leader just got stacked on the river and now sits with less chips than us and has a $75 bounty. They seem to be sitting tight now with 100K chips behind them. Less than half of what they had at peak. Collected another bounty; we currently sit at 255,000 chips and are 88/439. The bounty on our own heads is now at $50 USD which also means we collected $50 so far this tournament in bounties. Bummer we got moved to a new table. I had a good handle on that last one. I do recognize some of the players at this new table as satellite regulars. A screenshot showing my updated bounty and chip stack can be seen below. Lets increase both those numbers. Late registration is now over. The tournament lobby updated to show min cash is $108 for placing 143rd. I don't suspect it will take too long to get to the payouts. 1.5 hours from now perhaps but that is just a guess.

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I can't get the full payout image on the same screenshot but above is the payouts for places 1-103. Currently I sit at 103/329. I'm not getting much cards but that makes my decisions easier. Lots of folding going on from RentMoney. I get moved to a new table again. We have now reached break number three. Three hours deep into this tournament so far. There is at least that much more to go. Most of the players at this new table have me covered. I hope I get moved again soon. We are currently in position 103/294. With each blind increase chips are becoming more and more valuable. Picked up JJ and jammed all in. We picked up 3 blinds. They say JJ is the hardest hand to play but I personally give that honor to KQ. Boom: just collected a $37.50 bounty. Half to the bankroll and half goes on my head. Boom: back to back bounties. I now have a $100 bounty on my head and have collected $150 worth to add to my bankroll. We are now sitting with 80 big blinds. And just as I type that I lose a massive pot with AQ trying to KO a short stack. Another player woke up with AK and stacked me.

I'm currently sitting with 400K in chips which is currently equal to 40 big blinds. Directly after typing that I lost 100K with KQ suited. Picked up 66 the next hand and went looking for a race. The player to the left of me immediately called and I knew I was likely in trouble. The big blind called as well. I was up against JJ and KK. Kings hit trips and so do I on the turn. River isn't the case six so I am now on the rails. Total cashed: $150 USD. I played those last few hands badly. I was folding most my KQ hands but for some reason I played that last one which led to my 66 shove. I likely would have limped called with the 66 to set mine if I didn't play that KQ hand. On to the next tournament. I hope you enjoyed the sweat. I tried to type out what was going on as I played the tournament. It kept me busy in-between hands. This is a weekly tournament so there will be plenty other shots at binking it. I do have some sat tickets to the first and second phase. Tickets that I won in freerolls. No deposits were made at this site.

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Tracking My Poker Success

Site	Bankroll	Cash Out
Site One	$13.72	$0.00
Site Two	$150	$0.00
Site Three	$0.00	$0.00
Site Four	--	--
Other	$32.67T	$0.00
Grand Total	$196.39	$0.00

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Yesterday my poker bankroll was $18.36 as detailed in yesterdays post titled: My Poker Journey Continues (2026-01-24) *that title is clickable. If you asked me yesterday if I'd be happy with near $180 in profits for today I'd gladly say yes. However I know I fumbled those last two hands. The last one specifically. I never gave consideration to the pay jump that was nearing. I still had roughly 30 big blinds. I should of re-adjusted instead of shoving pocket 66. However that is poker folks and we had a great run today. Not only in this tournament but many other sat tournaments as well. I'm going to take a much deserved break. Try to fix this massive post so it makes some sort of sense to the reader. Post it to my @rentmoney blog and grab a bite to eat. I likely hit the tables again in an hour to see if I can passively win more sat tickets. This current grind lasted for 12 hours straight. Starting at the lowest level buy in ($0.00) to climb into a valuable real money game will take some work but it can be done. I intend on showing that with my venture here. I hope that I will inspire some to do the same. I certainly plan on hosting some tournaments once I get deeper into the poker world again. But that's it for now. If you read all this post then kudos to you. Thanks for following along. We hope to see you at our next post. You are appreciated!

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