MiniFTOPS..

Well MiniFTOPS has begun and I've played 8 of the 10 events so far, and managed one cash. Its been somewhat of a crazy experience. The fields have been huge with 4 of the 10 events having over 10,000 people. And with huge fields come huge prize pools. 6 of the 10 events have had a 1st place prize of over $20k which is just insane since the buyins havent been more than $50. I hadn't played in many large field holdem tourneys, and I gotta tell you these things are a grind. Event 1 was a $22 nlhe tourney and was going pretty well, but somewhere around the 3-4 hour mark, I decided to bluff away over half my chips and blew my shots of cashing and making a deep run. My buddy, "shipshape715", made a semi deep run going out in 275th place which isnt bad for a tourney with over 16k+ people. I decided to skip classes on thursday and play Event 2 which was a $33 6-max shootout. For those that don't know what a shootout is, a shootout is a tourney where each table plays down until there is one winner and then the winners of each table combine to form another table and that repeats until there is a final table. I ended up going out on the first table. It was quite disappointing considering the fact that I was chipleader when we got down to 3 handed but the cards were not on my side and I ran pair into bigger pair twice to go out. Event 3 was a $22 limit omaha/8 tourney and it was a donk fest. Unfortunately for me my internet disconnected twice during big hands and I got timed out losing over 3/4th of my chips in the process. Needless to say I was not happy. Event 4 was a $22 1rebuy 1add-on nlhe tourney. I decided to not use my rebuy at the beginning and keep it as a safety net and good thing I did because I ran JJ into KK early. Unfortunately, the rebuy didnt go as well either. I had AT and called a raise from the button. Flop came Txx, and the raiser put me in. I called and he showed AQ. Of course a J hit the turn followed by a K on the river and he runner runnerd a straight and I was out before the add-on period. Event 5 was a stud hi tourney that I didnt play. Event 6 was the $55 plo 6-max, the event I had been looking forward to. Things started out great, and I was about 100 people away from making the money when the cards took a turn for the worse. I had double suited aces go down in flames and then Karina Jett ended up donking me out 60 spots from the money. I was soo pissed and while this was going on I was in event 7 which was a $10 nlhe rebuy tourney. I really didnt feel like playing anymore and was trying to bluff myself out the event but the two bluffs actually worked and I had build a decent stack. Then a few hands later I stack a player with AA and I had an above average stack. So I decided to take the tourney serious and ended up getting my first cash of the series. Going into the 6th hour of the tourney I had a top 20 stack with around 200 people left and was feeling good about making a possible final table run. But after the break, the fatigue from playing 8 hours straight caught up to me and I lost my focus and patience and ended up going out in 122nd place. I still considered it a big victory because it gave me confidence in my NLHE game and if I get back to that position I'll know how to handle it. Event 8 & 10 today were both NLHE tourneys. Event 8 was a $26 6-max knockout tourney, where I bluffed off half my stack and then ran AJ into AK blind v blind. Event 10 was a $33 tourney and I actually was playing pretty well in it. But in the 3rd hour my JJ couldnt hold against A5s and that was all she wrote. Overall the series hasnt gone quite as well I was hoping for but with seven more events left that I plan to play there is still time to get my final table. I also have a team competing in a pocketfives.com MiniFtops contest. My team consist of my friend Will, "b4nkrollin247", and his friend "Stiltz". There are 28 teams competing and the top 3 teams will get paid. The scoring is based on what place you finish in each tourney with the top 10 scores from each person being counted and right now its too early to tell who will win but since I'm the only person to cash on my team, we definitely have some ground to make up if we plan on making top 3. Tomorrows event is a $22 HA (round of pot limit holdem and round of pot limit omaha) event which is always a fun event and definitely and event I could go deep in so wish me luck. Shipshape.